STEM Fatigue
For a little more than a decade, the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have been enjoying something of a privileged status at American colleges and universities. While enrollments in some other areas are stagnant or declining, they have been rising steadily in many STEM courses. In state systems,...
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Culture for Student Success
I served for several years on my college readiness, transition, and retention committee at a large public university. The committee researched, surveyed, and interviewed students, faculty, and administrators, as well as our feeder community college and high school personnel. Below are the findings from our efforts as well as my...
The Research Process and Its Relevance to the Culture of Assessment
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on November 30, 2015. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. As higher education evolves, so too does the importance of assessing learning. New regulations, financial constraints, and accrediting agencies are stressing that colleges and universities should strengthen assessment organizationally. However, when assessment is discussed in large...
Six Lessons from the Pandemic
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on December 14, 2020. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. With the coronavirus pandemic affecting every aspect of our lives, now is the time for us to learn from each other. While Allegheny College has the advantage of being small, private, and located in rural Pennsylvania,...
Friendship as a Teaching Strategy for Graduate Students
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on July 25, 2016. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. Professors play an integral role in cultivating the hearts and minds of their students through the creation of a vibrant intellectual community. Fostering intellectual curiosity and academic integrity enables students to grow professionally and personally. A...
Five Tips for Making Tenure
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on June 27, 2016. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. While the words “tenure track” make it sound like there’s a smooth set of rails that will take you from hiring through to a position on the permanent tenured faculty, “tenure obstacle course” might in fact...
Checklists As an Academic Leadership Tool
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on July 31, 2015. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. There are probably few tools we can use in academic leadership that seem less interesting than a checklist. We may sometimes even refer to checklists as though they were akin to sleepwalking our way through our...
Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on March 16, 2017. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. The fastest-growing developmental disability is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There is an interesting debate about whether this growth is a product of increased autism incidence or what has been dubbed “diagnostic substitution” (i.e., moving people from...
Creating a Policy and Procedures Manual Specific to Online Education
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on December 16, 2019. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. I’ve had the pleasure of serving as the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse’s primary online administrator for the past 12 years and recently was reflecting upon things we have done on our campus over that time...
Practical Higher Education: Fostering Sustainable Student Workforce Skills beyond the Academy
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on September 21, 2020© Magna Publications. All rights reserved. With the recent social disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to predict the future of higher education. But it would seem our industry will be facing challenges and must be flexible enough to...
