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A global pandemic and two hurricanes in two weeks. That's enough disaster to daunt even the staunchest college officials. But the leadership team and staff at SOWELA Technical Community College met the challenges, building on a retention rate of 75.06% from spring to fall 2020, to achieve an 83.71% retention rate from fall 2020 to spring 2021, the highest of any community college in Louisiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If students, faculty, and staff members are back on campus this fall, your institution has no doubt taken steps to reduce the risk of COVID‐19 transmission. As a disability services professional, you can work with your facilities staff to ensure mitigation efforts don't restrict access for individuals with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DALLAS — For most deans and provosts, the top priorities are for students to learn as much as they can and to graduate. But what are the best strategies to accomplish those goals? Tony Holland, special assistant to the chief of staff and vice chancellor of academics for the Alabama Community College System, shared the top five strategies implemented in his system at a session at the American Association of Community Colleges annual meeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DALLAS — Concealed carry on campus: It's a hotly contested topic both at colleges and universities and in state legislatures. If your institution doesn't have a policy in place, or needs to revise its policy based on changes in state law, you'll need a process to create the policy that creates buy‐in and lead to a policy that can be enforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At Lake Area Technical Institute in South Dakota, student outcomes statistics tell a powerful story. The graduation/transfer rate is 74 percent, compared with 39 percent nationally. The retention rate is 80 percent, compared with 52 percent nationally. After graduation, 99 percent of graduates are employed. And graduates enter the workforce earning 27 percent more than other new hires in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many campuses have experienced debate and protests over speakers and their topics, and some protests have turned violent. Campus leaders try to simultaneously keep members of the community safe, support First Amendment rights, and uphold institutional values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - When officials at the University of Central Florida set out to create and implement their strategic plan, they wanted to leverage a quality that makes UCF distinctive: it's size. With 64,000 students, the institution offers that opportunity to 'use the power of scale,' as the impact statement for the plan states. But at such a large institution, making sure faculty and staff members across campus understand the plan and their part in it can be a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting the needs of students with disabilities requires disability services providers to work with other stakeholders to be effective. And while the traditional model requires students to reach out to disability services providers, faculty members, and others for the support they need, many students don't realize what services are available and don't understand who does what on campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW ORLEANS - In a time when higher education is undergoing major changes, administrators need to be able to anticipate needs and make adjustments to programs and operations quickly. Developing leadership at all levels of the institution can help the institution be ready to act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colleges and universities focus on providing degree programs for students. But students don't stop learning when they move their tassel to the other side of the mortarboard. Gary Matkin, Ph.D., dean of continuing education, distance learning, and summer sessions at the University of California, Irvine, has a vision for a 60-year curriculum to meet students' learning needs well beyond the degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Your campus police department can do a lot on its own to keep students, faculty, and staff members safe. But your efforts will be even more effective if you work with divisions across campus to create a holistic approach to campus safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHICAGO - When Dawn Lindsay arrived at Anne Arundel Community College as president in 2012, she discovered that 59 percent of the college's employees were eligible to retire. She immediately realized the college needed a leadership development program to fill the void when those faculty and staff members started to leave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CHICAGO - Knowing what supports help students persist and graduate is the first step to boosting their success rates. Implementing effective strategies on a large scale is the next challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are you ready to respond to an emergency in your academic unit? Does your department's emergency plan leave you confident you can react effectively to an active shooter? How about a suspicious package? Will essential functions continue smoothly if a natural disaster such as a hurricane or flood occurs? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON, D.C. - If you've noticed a shift in your traditional-aged students' behaviors and expectations in the last couple of years, that's because you're seeing Generation Z arrive on campus. The first students from this generation started as freshmen in 2013, said Corey Seemiller, assistant professor of leadership studies at Wright State University; and Meghan Grace, new member orientation director for Sigma Phi Epsilon. Seemiller and Grace, the authors of Generation Z Goes to College, spoke at the Association of American Colleges and Universities annual meeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether students start at two- or four-year institutions, most of them share the same goal: graduation. Many students who start at community colleges plan to earn bachelor's degrees. But often, not all their credits transfer. Or they learn they did not take the right courses to be on track to graduation for their chosen major. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mars Hill University in North Carolina was created to provide educational opportunities for students who otherwise wouldn't have them. That was in 1856, and the institution has undergone a few name changes since then. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry‐funded research can give your professors and students opportunities to solve real‐world problems. But creating agreements that manage intellectual property that comes out of that research can be time‐consuming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting and retaining a diverse faculty can be a challenge. But as the student population becomes increasingly diverse, it's more important than ever to meet that challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining a liberal arts education with applied learning prepares students for careers — from the first job through retirement. Could your institution do more to ensure that all students have equal opportunities? For example, do all students have the same access to internships? Or do those crucial experiences go to the most savvy students who know to seek them out? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excellent faculty members. Attractive, functional facilities. Technology that supports learning. Those are just a few of the factors that support your institution's academic mission. They all cost money, and there's never enough to do everything you'd like to do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If your institution doesn't already offer competency‐based programs, they might be coming soon. In September 2012, there were about 20 of these programs offered, said Alison Kadlec, senior vice president and director of higher education and workforce programs for Public Agenda. Currently, at least 200 programs are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When kids are three or four, everything in their life is a celebration, said Joel Zeff, President of Joel Zeff Creative and author of Make the Right Choice: Creating a Positive, Innovative, and Productive Work Life. He was a keynote speaker at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers annual conference. Celebrating their "ta‐da" moments fuels their confidence and interest in taking risk, he added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers suggestions from the advisory board members of the journal including Cynthia Worthen, Benjamin Akande and William Fitzgibbon for involving faculty members in recruitment or enrollment of students to the college and to retain them through graduation. Topics include accompanying admissions officials, bimonthly meetings to discuss at-risk students and working as a group or in team.

The article presents information on using biometric signatures for verifying online education student with BioSig-ID. A consortium of some community colleges called eduKan used the method for verifying students' identities. Faculty members authenticate identity of a student at times throughout the course.

The article offers suggestions on creating space to support learning goals. The University of Florida has added two spaces that enable more flexibility for faculty who want to include high levels of student in their classes. Suggestions are offered to break down hierarchical separation between students and educators and also encourage collaboration.

The article focuses on the partnerships developed by the officials at Missouri State University with two-year institutions aimed to help students and school achieved their enrollment goals. It mentions that the partnerships involved working together with all the members of an academic institution from presidents down. It also discusses the A+ of the state of Missouri.

The article offers information on the third edition of "The Resource Handbook for Academic Deans" edited by Laura L. Behling. It mentions that the handbook offers concrete ideas and strategies for both experienced and non-experienced academic administrators to be applied in the field of school administration.

The article focuses on the insights of several persons regarding organizational change management. Among them are College of Fine Arts dean Lucinda Lavelli, Argosy University vice president for academic affairs Cynthia Worthen, and Webster University's George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology dean Benjamin Akande.

The article offers the insights of dean and music professor José Antonio Bowen at Southern Methodist University on liberal eduction. Topics discussed include his book "Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning," the technological changes that impact learning and teaching, and the strategies for better teaching. Among the technological changes are relationship to knowledge, social proximity, and customization and gaming.

The article discusses the adoption of Schoolwide Assistance Team (SWAT) approach at the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville. Topics discussed include the creation of the SWAT that will address the issue of low headcount in the campus, the plan for undergraduate education, and the implementation of enrollment-boosting initiatives and retention programs.

When the enrollment services division at Central New Mexico Community College started looking at digital services for diplomas, transcripts, and other credentials, they were guided by the institution's strategic plan. One of the plan's priorities was to shift from college‐owned technology to student‐owned technology, said Feng Hou, chief information officer and chief digital learning officer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service to the community has been a long‐standing tradition at Long Island University. Students volunteer more than 150,000 hours annually, said Randy Burd, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. New initiatives in LIU's Global Service Institute build on that tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online classes can be presented in a way that benefits everyone and meets the needs of students with disabilities, and it's not as hard as it seems, according to Tom Thibodeau, Assistant Provost at the New England Institute of Technology and co‐author of UDL in the Cloud! How to Design and Deliver Online Education Using Universal Design for Learning. He provided the following tips for incorporating Universal Design principles into online teaching in a webinar hosted by the Online Learning Consortium: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can campuses reopen safely in the fall? That's a big question officials at many institutions are trying to answer. One key is to enable and encourage social distancing on campus. Officials at Apogee and Degree Analytics have partnered to create a solution that enables campus officials to track where people are gathering. Heat map displays show how many people are in an area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"What should I be doing when I really don't know what will happen next? What can I learn?" Those are questions higher education leaders should be asking over the next few months about the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic, said Larenda Mielke, Vice President of Higher Education at Kaufman Hall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to make our young people succeed," said Tunjarnika Coleman, Provost and Dean of Student Services at the Palm Beach Gardens Campus of Palm Beach State College. She leads her campus with a focus on completing each initiative with excellence and the mantra #makeithappen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There's a popular narrative that college is not worth the time and money. Even a Gates Foundation initiative is examining the value of higher education, said Larry Chiagouris, a Professor in the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and author of The Secret to Getting a Job After College. But how do recent graduates feel about the investment they made, especially as it relates to their career? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ORLANDO — Does your institution's course schedule create barriers for students that could cause them to get off track fulfilling their requirements and even have to delay completing their degrees? If courses are scheduled at times students can't take them — or there just aren't enough seats available — it's time to consider how you can align course scheduling with your institution's and students' completion goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few years ago, officials at Blackburn College in Illinois hired an enrollment consultant to help them recruit students. But the strategy failed, and the freshman class shrank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A safe campus is key to students, faculty, and staff focusing on academic pursuits. As an academic administrator, what can you do to ensure that your campus is as safe as possible? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW ORLEANS - Guided pathways have led to increased completion numbers for community colleges that have implemented them. The pathways provide students with a clear map to completion. But just providing a list of courses for students to take is not enough. Effective guided pathways require 'long-term, large-scale institutional change,' said Kay McClenney, senior advisor to the president and chief executive officer at the American Association of Community Colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education classroom is meant to be a place where ideas are exchanged freely and students encounter perspectives that are different from their own. But classroom conversations about issues such as race and identity can be difficult. And in the wake of the presidential election and inauguration, strong opposing views are even more challenging to manage in a classroom, said William Atkins, interim executive director of multicultural and diversity affairs in the Division of Student Affairs at the University of Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offering competency-based courses and programs can help your institution boost enrollment by attracting adult students. But implementing competency-based offerings presents challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiraling tuition costs accompanied by ever-deeper discounting. It's a common scenario, especially at small, private colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During President Mark B. Rosenberg's inauguration proceedings at Florida International University in 2009, the new leader announced an ambitious fundraising campaign. That's an unusual way to launch a campaign, said Howard Lipman, senior vice president of university advancement and chief executive officer of the FIU Foundation, who now leads the Next Horizon campaign, with a fundraising goal of $750 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next academic year, Jennifer Wolch's life will be quite different. After 10 years as William W. Wurster Dean of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, Wolch is stepping down this summer, with a sabbatical planned. Reflecting on her years as dean, accomplishments Wolch is most proud of include. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vanya Quiñones, university provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Pace University, starts every workday by saying "This is the day." She wants her staff to believe that on this day they will help someone or make a positive change. They might help one student, solve a problem that impacts 10 students, or address an issue with a broad impact. "The most important thing to remember is we're helping students," she tells them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]