Search Results for: meeting

Safety and Risk Management Training for Faculty Leading Study Abroad: Part 1

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

May 2010. After some initial controversy over FERPA and student privacy, a set of documents from Laramie County Community College were made public, prompting a media flurry and providing a cautionary case of how one college may have mishandled a response to the suicidal behaviors of a student while leading a 2008 class trip to Costa Rica. The incident raises questions for institutions of higher education, including what training to provide for faculty and other trip leaders who are taking students abroad, so that trip leaders know how to respond in the event of an emergency and who to contact. The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that before Eastern Illinois University faculty members can teach courses overseas, they are required to complete a workshop on risk management and student health and safety. At Academic Impressions, we followed up with Wendy Williamson, director of study abroad at Eastern Illinois University, and Brent Barker, the University of Washington’s travel security and information manager, to learn: The Safety Workshop for Faculty Both Eastern Illinois University and the University of Washington require that faculty or study abroad program directors complete a several-hour safety and risk management workshop prior to the trip. The University of Washington also requires that […]

Representing Your Institution Overseas – Like an International Travel Rockstar

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Academic Impressions recently released the new International Travel Handbook: Engaging Constituents Abroad by leading global alumni relations consultant Gretchen Dobson of Gretchen Dobson, LLC. Dobson is based in Chengdu, China and has been recognized by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of the leading “Innovators in Internationalization” for her work at Tufts University. To introduce you to her new handbook for higher-ed professionals traveling abroad — and to learn more about the impact she hopes this resource will have — we reached out to Gretchen Dobson for this interview. AI. Gretchen, why is this book so needed? What drove you to write it? Gretchen Dobson. Traveling domestically for work requires advance planning in research, logistics and coordination with both those with whom you travel and with whom you meet at your destination. Traveling internationally requires all of the above and more: more resources and an understanding about working within and across different cultures and with various constituencies (including prospective international students or the VIP alum who once attended your university) that require a different approach. I’ve been a road-warrior in international higher education for over twelve years and have shared my stories with the person sitting next to me in the […]

Cultivating the Next Generation of Wealth

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

We are in the midst of a tsunami of wealth transfer. It is predicted that over the next 50 years, anywhere between 20 and 40 trillion dollars of wealth will pass from parents to their children. This year the federal estate tax exemption is nearly $5.5 million dollars, or roughly $11 million if two parents are leaving funds to a child. To look at it another way, 10% of wealth is changing hands every five years. Millennials are inheriting their wealth at a rate faster than their parents or their grandparents; one third of millionaires under the age of 32 inherited their money. As fundraisers, what are we doing to engage this next generation of wealth? Changing the Way We Cultivate the Donor Pipeline Historically, when did we begin to engage with children of means? Alumni might connect with their alma mater when their children are beginning the admission process. We might approach them when we’re looking to fill a board seat or leadership volunteer role. However, this is usually years after they graduated, a period during which these potential young philanthropists have already established their philanthropic priorities—and you may not be among them. We know that Millennials think about their charitable giving […]

Strengthening Library/Faculty Partnerships

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Last week, after heated protest from the faculty senate, the Syracuse University Library pulled back from plans to move thousands of books off campus. The tensions at Syracuse University illustrate the importance of communicating with faculty and with academic leaders early and often; as academic libraries continue to grapple with issues of core identity and as they plan to reshape collections, it is critical that library deans and directors find productive ways to involve faculty in the conversations from the start. Charles Forrest, director of the library facilities office at Emory University, offers some tips for launching these conversations. Start Talking Early It is important to establish strong partnerships with faculty champions before the time comes to discuss major changes in the library. If you don’t already have one, Forrest advises, “get a mechanism in place for ongoing dialogue: a library policy committee, a faculty advisory group.” You need to build a core of advocates who understand what the library is facing as an organization and as part of the larger academic institution. Continually look for opportunities to engage new voices from the faculty in dialogue about the role of the academic library at your institution. Get them involved in […]

Stepping Up Orientation for International Students

Posted on by Greta Bell

With the number of international students studying in the US up nearly 3 percent last year (contributing $20 billion to the US economy) and with Canadian institutions also seeing gains, creating a seamless arrival-and-welcome process that ensures the success and retention of these students is rapidly becoming a key area of investment for many institutions. At the forefront, the University of Southern California has piloted a process that includes not only an international orientation once students arrive on campus, but also an overseas, summer orientation on-site in Hong Kong to help students from Hong Kong prepare for their arrival in the US. We turned this week to Tom Studdert and Chrissy Roth, the director and associate director of orientation programs at USC, for a few key considerations for other institutions hoping to develop more effective orientation processes for their international students. Here is some of their advice. Planning Considerations “In one sense, an international orientation is no different than a program for domestic students — in that there are certain rights, responsibilities, and expectations that the students should have of us and that we have of them as members of our academic community. Build the orientation around that. You are working […]

How You Approach the Last Day of Class is More Important Now Than Ever

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

We’ve never had a term quite like this, and how we close our classes this semester matters. For some students, their classes may have been their most consistent and stable community during this time of rapid change and abrupt isolation. This article offers tips and techniques for approaching the last day of class in ways that provide both closure and connection.  I was chatting – well, zooming actually – with a colleague who felt inclined to skip the final class session, given that students seemed so exhausted. I absolutely understand this inclination, but I suggested otherwise. I was not promoting intentional course closure due to policy or typical good practice, but because this semester is like no other we’ve experienced and students will likely be grateful for that closure. A webinar on trauma-informed pedagogy confirmed my belief in the importance of closure this semester. Let’s consider why. Your class, while inconsistently “delivered,” might have been the only consistent and stable community for students this semester. Many students had to leave their college residences and support networks. For some, the only thing in their lives that stayed the same was your presence, and that of other students in your course. As […]

Checklist: Questions the Governing Board Must Ask Before Launching a Fundraising Campaign

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Series: Creating the Conditions for Support Everyone is trying to raise more money. Rather than simply suggest the next tactic that can boost giving in the short-term, this series offers a more intensive look at the strategic thinking that drives philanthropic support: Why do donors give? How do institutions strengthen their core and emphasize initiatives worthy of support? How do we align strategic plans, strengths, and advancement strategy to create the conditions for ongoing and sustained support? In this series, distinguished current and past chief advancement officers apply their most innovative and creative thinking to this question. Previously in this series:Why Donors Give: It’s Not What You ThinkMore than Dollars: How Many Opportunities are You Missing with Your Alumni?Engaging Women in Philanthropy: Practical Ways to Shift Our Approach In the course of running three university campaigns, and in guiding dozens more as a consultant, I have seen virtually every college or university fall short of its full fundraising potential. This occurs both because of competing assumptions by various institutional leaders about the keys to success and therefore, the strategies and tactics that are most likely to produce it, and because institutional leaders often fail to ask the pivotal questions before […]

Spotlight on Innovation: How Delta State’s Okra Scholars Program Hopes to Provide Systematic Intervention for the Most At-Risk Students

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

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. At Delta State University in Cleveland, MS, students who score between 17 to 21 on the ACT, are Pell-eligible, and are first-generation college students or residents of the Mississippi Delta face additional challenges to stay in college. These students accounted for more than half of DSU’s Fall 2012 freshmen class. This range represents a student cohort for whom timely and consistent intervention can have the greatest impact. To help those students finish their degree and do so in four to five years, DSU has established the Okra Scholars program, which will use a $1.6 million First in the World grant to establish a holistic, integrated student support approach for this targeted group of at-risk students. We reached out to project director Christy Riddle to learn more. A […]

Arts & Humanities: Creating Jobs and Changing Societies

Posted on by Brady Stanton

By Eileen L. Strempel, Inaugural Dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music, Professor, School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and Baishakhi Taylor, Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at New York University Abu Dhabi     This is an exciting time for dramatic technological advances and technological investments, ranging from the invention of Chat GPT to the announcement of a $500M new technology campus in NYC. Higher education enrollment trends reflect a similar shift, as it seems everyone want to major in economics, business or computer science. One might ask, where are the similar investments in the arts and humanities? As higher education costs continue to increase, the numbers of arts and humanities majors are shrinking: In 2018, the share of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the humanities (10.2%) was less than a third of the size of the 36.7% share for the sciences (health/medical, natural, and behavioral/social sciences combined; Indicator II-03c). In 2020, it was reported that the number of college students graduating with a humanities major fell for the eighth straight year to under 200,000 degrees given, while other reports noted that the humanities were conferring less than 10 percent of […]

Minors Matter: How Interdisciplinary Solutions Benefit Institutions and Students

Posted on by Brady Stanton

By Hilary L. Link, PhDPresident of Allegheny College Between the end of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th, higher education in this country became more and more specialized and fragmented due to a number of factors: new research findings, the growth of experimental and scientific methods, the application of science to industry, and “an increased awareness of social problems brought about by an increasingly industrial and urban society.” Emblematic of this specialization, which continues today, is the focus on a student’s major, required by almost every college and university. Most majors are too discipline-specific on their own to give graduates the tools to solve the ever-more-vexing problems of today’s complex world. A major in English may present a career path that is traditionally narrow; combine it with a minor in Environmental Science and graduates expand their opportunities, for instance, as researchers in the natural sciences, leaders in the burgeoning alternative energy sector, grant-writers for climate action nonprofits or environment-focused policymakers and communications professionals. Our problems demand solutions that integrate different perspectives and disciplines, which is precisely why minors matter today more than ever before. As an interdisciplinary scholar of Renaissance art and literature, I have been […]

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