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Higher education institutions are constantly buffeted by external and internal demands. Academic deans and department chairs are at the center of this maelstrom. It is essential that they maintain their poise and sanity while juggling the needs of students, faculty, higher administration, and external constituencies. It is a complicated balancing act, but a critical one in our efforts to support undergraduate students¹ learning and success. The Summer Institute for Academic Deans and Department Chairs gives participants the opportunity to engage with colleagues, as well as examine trends and practices that deal with the issues they face.
The Institute is designed to promote discussion of current challenges and provide successful strategies in the curriculum and co-curriculum. Participants will also have the opportunity to share the trials and successes related to the role of academic deans and department chairs. The Institute sponsors believe that participants will find this institute to be a rich and rewarding experience, one that will provide new ideas, fresh energy, valuable information, and some much-needed inspiration.
The First-Year Experience Conferences are well-known as meetings where educators come together to openly share ideas, concepts, resources, assessment tools, programmatic interventions, and research results focused on the first college year. Conference attendees represent all types of postsecondary educational institutions and all levels of campus administration. With this rich diversity of perspectives in mind, the conferences are designed to be both personally enjoyable and professionally enriching. An intentionally open and welcoming conference culture provides opportunities for intensive learning and relaxed interactions with fellow delegates.
The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition has as its mission to support and advance efforts to improve student learning and transitions into and through higher education. We achieve this mission by providing opportunities for the exchange of practical, theory-based information and ideas through the convening of conferences, teleconferences, institutes, and workshops; publishing monographs, a peer-reviewed journal, a newsletter, guides, and books; generating and supporting research and scholarship; hosting visiting scholars; and administering a web site and electronic listservs.
The Policy Center on the First Year of College has as its basic mission the improvement of the beginning college experience through enhanced learning, success, and retention of new students. This mission is grounded in the belief that an institution’s first-year policies and practices are the foundation for attainment of the larger goals of undergraduate education. The signature work of the Policy Center is the engagement of postsecondary institutions in a model for voluntary, comprehensive self-study and development and implementation of an intentional action plan.
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The Renaissance Asheville Hotel is located in beautiful downtown Asheville, one of the most interesting and culturally rich small cities on the East Coast. The hotel is contiguous to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and is within a short walk of the many downtown shops, theaters, restaurants, and galleries. The Asheville region is known for its natural beauty and opportunities for camping, sightseeing, hiking, golf, and crafts. There is also a rich array of cultural activities in music, theater, and other performing arts.
Optional meals and reception will be available for spouse/partners at an additional charge. Advance registration is required. See registration form for details.
John N. Gardner is the founder of two national centers to help American higher education improve student learning, success, and retention in the first collge year. Currently he serves as executive director of the Policy Center on the First Year of College in Brevard, N.C. and senior fellow of the University of South Carolina’s National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. He has been working on the issues which are the focus of this Institute for 40 years and looks forward to sharing his thoughts with Institute participants.
Peter Magolda, a member of the Miami University of Ohio faculty since 1994, teaches graduate-level program evaluation, research, and educational anthropology seminars. Scholarship foci include program evaluation, ethnographic studies of college students, and qualitative inquiry. He has conducted numerous program evaluations for higher education and non-profit organizations that focus on improving education. Magolda’s current research centers on the roles of student governance in higher education. Of particular interest are the political actions of students—in particular, the tactics and strategies student governing organizations use to gain and sustain authority, influence, and power. Prior to joining the Miami University’s College Student Personnel Program, Magolda was an assistant dean of students there. He also worked in the Division of Student Affairs at The Ohio State University and the University of Vermont.
Carol Phillips retired from Millersville University where she was professor and chair of the Department of Nursing, and subsequently associate provost and executive assistant to the president. As associate provost, she provided leadership for General Education and the First-Year Experience, as well as admissions, registration, and community & academic partnerships. Prior to her Millersville appointment, she was a faculty member and director of a hospital school of nursing. Phillips’ scholarship includes co-authorship of numerous papers, presentations, and workshops on the first-year experience, highlighting Millersville’s experiences in implementing a holistic living/learning community for first-year students.
Sally A. Roden is associate provost and dean of the undergraduate studies at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). After serving on the faculty at UCA for 22 years as technical director of theatre and director of forensics, she was appointed dean of undergraduate studies. Through Roden’s leadership, changes have occurred at UCA which have positively affected student achievement and academic success. She has initiated programs and academic services to support traditional first-year and non-traditional students that continue to improve and expand because of the establishment of a strong team effort and cooperation of faculty, staff, and administration to better serve students at the UCA. Roden received the Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award from the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, the Outstanding Institutional Advising Program Award from the National Academic Advising Association, and the Retention Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz.
Charles Schroeder recently completed a one-year appointment as interim vice president for student affairs at North Georgia College and State University. He currently serves as a part-time senior associate consultant for Noel-Levitz specializing in retention and student success strategies and interventions. Schroeder has assumed various leadership roles in the American College Personnel Association, and has published over 70 articles and chapters in various refereed journals and books. He served as a researcher on two national initiatives : Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practices) and Institutions of Excellence in the First Year of College. He contributed to Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter and co-authored, Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First-Year of College, both published by Jossey-Bass in 2005. His current professional interests include: student engagement, reform of undergraduate education, designing learning communities, applying quality (CQI) principles, facilitating partnerships between student and academic affairs, improving retention and graduation rates, and innovative approaches to assessment.
Randy L. Swing serves as the Executive Director of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR). AIR is a professional association of more than 4,000 institutional researchers, planners, and decision makers from more than 1,500 higher education institutions around the world. Prior to leading AIR, Swing served as co-director & senior scholar at the Policy Center on the First Year of College. He also served as a fellow in the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, a visiting associate professor at Kansi University of International Studies in Japan, and the international advisor to the Quality Assurance Agency of Scotland. He has authored numerous articles, chapters, monographs, and books and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on institutional change, assessment, retention, and undergraduate student success. He serves on the editorial/review boards for the Journal of General Education, The Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, and the journal of Innovative Higher Education. For two decades prior to 1999, he held various leadership positions at Appalachian State University in assessment, advising, Upward Bound, and Freshman Seminar.
Lunch
Content Sessions
Hotel Information and Reservations
The Renaissance Asheville Hotel is located at 31 Woodfin Street, Asheville, NC 28801. Telephone 828-252-8211; FAX 828-236-9616. Room Rate: single or double - $165 plus tax. Reservation cutoff date is June 19, 2008. Specify “National Resource Center/Deans & Department Chairs Institute.” All reservations must be guaranteed with a major credit card. The Renaissance Asheville Hotel will not hold any reservations unless secured by credit card.
Getting to Asheville
Asheville can be reached by air on Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Airways Airlines. Asheville Regional Airport offers transportation to destinations and connections throughout America. There are no onsite taxi or public transportation services available at the Asheville Regional Airport. For information about van, limousine, and sedan services contact Airport Ground Transportation at 888-2889915 or http://www.ashevillelimousine.com. Rental cars are also available.
Driving Directions: Asheville can be easily accessed by car on I-26, I-40, and I-240; and U.S. 19/23, 25, 25A, 70, and 74. Asheville is approximately 1 hour by car from Greenville/Spartanburg, SC International Airport.
From I-240 East, take Exit 5-A, Merrimon Avenue. Turn left on Broadway, turn left again on Woodfin Street. The Renaissance Asheville Hotel is two blocks on the right. From I-240 West, take Exit 5-A, Merrimon Avenue, turn left onto Merrimon Avenue. Turn left onto Woodfin Street. The Renaissance Asheville Hotel is on the right.
If you have any questions about the content or organization of this event, contact the National Resource Center at (803) 777-6029 or e-mail us at fye@sc.edu. Information about this Institute and other events sponsored by the Center can be found on our web site at www.sc.edu/fye.
