A COLUMN FROM GETTYSBURG COLLEGEThis article is the fourth in a series by Ashlyn Sowell, Gettysburg’s associate vice president and campaign director. The previous articles are:Developing Your Campaign Reports: Getting it Right the First TimeSpring Clean Your Major Gifts Portfolio4 Lessons Learned from Campaign Volunteers at Gettysburg College Today, Sowell shares some critical reminders that are fresh on her mind after spending half a year with her New Zealand colleagues. For the past six months, I’ve had the good fortune to be living in Auckland, New Zealand while my husband is on sabbatical from Gettysburg College. Depending on whom you ask, the Kiwis are about 10-20 years behind the United States in creating a culture of philanthropy and in growing their advancement programs. And there’s nothing like looking at a young country to remind you of some important building blocks for development and alumni relations — building blocks that we might otherwise neglect in the rush of our work. I had the chance to experience these fresh reminders firsthand as I got to know colleagues across this small and wonderful country. Even for those of us with more mature programs, the following reminders from three of my New Zealand colleagues can […]
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A NEW SERIES This is the first in a series of articles from Ken Smith, Virginia Tech’s vice provost for resource management and institutional effectiveness. Smith has both chaired and staffed multiple committees charged with overall improvement of special sessions operations at Virginia Tech. He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from Virginia Tech. You may also be interested in Smith’s recent podcast, “Approaching the Academic Calendar More Creatively.” More colleges are considering offering special sessions outside the traditional academic calendar. In some cases, institutions are moving beyond summer and winter inter-sessions to provide condensed terms in May (immediately following spring term) or August (immediately preceding fall term). There are even “spring break” sessions that offer opportunity for very compressed but innovative courses. Special sessions not only provide the institution with financial gains by generating additional tuition revenues; they also offer opportunities to improve student success, completion rates, and job readiness. For example: For faculty, special sessions can offer not only extra pay but also an opportunity to try out innovative approaches to teaching a course. Because of the shorter time frame, many special session courses are delivered with a mix of on-line and in person instruction. Certain types of […]
I partner with leaders to connect deeply with their own values and strengths so they can empower others to move their organizations to the next level of excellence. Sherilyn is Professor Emerita at the University of Washington, a retired academic pediatrician and an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with over 30 years of experience in academic medicine in the U.S. Her deep knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of academic faculty informs her coaching focus and approach. Sherilyn’s areas of coaching expertise include developing leadership skills, optimizing scholarly productivity (including grant writing and manuscript preparation), program development, navigating the promotion process, transitioning to retirement, increasing satisfaction with clinical responsibilities, enhancing teaching abilities and developing long-term career goals. Sherilyn’s coaching approach is person-centered and leverages appreciative inquiry, foundations of contemporary neuroscience and design thinking. She works with clients to identify their core values and individual strengths to co-create a safe space for productive experimentation toward achieving their goals. She is continuously exploring and leveraging concepts and techniques from a wide variety of leadership and coaching fields to meet her client’s needs. Sherilyn has successfully coached mid- and late-career faculty transitioning into new leadership roles, participating in institutional strategic planning, negotiating workplace […]
Join the thousands of higher-ed leaders who have gained critical insights into their leadership using this tool. Self-awareness is at the heart of effective leadership and despite taking multiple assessments, most leaders have very little recollection of what they’ve learned from the inventories they’ve taken. They can usually remember the colors, numbers, letters or labels but rarely retain deep insights into their leadership strengths or gaps. The Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment is different. Its intuitive and practical design helps leaders maximize their own personal effectiveness and adapt to and gain influence with others. Uniquely, the tool also provides valuable insights into how your leadership changes under stress, a particularly relevant feature in today’s times. The assessment examines 5 forms of intelligence: Intellectual Emotional Intuitive Action Reflective The assessment will help you understand ways of achieving greater balance among the five forms of intelligence so that you can improve your overall effectiveness as a leader. Upon purchase, you’ll receive an email with a unique link to take the assessment. It shouldn’t take more than 12 minutes to complete. Once complete, you’ll receive a second email with a report that shares your complete results. Individual: for you to purchase and use […]
Recently, AI’s program manager Grace Spivak and our director of research and publications Daniel Fusch had the opportunity to interview Steve Kreidler, the vice president of administration and finance at Metropolitan State University of Denver, a public institution enrolling 20,000 undergraduate students. Several years ago, Metro State underwent a transformational strategic planning process and instituted an advisory budget task force that operates in an entirely new way. To learn more, we invited Steve Kreidler to speak with us about: Here are the key findings from our interview… 1. Bringing Transparency to the Budget Grace Spivak, AI. Can you describe how the new budgeting task force builds trust through transparency? Steve Kreidler. Previously, Metro’s budgeting process involved three people in a room (the president, the VP of administration, and the budget director). And this isn’t unusual; it’s common for universities have a small group huddle over the budget without gathering much input. What that leads to is the complete belief throughout the rest of the campus that deals are being made, some colleagues are getting preferential treatment, and that there is more money available than is being distributed. Today, we have a budget task force that includes a representative from each of the formal […]
If this article proves useful…You can take a deeper dive into this Middle Tennessee State University case study and a case study from Bay Path University in our recorded webcast. We’ve written a lot in past articles about the importance of resilience or “grit” to student persistence, and about what some offices on campus can do to help students—particularly first-generation and PELL-eligible students—build their resilience. Middle Tennessee State University has adopted a remarkably comprehensive and affordable (and therefore replicable) approach to doing so. To learn more, we spoke recently with Vincent Windrow, formerly the University’s Director of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs and now the Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success, and Dr. Rick Sluder, Vice Provost for Student Success at MTSU. They shared with us an in-depth look at MTSU’s REBOUND program: its three key phases, the results it has produced, and practical tips for other institutions that may wish to implement a similar initiative. What MTSU Set Out to Do Enrollment of students at MTSU who identify as either first-generation or are PELL-eligible has increased by 24% over the past five years. Now, nearly 50% of the incoming freshman class each year (1,400 out of 2,800 students) fall into […]
I have been involved with over one hundred planning efforts on a variety of campuses (including DePaul University, Central Community College, Tarleton State University, Stephen F. Austin State University, The University of the West Indies, Saint Joseph’s University, The University of California, Santa Cruz, Cornell University, Anoka Ramsey Community College). I have had my share of successes and failures with implementation efforts. Both the failures and the successes leave important clues. The success rate for the implementation of strategic plans is dismal, with the percentage of failed implementations ranging anywhere from 63% to 90%. In fact, Robert Kaplan of the Balanced Scorecard fame (1996, 2000, 2008) estimates that 90% of strategies fail due to poor execution. Actually creating strategies and inspiring strategic plans is not hard work. We have many intelligent, dedicated people throughout our campuses who have powerful hopes and aspirations. But having beautiful pictures of the future is not enough; we must be able to produce them. That’s the hard, difficult part of strategic planning. We must become world-class at actually executing our strategic plans. This will not be easy. I want to talk about some practices I’ve learned that work. Here are 10 of the most critical. 1. Always […]
By Kathy Edersheim President, Impactrics Social distancing and isolation brought on by the pandemic have proven the importance of community and connection, the very priorities for alumni relations. As the vaccine rolls-out and we look forward to a new normal, it is the perfect moment for alumni associations to assess the challenges and, yes, opportunities that have emerged from an almost entirely virtual system and consider what that means for the future. Observing and working with over 25 institutions during the past year has provided perspective on the potential for new directions and greater success. During the outset of the pandemic Since March, alumni relations pivoted to the virtual world like everything else. The first challenge was how to get alumni to support students facing an abbreviated semester and, often, financial challenges. It was a major communication effort to keep alumni informed about cancelled events (including refunds for tickets), campus news, and to solicit donations for student emergency funds while working remotely. At some institutions, the alumni-student support network for career guidance was mobilized to assist graduating students. Overall, the remote management of this process was surprisingly well-accepted and effective in maintaining and building connections. For many institutions, the most […]
