Search Results for: meeting

Engaging the Board in the Campaign

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Too often, board involvement in the campaign is limited to what are essentially tactical assignments — making the ask to their contacts, raising certain quantities. What’s missed in these cases are opportunities to engage the board in what board members do best — big-picture thinking, advocacy, and getting key messages out to the community. Jim Langley, founder and president of Langley Innovations, and past vice president of advancement at Georgetown University, offers suggestions for how to approach the board from the outset in a way that will contribute more to the success of your campaign. Starting with a Cognitive Map Langley recommends involving board members early in framing the campaign and the “big ideas” driving it. In an unproductive relationship between the board and the campaign planning committee, board members are shown a gift pyramid, told that the institution has X number of prospects at each level, and then given assignments. “In too many cases,” Langley warns, “we assume that a gift pyramid is enough; we present the pyramid, then march through and orchestrate the ask. If you present the campaign that way to the board, they will assume it is a tactical exercise.” Langley warns that there are two risks in this: […]

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 […]

6 Things Executive Leaders Should Know about Attracting and Retaining Effective Academic Advisors

Posted on by bradystanton@ai_azuread

It’s nothing new. While 2022 has brought what is being termed “The Great Resignation,” advising administrators have been struggling to attract and retain qualified, effective advisors long before the COVID pandemic and its budgetary and emotional challenges. One of the most overused, under-applied mantras in higher education is, “students first.” It sounds great, but what are you doing to achieve it? I’ve seen countless schools proudly roll out a campaign with flashy signs, social media, and t-shirts. Let’s tell our students how much they mean to us and how we are committed to their success! But, during all of these transitions, I seldom see a real commitment to ongoing, sustained support for students. Programs and personnel seemingly change with the wind as a new, student-centric trend is established. Academic advisors are central to the mission of supporting students and providing accurate, timely assistance to them. Advisors are among the first institutional personnel that students meet, as well as the last they encounter as students transition out of the institution. Yet, contrary to the often-stated mission of “students first,” advisors often receive inadequate pay, training, supervision, and recognition, which can lead to advisor ineffectiveness and/or outright departure. By treating advisors as […]

Gateway Math: A Close Look at Miami Dade College’s Approach

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 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 here. When Florida passed a law making college placement tests optional for recent high school graduates, institutions were left to grapple with how to address the needs of students in college-level math who previously might have been routed to developmental courses. (Under the 2013 law, even if students do choose to take the optional placement exam, they may still enroll in regular courses even if their test results indicate the need for developmental work.) At Miami Dade College, enrollment has skyrocketed in the first college-level course in the math sequence, MAT 1033, while enrollment in developmental math courses dropped by more than 40 […]

Challenging Androcentrism in the Academy: Creating Environments that Empower Risk Taking and Confidence in Women Leaders

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

In a culture of androcentrism, women are likely to be stymied by a reluctance to take risks. Moreover, women who have a well-developed sense of confidence often present it differently from men. How do we shift the culture within our institutions? by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  In this fifth article in our series on Challenging Androcentrism in the Academy, we’ll look at a set of leadership traits and behaviors we identified earlier in the series: confidence, achievement drive, and tempering assertiveness. If you find this article useful, you may also be interested in the upcoming conference Women’s Leadership Success in Higher Education. Confidence “Confidence isn’t optimism or pessimism, and it’s not a character attribute. It’s the expectation of a positive outcome.” ― Rosabeth Moss Kanter In an androcentric, male-dominated setting, women are likely to be stymied by a reluctance to take risks. When someone fears she will be judged differently, she is less likely to go out on a limb, step up, or raise her hand. For this reason, going for an assignment without knowing in advance exactly how to accomplish it generally takes more courage for a woman. Research shows that this confidence gap between […]

As a Leader You Need Honest, Direct Feedback – Here’s How to Get It

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

“If you’re not getting information or feedback on a regular basis that is uncomfortable for you, go seek it out.” One of the traps a higher-ed leader can fall into is in believing that they are receiving accurate feedback when in fact their colleagues and team members are holding back. Here’s a way to break through that trap: an anonymous 360° feedback process. This article is adapted from an excerpt of Pat Sanaghan’s book How Higher-Ed Leaders Derail: A Survival Guide for Leaders. For leaders in higher ed, I cannot stress enough that you have to be proactive in encouraging (and rewarding behavior that fosters) a climate of candor and transparency. If others around you are not pushing back on your ideas, sharing different perspectives, and asking the tough questions, you may not realize how your leadership is actually being received. It’s very likely that you have an inaccurate and incomplete picture. In How Higher-Ed Leaders Derail: A Survival Guide for Leaders, I refer to this situation as “the seduction of the leader,” a common dynamic in which leaders are “seduced” into believing they have all the facts when in fact, they don’t. It is a dynamic that, if allowed […]

In Busy Higher Ed, 3 Ways to Foster Our Own Learning

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

We work at institutions of higher learning, but are we doing enough to foster our own learning? RELATED RESOURCES:10 Tips for Optimizing the Return on Professional DevelopmentScorecard: How Do Higher-Ed Institutions Leverage Professional Development?Full Report: The State of Professional Development in Higher Education (February 2016) by Mickey Fitch, Academic Impressions As professionals within higher education, our own practice should include ongoing education, development, and growth.  All too often, though, we treat professional development as a seasonal or occasional practice, not a regular practice. Just as we encourage our students to attend class regularly, read textbooks, and apply what they’ve learned, we should bring that same rigor to our own learning process as we develop in our careers. Yet each day, we are bombarded with information. How do we sort through it and prioritize what’s important? How do we know what to pay attention to? How do we make our professional development both more impactful and easier? Here are some practical tips. 1. How to make sure you’re paying attention to the right things: I recommend creating automated daily digests that get delivered straight to your inbox. We know that a world of information is available at our fingertips, but we need easy […]

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