News

How Bay Path Boosted STEM Success for Underrepresented Women

Establishing a Center of Excellence for Women in STEM has improved academic success, engagement, and retention of underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation undergraduate women in Bay Path University’s STEM majors. Here’s what Bay Path did, and some lessons learned that may be key if you would like to undertake a similar initiative. by Gina Semprebon, PhD, Professor or Biology, Founding Director of the Center of Excellence for Women in STEM, Bay Path University; Christine Bacon, D.HEd, Associate Professor of Biology, Chair of Science, Bay Path University; and Lamis Jarvinen, PhD, Director of Partners for Scientific Inquiry The Challenges We Faced As seen in many other higher education institutions, our female students have become increasingly attracted to pursuing STEM majors over the past several years. At Bay Path University, a women-serving institution at the undergraduate level, we have responded by expanding our STEM offerings and have sought for effective ways to both attract and retain women in our STEM majors, as well as to serve as a networking and educational center for professional women in STEM fields in our region – many of the latter being our own graduates. However, the typical academic challenges faced in gateway, foundational courses within the first two years of […]

Challenging Androcentrism in the Academy: Why We Need to Value Empathy More

Empathy and compassion are critical for high-performing academic leaders, but institutions often undervalue these leadership competencies due to implicit gender bias. Let’s look at how to counter that tendency. This is the second in a series of articles on challenging androcentrism in higher education. by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  In this second article, we’ll look at one set of leadership traits we identified earlier in the series: empathy and compassion. We’ll examine: How Empathy and Compassion are Linked to Leadership and Team Performance As the idea of emotional intelligence has become more accepted in the years since Goleman, Boyatzis, and McGee began publishing their research on it, acceptance of empathy and compassion as leadership competencies has also become more common. As a leadership competency, empathy is defined as the ability to: Compassion moves beyond understanding to action, such as acting in someone else’s interest. In the human systems that are our colleges and universities, managing conflict, coordination, and relationships is paramount. Leading with empathy and compassion inspires trust, and trust strengthens relationships at the individual, team, and system levels. We know that addressing conflict with an empathetic skill set — including listening, openness, and understanding — […]

Challenging Androcentrism and Implicit Bias in the Academy

Higher education is still “a man’s world,” though it doesn’t have to be. But equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first in a series of articles looking at how college and universities can navigate that shift.  by Rosalind Spigel, Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach, Spigel Consulting  Recent studies have documented persistent gender inequities in higher education, including gender gaps in faculty salaries and only slow increases in the percentage of women in leadership positions. Women in higher education (and across sectors) face formidable barriers to advancement not only because gender bias exists on a personal level, but also because these biases are built into our organizational structures. Equipping women with tips and tools for getting ahead isn’t enough to level the playing field; deep change requires a shift in organizational culture. This is the first of a series of articles in which I will be looking at how men and women practice leadership traits, how these traits are often interpreted, and how biases held by both women and men keep women on the margins and impede their advancement […]

Social Strategy: How ATSU Bridged Departmental Divides to Build a Unified Social Media Presence

ATSU’s approach to unifying its social strategy across departmental divides has yielded an 879% increase in organic reach on Facebook. by Anne Ackroyd, Public Relations Specialist, A.T. Still University Over the past year, while most public pages have seen a significant decrease in organic reach on Facebook, A.T. Still University (ATSU) has seen an 879% increase (comparing June 2017 to June 2016). One of the major factors in ATSU’s success has been an innovative, university-wide social media committee, developed to overcome departmental divides and build a more unified social media presence. In early 2017, ATSU’s marketing team determined that the quantity of university-affiliated social media pages was undermining the institution’s reach and engagement. This problem is not unique to ATSU, a small graduate health sciences school of about 3,000 students. A quick search on Facebook for your alma mater will likely reveal dozens of pages that bear some variation of the institution’s logo. The problem stems from the silo mentality that plagues higher education. Faculty, staff and students often identify strongly with their area of study, rather than with the institution as a whole. In addressing this issue, ATSU developed a replicable model for a social media committee tailored to the […]

Recruiting the Right Major Gift Officers

by Dr. Joshua Jacobs (opens in new tab)

Before you hire your next major gift officer, clarify what the team really needs in the newest MGO, identify the skills you need to ask for, and deepen your candidate pool by searching for non-traditional candidates who have the right combination of skills and personality traits to succeed. Here’s how. The retention and recruitment of major gift officers (MGOs) in higher education is problematic. 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. Additionally, the position requires specific talent. It is not possible to place just anyone in the role, due to the high-level of autonomy (substantial self-direction and travel), lack of direct accountability (difficulty assessing performance), and significant burden of institutional representation (a lone individual is representing […]

How to Negotiate Your Salary in Higher Ed

by Elizabeth Suárez, author of The Art of Getting Everything: How to Negotiate for What You Want and More What Holds Us Back from Negotiating As a negotiation coach who has worked with clients across a variety of higher education institutions, I have often seen a level of hesitation by some clients to negotiate a job offer, compensation package, or project. The hesitation doesn’t come from a lack of skills. Instead, it is generated by the fear of not knowing how to approach the negotiation. Why the fear? Let’s face it, how many of us wake up in the morning ready to negotiate? My guess is not many. Many of us might have not had opportunities to practice negotiation on a frequent basis. Additionally, we live in a polarized world, one in which one-sided negotiation has become the norm. Many no longer feel comfortable discussing difficult topics with those who have a different perspective. Unfortunately, this often leads to a hesitation to negotiate, especially when it’s time to ask for a raise, additional resources, or a promotion. The 3P Approach to Negotiation Overcoming this fear in a higher-ed environment takes preparation, perspective, and practice. Consider the example of one of my […]

How Marietta College Integrated Entrepreneurial Thinking Throughout the Curriculum

To prepare students to think in entrepreneurial ways,we need to become entrepreneurial thinkers ourselves.by Janet Bland, Marietta College Today’s rapid pace of change and growing demand for entrepreneurial thinking can be both inspiring and frustrating to those of us in higher education; after all, we value the measured path to tenure, wear regalia designed in the Middle Ages, and we work happily within a centuries-old tradition of intellectual inquiry and accomplishment.  We can be slow to innovate, yet we must prepare students for a twenty-first century in which they will need to innovate—a world in which creative problem solving, rapid experimentation, and an entrepreneurial outlook will be increasingly important in both the world of work and the advancement of knowledge.  And to prepare students to think in entrepreneurial ways, we need to become entrepreneurial thinkers ourselves. The Challenge We Faced When we set out to update the undergraduate curriculum at Marietta College, we wanted to continue to distinguish ourselves in the highly competitive Ohio higher education recruiting environment, but we knew that we needed to move faster than the usual snail’s pace of curricular reform. We didn’t have ten years to spend bringing in new programs that our students need […]

How Can Liberal Arts Education Help Our Campuses Become More Inclusive?

by Mary Hinton (opens in new tab)

We have not consistently connected the core values of the liberal arts education and the demands of inclusion. The challenge before is: How can we use our deepest, richest resource—our liberal arts curriculum—to support becoming more inclusive institutions?  Last year, I had the privilege of standing with several hundred students as they protested at the College of Saint Benedict. As on many other campuses, historically underrepresented students expressed their concerns about what they view as the failed promise of community, about the lack of seeing themselves thrive in higher education, and about their need to be heard. During the protest I had two colliding experiences. First, I was reminded of my own experience nearly three decades ago at my alma mater: feeling out of place on campus; desperately wanting to fit in; fervently desiring to be recognized for who I was and the experiences I brought with me, as opposed to trying to contort myself to fit into community as defined by others. How little has changed since then, I thought. Second, as the current leader of a liberal arts institution, I recognized that the hurt I witnessed on that day was rooted in the hopes our students brought to […]

What Happens When Volunteers Are No Longer a “Nice to Have” Resource, But Instead a Strategic Investment?

Most colleges treat volunteers as “nice to have” resource, but a well-managed volunteer infrastructure can mean better fundraising, stronger student outcomes, and deeper relationships with donors, alumni, and friends of the institution. by Valerie Jones, College of Saint Benedict The Scenario In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted from a rural road in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The event made national headlines and united the community in support of his family. Twenty-eight years later, their worst fears were confirmed. As the grieving family began planning a memorial service in 2016, the College of Saint Benedict (CSB) offered to host. The invitation drew RSVPs from more than 6,000 people, including state and national dignitaries. Logistics such as parking, shuttles, security, media management, hospitality, and more demanded resources. With only two weeks to prepare and with all normal functions of the college already maxed out with the beginning of the fall semester, the college turned to the one resource that would make all the difference: volunteers. Within 10 days, CSB recruited, trained, and deployed roughly 125 volunteers to support the memorial service. Volunteers worked alongside college staff parking cars, ushering dignitaries, greeting shuttles, guiding media members, tending to presenters, collecting condolences and […]

Athletics Donors and the New Tax Law: Time to Reconsider Your Communications Strategy?

by Sasha Egorova, Academic Impressions The new tax law passed in December 2017 has the potential to significantly affect athletics fundraising. The law repealed an 80% tax deduction that donors could previously take on contributions tied to the right to purchase athletic tickets. Division I schools that rely heavily on these types of gifts could potentially lose millions of dollars in contributions if their donors decide to no longer make these payments. This News Has Made Universities Nervous In April 2018 Academic Impressions surveyed institutions to understand how the law is expected to affect athletics fundraising and how different universities are responding to this change. We found that: Here’s How They’re Responding Things are still very much in flux, as schools are figuring out their way forward. There are many things to consider: interpretation of the law, accounting implications, campaign and fundraising goal-setting, donor communications, receipting, fund restructuring … the list goes on. Overall, there are two ways institutions are responding. RESPONSE 1 Some schools are trying to find a way for donors to still keep contributions like these deductible. In essence, that entails finding a workaround to the law. To do this: This option is still far from clear, […]

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