COACHE Audio

What does it take to be the leader of a college consortium amidst the changing landscape of higher education? Members of the Association for Collaborative Leadership certainly hold viewpoints of their own, forged from experience and observation. But do our opinions comport with the perspectives of those responsible for finding tomorrow's collaborative leaders? For this event, the Virtual Professional Development Committee invited two search firm representatives to share their views on what kind of leadership consortia are seeking right now: Jim Sirianni, Ph.D., Partner, Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates Jeff Kessner, Managing Associate, Isaacson, Miller They brought their knowledge earned from recent, high-profile searches for consortium heads, and they compared and contrasted those experiences with other executive searches. This dialog is designed for the consortium leader, for those with aspirations to become one, and for the boards responsible for finding and supporting their consortium's next executive. Kiernan Mathews, Ed.D., of the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) facilitated, in a Zoom Meeting format, an interactive conversation among our guests and between them and registered participants. The streaming video is available to ACL members at http://www.national-acl.org.  

The ACL Summer Institute is a three-day interactive experience that engages participants in wide-ranging discussions and activities that develop skills and approaches advancing consortium administration, planning, program development and resource cultivation. The Institute is geared to directors, staff, and board members of consortia. Chris Bass, Assistant Vice President of Spiritual and Cultural Life with the Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS); Sarah Kahrl, Executive Director of Five Colleges of Ohio; and Cole Woodcox, Executive Director at the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) are featured panelists. Beth Moy, Executive Director of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education; and Tim Newcomb, Coordinator of Operations for the Big Ten Academic Alliance, facilitate the session. Sarah, Cole and Chris represent a range of consortium types, geographic ranges and staff sizes.  All recently appointed to their positions, they share details about their Institute experiences and capstone projects -- from developing engagement strategies for biracial and multiracial students, to building board consensus around membership criteria, to developing action steps on strategic priorities identified by board members. They also share what happened when they returned home with their plans, key takeaways, and what they wish they had known before they attended.  

Attracting and retaining diverse faculty to our campuses are significant challenges for higher education. Recruitment and retention are often left to individual departments ill-equipped to respond to either the institutional needs for diversity or the individual needs of isolated, diverse faculty. Consortia offer opportunities to maximize professional development of search committees and departments, create cross-institutional communities for diverse faculty, and collaborate on policies that support the changing American professoriate. Our presenters, Robbin Chapman (Wellesley College, Higher Education Recruitment Consortium), Linda Mason (Purdue University, Big Ten Academic Alliance, Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate) and Lisa Perfetti (Whitman College, Northwest Five Consortium) offered consortial models for diversifying the professoriate. The audience was introduced to the ways consortia can address these issues, to sample initiatives and how consortia can assess the impact of such programs, and to the steps that ensure their sustainability. Slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars

Universities are a key component of the U.S. economic ecosystem, returning investment through enormous public value and impact on employment, business, and manufacturing both locally and nationwide. In an effort to publicize the social and economic impact of higher education institutions, consortia are threading this economic message throughout communications to their stakeholders. The Baltimore Collegetown Network brings 13 area colleges and universities together with government, business and community leaders to develop and market Baltimore as a vibrant place to live and learn.  They have developed a report about their economic impact on the community. Kristen McGuire discusses how this report was developed and share how the results were used for local and state advocacy about the importance of higher education as an industry.   The Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS) is a major national source for data to support fundamental research on the results of public and private investments in discovery, innovation, and education. Jason Owen-Smith shows how it provides credible data and rigorous findings about the productivity and public value of the research enterprise to inform effective policy-making, support outreach, aid in research management, and expand the state of knowledge. Outcomes Learn how colleges can work together to produce an economic impact study. Learn how information can be used by presidents and other consortium leaders to attract funders and partners. Develop familiarity with a new data infrastructure. Explore methods for curating, protecting and sharing restricted data. Understand some uses of administrative data for research and reporting. Slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars  

Our second program in this year's ACL series on measuring impact features a panel discussion with our colleagues Christine Kimball of The Five Colleges of Ohio, Cathy Wilt of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, and Chuck Thompson of the Claremont University Consortium.  They shared approaches they use to measure and communicate the value of shared administrative programs to their consortial communities. As a result of participating in this interactive session, participants acquired models for setting project and service goals, prioritizing and selecting projects, measuring satisfaction and calculating the value of cost avoidance. Slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars

For ACL members who couldn’t attend the conference, who missed a session, or who just want to be reminded of what they learned, the Virtual Professional Development Committee has compiled a “lightning round” podcast of multiple conference presenters sharing their top “take-aways” from their sessions, as well as any “a-ha!” moments from the conference. 1. Strategic Planning for Cooperation Beth Moy, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education 2. Building and Sustaining Cooperative Academic Programs R. Owen Williams, Associated Colleges of the South 3. Building and Sustaining Cooperative Administrative Programs Susan Palmer, Five Colleges of Ohio (interviewed by Diane Dimitroff) 4. The Strategic Use of Technologies to Support and Enhance Collaboration Tracy Thompson, NELLCO Law Library Consortium 5. Projects and Project Management Strategies Barbara McFadden Allen, Big 10 Academic Alliance(interviewed by Victoria McGillin) 6. Measuring Success: Assessing the Performance of a Consortium or Cooperative Projects Irene Burgess, Pennsylvania Consortium for the Liberal Arts (interviewed by Robert Diggs) 7. Communicating the Value of Collaborative Work Kevin Kennedy, Five Colleges, Inc. (interviewed by Victoria McGillin) Slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars.

In this professional development webcast for consortium leaders, Diane Dimitroff (Executive Director, Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges) and Christine Kimball (Strategic Procurement Director, The Five Colleges of Ohio, Inc.) describe how to consider new administrative collaborations, including collaborative buying. Vicki McGillin (Independent Consultant on Higher Education Collaboration) moderates the program, which covers foundational or baseline principles and conversations. Listeners will learn: How to create a framework to start your collaborative buying exploration by defining your outcomes first, not your actions. Tips and tools for creating and maintaining momentum and commitment. Webcast slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars.

In this professional development webcast for consortium staff, Diane Dimitroff (Executive Director, Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges) moderates a panel of experts on communication strategies in higher education collaborations. They discuss different methods for various types of communications (e.g. promoting a program, communicating organizational impact, soliciting input) and effective strategies for communicating with different target populations. The panelists consider differences between small and large organizations and when and how to use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Kevin Kennedy and Taliesin Nyala (Five Colleges, Inc.) kick off the conversation with a Communication Overview. Robert Diggs (Pennsylvania Consortium for Liberal Arts) talks about Starting up with Social Media. Then, Jeff Oberg and Kara McKinn (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) offer their take on Communicating Impact. Finally audience members engage the experts in a question and answer session. Webcast slides (and other episodes) are available for download at https://acl.site-ym.com/?page=webinars.

What strategies are successful in managing your consortium board through changes in membership and leadership?  How do you bring new members up to speed? And how can you energize and engage your board? For this ACL webcast (now a podcast), we assembled an expert panel representing over 30 years of consortium leadership. They offer their take on one of the greatest challenges to consortium impact and success: transition. The dialog is guided by our guest moderator, Dr. Cathy Trower, a consultant, coach, and author of The Practitioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership: Building High Performing Nonprofit Boards.   About the panelists: Neal Abraham is Executive Director of  Five Colleges, Inc. in Massachusetts, where he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the consortium. For the 11 years prior to coming to Five Colleges in 2009, Neal served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at DePauw University. Previously, he held appointments at Bryn Mawr College and Swarthmore College.   Barbara McFadden Allen is Executive Director of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of 15 research universities including the members of the Big Ten Athletic Conference and the University of Chicago. Barb has been with the CIC for 21 years, including 5 years as director of their library initiatives, and 16 as executive director.   Christopher Welna is President of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) since 2006. He works with ACM’s two boards to set overall priorities and policies for programs to help strengthen the 14 member colleges as leaders, and exemplars, in liberal arts education. Prior to leading the ACM, Chris held appointments at the University of Notre Dame, Duke University, and the Ford Foundation.   About the moderator:   Cathy A. Trower is President of Trower & Trower, Inc., a board governance consulting firm, through which she has provided consulting and coaching services to more than 125 nonprofits. Cathy is author of The Practitioner’s Guide to Governance as Leadership: Building High Performing Nonprofit Boards (Jossey Bass 2013).  She spent 25 years in higher education as researcher, administrator, department chair and faculty member.