At Academic Impressions, we have offered a number of articles and other resources on peer mentoring, and our readers and participants at our events have asked, “Is peer mentoring effective in a niche academic program — such as nursing or aviation — or at a niche institution?” We forwarded this question to a panel of experts on peer mentor programs. This article provides their answers. Included on the panel: Should Niche Programs/Institutions Consider Peer Mentoring? Margie Bader: Students coming into niche institutions or programs have no prior experience to draw on to help them cope with this very new material and practicum. Niche programs are rich in specialized content, which makes them stressful and overwhelming to some students. Mentors can help simplify the process, give tips on how to handle the material, the evaluation process and the needs of the professors. Mentors can also help to give a big picture view of where the students are headed as well as details of how to manage the program in the upcoming semesters. Niche programs also often have a practical component or an internship. Mentors who have successfully completed this part of the program can give valuable tips on how to find […]
It’s no secret that more women in the workforce has not equaled more women in leadership. Women opt out because they don’t feel their work is meaningful, they object to the direction their institution or institutional culture is headed, or they believe their contributions aren’t valued. Countering this requires a systemic approach. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting In this sixth article in our series in Challenging Androcentrism in the Academy, we’ll look at one set of leadership traits and behaviors we identified earlier in the series: vision and conceptual thinking. We’ll examine: In preparation for this article, I was fortunate to have interview conversations with many women in higher education. In our conversations about conceptual thinking, I discovered a distinction between “big ideas” and “vision.” Big ideas tend to excite. Vision can also excite, but for the women I spoke with, vision also includes more mundane aspects of operationalization which then receive less than enthusiastic responses from their male bosses. I would like to add that there were women I spoke with who did not perceive themselves or others being marginalized for their conceptual thinking. Nonetheless, if an institution is interested in higher levels of […]
By Dr. Leslie Madsen, Teresa Focarile, Dr. Tasha Souza, Dr. Lisa Berry After the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted the spring 2020 semester, Boise State University faculty looked toward an uncertain fall with some trepidation. Because students might have to quarantine for weeks or miss several classes due to illness, instructors realized they would not only need to be ready to shift modalities as they had during spring semester, but potentially teach in multiple modalities simultaneously. To help faculty plan their fall classes, the campus units responsible for supporting instructors’ course design, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and eCampus Center (eC2), worked together to create a three-week Flexible Teaching for Student Success Institute (FTSS). While the collaboration between the two units led to several locally novel developments in the design and delivery of the summer Institute, a simple document template at the heart of the effort proved to be its most significant—and useful—innovation. Drawing on the tenets of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the Flexible Learning and Instruction Plan, or FLIP, expands on the traditional course-design table by: asking instructors to build in adjustability and to provide students with multiple ways to access course content; allow for students to […]
Strengthen Your Team with Transformative Retreat Facilitation Design a Retreat That Moves Your Team Forward In higher education, teams are often made up of strong individuals — but without shared vision, trust, and communication, even the most talented leaders can struggle to move the institution forward. A facilitated retreat can transform that dynamic, creating the space your team needs to build trust, align priorities, and reignite momentum. Academic Impressions specializes in retreat facilitation that integrates individual leadership development with practical team development strategies — helping your leaders achieve more together than they could alone. “I never realized how much more we could accomplish together.” Build Trust. Ignite Momentum. Advance Your Team’s Impact. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. When to Consider Retreat Facilitation A leadership retreat is a strategic investment. Here are clear indicators that your team could benefit from expert facilitation: 1. You have new leaders or a newly formed team. Early trust-building, shared visioning, and establishing team norms and expectations can dramatically accelerate a new team’s effectiveness. 2. Your meetings feel more tactical than strategic. If conversations focus mostly on updates rather than new ideas, planning, or real collaboration, it’s time to step back and reset. 3. […]
Preparing for What’s Next A 6-Part Discussion Series for Alumni Relations Professionals Recorded on October 26, 2023 | Recorded on November 2, 2023 | Recorded on November 9, 2023 Recorded on November 16, 2023 | Recorded on November 30, 2023 | Recorded on December 7, 2023 Join other alumni relations professionals for networking and idea sharing in anticipation of what’s coming next for the industry. Overview Alumni relations professionals have experienced numerous significant changes in recent years. Faced with challenges such as communicating value to other areas of the shop, managing talent and volunteers in a hybrid work environment, interpreting new sources of data and metrics, and continuously adapting strategy to forge more meaningful connections with alumni, many need a space to step back, reflect, and exchange ideas with peers. Join us for an online series to discuss hot topics facing alumni relations professionals just like you. You’ll have space to share pressing concerns, questions, and current practices with others in the field in anticipation of what’s next for the alumni relations profession. Each session will be facilitated by our expert panel: Megan Stevens, Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement, Stevens Institute of Technology Nancy Merritt, […]
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 […]
FREE RECORDED WEBCAST The Future of Higher Education Will Higher Education Seize the Future or Fall Victim to It? Today higher education faces four unforgiving paradoxes: Amid growing awareness that the traditional business model is broken, most higher-ed leaders are doubling down on that model. The way we manage our education model is undermining its relevance and value. We need to change quickly, but our institutions operate at capacity and our governance models are not supportive of rapid innovation. The value of a degree is increasing, but so is public skepticism of that value. These paradoxes don’t have easy answers, but they must be addressed. Join us in July for a deep discussion of findings from our recent paper The Future of Higher Education. You will hear perspectives contributed by university presidents and board chairs on the four paradoxes we all face–and on four strategies that can make a difference. Who Should Attend This free webcast will offer new ideas and approaches to: Presidents and board members Senior academic and administrative leaders Heads of human resources and organizational development Directors of leadership academies and leadership development programs Before accessing this free recorded webcast…Please sign up first for future updates […]
Because the marketplace for public arenas and sports stadiums is now saturated with corporate namings and sponsorships, many corporations are turning increasingly to the higher education sector for naming opportunities. At the same time, many athletics departments in higher education are striving to become more entrepreneurial, particularly at institutions that have recently cut athletics budgets to preserve funding for academic programs. Yet often athletics directors focus almost solely on fundraising, neglecting the growing marketplace for athletics sponsorships. Though sponsorships are usually far smaller in dollar amount than philanthropic naming gifts, it’s important to realize that: “More corporations are seeing the value of aligning themselves with like institutions to build awareness of their brand. These opportunities deserve more than a cursory glance.”Vincent Duckworth, ViTreo We turned to Vincent Duckworth, partner and chief marketing officer at Vitreo, to learn more about how institutions can take advantage of this changing marketplace. Duckworth offers these four tips. Tip 1: Do You Have a Naming Policy for Your Athletics Naming Opportunities? Duckworth advises that your naming policy needs to provide guidelines around: This policy needs to be transparent and publically available. This ensures both that corporate sponsors can find you — and that you can […]
A SERIES ON INNOVATIONS IN FUNDING ACADEMIC RESEARCH We hope you will join us for this innovative series: The “3C” Strategy for More Effective Fundraising Advancement and research offices can optimize their strategies to compete successfully for external funds by utilizing the “3C” approach. The “3C” approach is: Strategies for Enhanced Communication Over several decades, advancement and research offices have developed distinctly different approaches for fundraising. Advancement’s role is to procure gifts from donors who have very specific interests in funding priorities. Research works with faculty to compete for grants for specific scientific, outreach and training programs. Also, there are distinct “global” perspectives on each office role in working with their constituencies. Planning, facilitation and open discussions are vital to creating enhanced communication between the two offices. This is a new endeavor for many institutions, so take the time — whether it is 3 months or 1 year — to develop good rapport between your offices. To bridge this gap: Effective Collaboration Strategies Improved communication between advancement and research offices creates opportunities to pursue new funding sources. An effective collaborative model is composed of: Coordination Strategies for Advancement and Research The goal of successfully coordinating grants and gifts is to […]
