Search Results for: meeting

How to Keep Your Eyes on the Future When There’s a Crisis in the Present

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

This is a unique and challenging time, yet it’s crucial not to remain overly consumed with the present crisis; we need to reserve time each day to think through the possibilities of how our future, and how the future of our unit and our institution can be different when we all return.   By now, you have received your fill of articles, blog posts, and invites to free webinars all offering well-intended advice on how to cope amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all felt the stress in all areas of our life during this unprecedented time. Despite this stress, most higher education professionals that I have spoken with have indicated that they have adapted to this “new abnormal.” The literature that has been published about this period of uncertainty has been, for the most part, both caring and useful. Psychologists and other healthcare professionals have warned us not to become too consumed with the future, given the high degree of ambiguity on what might come. In other words, focus on the present state in order to maintain a strong sense of well-being. This is certainly excellent advice, particularly for those who are suffering from increased stress and anxiety. However, […]

Why So Many Abrupt Exits for University Presidents? And How Can We Prevent Them?

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

At four institutions, a university president exited abruptly – in a single week in June. What causes such abrupt departures? And how can they be prevented? On June 24, 2019, campus leaders and stakeholders awoke to find out that four campus presidents (Auburn, Bennett, Marist, Mullenberg) “were out, without notice or explanation”—to quote the headline Inside Higher Ed ran that day. Each president was in office less than three years.  This was startling news. Thursday that week, a fifth president “resigned,” from Hollins University. That’s a lot of exits and resignations in a single week. We believe we will continue to see more of these unexplained departures. Unfortunately, we can no longer afford them. A sudden and unexplained exit creates havoc for a campus, leaving stakeholders left in the dark, wondering what happened and plagued with unanswered questions: Why didn’t they see the warning signs? Could they have helped prevent the departure? Why did the board dismiss the president? Who will be the next president, and will they be successful under these difficult circumstances? Who would want to step in after such a sudden departure? (Will we get anyone good?) This atmosphere of instability, confusion, and even fear is not […]

Our Lost Colleges

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Amid rising public doubt about the continued accessibility of US post-secondary institutions, university leaders need to think differently about how they operate. Until that happens, our colleges will remain lost in a fog of cultural skepticism about higher education. Here are questions every institution’s leaders need to be asking. A friend’s daughter applied to 10 universities last year. All of the institutions offered admission. But financial aid packages were a different matter. One top-ranked state university sent her an offer with this punch line: your net tuition for this year is 0. Wonderful, but the breakdown included $2,500 for work study and a $59,000 loan requirement. In other words, she would have nearly free tuition, room and board, while in school, but after graduation a $236,000 student loan debt would become due. How could an admissions officer craft such an insensitive and misleading financial aid letter? William Bennett claimed to know the answer. In 1987, as Secretary of Education he wrote a combative NY Times op-ed titled “Our Greedy Colleges.” He argued that higher education has no incentive for operating efficiently because government guaranteed loans cover escalating tuition prices. His contention became known as the “Bennett Hypothesis.” Thirty years later, […]

4 Essential Leadership Competencies Department Chairs Need to Lead in the New Normal

Posted on by bradystanton@ai_azuread

Introduction As a higher education leader for almost 20 years and a former department chair for ten, I have witnessed time and time again how the right department leader can animate an academic program. As John C. Maxwell once said, “The reality is that 99 percent of all leadership occurs not from the top, but from the middle of an organization.” Sitting at the nexus of the student body, the faculty, and the administration, department chairs are poised to provide crucial leadership in the effort to help students progress toward graduation and their institutions toward transformation. Despite their important positioning, department chairs are rarely taught how to lead nor are they typically rewarded for good leadership. Nearly 50,000 currently serve as department chairs in the United States with about a quarter of them being replaced each year (Gmlech and Buller, 2015). And yet only 3.3 percent of department chairs came to their positions with formal coursework in the administrative skills they need (Cipiano and Riccardi, 2012). While challenges facing higher education grow in intensity and become more complex, many department chairs enter the role woefully unprepared for the challenges that await them. The convergence of interconnected crises in recent years—including […]

Land Acknowledgement as an Equity Practice in Higher Education

Posted on by Shawn Herbert

Aya ceeki eeweemaakiki. Niila Myaamia. Neehweeta weenswiaani myaamiaataweenki. Nichole akala shima tawengi. Hello all my relatives. I am Myaamia. My Myaamia name is Neehweeta, which means she speaks. Nichole is my English name. _____________________ The Myaamia first emerged as a distinct people along the banks of the Saakiiweesiipi (St. Joseph’s River near South Bend, Indiana). We call our homelands Myaamionki (the place of the Myaamia). Today, we consider Myaamionki as along the Wabash River in Indiana (our heartland), the Marais des Cygnes River in Kansas, and the Neosho River in Oklahoma, reflecting our history. Our history consists of two forced removals, one literally at gunpoint from our original homelands in the Great Lakes region to Kansas, and one from Kansas into Northeastern Oklahoma, where we are currently based. As for so many other native peoples in the U.S., the history of our forced relocations is a painful memory and the cultural scars of that removal are still felt. Our original homeland in the Wabash River Valley in very real ways contributed to the creation of our culture, identity, spirituality, lifeways, and ways of knowing. Land is inextricably bound to who we are as Miami people. _____________________ Over the past several […]

How One Institution Launched a DEI Plan Without a DEI Office

Posted on by bradystanton@ai_azuread

Co-Written by:Kinsley McNulty, Program Coordinator of Student Life, New York Institute of TechnologyDiandra Macias, Program Coordinator of Student Life, New York Institute of TechnologySamantha Mon, Assistant Director of Career Services, New York Institute of TechnologyPaul Ferrante, Assistant Director of Student Life, New York Institute of Technology This past year, the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement shed a bright light on continued inequities while spurring expectations of social justice and activism that define Gen Z. Young people are demanding accountability by police, government, corporate leaders, and educational institutions, including higher education. In 2018, New York Institute of Technology developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force of staff, faculty, and students to assess and make recommendations to institutional policies, resources, and structures. In many ways, New York Tech is still new to ingraining the nuances into practice and our diverse community. Meanwhile, students voiced their experiences throughout the pandemic, showing a greater need for the student affairs division (Student Life, Career Services, Counseling and Wellness, Experiential Education) to prioritize DEI-centered programming and advocacy. We know our need is not insular— colleges across the country feel the need for DEI now. However, without a formal DEI office on […]

5 Strengths Military-Connected Students Bring to Your Campus

Posted on by 25337pwpadmin@ai_azuread

Presenters: Recorded Webcast, Supporting Military-Connected Students for Success and Completion Each fall, as faculty, academic advisors, and others return to campus, there are fresh articles and blog posts about how to help military and veteran students. Often, these articles focus unfortunately on the “issues” that military students might bring to a campus, or the unique challenges they face. But we would like to suggest a shift in perspective: Military and veteran students are powerful assets to campus learning, campus life, and campus community. Institutions need to be thinking not only about how to provide targeted support for military students, but also about how to leverage their unique strengths. A quick note: Before we share five specific ways in which this is the case, we’d like to define what we mean by “military-connected students.” While this term is often used to include students with a current or prior connection to the military (including dependents and spouses) for the purpose of this article, “military-connected” refers to members of the National Guard, reservists, active duty personnel, and veterans. Here are five strengths of military-connected students that we want to discuss in this article: It’s true that each of these strengths can also provide challenges […]

Academic Entrepreneurship: Managing your academic program portfolio in times of disruption

Posted on by Shawn Herbert

We recently sat down with Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson, former Provost at Bay Path University, to discuss her recently-released book “Academic Entrepreneurship: The Art and Science of Creating the Right Academic Programs.” The following interview—which contains myriad practical suggestions for academic leaders looking to think creatively to move their divisions and institutions forward—is what materialized. 1. What inspired you to write your new book about academic entrepreneurship? Academic Entrepreneurship is the guidebook I wish I’d had when I started out in higher education many years ago.  Most academic leaders come to their roles without experience in entrepreneurial leadership.  Nor do most of us have any training in how to strategically manage and leverage our institution’s academic resources. And yet, helping our institutions do well and thrive in this current environment means that academic leaders need to think and act differently than our predecessors did even a few years ago. Today, most of our colleges and universities are facing unprecedented levels of disruption—and this was before the coronovirus pandemic took hold!  The pandemic has accelerated the change that was already underway. From the research I have conducted over the course of my career about successful college management practices, one thing emerged time […]

Dynamic Recruitment Communications: Planning for an Uncertain Fall (Virtual Workshop Recording)

While we don’t know what exactly fall recruitment will look like this year, we do know that the communication plans of the past will no longer be sufficient. Recycled messaging that used to work to move students through your enrollment funnel will not be as relevant to prospective students in the current context of campus closures and uncertainty. As enrollment communicators shift focus from mitigating summer melt to updating their communications plans for fall 2020 and beyond, you should take the time to plan now and be able to pivot later. Join us for a two-hour virtual training that will provide you with a framework to review and strengthen your fall workflow, allow you to brainstorm with colleagues from other institutions, and give you an opportunity to practice developing agile communication plans in real time.

Develop a Plan to Address Sexual Harassment from Alumni, Donors, and Prospects

Most institutions mandate sexual harassment training for all individual team members. But when was the last time your advancement team met as a group to plan for the difficult issues surrounding sexual harassment in advancement? Join us online to further these critical conversations on your campus. We will help you assess whether you have clear, effective processes for dealing with sexual harassment from alumni, prospects, and donors. You’ll have a chance to create a plan for various scenarios throughout the webcast. Both frontline staff and managers will learn how to prevent and respond to harassment.

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