Hate speech incidents are a growing concern on college campuses and can come in many forms: Controversial keynote speakers and event topics Disruptive student demonstrations Anonymous hate speech written on campus property Register for this webcast to learn how to respond to hate speech incidents in ways that serve students, leadership, faculty, and staff. In these moments, you may feel torn between advocating for the students and acting on behalf of the institution. We’ll help resolve this conflict by sharing policies and procedures that create safe spaces for students while encouraging holistic institutional responses.
As you navigate more complex leadership roles, you will also navigate more contentious issues and conflicts. This makes the relationships you form with your colleagues not only “nice to have,” but essential: there is very little that cannot be accomplished when relationships are strong and built on a foundation of trust and mutual respect. During this discussion, you’ll learn how a President and a CFO built a relationship that propelled the success of their teams, the institution, and helped them both to thrive individually. Carmen Twillie Ambar, President of Oberlin College, and Audra Hoffman Kahr, Executive Vice President of Finance & Administration at Lafayette College, will share how they met, how their relationship evolved, and a few lessons they’ve learned along the way as women leaders in higher education.
Psychological safety is the belief that you will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. When you have psychological safety, you have the freedom to be vulnerable. You can take risks without feeling a sense of failure or ridicule. Teams that have psychological safety are more innovative, creative, and cohesive because vulnerability will not be held against anyone. In times of confusion or conflict, leaders and supervisors often try to bring teams together by creating a common vision or by clarifying goals and processes. But before these steps can be effective, you need to ensure a high level of psychological safety within your team. Without that foundation, your team will not function as cohesively. Join us online for this two-part webcast series to learn how to foster a deeper sense of psychological safety within your team.
Academic leaders are typically expert scholars in their fields but don’t learn core leadership skills when they move into their leadership positions. They rarely get formal training on ways to be simultaneously self-aware, emotionally intelligent, savvy about navigating systems and hierarchies, as well as effective at financial management, public speaking, crisis management, and conflict resolution. To support the health and climate of their departments and, in turn, institutions, academic leaders need to intentionally develop these crucial skills. Join us online with Jennie S. Knight, Ph.D., to hear how the University of Virginia has developed their successful Leadership in Academic Matters program (LAM) that draws on cross-campus collaborations and addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion. You will leave with solid ideas for how to approach your academic leadership programs that create an inclusive, equitable climate in which staff, faculty, and students can thrive.
Team, committee, and group-based work abounds in higher education. But many struggle to collaborate effectively in these settings because not everyone comes to the table with the same understanding, expectation, and collaboration style. While teams are often designed to bring together different voices and perspectives, most leaders default to a singular approach to teamwork that works well for some, but that also causes frustration, withdrawal, or conflict for others. In this event, we’ll use the Five Paths to Leadership® as a framework to introduce the four different collaboration styles that are at play within any given team. We’ll walk you through a detailed explanation of each path and provide tactics that leaders and team members alike can use to approach collaboration and group-based work more effectively. You will leave with a more nuanced understanding of the collaboration types that yield the best results based on the outcomes you are trying to achieve, rather than defaulting to one style based on comfort or personal preference.
Donna obtained her doctorate in experimental social psychology from the University of Kansas in June 2006 and her Master’s in applied social psychology from the University of Guelph, Canada, in May 2001. Her field of interest is diversity science and her program of research concerns the effects that cultural legacies of oppression have on psychosocial processes, which in turn shape human functioning (e.g., achievement, motivation, responses to inequity, and self-regulation) in ways that advertently or inadvertently justify and maintain social inequality. She has worked on large-scale initiatives to improve intergroup relations, including fostering positive attitudes towards immigrants, counteract hate groups’ recruitment of youth, and decrease intergroup conflicts in ethnically diverse schools. Donna has received NSF funding for her research and applied work concerning women’s and ethnic minorities’ participation in STEM fields. In 2009, she was a co-PI on an NSF EHR Core Research Grant that supported her research on intersectionality and broadening women’s participation in STEM fields. In 2017, she was a co-PI on a funded $125,000 CSU Chancellor’s Office mini-grant that supported the “Prejudice Habit Breaking” intervention to advance faculty diversity at CSUSB. She is currently a co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE grant (funded 08/2018) and as the Director, […]
Within higher education, the debate related to the First Amendment and academic freedom—and whether or not they are a hindrance to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives—continues to be a polarizing topic. During these uncertain times, it’s more important than ever that campus leaders are armed with facts as well as critical perspectives, to assist them in their ability follow the law while also creating meaningful learning environments for faculty, staff, and students. This training aims to remove the assumption that diversity initiatives struggle to coexist within the parameters of free speech and/or academic freedom. During the session, we will explore and explain areas where the priorities of DEI and academic and political leaders overlap, rather than diverge. You will come away with a greater understanding of the interrelationships among the three and of how to offer support when the values of faculty, staff, or students remain in conflict.
To see high rates of productivity, retention, and satisfaction in your early career faculty, you’ll need a well-defined mentoring program. How should you structure your program for success? What services should you provide, and how should you customize for your department, school, or campus? Join us online to rethink your current faculty mentoring program or start building an intentional mentoring program from scratch. You will learn from Dr. David Kiel, who has helped create mentoring programs at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in professional school units and Arts and Sciences departments. Drawing on his study of exemplary programs nationwide, he will share a comprehensive overview of effective mentoring programs – ones that resolve conflict and decrease faculty turnover.
Use Our Learning Plans to Combat Burnout and Gain New Skills Become a member to gain access to all learning plan resources. Start our member favorite learning paths for a deeper dive into current challenges around workplace culture and communication. Become a member to get full access to these plans. We will also work to match you with the resources that align with your development goals and create custom learning plans for you and your team. Workplace Culture and Morale Approx. 8.5 hours Learn how to maintain a positive workplace culture and morale within your team by building resilience, integrating inclusivity, engaging in empathy, reducing bullying, understanding microaggressions, and more. Download the Learning Plan Effective Communication Approx. 6.5 hours Learn how to manage conflict, confront toxicity, and cultivate an engaging persona on your video calls. Download the Learning Plan Professional Communication Approx. 8.5 hours Learn the most crucial communication skills you need as a leader navigating through remote work and high-anxiety times. Download the Learning Plan Our current members are using custom learning plans to: Create a development plan to achieve a particular strategic goal Help team members stay engaged and motivated over the summer Provide a focused plan to […]
As an externally appointed dean, you are expected to hit the ground running, making quick and impactful decisions from Day One. Leading through this change can be tricky, as you will often need to navigate conflicting perspectives from the administration and faculty on which direction to go, as you also define your role in shared governance, identify trusted allies, and make decisions even with incomplete information. Join us for a 90-minute discussion that will provide you with insights and lessons learned from other external deans. Our instructor panel includes two different speakers — one who has served in a variety of external leadership roles at multiple institutions — and the other who just completed her first semester as external dean. If you’ve been asking any of the following questions, this training is for you: How do I research and understand the issues, challenges and opportunities within my college? How do I determine my role in shared governance? Who should I trust, and how do I figure that out as early as possible? Where should I invest my time, and how do I balance listening and learning with getting important work done? What are some of the considerations I need to […]
