In these rough waters, higher education leaders cannot indulge the luxury of sitting back and waiting to see what everyone else does. Whatever happens with the pandemic or the economy, we are not going to see a simple “return to normal” or to the conditions under which our institutions operated in January, and leaders must […]
Increasingly, faculty leaders are responding seriously to the call for more “culturally relevant pedagogy,” referring to more inclusive classrooms and pedagogical styles. This article draws on findings from a recent inquiry into how institutions are thinking about equity within pedagogy. In late 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), I conducted 28 phone interviews with both […]
Introduction We have just passed the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this experience may have provided opportunities for us to learn and grow, it has also taught us there are critical elements of our life and work where no substitute is sufficient. One of these elements is communication. The extreme safety measures of […]
When I hear an alumni relations professional say that alumni relations programs have been disintermediated from their alumni, more often than not, I cringe. The theme of disintermediation, or the thought that social media and other technologies have decreased the alumni’s “need” for their alma mater, crops up often, and while it should signal a […]
At Academic Impressions, we recently offered a national snapshot of efforts to prioritize academic programs and administrative services at higher-ed institutions. Our report included commentary from Bob Dickeson (who literally wrote the book on program prioritization) and Larry Goldstein (president of Campus Strategies, LLC), in which these two experts identified the prerequisites for success. The […]
Given the lower retention rates of first-generation students, more colleges and universities are devoting attention to how best to aid the success and persistence of this cohort. To learn more about how higher ed institutions can respond to the issue, we turned this week to Thom Golden, senior associate director of admissions at Vanderbilt University […]
This article is an excerpt from Sue Ohrablo’s acclaimed book High-Impact Advising: A Guide for Academic Advisors, which you can find here. Over the past few days, three different students have made comments to the effect of, “I am so glad I called. I almost didn’t. Honestly, before I called I had pretty much decided to […]
Also in this series: Is it Time to Launch that New Academic Program? The Art and Science of Answering that Question Feasibility Checklist: The Science of Bringing New Academic Programs to Life Financial Modeling for New Academic Programs Sustaining New Academic Programs: 5 Key Factors In my previous articles in this series, I outlined a […]
Beyond a workshop, what does developing student leaders effectively look like? The president of Nichols College shares 5 quick steps any college can take – followed by advice on how to take student leadership development to the next level. by Susan West Engelkemeyer, President, Nichols College At many colleges and universities, student leadership development programming is limited […]
In our 2016 article “Improving Student Success Can’t Be a One-Office Effort,” Paul Marthers at SUNY spoke of the power of leveraging strategic partnerships across traditionally divided functional areas: “Whole-campus efforts tend to have higher visibility and the power to motivate collective buy-in and effort. Student success became everyone’s job, because just about everyone who works […]
