June 9, 2011. During a series of interviews with leaders in alumni relations earlier this year, Academic Impressions found that many alumni relations offices are struggling with their alumni boards or alumni association boards. While a working board can offer institutional leaders partners to aid in achieving institutional goals for engagement and giving, most boards are not filling this role. Among the common problems: Many boards remain too focused on specific tactics — such as reunion and homecoming Other boards have grown too large and unwieldy, preventing them from “getting down to business” Boards struggle to ensure that 100 percent of their members give to the institution and that their members model supportive relationships with administration To learn more about the characteristics of an effective “working board,” we turned to Gary Olsen, associate vice president of alumni relations and executive director of the alumni association at Villanova University, and Christine Tempesta, director of strategic initiatives with the MIT Alumni Association. Olsen and Tempesta shared their advice on the qualities to look for in board members and managing the board’s scope of responsibilities. Who’s on the Working Board? Olsen and Tempesta suggest these criteria for selecting board members who will be well-positioned to […]
Through a series of surveys and interviews with advising directors across North America, Academic Impressions has identified a number of frequently missed opportunities that prevent institutions from maximizing the effectiveness of academic advising to improve student retention and academic success. The following are among the most significant: Developmental Advising: Empowering the Student In developmental advising, the student is given the resources to self-audit progress toward the degree, or is sent a degree audit by the advisor prior to meeting. Then, the student’s time with the advisor is spent defining academic and career goals and problem-solving to address obstacles that are likely to arise on the way to meet those goals — rather than going over the course catalog. The strength of developmental advising is that it empowers the student to take ownership of their own goals and progress, and partners them with a professional who can help them plan ahead proactively. EMPOWERING STUDENTS TO SELF-AUDIT THEIR PROGRESSRead our member exclusive report on early alert programs to review recommendations for empowering your students to self-audit their progress and, if appropriate, self-identify when they are academically at risk. For this article, we interviewed two of the architects of Arkansas State University’s forward-thinking approach […]
Karen Thurmond coordinates the day-to-day operations of the general education program (core curriculum), degree audit system (DegreeWorks), and an 24/7 system for academic advising appointments (AppointmentPlus) at the University of Memphis. She has written extensively for NACADA, and recently completed work with a team to automate the graduation process at The University of Memphis. Congratulations! You just hired a new academic advisor! Whether your new advisor has just graduated from a master’s degree with a specialization in academic advising, or is making a transition from another area of higher education, is on a college campus for the first time, or is a faculty member taking on new academic advising responsibilities, they have a lot to learn. Academic advising is a wide interdisciplinary activity that will challenge them personally, professionally, academically, emotionally, and physically. How will you prepare them for this challenge? You should be waiting for your new advisor on the first day with an agenda for their development into a quality academic advisor. This agenda will include the details the advisor needs to know to answer student questions and assist students with making and meeting goals, an understanding of what quality academic advising is and how it impacts student […]
Leading from the middle of an institution is a tough role. Managing both up and down while completing student-centered work requires self-reflection, empathy, and intention. Yet it can be accomplished in a transformative way that both honors the individual identities of your team and advances the goals and mission of your institution. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Jenn Duffield as she reflects on how she navigated her role as Assistant Dean of Students & Title IX Coordinator leading a team of eight. Jenn will share how her role evolved over time, as well as the challenges and successes she experienced leading a team. She’ll also highlight the personal work she accomplished that informed her approach to inclusive supervision. We invite you to participate in conversation and share how you are working to develop your own sense of self as a leader and supervisor. We’ll discuss such aspects of leadership as: You’ll walk away from this discussion with an opportunity to reflect upon how you can lead more inclusively, as well as with resources to help you to do so.
As a frontline fundraiser, you have likely honed your “fundraising voice” over time. You have learned to embody crucial tenets such as integrity, listening, and humility in ways that feel authentic and purposeful. As you continue adapting to a virtual workflow, have you considered whether your fundraising voice is deeply rooted in handshakes or face-to-face meetings? Have you felt less “yourself” while fundraising virtually? Join us online for an in-depth virtual training where our experts will help you adapt your fundraising practices to the online environment and become more successful. Our panel will help you determine key tenets of your own unique voice as a frontline fundraiser. Through small group roleplays, you will learn how to leverage these characteristics, and you’ll leave the training with clear next steps for fundraising more authentically in a virtual world.
This webcast will show you how you can use a Net Promoter® question on your alumni surveys to determine which investments bring your alumni closer to and more connected with your university. By adding one question to your existing alumni surveys, you can: Move beyond measuring engagement by attendance Resource programming that meets the needs of both your alumni and university Focus efforts on the segments of your alumni population that are “promoters” Make a distinction between satisfied and intensely loyal alumni Identify the elements of your programs that really matter Our expert instructor, Jennifer Lynham Cunningham, will demonstrate how she was able to incorporate a Net Promoter® question on her institution’s post-event and alumni attitudinal surveys. Jennifer will also share how to collect and analyze this data with easy-to-use and inexpensive tools.
Service excellence requires an ethic of care and cultural sensitivity that recognizes students’ strengths and unique backgrounds to allow you to meet them where they are. Combining these two approaches into a culturally responsive customer service initiative allows an institution to provide holistic support throughout students’ academic journey, which in turn has a direct impact on retention, persistence, and overall student success. Leading this training are our subject matter experts, Dr. Jessica Lauritsen from Hennepin Technical College and Ivan Lui from The Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth (BBA), who are experienced in successfully implementing a culturally responsive customer service initiative to increase student completion and persistence. Here, they will share their learnings and practical tips for how you can get started with: Understanding initial research on your institution’s student persistence and completion. Assessing the readiness of your institution and its leadership capacity for such an initiative. Using a “serving students” lens to reframe the conversation around intercultural development and cultural competency. Building a sustainable service excellence and retention initiative.
Michelle has been in fundraising for nearly 2 decades, having worked with donors of all types—from annual fund donors to third-party volunteers, principal gift donors, and corporations and foundations. From start-up non-profits in Tanzania, to complex institutions of higher learning in Canada, Michelle takes great pride in her passion for philanthropy and her drive to make a tangible impact in our communities and the world. Michelle is a strategic thinker with a track-record of turning vision into reality. She is an intuitive leader who identifies threads of opportunity across organizations and pulls them together to create organizational partnerships that drive results. She thinks big and inspires her colleagues to do the same. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and she uses that enthusiasm to create cultures of learning, innovation, and empowerment within the teams she leads. Michelle ultimately lives by the Dan Rockwell quote, “Fitting in is unsophisticated self-sabotage, but effectively standing out requires finesse,” and she aspires to see the fundraising profession modernize to better meet the needs of donors and the communities served through philanthropy.
Chairs occupy an essential position on our campuses, sitting at the intersection point that connects our faculty to institutional strategy, context, and culture. They also make some of the most impactful decisions that shape the university, overseeing decisions related to hiring, promotion, and curriculum. Yet for most institutions, the support and training available to chairs is minimal. Most of the training provided to chairs is limited to topics like how to work with HR, budgeting, and promotion & tenure. But what truly separates effective chairs from ineffective chairs are their leadership skills, such as: Academic Impressions has been trusted to effectively train department chairs across the U.S. and Canada for over ten years. In this free webcast, we’ll discuss the keys to our success, what works and what doesn’t, and create a space for others to share their best practices. If you need to start or enhance chair development at your own institution, we invite you to join us for this program.
Currently, academic leaders are rethinking their programs to meet the realities of student demands in a post-Covid environment. Some universities have sunset entire departments and programs, while others have taken programs hybrid or fully online. What is right for your division? And how do you gain faculty buy-in for the tough decisions you need to make? It is important to remember that programs are not solely measured by their monetary value; this makes program prioritization a challenging task that requires an inclusive, holistic approach tailored to the realities of each institution. Join us online to learn how to standardize the process of assessing the return on investment (ROI) of your programs across your division. Hear from our expert, Kelly Ball, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, as she demonstrates how to develop an inclusive ROI approach that accounts for mission, margin, and market. Participants will learn how to lead faculty and other stakeholders through this complex and necessary process, resulting in academic prioritization plans that create a resilient curriculum.
