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How Rush University Established a Mentoring Program for Women Faculty that Can Serve as a Model for Other Universities
Susan Chubinskaya, PhDVice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Klaus Kuettner Professor for Osteoarthritis Research, Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Orthopedic Surgery, and Internal Medicine at Rush University Amarjit S. Virdi, PhDDirector of the Office of Rush Mentoring Programs, Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Rush University The Challenge As a private, nonprofit healthcare institution offering certificate, undergraduate (very few), graduate degrees, and postgraduate training, Rush University (RU), an academic arm of Rush University Medical Center and Rush System for Health in Chicago, has almost 2000 faculty, and 52% are women. Since July 2006, we’ve been invested in developing systemic mentoring programs for our faculty, beginning with the Rush Research Mentoring Program (RRMP), which helps early career faculty develop and lead independent, extramurally funded translational research programs. Building on the framework of the RRMP, we’ve subsequently developed other mentoring programs, such as Rush Educational Mentoring Program (REMP), mentoring program for postdoctoral fellows through Rush Postdoctoral Society (RPDS), and, recently, our Rush Women Faculty Mentoring Program (RWMP). All these programs provide tremendous resources to faculty, offer continued education credits, and are optional, though participation in these programs is highly encouraged. Gender equity and diversity is one of […]
End of Fiscal Year: Donors Don’t Care
As fundraisers, we’ve just concluded a period of hustling to wrap up the fiscal year: working with donors, securing final gifts, and planning for the new fiscal year. Amid all the rush of this work, it can be easy to lose sight of something key: Most donors give because they want to make a difference and effect change. They give generously, but they also give in their own timeframes. Most of our donors don’t operate their households and thus their philanthropy on a fiscal year. Why then, do we insist that they care inextricably about our fiscal year end? Why are we constantly pushing them to give at times that meet our needs and not necessarily their own? Source: 2014 Charitable Giving Report from Blackbaud. If we look at the data from this Blackbaud study and others, we know that the giving season is November and December. That is when most people make their gifts and think about planning their generosity. It’s not that no one gives in April, May or June. I’m not saying that at all. But let’s be truthful: the large majority of donors don’t care about your fiscal year. Here’s a question I can pose to […]
Spotlight on Innovation: How Central Georgia Technical College Success Coaches Will Provide Collaborative Support to At-Risk Students
Here’s how Central Georgia Technical College is expanding a student success coach program, focusing especially on GED students and students placed in developmental education. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. A little more than half of the students at Central Georgia Technical College are first-generation students who may not have the family support they need to successfully navigate college. Officials at the two-year college have spent more than a decade incubating strategies to effectively support first-gen and other underrepresented and academically underprepared students through graduation. This includes an effective model for using success coaches and a college success course to help guide students through their academic career. Now with the help of a $3.2 million First in the World grant, CGTC will expand the success coach model to all three CGTC campuses. They are also […]
Assessing Student Learning Outcomes: Surveys Aren’t Enough
In a recent Academic Impressions webcast, student learning assessment expert John Hoffman polled student affairs representatives from 200 institutions of higher education about their data collection methods for assessing student learning. Participants were asked to select their two most common methods of gathering data. The results were dismaying but perhaps unsurprising: …but, only: The reliance on surveys is telling. Surveys appear easy to design and deploy, but Hoffman cautions that there are a number of shortcomings with using surveys as your primary method of collecting data to assess student learning: KEYS TO EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT: “ROLLING UP YOUR SLEEVES” “Surveys are valuable, but often what we get is the student’s self-report of their learning. Yes, you can test them within the survey, for instance by asking if the student can name three examples of services provided by your career development center — that invites more direct assessment of what they have learned. But to really get the data we need, we have to roll up our sleeves and collect data during interaction with the students.”John Hoffman, California State University, Fullerton KEYS TO EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT: FOCUS ON COHORT LEARNING “You might be asking, ‘How am I supposed to assess learning in a […]
Mental Health Resources for the Campus Community
Mental Health Resources for the Campus Community Create a “network of support” on your campus by training faculty and staff to recognize and engage with students experiencing mental health challenges. Why is a cross-campus approach to mental health so critical? Watch Anne Browning from the University of Washington make the case for faculty and staff involvement in mental health prevention and promotion. [h5p id=”61″] Click for Transcript Find Your Resources Do you want to better understand the current mental health landscape in higher ed? Are you prepared to support your students in the moment? How can you proactively support the mental health of your students? Connect to Issues and Conversations Student Mental Health in Higher Education All-inclusive members have access to the Academic Impressions’ research brief that inspired this collection. After you’ve followed the link, click “View Now” to access the report. The Role of Higher Ed in Providing Mental Health Services Listen to this podcast to hear 3 expert opinions on the appropriate scope of service and legal considerations for mental health services in higher ed. Learning About Online Mental Health Tools Download this handout to learn about 3 types of online mental health tools institutions are […]
Advancement/Academic Partnerships: Identifying Areas of Untapped Opportunity
A SERIES ON INNOVATIONS IN FUNDING ACADEMIC RESEARCHEd Mason, president of EMNR & Associates, is writing this series to assist academic leaders in finding creative strategies to merge public/private funding for existing and new research initiatives. Mason has studied an array of collaborative partnerships between the two offices most focused on external funding (the development office and research & grants), and he will be sharing some of the models he has observed, as well as directions for the future. We hope you will join us for this innovative series: Universities are faced with challenges that range from uncertain economic times to dwindling public support and declines in federal research funding allocations. To thrive in the future, all educational institutions are going to need more nimble and flexible planning and execution. As I noted in my previous article, there are a number of innovative models for leveraging donor and foundation support to fund academic research initiatives. What you need to do is have a clear understanding of your present areas of academic strength and be able to identify your best future opportunities to procure external funding for research that matters to private donors and philanthropic entities. The three-step process I will describe below […]
Communicating Conflicts of Interest to the Public
According to the Chronicle, one-fourth of private institutions do business with their trustees’ companies. Potential conflicts of interest involving board members or high-ranking officials certainly are not limited to private colleges, however; North Carolina State University’s termination of Mary Easley and the uncovering of the University of Illinois’ previous board’s interference in the admissions process each represent highly publicized examples. We asked Cindy Lawson, media relations expert and vice president for public relations and communications at DePaul University, for practical tips on what and how to communicate to the public when a conflict of interest involves a member of the board, in order to manage the impact on the institution’s reputation. Be Forthright and Specific “From my experience, the chances of an institution’s reputation remaining intact are far better when that institution is forthright and admits the conflict, shares as much information as it possibly can, and most importantly, describes the measures it is taking to ensure it doesn’t happen again, as opposed to trying to hide it, hoping that no one finds out, or worse — trying to deny it or cover it up once it is exposed.”Cindy Lawson, DePaul University In a case involving an unintentional conflict of […]
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How RIT is Building An Adjunct Community
MORE FROM RIT RIT’s strategic plan calls for the institution to become a “model of inclusive excellence for all faculty and staff in the areas of professional development.” Here are further examples of what RIT has been trying recently: Beyond Workshops: How RIT Incentivizes Faculty Development “George”: How RIT is Encouraging Interdisciplinary Collaboration When thinking about a student issue or working on a syllabus, faculty members often seek the advice of a colleague — usually by just walking to the office next door. For adjunct faculty, however, the colleague next door has often left for the day and administration offices may also be shut. Adjunct faculty often operate largely on their own, and have a difficult time meeting colleagues who can provide feedback and support. When institutions deliberately build adjunct communities, this allows the faculty to support each other, helps make adjunct faculty feel appreciated and rewarded, and improves adjunct teaching and student success in the classroom. The Rochester Institute of Technology is working to build an adjunct community to foster the kinds of relationships that many full-time faculty and staff take for granted. We talked with Anne Marie Canale and Cheryl Herdklotz, Faculty Career Development Consultants, to learn more about the […]