Department heads and academic unit leaders in higher education occupy some of the most challenging administrative positions, balancing the often competing needs of faculty, students, and senior leadership. While all these stakeholders would agree that student learning is the core mission of higher education, the diverse needs of the different
Listening as a leader is the hardest of practices. While we may intend to listen and even think we are listening, too many distractions keep us from just simply hearing the other person in the room. The anticipation and emotion of the moment of message delivery can interfere with our
At a recent regional meeting I did a presentation on what leaders could consider when working with Generation Z (people born between 1997 and 2012). During the discussion, there was hefty skepticism regarding the validity of generational norming. This was despite my framing the information with poll results shared by
Faculty leadership development is crucial to building the bench of future leaders at our institutions of higher learning. In many ways, our regular practice of promoting faculty into leadership roles according to their abilities to be successful teachers and scholars is at odds with the work our leaders will have
Since before President Trump took office, legal experts have suggested that the administration could use the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to advance the president’s goal of eliminating DEI policies at educational institutions. In February 2025, OCR issued a “Dear Colleague” letter (DCL) addressing race discrimination, DEI, and
It’s been five years since colleges and universities moved learning online because of the pandemic. Although that experience marked many institutions’ first and final taste of online instruction, for some schools, including our private liberal arts college of education, the experience led to a more sustained embrace of e-learning. Once
Students, parents, and the public need to understand the value of higher education if colleges and universities are going to rebut the omnipresent hostility to the enterprise that we see
If you are reading this, you believe in higher education and are committed to making your program and unit as dynamic as possible. This requires hard work every day:
Today’s environment for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) looks dramatically different than just a year ago. Several state legislatures are now asking colleges and universities to report on their
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