Increasing Degree Pathways for Stop-Out Students

Many stop-out programs settle for offering a limited number of degrees and little flexibility concerning the timelines for degree completion. The leadership at the University of Memphis reached higher, building a comprehensive, decentralized program that offers returning students more degree options that can be attained more quickly. Join us in an online training to learn […]

“DECLINED” Can my proposal be revived?

Why do so many grant proposals get rejected? Funding rates hover at about 20% across all federal agencies: the competition is fierce. For new faculty who are inexperienced, their chances of getting funded are more like 10-15%. This is due in part to PI inexperience with proposal writing and/or interpreting review comments and constructively utilizing […]

The 21st Century Academic Advisor: 3 Critical Skill Sets

This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. Being an effective academic advisor is like being an expert juggler. It is easy to drop a ball now and then. In this article, I examine strategies to keep all the balls in the […]

4 Things Academic Deans Can Do to Help Students Succeed after Graduation

Why, you might ask, should academic deans add this concern about students’ career preparation to their already unmanageably long list of responsibilities? As leaders of the faculty, deans need to serve as the programmatic agents of implementing a holistic undergraduate education. And deans provide the essential perspective of someone who observes the connections on a daily basis between […]

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 […]

Practomime: An Innovation in Learning Games

The Chronicle‘s Wired Campus blog featured the work of Roger Travis, associate professor of classics and director of the video games and human values initiative at the University of Connecticut, in developing the learning games he has dubbed “practomime.” Relying on roleplaying and narrative storytelling, practomime requires students to complete course tasks and fulfill course […]

Stepping Up Orientation for International Students

With the number of international students studying in the US up nearly 3 percent last year (contributing $20 billion to the US economy) and with Canadian institutions also seeing gains, creating a seamless arrival-and-welcome process that ensures the success and retention of these students is rapidly becoming a key area of investment for many institutions. At […]

Mapping Your Tenure, Promotion, or Reappointment Statement: A 7-Day Practical Program

The processes of promotion, reappointment, and tenure are consistent drivers of faculty stress. However, learning how to write a professional statement effectively can alleviate some of that pressure. The professional statement is a strategic opportunity to tell the powerful story of your hard-won accomplishments over the years and guide your review committee in their analysis […]

Recognize Student Distress in a Virtual Environment

Mental health challenges for students will continue as classes go online. Though they may be more difficult to identify in a virtual setting, there are warning signs that faculty and staff should be aware of throughout the semester. Faculty and staff who regularly interact with students are often best positioned to see these signs of […]

Creating a High-Touch Online Summer Bridge Program

Many institutions are currently in the process of transitioning their summer bridge programs online in light of COVID-19. This is not an intuitive process for those used to designing and running programs face-to-face, bringing with it a host of additional considerations that are best learned from those with prior experience. In this training, our expert […]