Lessons for Engaging and Retaining BIPOC Students
How do we attract historically underrepresented groups of students to our institutions—that is, first-generation college students; Black, Indigenous, and other students of color; and students from low-income backgrounds? How do we best serve them at our institutions? How do we retain them and support them to persist and graduate? Academia,...
Providing Leadership and Support to Professionally Develop Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct faculty may be the most overused and under-resourced groups of individuals in higher education. Many departments and courses would not function, or at least not function well, without adjunct faculty. Yet despite being in many cases essential members of a department, adjuncts receive modest pay, typically by the course...
Conquering the Fear of Authenticity
I will never forget the time I hired a team of social media experts to provide professional development for my fellow faculty members at a small college. As they deftly covered how to best use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to connect with students, they suggested that it was...
Leveraging the Library as a Strategic Academic Partner
Academic libraries play an important role in supporting teaching, learning, and scholarship. But at many colleges and universities, library and academic staff tend to operate in silos. How can academic departments and libraries work together more effectively—and how can campus leaders encourage this collaboration? At colleges and universities where libraries...
Rejuvenating Experiences
The end of a long academic year is probably the time when we are most open to the idea of a rejuvenating instructional experience. In a recent workshop, I heard two teachers describe just such an experience. They team-taught an introductory English lit course with content that explored veteran experiences....
Promoting Faculty Development on a Tight Budget
In a dream world, every academic institution would be populated with a teaching and learning center coupled with a faculty enrichment meeting room. In fact, faculty would continually hone their skills as researchers and teachers in an engaged center on campus. Sounds great, right? For large institutions, probably. But for...
Chaos and Confusion: Reducing Instructional Uncertainty in Times of Crisis
“There may be times when what is most needed is, not so much a new discovery or a new idea as a difference ‘slant.’”—Owen Barfield Educators live in a constant state of disrupted comfort. Classrooms, students, curriculum, assessment, and strategies change daily. In 2020, our foundation was shaken to the...
The Role of Academic Leaders as Instructional Supervisors
When presenting at conferences, I often start by saying I have been in a classroom for 65 years. Of course, that includes my own time as a student starting at age five. Although I have not been a “student” in the formal sense for many years, I continue to learn...
Three Critical Time-Management Tips for Higher Education Professionals
Let’s face it, the life of a higher education pro is not for those without a lot of get up and go. It takes a singular mix of dedication, initiative, and creativity to balance a schedule that at any particular time can include faculty management, budgeting requirements, a research load,...
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...
