Preparing Our Higher Education Institutions for the Future - 5 Recommendations

As we prepare for an upcoming year, I have to stop and think about the future of higher education. The pandemic changed our students, faculty, staff, and our campus as a whole. The Education Advisory Board (EAB) provides colleges and universities across the country with resources and ideas to help the students of the future.

I confess, I have been a complete fan of EAB and their resources for the past ten years. Their resources are at the forefront of higher education innovation.

One of their resources, "Campus 2030: Envisioning Tomorrow’s Multi-Modal Campus" projects the future of several services available at colleges and universities across the nation. These services include:

🏛 - Dining Halls and Food Spaces

🏛 - Modern Student Housing

🏛 - Hybrid and Flexible Office Spaces

🏛 - Tech-Enabled Classrooms

🏛 - Libraries and Learning Commons

🏛 - Interdisciplinary Research Facilities

Higher education institutions should also focus on the faculty and staff as well. When I ask most of my peers if they are comfortable with the numerous changes happening across their institution, most of them are uncomfortable. We need to prepare our teams for the future of higher education. 

Here's the Millennial Professor's Call the Action Statements for the Higher Education Industry

🌎 - Higher Education Conferences and Summits Need to Provide Trainings Focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Their Attendees

🌎 - Higher Education Institutions Need to Include Faculty and Staff as Part of Their Planning Process (an Important Part)

🌎 - Higher Education Institutions Provide Wellness and Holistic Support for Faculty and Staff Who are Having Problems With Change (You Need Us and We Need Help)

🌎 - Higher Education Institutions Need to Be Comfortable with Uncommon Spaces (Flexible Office Spaces)

🌎 - Faculty Need to Embrace Collaboration Opportunities with Faculty at Their Institutions and Other Institutions

Here are some additional articles about the future of higher education:

The Future of Higher Education: 5 Trends to Watch

EDUCAUSE 2023: How AI Could Impact Student Success in Higher Ed

Anti-DEI and the Future of Higher Education

How Will Artificial Intelligence Change Higher Ed?

The Future of College Policing and Security - Campus Safet

Higher education will continue to transition in an effort to meet the needs of our current and incoming students. 

Here's the link to the entire infographic - https://attachment.eab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PDF-FF-Campus-of-the-Future-2030-Infographic.pdf

For our particular university, we are striving to modify all of these items simultaneously. It is a challenge, but the changes are well worth the journey.

Here's the challenge for this post: "In your opinion, which one of the items on the list is MOST important for your institution?"

***. 

Check out my book - Retaining College Students Using Technology: A Guidebook for Student Affairs and Academic Affairs Professionals.

Remember to order copies for your team as well!

Interested in a specific student success topic or do you need a speaker for an upcoming conference? Contact me via direct message on Twitter or join our Student Success and Retention Institute - Learning Community on Facebook!

Thanks for visiting! 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
Professor of Communication

Executive Director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute & Rural Communication Institute

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Remaining Innovative as a Faculty Member After Tenure

Slightly before or after achieving tenure, most faculty think that they've reached the end of their innovation journey and their teaching can solely focus on the best practices that they've developed throughout the last few years. Wrong! I challenge each of you to keep thinking, being creative, and reaching students in your classroom.

Whenever I reach the end of my current innovation point, I have to look for innovators in the academic industry. Usually this search occurs online (fast, easy, and FREE). However, after joining the AACU's Liberal Education and America's Promise in the state of Texas, I just have to look at the innovative social media posts from colleagues in the state and in other LEAP States.

If you are wondering about LEAP States initiative, I am including their links below...
LEAP Wisconsin Innovation Hub - https://www.uwp.edu/facultyandstaff/innovationhub/

LEAP California Innovation Hub - http://www.calfaccollab.org/

LEAP Indiana Innovation Hub - https://sites.google.com/iu.edu/leap-indiana/

LEAP Texas - http://leaptx.org/

LEAP Utah - http://ufc.ou.usu.edu/

So, I charge you to remain innovative, keep thinking, being creative, and reach students in your classroom. Use these free resources and learn how you can improve your teaching techniques without leaving your home (or campus).

In addition to the innovative techniques from LEAP Texas (and the other LEAP States), here are "10 Ways that Faculty Can Remain Innovative After Tenure".

Have a great week! Thanks for visiting the Millennial Professor Blog!

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards

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FREE Training for Higher Education Faculty - Pearson's Speaking About...Webinar Week

Are your travel funds small this semester? Are you short on time, but eager to learn about new aspects and concepts focused on your academic discipline?

I am FAN of FREE online webinars and online conferences focused on teaching, learning, and research. Here's a neat opportunity from Pearson's Professional Development Online "Speaking About..." series focused on: Art, English, History, Music and Humanities, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and World Languages. This event takes place between October 12-16, 2015.

These sessions look spectacular - here's a sample:

How to Think About Masculinities
Professor Michael Kimmel - Stony Brook University

Increasing Economic Inequality: A Closer Look 
Dr. John Macionis - Kenyon College

Using Social Media to Teach Sociology
Nathan Palmer - Georgia Southern University

Make-Believe Play and Children's Self-Regulation
Dr. Laura Berk - Illinois State University

Generation Me: Teaching and Working with Today's Students
Dr. Jean Twenge - San Diego State University

Gamification Techniques ANY Instructor Can Use to Engage, Assess, and Energize Students
Dr. Amy Marin - Phoenix College

Open Science, Replication, and Teaching Psychology
Dr. Mark Krause - Southern Oregon University
Dr. Daniel Corts - Augustana College

Using Blogging in the Teaching of Psychology
Dr. Sam Sommers - Tufts University

Here's more information about the "Speaking About..." Series - http://www.pearsoned.com/events-and-webinars/higher-education-events-and-webinars/speaking-about-webinars/.

I am not sure if a hashtag will be utilized for the event, but utilize the #55HigherEd hashtag to share ideas! :)

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com

When Academic Interests and Administrative Interests Positively Collide

As a mid-level higher education administrator, it is important realize how your academic field positively affects your administrative work. This has been especially evident for me during this past academic year when my academic interests and administrative interests collided in four beneficial ways.

Employing a Communication Intern (Social Media Coach) Who Works in Our Office (Social Media)
Our communication intern is absolutely wonderful and she has amazing ideas about how to reach students (from a student mindset). She is also learning about social media along the way: crafting effective posts, deciphering the analytics for the student success and multicultural initiatives social media channels, and blogging about student success from a student's perspective. Here's her blog for our area: http://tarletonssmi.blogspot.com/

Crafting E-Mail Messages with the Current and Potential Readers in Mind (Target Audience Approach) (Fundamentals of Speech Communication)
When writing any e-mail message for students, faculty, or staff, I always strive to write the message for the audience and to avoid any potentially interesting responses by never utilizing the BCC line and sparsely utilizing the CC line. This is especially important when conversing about interesting issues in higher education. I always reply to the original sender and almost never include the individuals carbon copied on the e-mail, because your sender intended for this message to go to you, you do not have permission to reply to every cc'ed on the e-mail. Also, never send e-mails that you do not intend for others (in addition to the intended party) to read.

Creating Publications (and Videos) that Others Will Want to Read (Mass Media)
This semester, student success and multicultural initiatives created an infographic instead of a bulky (and potentially unread) annual report for the university's faculty, staff, and students. In this infographic, the data is presented in an engaging (and graphical) way and I think the intended parties are more likely to understand what we do in student success and multicultural initiatives instead of sending the data-based message in a report.

Forming Mentoring Groups for Mothers and Faculty of Color (and Other Underrepresented Populations) - Intercultural Communication
Last year, we formed a university mother's group and a group of diverse faculty members. Our membership for both groups ranges between 25 and 60 members. These groups serve as wonderful sounding boards for the mothers and diverse faculty and they also gain ideas and form research collaborations. Both of the aforementioned groups helped me through my journey as a new mother and I wish that I had the faculty of color group when I persisted through the tenure track.

Each of the aforementioned skills (and associated courses) continue to make an imprint on my life as a mid-level administrator on a daily basis. I am thankful for delightful and fulfilling experiences in the classroom as well as working with an amazing group of academic leaders at the university. Administrative experiences make academic experiences richer and academic experiences make administrative experiences richer. We become more because we teach, we reach more because we serve others through administrative duties in higher education.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards
- Twitter/Instagram - @drjtedwards
- http://www.facebook.com/millennialprofessor/
- drjtedwards at gmail.com

A List of Faculty Issues in Higher Education: A Great Resource for University Administrators and Faculty

As a tenured-faculty member, I am always excited about mentoring new faculty (especially women and new faculty of color). This mentoring relationship is always great for me because I had such wonderful mentors (both faculty and staff) when persisting through the tenure-track process.

This mentoring relationship is very important for tenure-track and tenured faculty who are seeking to become a full-professor. (This is another journey through which I am persisting right now.) Tenure-track and tenured-faculty (especially women and faculty of color) encounter along the journey towards their goals:

Here are some of the current issues and resources for individuals tied to faculty affairs roles at universities and colleges in the United States:

Current Issues focused on Faculty Affairs:

- The growing number of women and people of color in faculty positions.

- Faculty and work-life balance.

- Stopping the tenure clock for faculty who are pregnant or who are new or adoptive mothers (or fathers).

- Faculty retirement and retirement plans.

- Faculty workplace flexibility.

- Faculty involvement on universities committees and work groups.

- Faculty compensation and merit pay.

- Faculty workload (balancing researching, teaching and service).

- Part-time and adjunct faculty workload.

- Faculty Orientation

- Faculty Training 

- Faculty and External Fundraising and Grantsmanship Activities

- Faculty Recognition

- Faculty Recruitment and Retention

- Faculty Workplace Satisfaction

Faculty Affairs Resources:

- Faculty Issues: A Resource by the American Council on Education

- Giving "Voice to Faculty"

- Policy Matters" Faculty Trends and Issues (A Resource from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities - AASCU)

- Analyses of Faculty Issues

- Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (A Resource from Harvard's Graduate School of Education)

- Common New Faculty Issues and Solutions (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Please feel free to tweet, share, and comment below! Let me know if I missed something from the list!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

@drjtedwards