News

Creative Destruction: The New Economic Reality in Higher Education

by Marcel J. Dumestre, Ed.D. (opens in new tab)

How is higher education changing, and can institutions rise to the challenge of their at-risk status? The answer hinges on how college and university leaders choose to respond. U.S. higher education is now a business enterprise. No longer is it universally considered a unique social institution dedicated to the common good. The recent Great Recession accelerated this transition process, which has been ongoing for at least the past two decades. Complacency will do nothing more than accelerate a troubling change in culture and society, and a call to action is needed in order for higher education to address this new reality. This paper will briefly: I hope this paper will provoke thought and conversation on your campus. Please read and share it with your colleagues. A New Economic Reality Change is constant, both individually and organizationally. But radical change can disrupt an entire economic sector in a relatively short period of time. There are 4 primary reasons that colleges and universities are now being perceived as a commercial industry. 1. Cost-Push InflationThe cost of attending a university has risen by almost 260% since 1980, while the consumer price index increased by only 120%. Compounding the problem is that real average wages (accounting […]

Hiring Non-Traditional Candidates for Your MGO Team: Navigating the Opportunity and the Risk

by Dr. Joshua Jacobs (opens in new tab)

To find your talented next major gift officer, look beyond your borders and deepen your candidate pool by searching for non-traditional candidates who have the right combination of skills and personality traits to succeed. But also recognize that candidates who are new to university advancement or to higher education will need onboarding and support. The recruitment and retention of our best talent in higher education is fraught with challenge. In institutional advancement, the average tenure of an MGO, by some estimates, is just above 18 months, levying a high cost on the institution in repeated searches, lost philanthropic momentum, and severed relationships. Not only is the length of tenure brief, the search costs to replace MGOs are high. Because the central pillar of successful fundraising is the relationship with the donor, and because each representative of the institution must establish credibility and trust with the donor before the best gift can be secured, replacing one MGO with another is not a simple plug-and-play process. It’s a position — like many in higher education — that requires specific talent, and the competition for that talent is fierce. Recently, I recommended that leaders in advancement boost their odds of finding the right talent […]

Title IX Update: What You Need to Know

by Bev Baligad, J.D. (opens in new tab), Rabia Khan Harvey, M.Ed., MSHR (opens in new tab)

The New York Times recently reported that Betsy DeVos is preparing “new rules” on Title IX policy that would bolster the rights of students accused of assault, reduce liability for institutions, and encourage schools to provide more support for survivors. Two Title IX experts discuss: At this point, what do we know, what don’t we know, and what should we be doing? Rabia Khan Harvey. Bev, thanks for joining me for this conversation! Of course we’re all thinking a lot about the recent article in The New York Times about the coming changes to Title IX policy. Some of the points highlighted here could drastically impact the way institutions conduct Title IX investigations. I wanted to ask you: What was your own first reaction when you heard of the proposed new Title IX rule? Bev Baligad. When I learned of the NY Times article which suggested that new proposed rules where forthcoming, several questions went through my mind: To tell you truth, I’m not surprised. I believe there are many people out there that aren’t surprised that there may be changes made to the regs in the future. Even before DeVos became the Secretary of Education, we saw some indications that the pendulum […]

Athletic Department Strategic Planning: The Power of Defining Objectives, Not Just Tactics

by Ken Halpin (opens in new tab)

At Winthrop, we had never undertaken true, multi-year athletic department strategic planning. Here’s what we learned when we transitioned from annual work plans to defining annual objectives. by Ken Halpin and L. Jeffrey Perez, Winthrop University Those of us in higher education are sick and tired of hearing we face an unprecedented set of challenges: fiscal restraints, demography, technology, and heightened competition, to name a few.  Constantly confronted by these daunting circumstances we may be tempted to just get by – to manage for the next department review or board meeting. But institutions that don’t plan strategically over a number of years and instead adopt a hand-to-mouth approach to planning will face failure in its harshest terms. This is true not only for institutions as a whole but for divisions within the college or university — not the least of which are athletics departments, which face the same set of imperatives as the instiution itself. Athletic departments must maintain academic standards and provide life preparation to the student athletes, who are recruited as aggressively as any other prospects.  They must provide for efficient and cost-effective operations, which are often dependent on fundraising and other sources of revenue. Athletic departments must maintain […]

From Information Overload to Collaborative Learning: Why Higher Ed Needs Higher Tech

Our campus communities — students, faculty, staff, alumni — deal with information overload across many platforms and apps. Isn’t it time we brought campus communication and learning into one high-tech ecosystem? Editorial by Kathy Edersheim (President, Impactrics LLC) and Yasim Rahman (CEO, Unio) Today, while we all deal with massive information overload, this is an acute problem for students. Simply by carrying a smartphone, students are bombarded with information almost constantly. And, as mentioned in a recent Nielsen study, 98% of students from age 18-24 own a smartphone. Millennials wake up with their phones, sleep with their phones, take their phones to their bathrooms and, yes, some check it during sex. (See this study on smartphone separation anxiety.) The massive data deluge leads to information overload, confusion, and a general lack of focus and attention. Colleges need to do whatever they can to simplify navigation of the educational experience to foster a positive experience and successful completion. It is shocking that only about 60% of high school graduates who started college in 2009 finished within six years – by 2015  – and that challenges in coping with college were a key factor. Where does all the information – and information overload – […]

How Gender Bias in Higher Education Leadership Gets in the Way of the Collaboration We Need

Gender bias in higher education can lead us to prize men’s voices over women’s and to value authoritarian and transactional leadership over transformational, collaborative leadership. Yet collaboration is key to meeting the complex challenges our departments and institutions of higher education now face. So let’s explore: How best can men and women work together to develop this critical leadership trait that has traditionally been considered “feminine”? by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Previous articles in this series: In this series we are looking at leadership traits, how they are deployed and recognized differently for men and women, and how gender bias impedes women’s advancement within our colleges and universities. In this fourth article, we’ll take a close look at collaboration. We’ll examine: Why Collaboration is So Critical Remember that memo distributed by a now ex-employee of Google, criticizing diversity and defending the skewed percentage of male coders? After debunking the former employee’s false claim that men were inherently better coders for “biological” reasons, senior leaders at Google also argued that the coder “had fundamentally misunderstood what skills were needed…such as collaboration, creativity and teamwork” (Swinson, 2018, p. 332). While there are many differences between the Google campus and […]

Gender Bias in Higher Education: Why We Need to Develop Self-Aware Leaders

Implicit gender bias is systemic even in the egalitarian environment of higher education, and developing self-awareness in our leaders is the key to challenging it. Yet the “don’t rock the boat” culture of higher ed often gets in our way. Let’s look at how to counter that. This is the third in a series of articles on challenging androcentrism in the academy. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Previous articles in this series:Challenging Androcentrism and Implicit Bias in the AcademyChallenging Androcentrism in the Academy: Why We Need to Value Empathy More In this third article, we’ll look at one set of leadership traits we identified earlier in the series: self-awareness. We’ll examine: Leadership: Where Self-Awareness is Critical Self-awareness and self-development go hand in hand. Self-awareness includes knowing your values, motivators, behaviors, habits, strengths, edges, personality traits, filters, and triggers. For self-awareness to make a difference for you as leader and in your environment, you also have to understand the impact your words and actions have on the people around you and the results you seek. Self-development is doing the work to understand what makes you tick, and self-awareness informs what behaviors to change in order to improve […]

Presidential Transition: 3 Things Chief Advancement Officers Can Do to Help the New President Start Right

A presidential transition can be a challenging time, and those critical first conversations will set the tone for the partnership ahead. by Sasha Egorova, Academic ImpressionsInterviewing Jake Heuser, Bradley University Welcoming a new president can be an unnerving event for the whole campus. It can particularly be a challenging time for the vice president of advancement and the advancement team. Those critical conversations in the first few weeks of a new presidency can set the tone for the partnership between the president and the chief advancement officers in the months ahead–a partnership that will be critical to the health of the institution. We recently spoke with Jake Heuser, VP of Advancement at Bradley University, about what it takes to ensure a smooth transition. Heuser has been at Bradley for over 10 years, having raised over $100 million dollars while working with two presidents during his tenure. A couple of years ago, Bradley went through a presidential transition. Reflecting back on that experience, Heuser offered some key insights on how to establish a productive VP/President relationship during a presidential transition – and three steps to engage your new president effectively in fundraising. 1. The First Meeting: Overprepare, Have a Plan, But Stay […]

Adjunct Faculty: A Department Chair’s Guide to Orienting New Instructors

Department chairs are busy people, and hiring and onboarding adjunct faculty is just one of many tasks on their plate (sometimes right before the start of a new semester). To make it easier, here is a checklist of essential information that chairs should share with new adjunct faculty when hiring them, including course syllabi, textbooks, learning outcomes, encouraged pedagogical approaches, grading philosophy, and where adjunct faculty can go on campus for other resources. by Teresa Focarile, Boise State University As a department chair you have a lot of responsibilities, and hiring and onboarding adjunct faculty is just one of them. Introducing these new instructors to their courses, as well as to department and university culture and resources, can be a big task, particularly if your institution does not have a robust new adjunct faculty orientation program. Adding to the challenge is the fact that adjunct faculty don’t all have the same level of experience in the classroom, or the same history with your institution, so it’s not always possible to have a one-size-fits-all process for getting them ready to teach. That said, there are a few key points that are important to cover in an orientation session that will be […]

How to Become One of the Best Colleges for Veterans and Military Students

by Susan West Engelkemeyer, President, Nichols College While the number of recent high school graduates is shrinking, the pool of military veterans eligible for federal education funds continues to deepen. Certainly the presence of these students does their alma maters proud, but there is much more to being military friendly than thanking them for their service. Providing a college education that meets their particular needs takes work, planning, and a long-term commitment to fulfilling what’s expected of military friendly schools. A leading arbiter of how well colleges are doing on this front is Military Friendly (formerly Victory Media), a marketing and advocacy firm that publishes data-driven ratings for post-military education and career opportunities.   Every year, the company compiles a list containing the top 15 percent of the thousands of universities, colleges, and trade schools it surveys.  In 2018, 800 schools—including Nichols College—made the cut in four divisions ranging from pre-Bronze and Bronze to Silver and Gold. Here’s how we achieved that status — and what you can learn from our efforts. We will cover what we’ve done so far, what we’re doing next, and what you can do on your own campus. What We’ve Done So Far Since 2015 we have held our […]

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