2018 Presentations

John N. Gardner
Chair and C.E.O. of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education

More than ever, we need to be raising and answering these questions for ourselves so we are grounded in our important work. John will stimulate your reflections on these questions by sharing with you some of his own. We all are building our legacies.

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Audience Responses

Jeffrey L. Buller
Director of Leadership and Professional Development at Florida Atlantic University and Senior Partner of ATLAS – Academic Training, Leadership & Assessment Services

When it comes to matters of student success, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that most of the metrics colleges and university use to measure student success correlate far more closely with input factors (such as family income and high school GPA) than any factor controlled by institutions of higher education (such as class size, access to advisors, supplemental instruction, and the like). The good news is that correlation is not causality and that effective leadership can produce environments in which the likelihood of student success is augmented. In this session, we’ll explore how the strategy of Positive Academic Leadership can be used to create conditions in which students are most likely to succeed.

Amy Baldwin
Director of the Department of Student Transitions at the University of Central Arkansas

First-year college students come to our institutions with both hope and trepidation; they are eager to learn and yet often challenged by the transition to our academic expectations. This presentation will provide participants with an overview of the recurring academic and personal themes in first-year college student reflections and conversations as well as strategies for helping students make the most of their first year.

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Greg Cook
Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

LEAP (Liberal Education & America’s Promise) is a national initiative that can provide a framework to engage faculty, staff, administrators and students in collaborative work to improve student learning and success. Sponsored by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, this initiative emphasizes the Essential Learning Outcomes that employers seek, supported by High-Impact Practices and Principles of Excellence that deliver high-quality educational programs. A pillar of LEAP is Inclusive Excellence, a commitment to supporting the success of all students to help all of our campuses deliver America’s Promise.

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Bryan Dewsbury
Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Rhode Island

Inclusive teaching begins with a critical look at the self, social positioning, and the myriad ways in which our histories have impacted our current broader outlook. Without this reflection, specific strategies are likely to be superficial and applied without context. In this session we will engage in an activity that highlights meaningful social difference, and reflect on the implications this difference may have for our practice.

Michael Gray
Professor of Biology at Bob Jones University

University courses tend to be information-dense and idea-destitute. We’ll explore how to help faculty extract the compelling ideas which are buried at the root of courses and disciplines. Once these ideas have been unearthed, courses can focus on the development of those ideas and their consequences rather than on the mere transfer of information.

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Handout

Tony Holland
Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Alabama Community College System

Discover how to reduce the time needed to obtain faculty buy-in for an instructional transformation which closes achievement gaps and increases retention and completion rates, as limiting time in the resistance phase of change is crucial to building momentum needed to develop a culture of inquiry and excellence in instruction. Leave with an array of logical responses to virtually all faculty responses to change, an environment where mindset is initially much more important than skill set.

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Jillian L. Kinzie
Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute, Indiana University School of Education

High-Impact practices (HIPs), such as learning communities, undergraduate research and service‐learning, demonstrably enhance student engagement and success. Yet, while research shows participation in HIPs benefits all students, especially those from historically underrepresented groups, not all students participate. Even more, HIPs can vary in quality and may lack the curricular integration that facilitates a collective impact on student learning and success. This session will highlight what makes HIPs effective, feature strategies for ensuring more students can take part, and introduce quality by considering the six common elements across the practices that—when employed—make the practices high impact.

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Donald Pearl
Director of the Center for Academic Success at the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Student Success Seminar discussed in this presentation has been a required course at Georgia Institute of Technology for students returning from academic dismissal for four years. Over that time it has led to a significant increase in the number of students who successfully make the transition from dismissal to graduation. The discussion will focus on how self-reflection and intensive academic coaching critical components of the seminar compel students into addressing behaviors that led to dismissal and the changes they must make to improve their grades and graduate. Additionally, we will consider lessons learned about why academically well prepared students fail in a competitive collegiate environment.

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Ann Marie VanDerZanden
Louis Thompson Distinguished Undergraduate Teacher and Associate Provost for Academic Programs at Iowa State University

In 2016, a new professional development workshop was developed at Iowa State University with the focus of enhancing student learning experiences by creating inclusive classrooms and learning environments. Participants in this workshop: identify their own attitudes towards inclusion and determine how it impacts teaching; enhance instructional skills that contribute to an inclusive campus environment; and learn about student support resources at the university. This session will describe the process followed and products created, and provide opportunity for participants to discuss and share exemplary practices to further inclusive classroom initiatives.

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Greg Walton
Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University
Chris Smith
Executive Director of the College Transition Collaborative
Kurt Boniecki
Associate Provost at the University of Central Arkansas

We will introduce the College Transition Collaborative, a group of leading researchers and administrators working together to identify points of “psychological friction” in college—times when students question whether they belong and can succeed, which can undermine student success, especially for students from disadvantaged or minority backgrounds—and to develop scalable interventions to remedy these points and improve outcomes.

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Ken Warden
Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith

The presentation will focus on innovative programming to engage the next generation in high-demand opportunities in the regional workforce. The presenter will share how collaborative partnerships from the state, postsecondary, and secondary education, as well as business industry, have created multiple pathways for student success.

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