The main element missing from most peer leader programs is training rooted in outcomes-based learning strategies. Without this, your peer leaders may clearly understand what’s expected of them, but be ill equipped to meet those expectations. Join us online to learn how you can reconfigure your peer leader training by utilizing outcome-based, active learning strategies that model how peer leaders can develop productive relationships with their mentees. Our expert instructor will share ideas for applying this approach to peer leader trainings before and during the term.
Learn a process for developing creative and customized stewardship plans for your highest-level donors. How can you learn unique information about your donors and use it to form stewardship plans that create meaningful moments and encourage subsequent gifts? Join us online to get a collection of creative ideas for your top donor stewardship plans – ranging from campus visits to speaking opportunities to meetings with gift beneficiaries. Since not every idea is appropriate for every donor, we’ll help you map the ideas to important donor preferences so that your plans have maximum impact.
We oversee an undergraduate program consisting of approximately 2700 students in a typical college of business at a large, public land-grant institution. Being a business school, we constantly look for ways to adapt to the changing environment and to find opportunities to make our operations more efficient and effective. Applying these basic business principles to academia is becoming more necessary in an environment of declining student populations and increasing costs. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a major disruption in the way academia operates, and such disruptions often lead to fundamental changes in the environment in which an organization exists. Those that adapt quickly have an opportunity to take advantage of these changes, but those that assume things will “return to normal” are often left behind. You don’t want to be the shop renting videotapes in the era of the internet, and you don’t want to be the school focusing primarily on classes held in brick-and-mortar facilities when many of your students have spent a year taking courses online. We were certain that the disruptions caused by the pandemic, especially a year of almost fully online instruction, would lead to changes in the educational desires of our student population, and that identifying […]
Traditionally, most institutions have not made significant investments in either training or rigorous evaluation for contingent faculty. However, given the rising percentages of part-time instructors, it is increasingly crucial that deans and department chairs give thought to implementing evaluation methods that will encourage continued improvement of the quality of instruction in their adjunct-taught courses. For this article, we asked Richard Lyons, senior consultant with Faculty Development Associates and editor of the book Best Practices for Supporting Adjunct Faculty (2007), for advice on how to provide effective evaluation for part-time instructors. Find Effective Ways to Share Student Evaluation Feedback “First, get usable feedback in as many adjuncts’ hands as possible and as quickly as possible, preferably before the next term begins.” Richard Lyons, Faculty Development Associates Lyons stresses the importance of feedback from student evaluations speedily at the close of the term, as well as the importance of sharing them with all instructors, not just in cases in which a red flag was raised. Whether you are sharing these through a spreadsheet, through your course management system, or through some other tool, make sure that the sharing of evaluation data is systematic and that you offer guidance on how to interpret the […]
This article continues a series focused on Creating an Innovative Institutional Mindset. More articles will follow. The previous article in this series is: Creative thinking skills are more important than ever if we are to deal with the vast and complex array of challenges facing many colleges and universities. In my last article I discussed the difficulty of creating and nurturing innovation within an academic organization. In my experience, the forces for preserving the status quo are especially powerful within academic organizations and are institutionalized in ways that make change very difficult. Moreover, those who are well positioned and authorized by role and formal authority to lead change are often weighed down with workloads and responsibilities that can kill the creative impulse. Perhaps it is no wonder that, according to a national study, the average tenure of a chief academic officer or provost is only 4.7 years, compared to the significantly longer 8.5 average tenure of all college presidents. According to this same study, the top frustrations for chief academic officers include lack of resources, difficulty cultivating leadership in others, curmudgeonly faculty, campus infighting, and unresponsive campus governance structures. Only 31% of respondents view ‘leading change and fostering innovation’ as job priorities; […]
Michael Bumbry, Ph.D., Senior Director of Alumni Outreach and Engagement, UC San DiegoJennie Van Meter, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement Strategy, UC San Diego Like many industries, higher education too has had to reimagine work in light of the global pandemic. Our decisions will have a lasting impact on the way business is conducted. At the University of California at San Diego (UC San Diego), the department of alumni engagement hired and onboard professional staff during the early stages of the pandemic. One of us (Bumbry) started his employment remotely at UC San Diego in August 2020, while the other (Van Meter) is an alumna and long-time engagement officer at the institution who recruited, hired, and trained new staff remotely during the pandemic. Although the implications of COVID-19 and future of work are still uncertain, we would like offer our experiences, insights, and recommendations on recruiting, hiring, and onboarding new staff members during the pandemic and beyond, from both the candidate and recruiter perspective.Michael Bumbry: A whole new world: Applying for a job during a pandemic In mid-March 2020, the majority of institutions notified faculty and staff that they would be working remotely for an unknown amount of time due […]
Campus recreation facilities have evolved into hubs for student academic, social, and physical engagement. Institutions as diverse as the University of Alabama, Macalester College, the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, and DePauw University have taken very intentional approaches to designing their recreation facilities in ways that contribute to an improved quality of life for their campus communities. This week, we interviewed George Brown, the executive director of recreation at the University of Alabama. In the podcast below, Brown discusses how his campus has utilized the trends of modern recreation facility design in an on-campus facility that will meet both current and future student needs — and how this effort will help his institution continue to take positive strides in enrolling and retaining students. Podcast: An Interview with George Brown, University of Alabama Key Questions to Ask Your Design Team To ensure a recreation facility that meets student needs, George Brown recommends asking the following questions during the design process: See Upcoming Facilities Events
Whether you’re a new research development professional (RDP) or an RDP new to your institution, you need to orient to your institution’s structure and research landscape. Where can you gather tools and intel that will further your institution’s research mission, and how can you share them widely? Join us online to learn the fundamentals of communicating across institutional silos to connect the people and resources needed for high-quality research – especially interdisciplinary research. You will leave with concrete tips on how to gather and share useful information, including: Publications you should read Meetings you should attend Key people you should connect with
As the Technical Project Coordinator, Enya is focused on supporting the development team to keep projects moving efficiently and ensuring technical solutions are delivered on time. She works closely with our cross-departmental product team to organize project development, manage timelines, problem-solve, and handle task management to meet both internal and external objectives. With a diverse background in real estate, marketing, and a BA in Business Administration from Creighton University, Enya is learning Agile Methodology frameworks to optimize project flow and support the team’s success. When she’s not at work, Enya is helping launch her family’s hydroponic container farm in Nebraska, playing tennis, and values spending quality time with friends and family.
ATSU’s approach to unifying its social strategy across departmental divides has yielded an 879% increase in organic reach on Facebook. by Anne Ackroyd, Public Relations Specialist, A.T. Still University Over the past year, while most public pages have seen a significant decrease in organic reach on Facebook, A.T. Still University (ATSU) has seen an 879% increase (comparing June 2017 to June 2016). One of the major factors in ATSU’s success has been an innovative, university-wide social media committee, developed to overcome departmental divides and build a more unified social media presence. In early 2017, ATSU’s marketing team determined that the quantity of university-affiliated social media pages was undermining the institution’s reach and engagement. This problem is not unique to ATSU, a small graduate health sciences school of about 3,000 students. A quick search on Facebook for your alma mater will likely reveal dozens of pages that bear some variation of the institution’s logo. The problem stems from the silo mentality that plagues higher education. Faculty, staff and students often identify strongly with their area of study, rather than with the institution as a whole. In addressing this issue, ATSU developed a replicable model for a social media committee tailored to the […]
