Building Strong Relationships with Young Alumni

In recent news, development officers at Claremont McKenna College are expanding their alumni engagement strategy by asking alumni volunteers to interview their peers about interest and affinity. The college’s commitment to investing in engaging young alumni has already seen returns: the institution’s 10-year average giving rate has increased 6% since 2008, despite a difficult economy. […]

Affordable, High-Impact Study Abroad

Among the findings from GLOSSARI, the Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying Abroad Research Initiative: Students completing study abroad programs show improved academic performance in subsequent terms Study abroad students have higher graduation rates Study abroad improves academic performance for at-risk students However, as the Chronicle‘s article “7 Signs of Successful Study Abroad Programs” notes, as […]

Strategic Planning: Engaging Faculty and Other Stakeholders Early

As July 2010 draws to a close, the news is full of reports of state budget shortfalls, belt-tightening initiatives to cope with the approaching demise of stimulus funding, and growing protests from faculty and staff as institutions make politically unpopular decisions in re-allocating increasingly scarce resources. In this environment, it is critical to engage as many stakeholders as […]

Testing Your Emergency Response Plan

Testing your campus’s crisis response plans frequently and rigorously is key to ensuring that you can protect campus resources and recover speedily following a crisis, and as of July 1, 2010, annual testing is mandated under the updated Clery Act. Nonetheless, annual testing represents a significant shift in practice for many institutions. Nearly a quarter […]

Supporting Faculty in Adopting Emerging Learning Technologies

The 21st Century Report released by CDW-G confirms an increasing trend of rising student expectations for technology on campus: 63% of current college students indicate that campus technology was a critical factor in their college choice 93% of current high school students indicate that campus technology is a critical factor in their college choice, 95% […]

Re-enrolling Stop-Outs: Overcoming the Barriers

In the news recently, the regents for the University of South Dakota system have focused attention on re-enrolling students who have “stopped out” and left their degree incomplete. This is in response to a recent report to the board that demonstrated that 1,889 students who had earned at least 90 semester credit hours had left […]

Integrating E-Portfolios into Your Assessment Strategy

Trent Batson, executive director of The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL), stirred some controversy this week with an article entitled “The Testing Straitjacket,” in which he advocates for privileging e-portfolios over legacy testing as a primary tool for assessing student learning, arguing that e-portfolios, which “encourage students to use their collection of […]

Evaluating Part-Time Faculty

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 […]