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.
As we move our instruction online in response to the COVID-19 crisis, we feel immense pressure to create quality learning experiences. We find ourselves grasping for strategies to engage our students in our new online environment. “Engaging” is a buzzword that appears in our faculty meetings, higher ed articles, and social media posts, but many of us are still seeking practical examples. What does it mean to teach an engaging online course? We can break down such an online learning experience into three core components: an engaging instructor, an engaged community of peers, and engaging course materials. Our goal in quality online education is to build and foster a collaborative knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing community of learners. Join us for a workshop in which you will learn and practice strategies in all three components of engagement: Strategies to become a more engaging online instructor How to foster a knowledge-building and knowledge-sharing community How to develop and leverage engaging course materials
The academic library faces increased demand for services and the increased costs of acquisitions, digitization, and facilities upgrades, even as many institutions are trimming budgets. This has led to a growing awareness that library leaders need to devote more energy to partnering with advancement and academic leaders to raise external funds for the library. Yet because the academic library is a central resource on campus and lacks a direct alumni constituency, fundraising for the needs of the library has often been difficult. We turned to Jeffrey Trzeciak, university librarian at McMaster University, for his tips for success for other university librarians. Trzeciak spoke with us about McMaster University’s unique model that raised more than a quarter-million dollars by involving senior and reunion classes. For this article, we asked him for advice on some of the thinking that needs to underlie such an effort: Here’s what Trzeciak suggests. Partnering with Academic Leaders “We need to focus not just on our own funding needs, but also on playing a role in the fundraising for the institution as a whole — even if it means assisting in bringing in gifts that don’t directly fund the library.” Jeffrey Trzeciak, McMaster University Trzeciak stresses the importance of founding partnerships […]
In Academic Impressions’ 2021 survey of higher ed faculty, staff, and administrators to understand the current state of professional development, 51% of respondents reported experiencing clinical levels of burnout. Faculty burnout comes on the heels of their being asked to do more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the additional challenges of meeting the needs of students that resulted. But faculty who learn how to set boundaries with their work and maintain a healthy integration are far more likely to continue to enjoy their work and maintain their sense of professional well-being. Join us for an interactive session on how to better develop and maintain boundaries with your work as faculty. Our expert speaker Dr. Jackie Leibsohn has served in faculty positions and leadership at all levels. She will walk you through identifying what is being added to faculty’s plates, how and when to say no to additional work, and how to survive a changing faculty environment. We will also provide resources for you to continue to practice professional well-being in your faculty role.
Many educational institutions benefit from large matching or challenge gifts (not to be confused with corporate matching gift programs). A donor makes a gift or pledge with the expectation that the advancement shop will raise the same amount of funds from other donors. For example, a donor may pledge $50M to a new building project if the development staff can raise an additional $50M from other donors. These are exciting opportunities because they show your biggest donors that you care about growing the impact of their giving, but you also know they require a lot of hard work and careful management, often on a tight timeline. You probably have more questions than answers on how to manage these campaigns. Join us online to learn how to show your biggest donors that you care about growing the impact of their giving. You will hear from two experts who can answer your questions and provide best practices on how to successfully approach match and challenge gift campaigns. In this training, you’ll learn how to: Secure and cultivate donors who wish to provide a challenge gift as well as matching gifts. Structure a matching gift campaign that meets the development goals for both […]
The 2020 Title IX federal regulations require live hearings to include a cross-examination of both parties by the other party’s Advisor. This revised process brings certain challenges. First, cross-examination can feel overwhelming, and even traumatizing to survivors of sexual assault who must recount and relive their trauma in front of others. Second, the process can feel debilitating to both parties, as their credibility and character appear under attack. Third, cross-examination can produce anxiety in the Advisor, who may struggle to navigate such emotionally charged conversations. Mismanaging cross-examination and witness preparation or lacking the tools to assist participants through the revised process can compound an already stressful situation. Join us for this webcast to learn how you, as an Advisor or Hearing Panelist, can have a more positive impact on the cross-examination by preparing both parties to endure the process. During this training, you’ll acquire a toolkit of simple yet profound grounding and communication strategies that you can use to engage your witnesses and make them feel as safe and comfortable as possible throughout the process. No two witnesses are the same and as such, your approach to cross-examination cannot be one-size-fits-all. Our expert will give you the toolkit you need […]
Dr. Michelle Payne serves as Vice Provost for Academic Leadership and Faculty Affairs at Boise State University. As Vice Provost she is responsible for coordinating programs and services in Academic Affairs that support the career development of faculty and the growth of effective academic leaders. She works with partners across Boise State and Idaho to provide leadership development programs for Academic Affairs; support faculty shared governance processes and policies; facilitate healthy department cultures; manage faculty personnel processes; and contribute to Boise State’s strategic goal to foster thriving communities. Dr. Payne facilitates Boise State’s biweekly New Academic Leaders Program, manages programming for regular meetings of the Academic Leadership Council (department chairs, deans, and associate deans), and is a member of the planning team for the inaugural Idaho Academic Leadership Academy, which is funded by the Idaho State Board of Education. Dr. Payne is a Professor of Writing Studies and has a Ph.D. in English, Composition, and Literature from the University of New Hampshire, an M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric from Florida State University, and a B.A. in English Literature, with a minor in Creative Writing, from Miami University in Ohio. Prior to serving as Vice Provost, Dr. Payne served as chair […]
