At those residential institutions that are seeing enrollment growth, providing adequate student housing has rarely been more challenging. Sudden, unexpected housing overflows at residential institutions can prove both expensive and complex to manage. We turned to Lorinda Krhut, director of student housing and residence life at the University of Mississippi, for her advice on how institutions can put in place more proactive measures that will help make the process of managing housing overflows more efficient and less costly in future years. Moving Beyond Just Coping with a Housing Crisis Institutions that don’t guarantee housing for entering students have more flexibility during a surge in demand, but unexpected spikes in student housing raise difficult challenges for institutions that have a freshmen residency requirement and a limited number of beds. Solutions various institutions have tried when managing an enrollment surge include: A lottery system for returning students Contracting with off-campus apartments and living spaces, then moving upperclassmen to those facilities while charging them the same cost they would have paid for on-campus housing Krhut notes, however, that these solutions are not ideal. It’s better to have contingency plans in place before a housing crisis hits. There are two key strategies for achieving […]
With the balance of wealth shifting overseas — and with more colleges and universities increasing their international enrollment — international fundraising is likely to play an increasingly larger role in development at North American institutions. To learn how institutions can get started in such an effort, we interviewed Gretchen Dobson, the senior associate director for alumni relations at Tufts University and the principal and founder of Gretchen Dobson Go Global, a consulting firm focused on helping educational institutions, non-profit member organizations, and consulate/embassy education officers facilitate alumni engagement and advance international programs. Dobson has also authored the book Being Global: Making the Case for International Alumni Relations (CASE, 2011). A TWO-PART LOOK AT THE CHALLENGES After speaking with Dobson, we’re offering these two articles to help you think through some initial steps for getting started with international fundraising: Reaching Them While They’re Students Dobson notes that international alumni are “hard enough just to find”; if you are serious about cultivating lifetime relationships with this growing body of alumni, the key is to begin building the relationship while they are still students. STUDENT PHILANTHROPY The article you’re reading covers some of the opportunities for international students specifically, but the first step […]
Dr. Kim Eby joined the Mason community in 1996. A faculty member in the School of Integrative Studies, she is also affiliated with Women and Gender Studies. In 2002, she was awarded the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award. Her professional and scholarly interests include issues surrounding violence and gender, leadership, organizational development and change, and collaboration and community building across a variety of contexts. She was a consultant for the National Learning Communities Project and has presented at national meetings and consulted with individual institutions on topics such as leading institutional change; learning space design; interdisciplinary collaboration; working with student and faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion; and other issues related to faculty, teaching and learning, and leadership development. Kim served for nine years as the Director of the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence (CTFE, now Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning) and Associate Provost for Faculty Development, providing programming, consultations, and professional development support to Mason faculty and graduate students, with an emphasis on teaching and learning. Currently Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Development, Kim is responsible for all matters pertaining to Mason faculty’s professional well-being, development, and success, including providing support for faculty career development, recognizing […]
The vast majority of new college and university faculty members receive very little training for their jobs, and often very little training once they have their jobs. How can we support their transition from graduate school to a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI)? Every year thousands of higher-education faculty members begin a job for which they have had little or no training. According to the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, over 88% of higher education institutions serve primarily undergraduate students. However, in most disciplines, Ph.D. training programs provide minimal preparation for a career at a teaching-focused institution. The truth is that the vast majority of college and university faculty members receive very little training about how to do their jobs, and often very little training once they have their jobs. This disconnect between the training provided in most Ph.D. programs and the skills necessary to thrive in most careers in higher-education can lead to frustration and job dissatisfaction. …To explore the ins and outs of this issue, we sat down recently with Mark E. Basham (Regis University) and Pamela I. Ansburg (Metropolitan State University of Denver), who are in the process of writing a book in hopes of easing […]
Gender bias in higher education can lead us to prize men’s voices over women’s and to value authoritarian and transactional leadership over transformational, collaborative leadership. Yet collaboration is key to meeting the complex challenges our departments and institutions of higher education now face. So let’s explore: How best can men and women work together to develop this critical leadership trait that has traditionally been considered “feminine”? by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting Previous articles in this series: In this series we are looking at leadership traits, how they are deployed and recognized differently for men and women, and how gender bias impedes women’s advancement within our colleges and universities. In this fourth article, we’ll take a close look at collaboration. We’ll examine: Why Collaboration is So Critical Remember that memo distributed by a now ex-employee of Google, criticizing diversity and defending the skewed percentage of male coders? After debunking the former employee’s false claim that men were inherently better coders for “biological” reasons, senior leaders at Google also argued that the coder “had fundamentally misunderstood what skills were needed…such as collaboration, creativity and teamwork” (Swinson, 2018, p. 332). While there are many differences between the Google campus and […]
This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. Being an effective academic advisor is like being an expert juggler. It is easy to drop a ball now and then. In this article, I examine strategies to keep all the balls in the air in order to effectively support our students and help them persist toward graduation. The role of the academic advisor is complex, requiring advisors to effectively communicate with students, understand and interpret policies and procedures, follow institutional protocols, maintain student records, utilize technology, and engage in problem-solving. These activities can be categorized into three distinct skill sets: interpersonal, operational, and analytical. To deliver comprehensive advising assistance, an advisor needs to blend all of these skills. Here are some strategies for developing these essential skill sets and maximizing your effectiveness as an advisor. Interpersonal Skills I have had the privilege of interviewing numerous advisor candidates over the years, some who are aspiring to this new role, others who are experienced in the field. Most often, when asked what is the most important skill an advisor can bring to the position, prospective advisor candidates respond, “working with people.” […]
Future Trends in Higher Education A DISCUSSION SERIES SESSION 1 SESSION 2 SESSION 3 SESSION 4 Overview New technologies in higher education continue to race forward, and—from teaching, to equity and inclusion, to the student experience—they are having a profound impact on all corners of campus life. However, despite their significance, there are few discussions spaces designed for enabling leaders to connect with one another, learn from others, and share ideas around how to best prepare and respond. Join us for a free discussion-based series for discovering the technologies and trends impacting higher education across the country. You will learn about the basics of each technology and trend in order to fully understand its potential, as well as how to implement and evaluate each on your campus. In conversation with our panelists and your peers, you will explore questions like: What committees or other initiatives are others proactively putting in place to better understand and prepare their institutions for technological advances? What impact does new technology have on aspects like teaching and learning, equity and inclusion, cost, and learning outcomes? What strategies are institutions employing to evaluate impact? How are faculty and students being supported in that evaluation? The webcasts […]
Lori is the ninth President of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the first female president in the Texas Tech University System. She joined TTUHSC in 1987, and has held multiple leadership positions during her tenure with the university, including Dean of the School of Health Professions and Provost and Chief Academic Officer. Lori led TTUHSC through an unprecedented global health pandemic. This required the transition of all on-campus academic instruction to online and a workforce of more than 5,000 on six campuses to remote operations. During this time, the university’s team members led collaborative efforts to produce personal protective equipment for its front-line health care team and providers across the region. They also played vital roles statewide in supplying viral transport medium for COVID-19 testing and conducting a national study on convalescent serum as a treatment option for the disease. As President of TTUHSC, Lori oversees a complex, multi-campus institution with Lubbock as the administrative center, and with regional campuses at Abilene, Amarillo, Dallas, Midland, and Odessa. TTUHSC is committed to regionalized, educational experiences provided across six schools that deliver quality education, research, patient care, and community service programs to meet the health care needs of West Texas, […]
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