Cindy has over 25 years of professional experience promoting student development and success through her work as a Student Affairs professional. Her career includes work at large and small as well as public and private institutions. Residence Life was Cindy’s introduction to student affairs, allowing her to achieve progressively expansive roles—most recently, as the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Rider University. Having coached, mentored, and supervised hundreds of professional and student staff, Cindy grounds her efforts in the belief that elevating the strengths and attributes of others is exponentially motivating and inspiring. During her career, Cindy has focused on building partnership bridges throughout and amongst the campus divisions on behalf of students. Once in place, these bridges provide safe and accessible paths for students to traverse both the predictable and unexpected challenges that college life presents. Cindy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Master of Science in Counseling with a Higher Education concentration, both from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her background in counseling established the solid foundation upon which she has built the strong leadership competencies and human development skills that guide her work. Cindy marks her time at […]
June 2, 2011. The University of Winnipeg has been praised in the media lately for a dramatic turnaround in the quality and profitability of their food services operation; Macleans’ 2009 University Rankings had taken the university to task for poor food and poor service, and the institution’s dining operation was seeing attrition in its student customers. In the two years since, not only has the University of Winnipeg recovered, but its food services operation — which now focuses on organic, locally sourced food — is the most requested caterer in the local community, its head chef has won an Iron Chef Award, and the return on investment has been so high that the university is preparing to expand its operation by launching an off-campus restaurant. This week, we spoke with the University of Winnipeg’s president, Lloyd Axworthy, to ask what other institutions in the US and Canada could learn from the success of his institution’s transition to locally sourced foods. He offered several key takeaways worth noting: Conduct thorough research into student demand Consider public-private partnerships that can help manage costs and mitigate risk Recognize that your purchasing program can actually impact the market in ways that will allow you to negotiate lower prices […]
During a time of pandemic (and after), how can we keep our international, or rather, transnational alumni, donors, and friends engaged and connected? Two experts discuss. This year constituent engagement has looked different than in the recent past. While travel has ceased, virtual connections are keeping relationships warm 24/7. This is more important than ever given the impact of COVID-19 on international student mobility and recruitment. The time is now to pay closer attention to international alumni records and to identify which gaps exist. In this article, global engagement specialist and author of International Travel Handbook: Engaging Constituents Abroad, Dr. Gretchen Dobson, speaks to Daniel Spadafore, Interim Senior Director, Office for International Advancement at Michigan State University about their best practices in engaging international alumni both at home and abroad. Together, they discuss a new way of classifying alumni, and Spadafore shares some recent stories about how Michigan State has approached their international alumni engagement practices. An Interview Dobson: In the closing chapter of my last book, Staying Global: How International Alumni Relations Advances the Agenda (EAIE, 2015), I respond to the challenge of keeping updated contact information on international alumni. I offer a recommendation that may help institutions maintain […]
The number of current and emerging social media tools seems never-ending. By the time you master some of them, others quickly arise. As such, managing conversations on social media sites also becomes a never-ending challenge. Some would say it’s impossible. After all, in any given crisis, there usually are multiple responding agencies assisting the university with its crisis response. Each agency uses multiple social media tools to reach multiple audiences with multiple messages. And, as we all know too well, in a crisis situation, countless questions invariably arise, as do rumors and the proliferation of misleading or downright incorrect information. These challenges are exacerbated by the fact that: And, let’s admit it, in a crisis, most of our staff are probably focusing the majority of their efforts on responding to countless traditional media requests, as well as crafting messages to faculty, staff and students, and posting critical information to university websites. It’s the nature of the crisis beast. Tackling the Problem Upon arrival at DePaul nearly two years ago, I learned there were 178 individuals on campus who regularly managed more than 183 different university-related social media sites. I asked myself: How can I best leverage not only the tools […]
As the higher ed marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, it has become more critical than ever to be able to measure the impact of your marketing efforts on brand perception — critical, but not always easy. In a recent interview with Academic Impressions, Bob Sevier, senior vice president of strategy for Stamats Inc., shared with us his guiding philosophy for measuring the return on investment for branding efforts. Here is the interview, with links to additional resources — we hope you will find it useful for opening discussion within your office. Knowing What Works and What Doesn’t Academic Impressions (AI): Bob, why is it especially important to care about measuring brand perception now? Bob Sevier: From the vantage point of the marketing professional, there are two reasons. First, it helps to find out whether your brand campaign is actually working. A lot of marketers are slowly transitioning from measuring output (Are we busy?) to measuring outcomes (Is it working?). Second, measuring the ROI on your brand campaign tells your supervisor that you’re serious. Professionals show results, and when you can show results, you earn the opportunity for an increased budget. That’s why this is more important now than even four years […]
A NEW SERIES ON RFPs, CAPITAL PLANNING, AND PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS This is the first in a series of articles by Neil Calfee. Currently the principal of NPC Group, specializing in the creation and negotiation of public/private Partnerships, Neil Calfee previously served as Arizona State University’s director of real estate development. He has over 15 years of experience in development and management of complex development projects involving partnerships between government entities and the private sector. This article reviews 5 mistakes institutions commonly make in writing an RFP document. Calfee’s next article will review 5 frequent mistakes made in the solicitation and evaluation of responses once the RFP has been issued. You may also be interested in his recorded training, “Creating Financial Expectations in the Housing RFP Process.” So you want to issue an RFP for a campus capital project, how hard can that be? Quite easy, actually. But simply getting an offering on the street and administering a successful RFP process that brings you a quality development are two different things entirely. Here are 5 things that many institutions miss in their RFP processes: 5 mistakes that can cause annoyance at best or can completely derail the effort at worst. Mistake 1: […]
While writing a chapter for Managing the Unthinkable: Crisis Preparation and Response for Campus Leaders (ACE, 2014), I had the opportunity to interview two retired presidents/chancellors with whom I had worked – former University of North Carolina Wilmington Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo and former Texas A&M President Ray Bowen. DePaolo faced two different student incidents in which a student was stalked and then murdered, after which the perpetrator committed suicide. Both incidents occurred within a two-month period early in her tenure at UNCW. Bowen was president during the Texas A&M bonfire collapse that killed 12 students and injured another 27. I asked them, “Given what you have learned from successfully managing a number of significant campus crises, what’s the most important advice you would give to other presidents, chancellors and campus leaders in times of crisis?” Advice from Rosemary DePaolo DePaolo shared the following: Campus safety is paramount, and that includes having the best possible crisis response protocols in place. Consider asking an outside expert to evaluate your crisis response plan. Too often university leaders either deny that anything could happen at their institutions, or they become defensive, rebutting individuals who question existing practices. Don’t let a crisis divert your attention […]
The Ohio State University recently monetized their parking operation — which OSU identified as a campus asset that was non-mission critical — and secured $400 million, most of which OSU invested in its endowment. As other institutions seek to counterbalance increasingly depleted revenue streams, OSU provides a key example of how to identify assets that are ideal for monetization. To learn more about the thinking behind OSU’s recent transition, we interviewed Michael Papadakis, Ohio State University’s treasurer, and Sarah Blouch, president of CampusParc LLP, an entity formed to manage university parking concessions—including the transaction recently closed at The Ohio State University. AI: What do institutions need to keep in mind when looking to monetize physical assets? “Typically in the past,” Papadakis notes, “when a service is needed, we have tended to think that we can provide that service better than anyone else. Our instinct is to want everything customized to our particular needs and culture. So the trend in the past was to bring everything in-house. That’s very counter-intuitive; it’s very different from how the corporate world looks at this.” “There are some things that it may not make sense for us to do in-house, and where it may be […]
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. by Lisa Cook and Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions LaGuardia Community College’s students in Queens, NY face a bevy of obstacles to their academic success. The college serves a mix of first-generation, low-income, and minority students, more than 70 percent of them from families who earn less than $25,000 annually. LaGuardia also offers GED programs; many students who complete the GED then successfully apply and are admitted to LaGuardia, but unfortunately many of these students fall away in “summer melt.” LaGuardia hopes to get those students back on track and help other low-income and underrepresented students succeed through Project COMPLETA, Comprehensive Support for Student Success, which will be funded by a $2.9 million First in the World grant. We reached out to Bret Eynon, associate dean for teaching […]
Despite how critical the phonathon can be to the annual fund, student callers are often given minimum training — or training that doesn’t set them up well to succeed in soliciting donor support for the institution. To learn some tips from past and present managers of highly effective phonathon programs, we turned this week to Jessica Cloud, who administers a comprehensive annual giving program for the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation, and Albert Melfo, director of annual giving at Kent State University. Cloud and Melfo suggest these four tips for training callers: Cultivate the Larger Perspective “Focus on the process, focus on the technique,” Melfo advises. “Don’t get hung up on the details; talk about the big picture. Devote training time to discussing what philanthropy is, its role within the organization, what it means to be nonprofit — why we need to raise money. Give the students the big picture case for giving. Help them understand why we do this and why they should feel okay talking with others about why we need their support.” “Help your callers understand the real case for support, the reason we ask. The more we can help our student ambassadors internalize that and speak […]
