Search Results for: meeting

How the University of North Florida Integrated Academic and Student Affairs

Posted on by Shawn Herbert

By Daniel Moon, Associate Provost and Professor, University of North Florida Higher education institutions are facing pressure to increase student success measures and become more efficient. Each of these can present significant challenges for universities but having to solve both challenges simultaneously can be daunting. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to add layers of complexity and urgency to this challenging puzzle. A potentially powerful mechanism for addressing this challenge is integrating Academic Affairs and Student Affairs into one cohesive unit. Doing so at the University of North Florida has contributed to all-time high retention and graduation rates, and yielded more than $2 million in savings and reallocation. The challenges we faced Higher education is focused on student success now more than ever, with unprecedented layers of accountability to students, parents, boards, and others (e.g. see Kelchen, 2018). This accountability is increasingly tied to a university’s bottom line. For example, most states have a performance-based funding mechanism that explicitly ties funding to student success measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the challenges that students face in pursuit of their degree, making this problem even more urgent for universities to solve. Significant shifts in improving student success measures require a more […]

Cultivating the Next Generation of Wealth

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

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 […]

Fundraising After a Disaster: Learning from the Christchurch Earthquakes

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Ashlyn Sowell: During my recent leave from Gettysburg College, I travelled to Christchurch to speak to the Educate Plus New Zealand local chapter.  I was quite moved by the challenges that my international colleagues face in fundraising after the devastating 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. One woman said to me, “I know we are supposed to have 50% of the money in hand before we start construction on a new building, but we don’t have any buildings!” I followed up with Naomi Wilde, the Community Relations and Development Coordinator at St. Andrew’s College, an independent school, with one question. Her response led to a great deal of valuable information for all of us, and her responses are very worth considering as you look at crisis planning and post-crisis fundraising at your own institution. When I asked her, “What has been the biggest challenge in fundraising since the earthquakes?” she answered: “The biggest challenge is probably building the case for support for your own institution, because of course you’re not the only institution affected, and your donors, especially those that live locally, are deeply affected too, and there are so many unanswered financial questions. The Case for Support needs to clearly mark your […]

4 Ways Academic Deans Can Make the Core Curriculum More Effective

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

EARLIER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES 4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Help Students Succeed after Graduation4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Connect Majors and Minors with Careers This is the third in my Academic Impressions series on “Things Deans Can Do to Help our Students after they Graduate.” This time, my focus is on how deans can use career development to enhance general education. Academic Impressions’ 2013 report, General Education Reform: Unseen Opportunities, reviews several exemplary general education programs that are driving increases in student retention and, to a somewhat lesser extent, graduates’ employability. In this article, I will consider more fully how infusing career and life preparation development into general education can support these important measures. The Tragedy of the Commons Since the general education core is not owned by any one discipline, it often finds itself without the required faculty champion. General education usually represents about 40% of a Baccalaureate curriculum that is up for grabs.  As such it becomes an academic example of The Tragedy of the Commons, where individual departments compete in a zero sum game. Disciplines capture curricular acreage that can lead to a degradation of the overall quality of educational grazing land. The […]

The 10 Barriers to Innovation in Higher Education

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Why is it so difficult to nurture innovation and academic entrepreneurship at a college or university? My keen and longstanding interest in innovation was first fueled by my doctoral dissertation research, conducted in the early 1990s with a focus on small college resiliency. I studied the financial performance and management strategies of 100 small resource constrained institutions over a ten-year period to account for why some colleges thrived while others declined. I found that the most resilient colleges employed several strategies that, when taken together, helped explain their success. Most significantly, each of these schools exhibited an innovative institutional mindset, something that has been touted recently by prominent higher education thinkers as a critical prerequisite for thriving in these disruptive times. In fact, my research suggests that at the end of the day, institutional resiliency may depend more on mindset than skill set. Having been in the trenches for more than thirty years, I also know that this is not easy, especially for academic institutions. As legendary management consultant Peter Drucker concludes in his classic article The Discipline of Innovation: “In innovation, there is talent, there is ingenuity, and there is knowledge. But when it is said and done, what innovation requires is hard, […]

Challenging Androcentrism and Implicit Bias in the Academy

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Higher education is still “a man’s world,” though it doesn’t have to be. But equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first in a series of articles looking at how college and universities can navigate that shift.  by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Recent studies have documented persistent gender inequities in higher education, including gender gaps in faculty salaries and only slow increases in the percentage of women in leadership positions. Women in higher education (and across sectors) face formidable barriers to advancement not only because gender bias exists on a personal level, but also because these biases are built into our organizational structures. Equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first of a series of articles in which I will be looking at how men and women practice leadership traits, how these traits are often interpreted, and how biases held by both women and men keep women on the margins and impede their advancement […]

FREE | Addressing Food Insecurity During COVID-19

FREE WEBCAST RECORDING Addressing Food Insecurity During the COVID-19 Outbreak   The live webcast took place on March 26, 2020. Please register to get access to the recording. COVID-19 Critical Response DISCUSSION SERIES Watch a webcast recording where our experts connect with the broader higher education community to share ideas and ask questions amid the COVID-19 crisis. The COVID-19 crisis has only intensified food insecurity for many students, and it is critical that colleges be proactive in meeting the basic needs of low-income students to help them maintain their physical and mental health during this difficult time. But, with many staple food items vanishing from grocery store shelves, campuses are also feeling the stress of obtaining goods for their most vulnerable populations. Watch this webcast recording where we facilitate a discussion with Annie Ciaraldi, Associate Dean of Students at University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell). You’ll hear our expert and your fellow attendees share insight around questions like:  How are you keeping your food pantry stocked with healthy food options when grocery stores are low on supplies?   What is your business plan for the duration of the crisis? Are you continuing with fundraising activities?  How can you enlist the support of others across campus?   In the absence of student employees, how are you staffing your food […]

Preparing Students to Lose Their Jobs (And Faculty To Keep Theirs)

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

also by Alan Ritacco (Learn more in the recorded webcast: The Future of Work and the Academy) Abstract: A recent study reveals that young people today could have as many as 16-17 different jobs in 5 industries. As the rate of technological change becomes exponential, the future of work requires adapting to change, recognizing job failure as a norm, and (since we are living longer) a longer career arc in which to experience many different and uniquely distinct careers. Are most institutions of higher education preparing students for this reality? According to the recent report by the Foundation for Young Australians, The New Work Mindset (a study built upon the Future of Work research studies of both the McKinsey Global Institute and the World Economic Forum), young people today could have as many as 16-17 different jobs in 5 industries: And considering that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are more than 1.5 million involuntary and 3 million voluntary separations per month, the fact is: job loss and job change are a norm. Job change, whether voluntary or involuntary, is part of having a professional career. As higher education professionals, we prepare students for their first professional jobs. We, […]

One Big Mistake New Presidents Make

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

A presidential transition can be a fragile time for any campus; expectations are high and so is the stress level. Almost everyone wants the new president to be successful and create a new beginning for the institution. The transition process can be a minefield of challenges and opportunities, and a new president must navigate both of these carefully and strategically. Several years ago, we co-authored a book, Presidential Transitions: It’s Not Just the Position, It’s the Transition (Praeger, 2008). In the process, we talked with scores of presidents about their own transitions, and they were surprisingly open to discussing the good, the bad and the ugly parts of their journey. We have continued these conversations with a whole new set of presidents, and once again, have learned a lot. Many Presidencies Derail in their First 3 Years In the continually changing world of higher education, what happens at the micro level when there is leadership transition in the campus presidency has a disproportionate impact. That is to say that the higher ed world is shifting and issues loom large, the pace is lightning fast, and the learning curve is steep. All too often, presidencies derail before they have barely begun. Frequently, presidencies […]

Customer Service in Higher Education: More than Just Demeanor

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

In a survey of professionals of higher education a few months ago, Academic Impressions found that: If asked to give their institution a letter grade for customer service, most professionals would assign a “C” or lower. There is a growing awareness among managers in higher education that customer service entails more than presenting students or internal clients with a “friendly face,” that it involves responsiveness and collaborative problem-solving. Yet most cite similar challenges to improving customer service in their office: lack of time and uncertainty on how to effectively train it. Two Resources on Training Customer Service Interviewing an array of experts who have made strides in providing customer service training in higher education or in transitioning enrollment or academic support services to a one-stop approach, Academic Impressions offers two complimentary resources: A Complimentary Publication Our recent Monthly Diagnostic, “Improving Customer Service in Higher Education,” we take a close look at the barriers to customer service and interview past and current presidents, vice presidents, and department heads in student services and enrollment management for practical advice in meeting those barriers. A Complimentary Webcast In our January 22, 2013 webcast, “Raising the Bar on Customer Service in Higher Education,” panelists Susan […]