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Blog Posts
Tellin’ Ain’t Leadin’
Every now and then, some young person or other—usually a friend’s child—will ask me what I do for a living. I try to make my answer appropriate to the child’s age, often describing a dean’s similarities to and differences from the principal of a school. Frequently, the response I’ll get...
Returning to Campus: How Leaders Can Address Trauma
In the past 18 months, students, faculty, and staff experienced what can only be described as trauma. Many have returned to campus after enduring the loss of family members; others are exhausted from nursing sick loved ones back to health or shouldering extra caretaking responsibilities with children. Some have family...
Getting a Head Start: Early Budget Questions for Beginners
Much has been written about academic department chairs who come into their administrative positions with no formal training and essentially must learn on the job. This oversight is particularly critical at this time, when the future shaping of higher education will depend on the leadership of academic departments to adapt...
Triangulating for a New Approach to Student Success
The signs of a fundamental shift in the attitudes, motivations, and learning expectations of students deciding where to attend college or university are well established. Due to rising costs (e.g., tuition, textbooks, and room and board) and the heavy, long-term debt burden that often comes with an education, many students...
Online Education Data: What Are You Measuring, and How Are You Using It?
Higher education is becoming more data driven, including in relation to online education. The information that colleges and universities are collecting about online education could be institutional data used in accountability reports or accreditation reviews. It could also include data related to teaching online courses, learning management system usage, and faculty...
Creating an Effective Mentoring Program, Part 4: Mentorship Dos and Don’ts
Faculty mentoring programs are only as good as the mentors who work with junior faculty. Unfortunately, few senior faculty members ever receive formal training regarding how to be an effective mentor. They may be excellent instructors and researchers in their subject areas. They may also be experts on university and...
Reflections of a Retired Dean
To serve a college or university as a dean or provost is a special honor and responsibility. I had the pleasure to be in such offices—from department chair, to division head, to dean, to vice president for academic affairs, to provost, to interim president, and (finally!) to senior vice president...
Supporting the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Students in a Post-quarantine Academic Year
Following the move to online instruction to combat the spread of COVID-19, a number of publications have been more frequently discussing the related mental health impact on LGBTQ+ students. In short, many of these articles focus on how stay-at-home orders have affected this student demographic. Examples of such topics include...
