Expanding Our Impact and Who We Serve

As a tiny but mighty nonprofit organization committed to transforming higher education through effective collaboration that accelerates innovation, the UIA frequently wrestles with how we can include more people and institutions with our limited resources and small team. 

Many nonprofits expand their focus as they grow and scale, but we have always aimed to stay true to our core commitments. We never want to expand just to add more people or resources. The intimacy of our network matters, and it gets noticed. When people outside the UIA fully engage with us, they comment about the higher quality experience they have with the UIA versus what they see in other collaboratives. There is no parallel to what the UIA creates. So when we grow, we have to do it carefully, making sure we never compromise on the quality that makes the UIA unique. 

Yet there’s a huge demand to be a part of what the UIA is doing, and we firmly believe we need to expand our reach if we want to have the profound impact on higher education our students need. Over time we’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of campuses and individuals who share our goals. Many have stood out as selfless, genuinely collaborative, helpful, and proactive – exactly the kinds of people we want to be in the trenches with. 

In 2018, when it became clear that we were well ahead of schedule to exceed our initial stretch goal for awarding more degrees, we worked with a consulting team and our board to identify how we might grow, both formally as a network and informally as a hub and clearinghouse for higher ed innovation. 

Our search for new members started with examining data from every R1 and R2 institution, looking at what they had done, who they served, their improvement trajectory, how many low-income students and students of color they admitted and graduated, and more. We weren’t looking for perfection; we were looking for institutions that believed they could be better and were willing to do the work. Campuses and leaders who really collaborated and weren't just there for the ribbon cutting. 

Through that process, we added nine new UIA members – public research universities of different perspectives and sizes, each the only UIA member in its state (a core element of our design). These new member institutions have made our work so much richer and over time, we will continue to expand UIA membership. We will do it with deliberation and care so that every campus feels like an equal and that we stay laser-focused on the core of our work. 

We’re also growing outside of the formal membership process, and I’m excited to share two big advances in our evolution.

The first I teased here last month: In October, we’ll be holding our second UIA National Summit on Student Success Innovation. Building on everything we’ve learned since our first summit in 2018, this will be the best opportunity for people outside the UIA to step inside and experience what our members love about this incredible community. I hope you’ll join us there.

The second big advance is the launch of the UIA Innovation Lab to the broader higher ed community. Over the past three years, we have been building the Lab to serve institutions and individuals who want to experience the magic and community of the UIA and benefit from collaborative student success innovation. We’ve been beta testing with cohorts, building out tools, and making sure everything generates the maximum benefit for users (and, ultimately, students). We are incredibly proud of what we’ve created. 

The University Innovation Lab is now live, and it’s chock full of tools, templates, trainings, courses, and professional development to help you and your campus achieve your student success goals. We’ll keep improving it, too, and we invite your feedback as we move forward together. You’ll find more information below. We hope you love the new UIA Innovation Lab as much as we do, and we hope this valuable resource will equip you to take action, find community, and lead boldly in the midst of change. 

February 26, 2024