Missed Opportunities in First-Year Seminars

Jennifer Latino, the director of first-year experience at Campbell University, recently shared with us three ways to help peer educators succeed; in a follow-up interview, she spoke with us to identify some frequently missed opportunities in the design and execution of first-year seminars. Latino highlighted the need to: Review your own institution’s student data, rather […]

Planning and Budgeting: Critical Advice for the President and Cabinet

This week, we interviewed Pat Sanaghan, president of The Sanaghan Group, who has worked with dozens of institutions to coach them through a collaborative and effective strategic planning and budgeting process. We wanted to ask what advice he would most want college and university presidents and members of their cabinets to hear. This is what […]

Innovations in Course Scheduling that Support Student Success

  This week, we interviewed Joe Murray, the director of academic advising and retention services at Miami University Hamilton Campus, about innovations in course scheduling that can help maximize the impact of early alert intervention and proactive or intrusive advising. A number of these approaches have been piloted at Miami University or soon will be. […]

Taking a Proactive Approach to Advising for At-Risk Students

In this first of several articles, Academic Impressions is interviewing leading experts on proactive approaches to academic advising. Over the course of the series, we will look at interventions early on the academic calendar and innovations in course scheduling that support intervention with at-risk students. “By the time a student realizes they’re in trouble and […]

Taking a Proactive Approach to Energy Savings and Deferred Maintenance

“You have to be clear on the distinction between deferred maintenance and ignored maintenance, and ensure that your institution’s leadership is clear on this. Intentionally deferring needed maintenance after a careful assessment of your facilities condition is a strategy. Ignoring maintenance is a problem.”Faramarz Vakili, Associate Director of the Physical Plant, University of Wisconsin-Madison In […]

Creating a Housing Master Plan

As more students look to housing as a key factor in college choice, and as more research points to the impact of on-campus accommodations on retention and academic success for undergraduate students, it is increasingly important that investments in student housing not be ad hoc or merely reactive. Recently, a growing number of colleges have […]

Allocating Campus Space Strategically

“Space is a critical resource, just like your institution’s financial resources; it has to be managed effectively and used efficiently. It is an asset that you need to allocate in order to support short- and long-term priorities.” Frances Mueller, University of Michigan Institutions of higher education have a limited history of tracking and allocating their […]

Funding Facilities and Facilities Improvements in the Current Market

In recent years, more institutions have looked for innovative, outside-the-box methods of funding their investments in the physical campus — including an array of models for public-private partnerships, mixed-use facilities, and (in a few cases) fundraising for renewal and maintenance. We asked Pete Isaac, senior project manager with Brailsford & Dunlavey, to offer his insights […]

The Physical Campus: A Critical Asset, a Key Opportunity

In this Report: Improvement and stewardship of the physical campus is key to your institution’s competitiveness. Given deferred maintenance backlogs and changes in student expectations for the campus, it is critical to treat your physical campus as a resource, and manage it effectively and efficiently. With more intentional management of your facilities, you can: Yet […]

3 Ways to Help Peer Educators Succeed

In a related article, we asked Sarah Whitley, director of first-year experience and family programs at Longwood University, to offer her insights on what critical items are often missing from peer mentor training. Whitley’s answers indicated the need for a shift in thinking about the support and development peer educators need, whether your peer educators […]