By Jim Catanzaro, Executive Director, HERDI South,
September 2024
It’s Fall, classes across the country are back in session, and college faculty, staff, and administrators are scrambling to ensure that every willing student succeeds.
We know that each year, however, a new array of challenges arrives at our doorsteps. So, here’s the question of the hour today, “Is there a way to future-proof our institutions?” Can we get the formula for student success so fine-tuned it will become an enduring legacy? This was the theme of the webinar I moderated in August for ACUE (the Association of College and University Educators).
When the topic of building legacies of distinction comes up, I think first and foremost of enhancing academic reputation—attracting faculty who are as committed to helping students become learners as they are to teaching their subjects; achieving noteworthy student success outcomes, including retention, completion, and well-being across demographics; and creating leading-edge curricula that respond to the world about us.
Of course, we know building such legacies doesn’t occur through tectonic shifts but over years. I believe it comes through teaching excellence throughout the institution. Teaching excellence attracts new learners. Teaching excellence leads to student retention and completion. And it’s teaching excellence that ultimately distinguishes institutions.
We had three great panelists tackle these issues — Ava Parker, President of Palm Beach State College in Florida; Meera Komarraju, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University, Northridge; and John “Ski” Sygielski, President of Harrisburg Area Community College, PA. If you’d like to watch the webinar recording, you can access it here.
Our focus, simply stated, was this: How can college leaders build a legacy of academic excellence to future-proof their institutions? I posited that teaching excellence across the faculty will establish academic eminence and win the day. Further, I offered that achieving teaching excellence can occur across Carnegie classifications and mission types.
This is where Meera, our academic affairs guru, stepped in. She concurred but reminded us that colleges are competing for fewer and fewer students, that industries are challenging us by their willingness to hire employees without college degrees, and, finally, that some students experienced learning loss over the COVID pandemic. In response to these challenges, Meera asserted that, yes, colleges now must focus on “the magical, transformative power of teaching excellence.” And to achieve this, we must both leverage existing faculty strengths and aggressively provide faculty with additional opportunities for professional development. This will lead to more student-centered approaches to instruction. Speaking of transformative, why not introduce new technologies, she asked, like generative artificial intelligence (AI) to support effective teaching and learning strategies?
Generative AI technologies allow faculty to personalize learning experiences, making them more relevant for all students. Meera shared these AI-inspired strategies: use AI tools to customize case studies and provide examples that apply to students’ lives. These strategies can bring relevance to course content and help students learn more deeply. However, to test out rising technologies, faculty need training. Ava joined the conversation at this point.
Professional development for all faculty
Ava shared that when we think about professional development, we often concentrate on our full-time faculty. We must also consider our part-time and adjunct faculty, she offered, especially since many institutions rely heavily on them. They share significant face time with our students and contribute greatly to their academic success. So, when Palm Beach State College makes professional development available for full-time faculty, they also extend the invitation to part-time and adjunct faculty. Post-pandemic, Palm Beach State College built a center for teaching and learning designed to support student completion. It’s a large facility that houses the latest technology and provides a space to share best practices for personalizing learning.
Through ACUE, Ava’s college has also provided training that Ava thinks is making faculty better prepared for the students of today. “From faculty to department chairs to deans, VPs, and presidents, we all have the opportunity now to rally around our students.” Ski chimed in at this point to add his perspective.
Teaching and learning, retention and completion
Ski shared that professional development is now aligning with Guided Pathways at HACC. This helps faculty understand the broader context of student admission, retention, completion, and post-completion.
Also, HACC leaders are working to define their Teaching and Learning Center. They are looking to see how it can become effective for all types of faculty. HACC currently has about twenty faculty members on a committee engaging students in the conversation of how they can effectively use AI. Reports show that the majority of college students are using AI for college work, and Ski feels we need to have both student and faculty conversations about ethics and biases in AI. Meera, Ava, Ski and I all came together around this issue of student and faculty literacy in rising AI technologies.
Together we spoke about the fact that today’s students will need to be fluent in AI in whatever jobs they do in the future. So, avoiding AI is not the solution! Indeed, there are pedagogies to make it easier for faculty to keep AI from compromising or “contaminating” the learning process. And, as Ski brought up, our champion faculty members can lead the way here, bringing their colleagues along.
Incentivizing lifelong learning
I brought up the point that, as well as teaching disciplines, our faculty must foster critical thinking. And they must be imparting a love for lifelong learning while helping each student understand how they learn best.
At this point, Ski interjected a note of caution. “We have to be conscious that we are not overwhelming our faculty,” he noted. Instead, we need to focus on a few key priorities. Ava shared one Palm Beach State College priority that other leaders could use to enhance their own work — fostering a culture of continuous learning. Palm Beach State College hosts a summer institute where faculty from different disciplines come together to learn from one another. This was developed from Title V and NSF grant funds. Also, they’ve incentivized faculty, particularly champions, for their time, through either release time or financially.
In closing
Well, thanks for reaching all the way to the end of this post! We’d love to hear about any new initiatives you’d like to share that will future-proof your institutions.
Best –
Jim