Your team may have up to five generations working together, a phenomenon that is unique to our time in history. This generational diversity makes our teams stronger and more ready to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. To leverage the full strength that comes from this generational diversity, however, supervisors must first understand the value of and know how to appreciate the unique styles and preferences of each team member. Join our facilitator and your peers across the country to share best practices and experiences for increasing all of our understanding on successfully supervising multigenerational teams. You will come away from the training with the following:
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 […]
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 […]
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; […]
By Kayleigh MacPhersonExecutive Director, Scholarships and Student SupportUCLA Development Assuming leadership in a time of transition and tumult – parenting lessons that helped our team thrive during the pandemic. Returning to work from one’s first multi-month parental leave is challenging no matter the specific circumstances. Whether it is a crisis of identity, scheduling, responsibilities, time, or managing the onslaught of individual, familial, professional, and societal expectations, with parenting comes an additional literal and figurative load for nearly every aspect of our lives. Assuming a new leadership role in one’s profession can be similarly complex – like the adjustment to parenting, one becomes, at times, solely responsible for the actions of others. There may also be crises of identity, scheduling, responsibilities, time, and managing new expectations. After four months on parental leave, I returned to the office December 4, 2019, and things had changed. I had both a brand-new baby and a brand-new leadership role at my institution. I was thrilled to get back to work and hardly considered the impact my newfound parental feelings and experiences could have on my approach to leading a team. In times of uncertainty and transition, we are all tested, and history has shown us […]
Department chairs are the “front line” of academic management (whether or not, in fact, their positions are classified as management or as faculty) — yet most department chairs receive little or no training for their positions. There are reasons for this: Yet many problems that rise to higher levels of administration could be avoided or mitigated if they are handled by well-trained chairs in the first place. And institutions that neglect chairs do so at their own peril. Leadership training is especially critical now, given the pressures that tightened budgets, changing modes of delivery for instruction, increased demands for accountability, the growing diversity of the academy, and increased attention to employment law within academic institutions, all place on the expectations for department chairs. Why “Leadership” Training? Leadership training goes beyond other kinds of training. Indeed, the term “leadership training” might well be parsed out as a combination of training and leadership development: Developing a leadership training curriculum must take these features into account. The best training programs will both produce immediate outcomes and develop leadership skills over a sustained period of time. First, Identify Learning Outcomes What do your department chairs need to know, and when do they need to know it?Answering […]
Knowing and communicating the financial health of your endowed funds will show your donors that their gift remains in good hands, which increases the potential for further giving. Now is the perfect time to review your endowed funds to ensure they remain: Legal: In compliance with rules and regulations Possible: To be rewarded according to fund criteria Practical: Able to be administered within reasonable limits Join us for a three-hour virtual training to develop a plan of action for your next endowed funds audit. You will learn a step-by-step process to help you confirm whether your endowed funds are meeting both institutional compliance and donor intent. You will also identify potential risks and communication strategies for donors whose funds have been misspent, unspent, or are underwater. You’ll walk away with clearly defined next steps that will help you move your endowed fund audit forward.
Dr. Sarah Edwards is a tenured professor in the Teacher Education Department and currently serves as an active participant in the administrative decision-making processes in the Academic Affairs Office at University of Nebraska Omaha. Her position is responsible for assisting the Senior Vice Chancellor in planning, directing, evaluating, and developing undergraduate academic programs; collaborating with other divisions of the University to analyze and develop recommendations in response to evolving issues; and providing leadership for developing and achieving strategic initiatives. Those primary responsibilities include leadership for meeting the goals and objectives of the University’s strategic plan for undergraduate education; implementation and administration of policies and regulations affecting students; and leadership and facilitation for the processes of curriculum development. In addition, this position is responsible for leadership and support for Academic Learning Communities, such as the Susan Thompson Buffett Scholars and the Army and AFROTC detachments, as well as coaching and guidance for the University Honors Program, National Honors, Scholarships and Awards, and oversight and planning of the Student Honors Convocation.
Continuing to support student mental health needs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is critical. Stress and anxiety are high, and current circumstances are causing hardship for many. Student affairs leaders and counseling center directors are operating as best they can in this environment, while simultaneously navigating rapidly-evolving institutional responses and balancing their own well-being. Join us for this webcast recording where we facilitate a conversation with Kelly Wesener-Michael, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students at Northern Illinois University, and Kristen Gray, Director of Counseling & Psychological Services at Hope College. In this open discussion space with our experts and your peers, we shared strategies, current approaches, and decision points related to the following items:
PARTNERING WITH FACULTY – FROM A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE Bernadette Jungblut of West Virginia University recently spoke to this issue — from a faculty perspective — at an April 2015 Academic Impressions webcast. Now, In this article, Jungblut offers further strategies for partnering with faculty effectively. What follows includes both an institutional case study and Bernadette’s own individual responses to questions raised by participants at the webcast.*role=”document”, aria-multiline=”true”, aria-readonly=”false”**aria-label=”Block: Paragraph”* by Bernadette Jungblut, Associate Provost for Accreditation, Academic Planning, and Assessment, Central Washington University,West Virginia University To explore the issue of faculty engagement in early alert in very practical terms, let’s review the key challenges (both that I’ve noted and that participants at the webcast raised), strategies that work, and a case study from West Virginia University. Engaging Faculty in Early Alert: The Challenge Challenges noted by webcast participants: Challenges I’ve experienced: Engaging Faculty in Early Alert: Strategies Here are strategies that we have employed at West Virginia University that make a difference in faculty engagement: Face-to-face meetings: We conducted face-to-face meetings with faculty members – one-on-one, in small groups, and at department faculty meetings. We specifically described our undergraduate student profile – about which some faculty members knew relatively little. When […]
