Spotlight on Innovation: Retaining First-Gen Students at UNC-Chapel Hill

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are […]

The Critical Step in Allocating Resources Across Alumni Relations and Annual Giving

Most alumni relations and annual giving operations have limited intelligence about who will be a strong reunion volunteer, annual giver, or alumni travel prospect—if the person has not previously participated in any of those activities. But rather than pulling a random database query and then reaching out at random to the contents of the entire […]

Doing Service Learning Right

At many institutions, service learning programs are pursued in an ad hoc manner. Here’s how to realize the full potential of a service learning initiative. Service learning programs have proliferated on college and university campuses over the past decade, leading in the best cases to measurable gains in student learning and engagement; yet at many […]

Building Bridges: Understanding and Supporting Faculty, Staff, and Students Across Generations

Building Bridges: Understanding and Supporting Faculty, Staff, and Students Across Generations THREE-PART SERIES   Recorded on August 15, 2023 | Recorded on September 11, 2023 | Recorded on October 18, 2023 Overview Discussions around generational differences can too often feel more focused on competition than collaboration. However, despite their differing cultures and points of view, […]

Practicing Mindfulness: A 9-Day Program for Higher-Ed Professionals

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE Practicing Mindfulness: A 9-Day Program for Higher-Ed Professionals Combat burnout and stress by incorporating mindfulness techniques into your daily life. Sign up to receive bite-sized mindfulness lessons and activities daily for 9 business days. The next cohort starts on Monday. Overview We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to show up, keep […]

Share This Advice with Your First Generation College Students

The first generation college student often feels alone in navigating the processes and procedures of higher education. Here is some advice from staff at Academic Impressions who were first generation themselves. Share this with the students on your campus! by the Staff at Academic Impressions “My interest in higher education is a deeply personal one,” […]

Is It a Microaggression?

Is it a microaggression? The authors of Fix Your Climate, two leading experts on hierarchical microaggressions, discuss how microaggressions operate within an academic workplace and offer a few quick tips for identifying and reducing them. Microaggressions, microbullying, and bullying are the silent destroyers of a university’s climate. Because microaggressions have a cumulative and amplifying effect […]

Financing and Planning Student Life Facilities

READ THE FULL SERIES This summer, we released an executive summary of the findings from a survey of institutions looking to add new student life facilities in the next year. You can read our executive summary here. Now, we are following up with lead architects and consultants who work with student life facilities in higher […]

Spotlight on Innovation: How the University of Minnesota is Building Collaborative Partnerships to Improve Retention of First-Gen Students

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are […]

Getting Buy-in for Addressing Deferred Maintenance

Earlier this month, we surveyed the institutions planning to attend an Academic Impressions webcast on rethinking and prioritizing physical campus improvements. We asked questions about their balance of new capital projects and replacement and renewal, how they were handling issues with limited space capacity, and their level of commitment to addressing the deferred maintenance backlog. […]