News

Helping Students Cope with Stress

The weeks preceding the holiday see quite a bit of media attention to practices student affairs professionals have adopted to help students manage the stress and study-load of exams week (for example, this piece in the Boston Globe). A number of colleges are trying “emergency stress relief” techniques such as bringing a masseuse or late-night yoga to the residence halls or offering a midnight breakfast during finals. These practices have become particularly popular over the last couple of years, given concerns over the rising mental health needs of students. The reality, however, is that for stress management programming to be effective, it needs to start with the first day of the term. We turned to Sherry Benton, director of the University of Florida’s counseling and wellness center and co-author of College Student Mental Health: Effective Services and Strategies Across Campus (NASPA, 2006), to learn how institutions can put in place more effective programs to help students cope with exam week stresses and build better coping skills throughout the term. Benton offers these four tips for making your program effective: Don’t wait until end of semester to begin reaching out to students about stress management To the extent possible, offer both […]

Adding Gender-Neutral Housing

While most media coverage and public attention to gender-neutral housing has been positive (for example, see this article in the Washington Post), it is critical to manage communications with the local media, conservative student groups, parents, and other campus constituencies with some care. A few proactive steps early in the process can help prevent or mitigate consternation among campus groups or the wrong type of media attention. Solicit Broad Input To learn more about how colleges and universities can prepare for opening gender-neutral housing, we interviewed Peter Konwerski, dean of students at the George Washington University. GWU has just walked through the process of setting up a pilot program for gender-neutral housing. From his recent experience with the process, Konwerski offers these practical takeaways for peers at other institutions: When the option is initially proposed, poll representatives of all your campus constituencies — check in not only with donors, alumni, faculty, staff, the student government, and the residence hall association, but with student groups on your campus that have religious or political affiliations; “engage students fully in the process,” Konwerski recommends Allow for several days of “testimony,” where members of your campus community can visit a review committee and offer five […]

Survey Report (Part 2): What is Broadly Participative Planning?

In the first part of our report on Academic Impressions’ November 2010 survey of presidents, chief financial officers, and academic leaders, we noted that the foremost challenge cited by institutional leaders related to strategic planning and resource allocation is integrating the planning and budgeting processes. In this second part of our report, we want to draw attention to another of the findings. Key Finding: More than 50% of Strategic Planning Efforts Are Unlikely to Succeed What has especially caught our attention at Academic Impressions is that more than 50% of colleges that responded to the survey are not pursuing a “broadly participative” process. What this indicates is that more than half of the strategic planning efforts underway are being pursued in a manner that calls into question the likelihood of implementation. A participative process in which numerous and diverse stakeholders have input into the thinking at the start is a key to building trust in the plan’s direction and investment in its initiatives. In fact, the lower the level of trust within an institution, the more need for an inclusive and participatory process; only through collaborative planning and transparency can institutional leadership begin building the trust and buy-in needed. Broad […]

Survey Report (Part 1): Meeting the Challenges of Integrated Planning and Budgeting

Strategic planning at a college or university is difficult work. Institutions are large, complex, and highly decentralized environments. Too often, institutions of higher education approach strategic planning reluctantly and without meaningfully seeking input and commitment from key stakeholders, which unfortunately leads to plans that are disconnected from budgets and plans that don’t get implemented. In November 2010, Academic Impressions surveyed presidents, chief financial officers, and academic leaders at a variety of public and private institutions to learn how the majority of institutions are approaching strategic planning and budgeting, and to discover what key challenges they are facing; more than 50 institutional leaders responded. Key Finding: Difficulties in Aligning Budgets with Plans Here is what we learned when we asked institutional leaders what they find most challenging. When asked about the most significant challenges faced with respect to strategic planning, respondents told us: integrating the planning and budgeting process (72%) prioritizing what to invest in and limiting the plan to a reasonable number of priorities (46%) creating transparency around the process and decisions (42%) establishing appropriate success measures (42%) Here are the most significant challenges colleges and universities face with respect to resource allocation: ensuring budgets support plans (74%) creating transparency around […]

The College Store: Encouraging Customer Loyalty

As college bookstores face increased competition from chains such as Barnes & Noble, peer-to-peer sites, and popular online retailers such as Amazon and eBay, many stores are seeing fewer students come through their doors, meaning not only declines in revenue from textbook sales but also from sales of other items — apparel, electronics, and campus memorabilia. A feature in The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasized that bookstores at many colleges are responding to their changing industry with new services they hope will keep students coming: performance spaces for in-store concerts, multimedia stations for printing digital photos, and even dry cleaning. However, diversification of services can be an expensive investment, and many stores are neglecting their best opportunities for increasing customer loyalty around their core services. This week, we turned to Mark Mulder, past auxiliary services director at Pacific Lutheran University and a key planner for the Garfield Book Company, and Dennis Mekelburg, associate director of Arizona State University Bookstores, to learn some practical tips for encouraging customer loyalty for the college store. Positioning Your Campus Store in a Changing Industry Before leaping into adding new programs to strengthen your customer base, Mulder suggests beginning with key strategic questions: At the end of […]

When Student Behavior Becomes a Media Crisis: Mitigation and Recovery

As one news source put it, Duke University “keeps getting in the news for all the wrong reasons.” The barrage of negative media attention to what are in all probability isolated and exceptional incidents at the university (a recent alumnus detailing her intimate encounters with Duke athletes; an email from a Duke fraternity inviting female students to a Halloween party in crass terms; the shutting down of an outdoor student party) offers a cautionary tale about the “snowball effect” that an incident involving perceived student misconduct can have on media relations for an institution. Journalists and experts on media relations alike have suggested that since a rape allegation in 2006 against three Duke lacrosse players, the local media have been quick to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the Duke student (even though the lacrosse players were found not guilty). What this case demonstrates is the importance of ongoing image management and reputation recovery after a media crisis related to student behavior. If an institution does not take prompt action after a crisis — and indeed, proactive action prior to a crisis — to build a more positive image, the negative image can persist for years, as the case of Duke illustrates. This week, […]

Returning Adults: Four Keys to Academic Success and Retention

According to a recent report by the Workforce Strategy Center, by 2018, two-thirds of the jobs in the US economy will require a postsecondary credential, yet 80 million to 90 million adult workers have low basic skills and are not qualified for those jobs. These data suggest that over the next decade, colleges and universities will see steadily increasing demand for both certificate and degree programs from adult learners. The Workforce Strategy Center report shares recommendations for a review of policy at the federal, state, and local levels. To learn what practices at the institutional level have an impact on the academic success and persistence of adult learners, Academic Impressions interviewed Denise Hart, director of adult education and creator of the Success Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Kenneth Vehrkens, dean of the Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies and associate vice president for lifelong learning at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Hart and Vehrkens recommend four primary areas in which to focus investment: Rigorous prior learning assessment Adult-friendly advising Preparing adult-friendly faculty Establishing one point of contact for connecting adult learners with enrollment and support services Prior Learning Assessment “Providing credit for experiential learning often makes the bridge to the next degree […]

Encouraging a Higher Giving Rate from Young Alumni

Now, more than ever, institutions need to ensure the long-term health of the annual fund by moving donors into the pipeline early, and young alumni are often an insufficiently tapped resource. Yet this year sees not only a continuing trend of volunteerism but also growing numbers of recent graduates seeking to reconnect with their alma mater for assistance with networking and career advancement opportunities in this economy. It is critical that alumni relations and annual fund professionals take advantage of a surge in interest from young alumni through proactive and deliberate outreach. We asked Elise M. Betz, executive director of alumni relations at the University of Pennsylvania; Linda Williams Favero,  assistant director of the University of Oregon Career Center; and Ben Jarrett, assistant director of advancement at Georgetown University, for tips on cultivating young alumni engagement and fostering a higher giving rate without expending too many of your limited resources. Their advice is to: Engage young alumni through the services you offer them Adopt a peer-to-peer model for soliciting gifts Leverage social media and electronic communications to keep your outreach resource-efficient Focus on Services for Young Alumni First, Linda Williams Favero stresses the importance of starting with what alumni need, […]

Student Philanthropy between Convocation and Commencement

Once you have invited students to take responsibility for the success of their alma mater and have adopted a campus-wide relationship management strategy to remove any “wedges” and facilitate a seamless and positive student experience, a third key step is to involve your undergraduates in student philanthropy. However, the majority of institutions leave career services, alumni networking, and messaging about the importance of philanthropy until the senior year and the senior gift drive. This approach misses three years of opportunities. You can begin making an impact on student awareness by crafting compelling events prior to the senior year that emphasize their engagement in a lifetime community. Georgetown University, for example, has students file through the main administrative building to light candles with alumni on major declaration day, and also holds a “Careertoberfest” at which students have their resumes reviewed and learn about the career and networking resources they will have as alumni, while sipping cider and enjoying bratwurst and Halloween candy. However, if you only organize a few events to raise awareness, you are missing your greatest opportunities. We interviewed Ben Jarrett, assistant director of advancement at Georgetown University, and Raj Bellani, associate provost and dean of students at the […]

Starting with Admission: Planting the Seed for Lifetime Affinity

Beginnings are a critical time — you can plant important seeds for future constituency with some deliberate planning around how you will convey messages regarding awareness, gratitude, and giving to students during their transition into the institution. In this article, a university president, three enrollment managers, and a thought leader in institutional advancement offer their advice on steps that universities can take during the admissions process to invite new students to see themselves as active members of the university community and lifetime stakeholders in the university — to take pride in their future alma mater from day one. Prior to Admission In fact, you can start engaging potential students in the community and culture of your institution even before day one. MIT offers a case study on how to do this effectively, having recently seen success in engaging prospects and applicants in the culture of the institution even prior to admittance by rethinking the admissions website. Now a “Web Portal and Community,” the site features student, staff, and alumni bloggers. What has worked well for MIT is the openness of the blog. “Invite student, staff, and alumni bloggers to post not only advice for the admissions process but also let them talk […]