These workshops will equip participants with the language and skills they need to respond to specific pressing issues on their campuses. The workshops are foundational in that they will outline best practices in nuanced language and take participants through the specific steps necessary to lead their campuses to implement well-conceived plans that respond to a specific challenge. Each workshop will be followed by concurrent sessions that delve more deeply into the topic. Participants are free to move between themes, stay with the same theme, or just choose any session of interest at any given time.
These workshops are free of charge and do not require pre-registration, but they have limited capacity. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Workshops will be repeated at 10:45 a.m.
Academic Programming for Financial Sustainability
Academic program decisions are critical to future students, faculty, mission, and financials. How can campus leaders make sure they get them right? This session will describe best practices for evaluating markets for academic programs and will cover metrics on student demand, employment, and competition. It will describe how to estimate the effects of program decisions on an institution’s bottom line and will explore how to invest in programs that will increase enrollment and margins. The workshop also will address the impact of program choices on diversity, equity, and inclusion and share a model for estimating the cost of implementing an equitable student success initiative. Finally, participants will explore a simulator that demonstrates the impact of program decisions on budgeting and student success.
Robert Atkins, CEO and Founder, Gray Associates
Colin Irvine, Provost and Executive Vice President, Augustana College
Collegiate Mental Health in the Past Decade: Recent Trends, the Impact of COVID-19, and Next Steps
This workshop will review a brief history of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) and present the latest findings on trends in student mental health and the impact of COVID-19. The workshop will then examine widely documented increases in mental health problems and demand for counseling services over the past two decades. Finally, the presenter will explore implications pertaining to mental health resource allocation, multi-layered support options, and future directions for research. The CCMH at Penn State University is an international practice-research network of more than 700 colleges and universities whose mission is to bridge the gap between science and practice in college counseling centers. CCMH collects and analyzes de-identified data as part of the routine practice when students seek mental health treatment at colleges and universities. The information is used, in turn, to benefit college counseling centers, administrators, researchers, the public, and most importantly the students receiving services.
Brett E. Scofield, Executive Director, The Center for Collegiate Mental Health, Pennsylvania State University
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The curricular modules presented in this workshop will provide participants with practical tools with which to evaluate institutional structures and create transformational change. Participants will explore a variety of equity-focused tools and concepts, including cultural humility and appreciative inquiry, and use them to assess institutional structure and culture. Specific modules will help participants to create strategies that centralize diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutional processes and structures. Other modules will address overcoming backlash and other forms of resistance to change. Upon completion of the modules, participants will have developed an individualized plan to address campuswide equity and inclusion needs.
Rodmon King, Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, Connecticut College
The Intersection of Government and Politics on Your Campus
While the private, nonprofit sector may identify as being independent of government, it is in fact more dependent on federal support for our institutions and students than perhaps ever before. At the same time, campus communities are deeply affected by the seismic political shifts happening in our nation. How can you successfully navigate this intersection and ensure that your campus recognizes today’s political landscape while maintaining effective relationships with your elected officials, students, faculty, and staff?
Barbara K. Mistick, President, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU)
Using Data for Institutional Effectiveness
This workshop will focus on the foundations of institutional effectiveness and how campus leaders can pause, reflect, evaluate, and innovate as institutional effectiveness practices are adapted to challenges higher education is facing now and into the future. Student success, retention, equity, and quality are at the forefront of conversations on many campuses and in higher education itself. Ways to engage campus-wide participation focused on these issues will continue to be part of larger strategic conversations as higher ed moves beyond this moment and onto other challenges that await.
Bethany Miller, Director of Institutional Research and Assessment, Macalester College