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Happy National Mentoring Month!


Posted: Jan 31 2023 by

Patricia Marsteller
Emory University
Patricia Marsteller, Emory University

Change Topics (Working Groups): Change Leaders, Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Institution Administration, Graduate Students, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty
Program Components: Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Advising and Mentoring

Since Odysseus left Mentor in charge of his family, estates, and his son, the art and science of mentoring has been critical to guiding career and educational development. Like Mentor, I aim to be a wise and trusted counselor, guide, guardian, and teacher or as the title of a widely read book indicates, an Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend (National Academies of Sciences, 1997). I have learned that mentoring is an alliance between people and that both mentors and mentees benefit from agreements about how the relationship will evolve and how to include social support, career development, and growth. With faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, mentoring often involves getting to know the whole person, their aims and aspirations, and their qualms about the future. Connecting students to the right resources or empowering them to bring up difficult questions with their faculty or research mentors requires that you be open, listen carefully, and know them as persons. More

Transforming Institutions Takeaways


Posted: Jun 24 2021 by

Rachel Renbarger
Western Michigan University
Rachel Renbarger, Western Michigan University

Change Topics (Working Groups): Assessment, Change Leaders, Guiding Theories, Policy, Costs and Benefits, Faculty Evaluation, Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, College/University Staff, In-Service K12 Teachers, Non-tenure Track Faculty
Program Components: Professional Development:Cultural Competency, Institutional Systems:Interdepartmental Collaboration, Outreach:Policy Change, Inter-Institutional Collaboration, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion, Supporting Students:Professional Preparation

Last week concluded the 2021 Transforming Institutions Conference that marked the 10th year of convening like-minded change leaders. The event was a rousing success; we had over 250 participants from at least 3 continents with over 40 concurrent presentations, 60+ posters, and 4 workshops containing research-based strategies for improving higher education. What did we learn from such an amazing event? More

Shared leadership for student success at UW-Whitewater


Posted: Feb 7 2019 by
Meg Waraczynski
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Jodie Parys
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Susan Elrod
Indiana University-South Bend
Susan Elrod, Jodie Parys, and Meg Waraczynski, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Change Topics (Working Groups): Guiding Theories, Change Leaders
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Outreach, Supporting Students, Institutional Systems

Colleges and universities across the country are facing increasing pressure to enroll, retain and graduate more students at a time when the environment for higher education is competitive and often contentious. In order for institutions to be successful in these student success endeavors, everyone must work together. We are all familiar with shared governance as a central tenet of higher education but those processes apply primarily to policy development and decision-making. We argue that shared leadership is required as a holistic approach to goal development and implementation of strategic priorities that foster student and institutional success. In this model, both administrators and faculty/staff leaders play key roles that are essential to the long-term success and sustainability of student success initiatives. Administrators provide a framework for initiatives as they relate to the broader campus community; foster connections between individuals engaged in similar work; provide strategic support and remove barriers to progress; and hold the campus accountable for achieving shared goals. Shared leaders capitalize on their discipline expertise and commitment to student success and program outcomes to fill in the pieces of the framework. They utilize their classroom and program experience to design, test, and apply proposed solutions and also retain ownership of the initiatives and solutions. More

Building on the BOSE Report of Indicators for STEM Education


Posted: Mar 23 2018 by
David Bressoud
Macalester College
David Bressoud, Macalester College
Change Topics (Working Groups): Guiding Theories, Change Leaders
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Supporting Students:Professional Preparation, Academic Support, Professional Development:Diversity/Inclusion

As everyone probably knows by now, the National Academies have released their Indicators for Monitoring Undergraduate STEM Education.

There clearly is much overlap with the charge to the Working Group on Demonstrating Change. We would appreciate informal discussion around two questions:
  1. Is there anything left for us to do?
  2. Assuming the answer to #1 is "yes," how can we shape our work so as to build on this report? More

Implementing Integrated Comprehensive Student Programs in STEM: Challenges and Facilitators from the CSU STEM Collaboratives


Posted: Mar 21 2018 by
Elizabeth Holcombe
Indiana University-Bloomington
Elizabeth Holcombe, University of Southern California
Change Topics (Working Groups): Guiding Theories, Equity and Inclusion
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Supporting Students:Academic Support, Mentoring Program, Institutional Systems:Strategic Planning

In my last post, I described the benefits of integrated support programs for underrepresented students in STEM. These integrated programs bridge organizational silos and build a unified community of support, in which faculty and staff work together to break down barriers to student success. The campuses that participated in the CSU STEM Collaboratives project saw increased student success and other organizational benefits as a result of creating integrated programs.

While integration across functional areas represents a promising strategy for supporting student success, it represents a new way of working in higher education. Implementing integrated programs presents some unique challenges that may not be evident when implementing other types of interventions. In this post, I will briefly discuss a few of these challenges, as well as some strategies that STEM Collaboratives campuses used to overcome them. More

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