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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 […]

Improving Faculty Advising

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

Over the past nine months, Academic Impressions has conducted several surveys of academic deans, department chairs, and directors of advising to investigate current trends in developing and assessing both faculty advisors and professional advisors. Among the key findings: Yet we also confirmed that over three-quarters of institutions surveyed rely heavily on faculty advisors (even if they also employ some professional advising staff). While there are many resources available for training and developing professional advising staff, faculty advisors often receive little or no training — yet they provide most of the advising services at colleges and universities in the US. Improving faculty advising is thus a critical and often neglected step toward improving student retention and supporting students’ academic success. This week, we asked Tom Grites, past president of NACADA and assistant to the provost at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, for his advice on the subject. Grites suggests: Establish Agreement on the Goals of Advising “The institution has to reach some level of agreement on what advising is. The smaller the campus, the easier it may be to establish an institution-wide definition. At a larger university, where different kinds of advising structures come into play, strive for consensus within […]

Make Your Threat Assessment Team Effective: Part 1

Posted on by Greta Bell

This is the first of two articles offering practical advice on making behavioral intervention teams effective. The second article, which will focus on five pitfalls to avoid, will appear in late August. An abbreviated version of this article appeared in an earlier edition of Higher Ed Impact. August 4, 2011. In today’s difficult economic climate, most institutions of higher education are facing significant reductions in counseling and mental health budgets at a time when the mental health needs of students, faculty, and staff are on the rise. In a recent survey by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, 77 percent of counseling center directors indicated that the number of students on campus with severe mental health issues had increased in the past year. And while most available studies focus on student mental health, last year’s shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville offers a tragic reminder that faculty and staff may also face mental health issues. We asked Gene Deisinger, deputy chief of police and director of threat management services at Virginia Tech, for his advice on how to establish early behavioral intervention teams or threat assessment teams when challenged to do more with existing resources. Deisinger is both a police […]

When Student Behavior Becomes a Media Crisis: Mitigation and Recovery

Posted on by Greta Bell

As one news source put it, Duke University “keeps getting in the news for all the wrong reasons.” The barrage of negative media attention to what are in all probability isolated and exceptional incidents at the university (a recent alumnus detailing her intimate encounters with Duke athletes; an email from a Duke fraternity inviting female students to a Halloween party in crass terms; the shutting down of an outdoor student party) offers a cautionary tale about the “snowball effect” that an incident involving perceived student misconduct can have on media relations for an institution. Journalists and experts on media relations alike have suggested that since a rape allegation in 2006 against three Duke lacrosse players, the local media have been quick to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the Duke student (even though the lacrosse players were found not guilty). What this case demonstrates is the importance of ongoing image management and reputation recovery after a media crisis related to student behavior. If an institution does not take prompt action after a crisis — and indeed, proactive action prior to a crisis — to build a more positive image, the negative image can persist for years, as the case of Duke illustrates. This week, […]

Planning and Budgeting: Critical Advice for the President and Cabinet

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

This week, we interviewed Pat Sanaghan, president of The Sanaghan Group, who has worked with dozens of institutions to coach them through a collaborative and effective strategic planning and budgeting process. We wanted to ask what advice he would most want college and university presidents and members of their cabinets to hear. This is what Sanaghan shared with us. Academic Impressions (AI): What is the one perspective you would most want to share with college and university leaders, related to strategic planning and budgeting? Pat Sanaghan: After 30 years, what I’ve found is that the level of trust in the system is the single most critical factor in the success of a planning and budgeting process. If the level of trust in the process is low, then the president and other leaders of the institution need to work intentionally to build a higher level of trust, or the plan won’t be implemented. You need other things — you need transparency, you need effective leadership, good data, an external, environmental scan — but the most critical thing is trust. If you have high trust, people across the institution are more willing to share both their aspirations and their fears. They will be more willing to […]

You Were Just Named Interim. Now What?

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Being named the interim leader in your unit or department can be both exciting and scary.  Unfortunately, there are not many road maps out there to guide you. Here is some guidance from others who’ve been there. by Ashlyn W. Sowell, Associate Vice President for Campaign Operations and Engagement, Johns Hopkins University In this time of a global pandemic, high unemployment, and financial pressures, it is likely that more people in advancement will be named to interim roles and likely for longer time periods.  Perhaps some guidance would be useful from a few of us who have been there: Here is what we have to share. Accepting and Adapting to the Role You might have a range of emotions when asked to take on a new interim role – surprised, flattered, and maybe a bit nervous. The first piece of advice Rachel gave was to say yes! A leader in your institution has asked you to step up, and they probably vetted your name well in advance. This could be a great opportunity for you to learn, lead, and grow. Aristide agreed, saying, “Never turn down an assignment.” Think about the portfolio of work and where this might lead you […]

Vetting Early Alert Technologies

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

As more colleges and universities look to improve the success of those students who are most academically “at risk,” a host of software technologies to assist in early alert have proliferated on the market. Investment in such a third-party technology can be significant; yet many institutions purchase these tools quickly without the up-front decisions needed to ensure that the benefits will outweigh the cost. We turned this week to Jennifer Jones, adjunct instructor at Minnesota State University, Mankato and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to learn more. While serving as the director of academic retention at the University of Alabama, Jones developed a comprehensive and strategic approach to identifying at-risk students. Jones offers three critical pieces of advice: In speaking with us, Jones offered checklists of the questions you need to be asking up front, prior to procuring new software. Here are some of the most important points. Is it the Right Fit for Your Goals? The tool itself won’t resolve the challenges you face, but it can help you target your solutions –- if you define specific goals for what improvements you want to see and what role the technology will play in your early […]

Is Your Academic Program Sustainable? 5 Key Indicators

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

How do you measure academic program demand? The former CFO at Stanford discusses 5 key indicators that can help you gain confidence and clarity in your academic program decisions. by William F. Massy, Consultant to Higher Education, Former CFO at Stanford Universities can no longer take the sustainability of their academic programs for granted. Pressures on institutional finances and disruption and volatility in the student marketplace makes it necessary to perform systematic sustainability analyses across one’s whole portfolio of programs. Sustainability has both academic and financial dimensions. This places it close to the heart of strategic decision-making. Academic Impressions (AI) has been working on how to help people responsible for resource allocation add program sustainability as an area of focus. AI’s upcoming program on Academic Resourcing Models for Evidence-Based Decision-Making will introduce participants to the indicators, concepts, and best practices associated with program sustainability analysis. These can stimulate and inform needed conversations about sustainability among both academics and administrators. There are several reasons why such conversations help leaders get things done: Colleges and universities must deal with the inherent complexity of intellectual work and the needs and expectations of those who perform it. Academic resourcing requires the integration of disciplinary, financial, and […]

Implementing a Research Mission at Your Teaching-Intensive University

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

When it comes to implementing a research mission, the devil is in the details. Scenario As a dean at Middlestates Territory University (MSTU), you are charged with creating, funding, and implementing a vision and action plan for bringing the “research” portion of the institution’s statutory mission to the forefront.  After many years of negotiation, lobbying, presentation of historical data, and handshaking behind closed doors, the state legislature has finally allowed MSTU to include the words “research-focused” in its official state statutory description and mission. Although the upper administration views this as a victory, the institution has extremely limited financial, laboratory, and human resources, and as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, you know a long slog lies ahead. You oversee a college comprised of 16 small departments with no more than 10 tenured faculty members in each, and of the total 145 tenured and tenure-track faculty (TTF) in your college, only 15% have or have had external grant funding for research. Research productivity is variable in the college, not only because the disciplines represented range from English to Music to Psychology to Chemistry to Women’s Studies, but also because the standard teaching load for TTF is […]

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