While executive and administrative leaders have had a longer history of working with coaches, there is growing awareness of the benefit to middle managers in higher education, as well. Mid-level academic leaders are often promoted to leadership positions with limited management experience and without the benefit of training and professional leadership development. Yet mid-level leaders face significant […]
This article continues a series focused on Creating an Innovative Institutional Mindset. The previous articles in this series are: Innovation is all the buzz these days in higher education circles, and it is no wonder. Many mainstream media observers have noted that higher education is now ground zero for disruption due largely to what they […]
The world of work is changing rapidly, creating new pressures and new opportunities for higher education. It’s critical that university leaders act as conveners, assembling representatives of local industry, nonprofits, and community to do the tough work of anticipating the future for their region—both the threats and the opportunities. Some community colleges have been doing […]
We need to reshape a 19th-century alumni office to meet the demands of a 21st-century audience. “Alumni associations were rendered obsolete by Facebook and have since been dying a slow death.” “Why get off my couch on a weeknight to connect with fellow alumni from college, one of a dozen institutions to which I have […]
Among the more fascinating library revitalization projects we have seen recently, one that stands out is Payson Library at Pepperdine University. As we took a closer look, we realized that much of the thinking that informs the Payson Library renovation is replicable and scalable for other institutions, even institutions with quite small library facilities. To […]
by Kathy Edersheim, President of Impactrics How does an alumni affinity group get started and, perhaps more importantly, what makes it sustainable beyond the initial excitement? There are many right answers and many challenges along the way. The key is to develop some guidelines and learn from other institutions’ successes as well as from their […]
Managing the student life cycle requires cross-divisional initiatives and the willingness to innovate. Applying a student success lens to the student life cycle has led institutions to examine the relative roles played by traditional measures of academic achievement (grades, credits completed, major requirements met) and less traditional, non-cognitive indicators such as student grit and resilience. […]
This article is an excerpt from Jim Langley’s book Comprehensive Fundraising Campaigns: A Guide for Presidents and Boards (Academic Impressions, 2016). Over-reliance on marketing academic distinction and under-reliance on building alumni affiliation is one of the reasons that annual alumni giving has been declining for 20 straight years and why, today, fewer than one in 10 […]
Once upon a time, I lived in a magical fairy tale world where higher education professionals, educated and insightful individuals, knew exactly how to navigate a mentor program and the results were nothing less than charming. Then I woke up. Sadly, the real world presents many obstacles to this “happily ever after,” and a belief […]
In November of 2016, Academic Impressions held its first Women’s Leadership Success in Higher Education conference. (You can see information about the upcoming Women’s Leadership Success conference here.) For me personally, this was one of the highlights of my year and a culmination of months of work that sprung from an idea that had formed in the […]
