Search Results for: meeting

Recruiting Military Students

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Even though this market is largely dominated by the for-profits, the past year has seen many non-profit universities make initial investments in services for military students, especially since the passing of the post-9/11 GI Bill. We asked Jim Paskill, principal and creative director for Paskill Stapleton & Lord; Eric Craver, director of marketing and recruitment for the office of adult degree programs at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; and David Hoftiezer, director of admissions at Thomas Edison State College, for advice on first steps in reaching out to military students, whether veteran or active duty. Be Realistic Paskill recommends proceeding with “both eyes open.” Most active duty military — and many veterans — are going to be looking for online offerings. “The for-profits are the 2000 pound gorilla in that arena, and institutions like the University of Phoenix and DeVry are investing significant funds to generate leads. You will probably not be able to compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis.” Also, whether you are thinking of an active duty, deployed population or veteran students, remember that you are competing for a relatively small market.  If you are looking at the military market as a revenue source, you are not likely to see a […]

Student Success: A Team Effort

Posted on by greta@academicimpressions.com

Our Member Exclusive report Tackling the Retention Challenge: Defining and Delivering a Unique Student Experience emphasizes the importance of achieving a broad alignment of academic and student support services, rather than trusting to isolated, one-off retention initiatives. Yet there are often organizational and cultural barriers that keep efforts within student affairs and academic affairs separated and siloed. This week, we asked James Cook, co-editor (with Christopher Lewis) of the book Student and Academic Affairs Collaboration: The Divine Comity (NASPA, 2007) and past vice president of student services at Laramie County Community College, to identify some of the most difficult and pervasive barriers to effective partnerships across these divisions. Cook also suggests some tips for breaking down those barriers. What Gets in the Way Cook notes five barriers that represent the most significant — and difficult to address — obstacles to effective coordination of academic and student support services: Organizational structure — these functions typically report to separate vice presidents Residual antipathy between some student services professionals and some faculty (there are still faculty who view student services professionals as “the party people” who hold pizza events for students; there are still some student services professionals who stereotype faculty, seeing them as too […]

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

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

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, […]

Student Affairs: Trends to Watch in 2017-19

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

What will student affairs look like, 3 years from now? Looking ahead, what concerns you most? What do we most need to do this year? Recently, we held vigorous discussions of the future of student affairs with a panel of experts that included two vice presidents of student affairs (Les Cook and Paul Marthers), a career services expert (Jeremy Podany), and a sitting president (Karen Whitney, Clarion University) whose background is in student affairs. All four are forward-thinkers and bring unique perspectives to student affairs. Paul Marthers heads up both student affairs and enrollment management at SUNY’s central office, and Les Cook, as vice president for student affairs and advancement at Michigan Tech, oversees the entire student-alumni lifecycle from pre-college outreach to planned giving. Karen Whitney’s approach to leading Clarion University is deeply informed by her work in student affairs, and Jeremy Podany, as executive director of Ascend and The Career Center at Colorado State University and the founder of the Career Leadership Collective, is pursuing the integration of career and co-curricular at every step of the student experience. Our conversations with this panel of experts left us enthused, and we want to share some of the highlights from these interviews […]

What Every Experienced Chief of Staff Needs to Hear

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Here are words of wisdom from experienced chiefs of staff to their peers – critical advice for managing the role once you’ve been in it a while. In this series of articles, experienced chiefs of staff offer critical advice on managing the chief of staff role. We will share their answers to questions such as these: Contributors to this series include: We hope you will enjoy the series and share each article with your peers. If you find these articles useful, please consider attending and learning from these and other experts at these virtual trainings: For today, here is our second installment in this series: 2. Advice for the Experienced Chief of Staff Academic Impressions. What words of wisdom would you want to offer to a Chief of Staff who has been in the role for a while? Josh Jacobs, Marietta College. We can get accustomed to just tackling the next problem that presents itself. Take time to evaluate your last year to see if you leveraged your time purposefully, in a way that added value in the most critical areas for your campus. Put another way, did you let someone else’s “urgent” prevent you from making progress on the most […]

A Tool for Increasing Application and Retention Rates for At-Risk Students

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges, universities, and organizations 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 here. Is college choice always an informed choice? Often, first-generation and low-income students enroll at a college or university that someone in their family knows about, or simply enroll at the institution closest to home, regardless of whether that student and that institution are a good fit. First generation and low-income students may find themselves overwhelmed with promotional materials from several colleges but lack the knowledge to determine which institution will best suit their skill sets and goals. And often they can’t rely on the prior experience of other family members to help them make the best choice. Yet there is research to […]

How 3 Institutions Have Taken More Effective Approaches to Corporate Engagement

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

As federal funding dollars for research dry up and proposal acceptance rates drop, colleges and universities are increasingly looking to partner with private companies for research funding and other financial support. Private companies, in turn, are looking to develop more mutually beneficial partnerships with institutions, tapping institutional resources and expertise in a wider variety of ways, from research to fundraising partnerships to student recruiting. Yet frequently, institutions don’t offer a single point of contact or a cohesive strategy for cultivating that multifaceted relationship with an industry partner in an intentional way. Different professionals on campus – from foundation offices to faculty – may be coordinating with the same partner separately and without coordination with each other. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For example, at Rice University in Houston, TX, a central Corporate Relations office keeps track of all recruiting, research and other opportunities to keep companies engaged. Rice wants to make things as easy for corporate partners as possible, explains Ann McAdam Griffin, the associate director of corporate relations.  McAdam Griffin’s office can connect companies with a wide array of partners across campus, and they also work with partners on campus to empower and equip them to […]

Managing Your Institution’s Social Media Channels

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Many of the institutions seeing the greatest success in leveraging social media communications to help boost strategic efforts in marketing and communications, student recruitment, and alumni engagement have actually invested relatively little budget and few staff to the effort. Instead, these institutions’ marketing and communications offices have focused on identifying and leveraging those social media communications that are already happening, at varied points throughout the academic community. Coordinating university communications across multiple social media and traditional platforms can appear daunting, but the effort becomes simpler once you embrace the decentralized nature of social media, and then move to provide the necessary central resources to integrate, aggregate, and make the best use of the content that your faculty, staff, and students are already creating on social platforms. Your central channels can then tap those sources of content when needed to aid you in meeting specific objectives. To learn more, we reached out to social media veterans Alan Webber, industry analyst and managing partner for Altimeter Group; Tim Jones, interim executive creative director at North Carolina State University; and Patrick Powers, director of digital marketing and communications at Webster University. Here is their advice on: Identify Your Content and Your Contributors Much […]

Missed Opportunities: Why Private Universities Need to Partner with 2-Year Colleges to Create Better Transfer Pathways

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

For many private institutions, community college transfer students represent a viable and untapped opportunity for increased enrollment and tuition revenue. While developing a webcast to share practical strategies for partnering with community colleges to improve student recruitment and student success, I had the opportunity to talk with Mary Hinton, president of the College of Saint Benedict. Hinton, who also authored our recent article “Game On for the Liberal Arts” and participated in the Presidential Dialogues, has a forward-thinking approach and makes an eloquent and compelling case for partnering with two-year institutions – not only to boost enrollment objectives, but to address a growing need in society. Partnering for Better Transfer Pathways: An Interview with Mary Hinton Sarah Seigle. As private colleges look to recruit more transfer students, how would you describe the opportunity you see for four-year private institutions when it comes to partnering more strategically with community colleges? Mary Hinton. As we think about student demographics, and the desire for our institutions to be more inclusive, we know part of that equation will demand thinking beyond our current constituents. Partnering with two-year institutions provides viable opportunities to reach more students; to genuinely exhibit inclusion; and to recognize that for some, access […]

Leveraging Parents as Allies in Student Success

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

by Daniel Fusch (Academic Impressions), interviewing Marjorie Savage (University of Minnesota) While some colleges are seeking positive ways of managing parent involvement throughout the college years, others have established farewell rituals near the start of a student’s first term to deliver the message that parents are expected to let go and step back. These separation programs range from a formal ceremony at Morehouse College to sessions on “Letting Go” during orientation at other institutions. Not Just About Letting Go Although introducing programming to encourage parents to “let go” may be a way to define the separation process for both students and student services staff, this approach (especially if adopted in isolation from a more holistic strategy for parent engagement) precludes opportunities to leverage parents as key resources in promoting the academic and social success of your students. Marjorie Savage, researcher on the topic of parent/college relations and author of the books Not Helicopters but Allies: Partnering with Parents to Better Support Students (Academic Impressions, 2016) and You’re on Your Own (But I’m Here if You Need Me) (Simon & Schuster, 2009), suggests that parents can be an asset to the institution and play a key role in student success — if that role and the […]

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