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10 Articles Every Leader in Higher Ed Should Read

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Over the past 7-8 years, Academic Impressions has designed and delivered leadership programs for over a thousand leaders across the higher education landscape. We have had the opportunity to work with academic and administrative leaders as well as presidents and provosts. The learning experiences have been outstanding because almost every participant was curious and interested in learning about leadership, not pontificating about it. One of the protocols we use in every leadership program is the creation of a “learning agenda” that is produced by participants and is a list of highly relevant articles, books, and papers on leadership. The criteria for inclusion on the learning agenda list is that the suggested reading must be something that influenced a participant, made them think differently about how they view leadership, or had a positive and meaningful impact on how they actually lead. Participants populate the list over the course of the 2 or 3-day program. They also provide a 1-minute snapshot about the suggested book or article, with a brief rationale about why their suggestion is worth reading. This article provides an annotated list of some of the strong recommendations from past participants. There is a lot of blather and clutter out there […]

More than Dollars: How Many Opportunities are You Missing with Your Alumni?

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Series: Creating the Conditions for Support Everyone is trying to raise more money. Rather than simply suggest the next tactic that can boost giving in the short-term, this series offers a more intensive look at the strategic thinking that drives philanthropic support: Why do donors give? How do institutions strengthen their core and emphasize initiatives worthy of support? How do we align strategic plans, strengths, and advancement strategy to create the conditions for ongoing and sustained support? In this series, distinguished current and past chief advancement officers apply their most innovative and creative thinking to this question. Also in this series:Why Donors Give: It’s Not What You ThinkEngaging Women in Philanthropy: Practical Ways to Shift Our ApproachChecklist: Questions the Governing Board Must Ask Before Launching a Campaign If Congress passed a law tomorrow making fundraising illegal, would you still care about your alumni? I asked this question to alumni directors and chief advancement officers across the country as part of a research project in 2011. Over the last 75 years, colleges and universities have communicated to alumni almost singularly that the most important thing they can do to support their alma mater is give money. But increasingly, this single focus […]

Improving Community College Student Success

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Last week, a new study involving 13 participating institutions, Jobs for the Future, and the Delta Cost Project released a report on cost return for student success initiatives; with the report, the researchers made available a cost-return calculator that ties program-level cost data to student outcomes in success programs. With increasing federal and public pressure to increase graduation rates, it is important to adopt a strategic and measured approach to improving student success. Given the limited resources (yet often greater flexibility) of the community college, Joyce Romano, vice president for student affairs at Valencia Community College, and Maureen Pettitt, director of institutional research at Skagit Valley College, suggest these keys for improving student success at two-year institutions: Focus on 2-3 Big Ideas “The main thing is to be very focused on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Have a theory of practice. What is the big idea that you’re trying to accomplish? Why do you believe that will be successful?”Joyce Romano, Valencia Community College Pinpointing the 2-3 outcomes that will have the most significant impact on student success is critical; each outcome becomes an “organizing idea” that can help you prioritize new programs and efforts to revise policies […]

Summer Bridge Programs: Impact and Tips for Success

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Amid growing pressure on student retention and completion rates, much of the current research on factors in student success emphasizes both the importance of early intervention with at-risk students and increased attention to obstacles that confront students in the first weeks of their first term, including academic underpreparedness and the transition from the rigor, study hours, and study skills needed in high school to those needed in college. More institutions are turning to summer bridge and mentoring programs to help bridge the gap between senior year at high school and freshman year at college. To learn more, we turned this week to Wayne Jackson, director of multicultural academic and support services at the University of Central Florida. Jackson is a two-time national retention award recipient: the 2010 National Association of Academic Advising (NACADA) Outstanding Institutional Advising Program Certificate of Merit for his leadership in directing the Seizing Opportunities for Achievement and Retention (SOAR) summer bridge program, and the 2003 Noel-Levitz Retention Excellence Award for his work in directing the Minority Mentoring Program at The College of New Jersey. SOAR is worth examining as a model of an effective program. One of the oldest summer bridge programs in the US, SOAR […]

Identifying Opportunities in Your Department’s DEI Strategy: One Alumni Department’s Perspective

Posted on by Brady Stanton

Are you wanting to create more opportunities for diversity, equity, and inclusion for your constituents, but not sure where to begin? Here’s how one Alumni Relations and Development Office started. We started from the bottom At California University of Pennsylvania, our Office of Alumni Relations has been working collaboratively with departments across campus to paint a true picture of what diversity, equity, and inclusion means for our students, our alumni, and our institution’s history and future. Examining DEI concepts through a variety of lenses is essential to success. For many of us in higher education, our campuses are at times the first, and unfortunately the only, opportunity to have an open, meaningful dialogue around diversity, equity, and inclusion for our students. Our institution has a history of acknowledging and embracing our diverse populations across campus. For example, we’ve always celebrated the legacy of Jennie Adams Carter, our first Black alumna, and her impact on education and her family’s legacy, (Cal U was founded originally as a normal school for teacher education). Other examples include yearly dedicated outreach and programming honoring international students and their heritage. Much of this programming is student-centric. However, as the director of alumni relations, I felt […]

Spotlight on Innovation: How Hampton University Plans to Increase STEM Retention and Completion through Course Redesign and Engagement

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

How do you increase the number of underrepresented minority students attaining STEM degrees? Hampton University has a holistic approach. 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. Hampton University has set a specific goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who graduate with STEM degrees, and Hampton is looking to address several obstacles to degree completion for minority students, including access, affordability, and engagement. Hampton intends use its $3.5 million First in the World grant to identify students who have declared a STEM major and engage them with a number of activities designed to boost success and completion. The project includes partnerships with several other organizations to facilitate internships and other opportunities for STEM majors. To learn more, we reached out to Dr. Ira Walker, project director of the grant and associate professor […]

Improving Completion Rates for Online Students

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

(An earlier version of this article ran in April 2010.) With the percentage of students who are taking online courses rising rapidly (a 17% increase in 2009 alone), improving completion rates for online students (many of whom are returning, adult learners) will likely become a key priority for higher education. In an interview with Academic Impressions, Ken Udas, CEO of UMassOnline, offers his advice on how academic leaders can promote higher completion rates as their institutions strive to meet a growing demand among adult learners for online and distance education. Where You Can Make the Most Difference Udas suggests that there are two areas where relatively small investments in online student retention can see significant returns: Encouraging Course Completion First, Udas suggests, identify your “warning signals,” your indicators that a student engaged in online coursework may be at a higher risk of not completing the course; then set up a process for immediate response to those signals. Warning signals for online learners might include: For example, suppose that your online calculus course has a 40% completion rate each semester. Once you know this, you can respond by making tutoring services available, whether face-to-face or in the form a virtual math lab. […]

Alumni Relations ROI: An Approach

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Marquette University has piloted (and refined) an innovative metrics tool for measuring the impact of alumni engagement efforts. Numerical scores are assigned to specific activities that are indicative of alumni engagement and participation, and the scoring is used to measure the return on investment for alumni relations efforts in quantitative terms and to inform allocation of future resources. To learn about the basics of the approach and how these metrics have informed decision making at Marquette, we interviewed Andrea Petrie, director of development for Marquette’s College of Nursing, and Taylor Schult, an associate engagement officer who serves on Marquette’s Affinity-Based Giving team. Schult notes that what is especially empowering about Marquette’s point-scoring system of alumni relations metrics is that once you have numerical scores, you can set specific goals for improving those scores for specific groups of alumni. And those goals can then be measured quantitatively. BY WAY OF EXAMPLE: MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY’S METRICS Marquette University uses a 16-point model to assess alumni engagement and giving. For each alum, up to 8 points are assigned to metrics that assess engagement: 8 points are assigned to metrics that assess giving: The Marquette point system (above) is just one example of how an […]

College Student Mental Health Statistics and What They Really Mean

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

There has been a lot of media attention to college student mental health statistics and to the upsurge in demand for mental health services. But does the data really suggest a mental health “crisis”? What does the upsurge actually mean for postsecondary institutions? Where do we need to shift the conversation, and what do we need to do next? Learn more in the infographic and article below. What the Upsurge in Demand for Mental Health Services Means (and Doesn’t Mean) The first thing I want to underscore is that institutions are facing an unprecedented level of demand from students seeking help and support for mental health issues. Counseling centers are not new on campus–and mental health services are certainly not new–but the upsurge in volume from students accessing these services is. The two main presenting issues we’re seeing in students are anxiety and depression. The other issue institutions are concerned about but that is statistically much less frequent is suicidality. If you read the press on this topic, there are a lot of articles that emphasize the number of college students committing suicide. That’s obviously a horrible mental health outcome and something institutions are investing prevention and education efforts around, […]

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