For boosting completion rates for at-risk students, how much of a difference can structured student coaching make? Here’s what Central Carolina Community College is trying. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 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. This was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. Central Carolina Community College set out to improve completion rates for at-risk students by embedding success coaches in targeted departments in Spring 2013, as part of a larger initiative funded by a 2012 Title III grant that included launching a College Success Center, adding the team of success coaches, and implementing an early alert advising system. The addition of coaching has already led to a 13 percent increase in student persistence. Now, with the help of a $9.2 million […]
Jon Boeckenstedt, associate vice president of enrollment management at DePaul University, and Joseph Russo, director of student financial strategies at the University of Notre Dame, offer advice on assessing price sensitivity as you look to weather the next year. What No One Should Be Doing Boeckenstedt advises against one common scenario in which a cabinet member asks enrollment management to begin with expenditure assumptions and then determine how much tuition must increase to meet the expenditures. Now more than ever, Boeckenstedt suggests, universities must assess what their market is willing to pay for the services they are offering. You may be charging too much (and straining your financial aid resources to take up the slack), or you may be charging too little. You need to know. You also need to distinguish between price sensitivity for different schools (for example, your business school versus your school of education) and for different classes (it may be advisable to consider distinct fee increases for freshmen versus returning students). “Identify what you can reasonably charge and then decide what you can do with that revenue. Don’t start with how much you need to spend.”Jon Boeckenstedt, DePaul U If you are approached by your president […]
While many colleges are making investments in recruiting Latino students, Western Oregon University, a public institution primarily serving first-generation students, has made significant investments in supporting and retaining Latino students. Oregon Live reported that WOU raised its completion rate for Latino students 16% between 2002 and 2007 (the 2007 rate was 49%, actually several points higher than white students at WOU). We asked David McDonald, associate provost at WOU, for advice he would offer his peers on where to start in improving graduation rates for Latino students. Start with Your Data “Start collecting the data now. What are the characteristics of successful versus not successful students?”David McDonald, Western Oregon U Among your Latino students, look for which cohorts are achieving success and which are not. This tells you both where you can reinvest funding for current efforts in order to capitalize on current successes, and where your greatest needs are. Factor in: Conduct an Advising Audit “Start with advising. Is your college really doing what it needs to do?”David McDonald, Western Oregon U Because many Latino students are first-generation and lack the support network that may be available to traditional students, advising is especially critical. In auditing academic advising, look […]
Have you ever opened your email inbox the day after an assignment is due and received an email with the subject line entitled “request for extension of time”? My first thought is “Here we go,” but then I immediately switch my thought process to: “Be objective; my students are adults completing their doctoral degree.” I work with online doctoral students in the school of education for a not-for-profit private university. The average age of our doctoral students is 47 years. These students are adults working in their specialized fields completing their terminal degree to further their professional endeavors. For the most part, they are professionals working full-time, and are married with children ranging from infants to college students to college graduates with families of their own. These individuals are not students in an undergraduate program, fresh out of high school and still deciding “what they want to be when they grow up.” Adult students have many issues in their lives other than completing their doctoral degree. They deal with work deadlines, mortgages and bills, aging parents, sick children, divorces and child custody, to name a few examples. When a doctoral student reaches out to me for help or for a little […]
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 […]
ALUMNI VOLUNTEERS Training Package Enjoy this recorded 3-part series, plus a bonus Q&A recording available only to members, which will provide strategies and new approaches to improve alumni volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and recognition, so you can get the most out of your relationships with your volunteers. Alumni volunteers are critical to the success of any advancement office. They add tremendous value to your events and communications. To ensure you maximize their impact, you need to recruit alumni volunteers that you can rely on. You need to set the right expectations when they are onboarded, so that you can direct their energy in a productive way. Meaningful recognition is also key to keeping your alumni volunteers engaged and satisfied. We’ve designed a collection of webcasts to help you explore the alumni volunteer management cycle and learn strategies for how to enhance the impact of your alumni volunteers. See below which of our webcasts you and your team qualify for based on your membership status. Who Should Attend Advancement professionals who want to learn new ways to recruit, onboard, and recognize their volunteers involved in alumni boards, regional chapters and clubs, reunions and class programs, or other volunteer opportunities will benefit […]
Over 90 New Trainings and Resources Now Available to Members ENTERPRISE PACKAGES Get 10% Off Membership for Your Institution or Large Team Members receive access to content across all of these collections and more. Leadership Women in Leadership Academic Leadership Faculty Success Institutional & Academic Planning Student Success Enrollment Management & Marketing Advancement Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Title IX Compliance Enterprise/Campus-wide Membership Reaches Leaders at All Levels of Supervision Including Academic Leaders, Faculty, and Staff See a Sample of our Resources for Supervisors LEARNING PLAN Get Up to Speed as a Supervisor: A Learning Plan for Higher Ed Supervisors Learn More ⟶ WEBCAST RECORDING Managing a Remote Team: How to Motivate, Maintain Morale, and Ensure Accountability Learn More ⟶ WEBCAST RECORDING Setting up the Supervisory Relationship: Understanding and Adapting Your Supervisory Style Learn More ⟶ COURSE Essential Skills for Supervisors Learn More ⟶ WEBCAST RECORDING Effective Supervision in Higher Education Learn More ⟶ View All Leadership Trainings ⟶ PARTNER WITH YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR ONGOING SUPPORT Your Account Manager is your strategic partner dedicated to both maximizing membership adoption and ensuring its impact. We are invested in the success of your team and we customize our approach to […]
According to the Open Doors report on international education, international student enrollment has increased every year for the past 60 years. With this trend expected to continue, and international students becoming an increasingly important constituent group, it’s critical for institutions to take a more holistic view at how they’re meeting these students’ needs now and in the future. To help you learn from some of the most effective approaches to serving international students, Academic Impressions offers this series of resources: A Whole-Campus Approach This report offers practical considerations for optimizing the international student lifecycle: Beyond recruitment efforts, institutions need to think broadly about integration into the campus community and the academic curriculum to ensure international students persist and succeed. They also need to plant seeds for future support and giving as these students graduate and potentially return to their home countries. HEAR FROM THE EXPERTS View a free recording of our June 2012 webcast “The Internationalized Campus” to hear from experts Darla Deardorff (AIEA) and Gretchen Dobson (Gretchen Dobson Go Global) about critical opportunities during the undergraduate years to introduce programming that supports international students’ academic success and persistence … and invites them to engage with the institution in the […]
FREE WEBCAST What’s Keeping Deans Up at Night: A Free Webcast for Academic Leaders Recorded on: June 8, 2022 Learn the pressing issues that are on the minds of Deans—as well as their most common hopes and plans for moving forward. Out of all of the academic leaders in higher education, Deans are arguably the ones who are closest to the challenges and potential solutions of higher ed. Some of the most pressing challenges keeping deans up at night include: changing student demographics and the impending demographic cliff, how to ensure academic rigor and accessibility, faculty and staff morale and equity, and waning funding from traditional revenue sources. Join us for this free webcast to hear from two deans representing, respectively, a public, land-grant research institution as well as a small, private liberal arts college as they share their perspectives on what is keeping them up at night—as well as the practices they hope will enable their colleges and institutions to be successful in a more equitable and agile higher-ed landscape. Our speakers will discuss and invite peer insights on such topics as: Maintaining a vibrant campus culture—and how that challenge has changed in light of the pandemic. Recruiting and […]
FREE RECORDED WEBCAST Build the Capacity of Your Institution’s Leaders As higher education faces a time of crisis, we need leaders at every level of the institution who can grow and think differently about the future. We need answers to questions like these: How do you identify potential leaders? What kind of support and resources should you be providing to your people? How can leaders best develop the capacity of their entire organization? What actually works in terms of creating more effective leaders? Our colleges and universities don’t traditionally have a culture of systematically developing their people. In this free webcast recording, we’ll share what some colleges and universities are trying, what’s working, and what isn’t. Who Should Watch This free recorded webcast will offer new ideas and approaches to: Heads of human resources and organizational development Directors of leadership academies and leadership development programs Senior academic and administrative leaders who want to invest more in the success and growth of their people Before accessing this free webcast…Please sign up first for future updates from Academic Impressions. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Agenda Drawing on our experience working with 2,000 universities each year—and on our recent […]
