Search Results for: meeting

Spotlight on Innovation: How Georgia Tech and AMAC Are Working to Make Course Materials More Accessible

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. Despite increased demand for more accessible course materials for disabled students, there is often a lot of inertia on the part of the textbook industry. Georgia Tech’s Bob Martinengo, who serves as the accessibility solutions publisher outreach specialist for AMAC Accessibility Solutions—an organization that is part of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, and that was incubated out of the University System of Georgia in 2005—offers this theory for why some changes have been slow: “The industry has often said ‘yes, but we are concerned about cost’ or ‘we’re working on this project, but maybe tomorrow.’ The problem has been around so long that there’s little measurable movement.”Bob Martinengo, AMAC and Georgia Tech Martinengo wants to see two things change, in particular: Rethinking the Market “The overarching theme is […]

Engaging International Alumni

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

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 past senior associate director for alumni relations at Tufts University and the principal and founder of Gretchen Dobson Consulting, LLC, a consulting firm focused on helping educational institutions, nonprofit 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: Dobson recommends several steps that make all the difference in launching an effective effort: Telling the Story As with any fundraising effort, the key to being effective is to tell a story about what your institution can help potential donors achieve with their time and money — not just a story about how they can help you with their time and […]

6 Powerful Ideas for Building a First-Class Team on Campus

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Why You Need a Stellar Team To build a high performing team is a daunting and noble task, and such teams are as rare as blue diamonds. The silo mentality that often exists on our campuses often limits our collective actions, and creates redundancy and replication. Given shrinking resources and the rapid pace of change, the siloed approach to team building and decision making is neither strategic nor feasible. We must work collaboratively to utilize the collective talents of our campus stakeholders. And learning to build high performing teams is one of the most effective ways we can meet the many challenges that confront us. If a senior leader can build a stellar team, the organizational leverage that can be achieved is powerful and can be a game changer for a campus. In this scenario: We have had the opportunity to work with scores of senior teams in higher education. Almost always, these teams were comprised of highly intelligent, dedicated, honest, and mission-driven individuals. But few of them ever became a first class team.  When you witness a high performing senior team being transparent with each other, asking for help, dealing with conflict effectively, and listening carefully to each other, […]

Disintermediation: The Changing Demands of Alumni Relations

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

When I hear an alumni relations professional say that alumni relations programs have been disintermediated from their alumni, more often than not, I cringe. The theme of disintermediation, or the thought that social media and other technologies have decreased the alumni’s “need” for their alma mater, crops up often, and while it should signal a change to which we as alumni relations professionals must adapt, it is often misused as an excuse for why our programs are dying. The Challenges We’re All Facing It’s no wonder that the alumni relations profession is facing dynamic change. Since the founding of the oldest alumni association at Williams College in 1821, the profession of alumni relations has been built on traditions of the alma mater. Looking back instead of looking forward, alumni associations love to celebrate long-held traditions, and prefer to stick with existing programs, services and people because “we’ve always done it that way.” For many institutions, the typical set of activities includes a homecoming, reunions, alumni directory. Historically, these have been possible primarily because the alumni association was the glue that connected long lost friends to one another and to the institution. But, with the advent of the internet, even prospective […]

Preparing First-Generation Students for Academic Success

Posted on by Greta Bell

Given the lower retention rates of first-generation students, more colleges and universities are devoting attention to how best to aid the success and persistence of this cohort. To learn more about how higher ed institutions can respond to the issue, we turned this week to Thom Golden, senior associate director of admissions at Vanderbilt University (@Doctor_Thom on Twitter). This week, Golden draws attention to the types of bridge programming that higher ed institutions can put in place to help first-gen students enter college better prepared to persist and succeed. Defining the Problem “In enrolling and retaining first-generation students, aspiration isn’t the issue,” Golden notes. He directs attention to findings from several studies from past years: According to the Ad Council’s 2006 study College access: Results from a survey of low-income teens and parents, 91 percent of low-income high school students said they believed that they would complete a college degree According to a 2006 US Department of Education study, The Toolbox Revisited, only 45 percent of Hispanic students attend a high school that offers calculus, and only 59 percent of white students do Outreach to high schools and to high school students, Golden suggests, must focus less on planting seeds of […]

Lessons Learned from Institutions Undertaking Program Prioritization

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

At Academic Impressions, we recently offered a national snapshot of efforts to prioritize academic programs and administrative services at higher-ed institutions. Our report included commentary from Bob Dickeson (who literally wrote the book on program prioritization) and Larry Goldstein (president of Campus Strategies, LLC), in which these two experts identified the prerequisites for success. The key takeaway from our report: when program prioritization breaks down, it is usually because of a deeply flawed process (rather than flawed people). In the past few weeks, we have returned to the institutional leaders we surveyed previously, leaders from both two-year and four-year institutions who have recently undertaken or are in the midst of a program prioritization effort. We asked them to share the most significant obstacles they have faced and any lessons they have learned about managing the prioritization process. We wanted to share their responses and their key takeaways with you. Lessons from Your Peers Here’s what the leaders we spoke with had to say: HIGHLIGHT: TAKEAWAYS FROM THE PRIORITIZATION EFFORT AT FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY In 2011, Florida A&M University recently conducted a productivity study of academic programs. In their effort to reallocate resources, they terminated 23 academic degree programs and suspended […]

AMP UP: A Study of New Approaches to Math Remediation at Bergen Community College

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 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. 2015 was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants More colleges are trying new approaches to math remediation to improve persistence and graduation rates for students who test into developmental courses, but there isn’t much data on which approaches prove most successful. To remedy this issue, Bergen Community College is partnering with Union County College in launching a new study funded by a $2.6 million First in the World grant to see which approaches to math remediation make the greatest difference to students. The project, “Alternatives to Math Placement, An Unprecedented Program” (AMP UP), will allow Bergen and Union County to compare the effects of various approaches. We talked to William Mullaney, vice president […]

A Conversation in Fundraising We Need to Have

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

We asked Jason McNeal to share the philosophy behind his unique handbook and why he feels that training on effective contact reports can be – in the long term – a game-changer for development shops. An interview with Jason McNeal (Gonser Gerber LLP), author of  Writing Meaningful Contact Reports: A Handbook for Fundraisers. AI.Jason, thanks for this conversation. To get started, why do you think this handbook is especially needed?Jason McNeal.Every higher-ed institution is looking for the advancement part of the enterprise to be as effective as it can possibly be. Part of that effectiveness relies on how well we know our donors. And the mechanism for showing evidence that we know our donors well is the recording of our business with them. Contact reports do that for us. They capture the most important aspects of a donor’s contact with the institution and hopefully provide permanently records that so that the advancement shop can build a body of knowledge about that donor and their relationship to the institution. But how effective are we, actually, at doing that? AI.Could you say more about that, Jason?Jason McNeal.Well, here we have this very important component of our work — that is key to becoming more effective […]

The Words We Use: How Higher Ed is Responding to Calls for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Increasingly, faculty leaders are responding seriously to the call for more “culturally relevant pedagogy,” referring to more inclusive classrooms and pedagogical styles. This article draws on findings from a recent inquiry into how institutions are thinking about equity within pedagogy. In late 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), I conducted 28 phone interviews with both administrators and academics in higher education, from distinct universities. I spoke with leaders of Centers for Teaching and Learning, leaders in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and faculty in leadership positions. My research also included a review of timely literature on this topic. In this article, I share a quick snapshot of how institutions are responding to the call for culturally relevant pedagogy. by Ashvina Patel, Ph.D., Research Analyst, Academic Impressions Want more articles and reports like this one delivered to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Pulse on higher education. The Words We Use What do we call the effort? “Decolonizing curriculum,” “decolonizing the classroom,” “culturally relevant curriculum,” “culturally responsive materials,” “inclusive pedagogy,” “inclusive teaching content,” “diversity in curriculum,” “hidden curriculum,” and “uncovering implicit bias” are just some of the words higher education institutions are using to describe a change that is both […]

Forecasting the Fall: Calamity or Opportunity?

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

In these rough waters, higher education leaders cannot indulge the luxury of sitting back and waiting to see what everyone else does. Whatever happens with the pandemic or the economy, we are not going to see a simple “return to normal” or to the conditions under which our institutions operated in January, and leaders must take decisive action if they are to position their institutions for a changing future. by John King, Ed.D., strategic consultant, recently interim provost at the College of Western Idaho Higher education finds itself at a tipping point where leaders must make decisions about how to respond to today’s chaotic world situation: Return operations as they were, or adjust to a changing world? As of this writing, COVID-19 has infected over two million Americans, that we know of. Experts are saying that we are at the front end of this pandemic curve as opposed to its end. We are also experiencing an economic downturn that has caused massive unemployment and officially thrown the country into a recession. On top of all that, recent civilian deaths at the hands of police have led to nationwide protests over racial and social inequality and excessive police violence against minorities. […]

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