You have to have a culture that embraces, supports, and is committed to these students and their success. The second key element is having the people who are committed to the culture. Once you have that platform, then you can start to think about programs. That’s the mindset we’ve brought to this.
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that streams live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on Mondays. Each event also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, the UIA joins forces with Inside Higher Ed and talks with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations are filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. These episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and inspiration.
We know now the world is much more complicated than we thought. Historic institutions that are non-adaptive are going to have difficulty adjusting to these kinds of high-speed changes. We need to instill the ability to adjust and keep performing our mission as a core part of what we do.
Michael Crow
This is the time when American higher education understands that our strength as a country will be inextricably tied to our success in bringing people from all backgrounds into the problem solving as we face the future.
Freeman Hrabowski, III
We’ve got a lot of important work to make sure that our institutions come through this pandemic and get stronger, at the same time that we address the issues that are right in front of us around systemic racism.
Mark Becker
If you start to address what’s important to people, I think people are going to take you seriously, regardless of if you’re in a room with them, or if you’re doing it virtually.
Frank Dooley
You’ve got to be willing to have courage to have these open and frank discussions, you’ve got to put yourself in a position to foster these kinds of discussions, and sometimes, more often than not, you will listen to your constituency and they will have the better solutions.
Harold L. Martin, Sr.
Higher education is facing a moment where moving slowly is no longer an option.
In this episode of Start the Week with Wisdom, Bridget Burns and Sarah Custer sit down with Karen Stout, outgoing president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, to reflect on decades of leadership in community college student success, institutional transformation, data-driven decision-making, and what it really takes to leave an organization stronger than you found it.
Karen shares lessons from leading Montgomery County Community College, transforming Achieving the Dream into a national student success network, and helping hundreds of community colleges rethink completion, transfer, mobility, workforce alignment, and community impact. This conversation is for higher ed leaders, community college presidents, faculty leaders, student success professionals, nonprofit executives, and anyone trying to drive meaningful change in education. You’ll hear why colleges must stop fighting their data, why innovation needs intention, why faculty must be centered in reform, and why the future of student success depends on moving faster from knowing to doing.
Highlights:
→ You’ll learn why community colleges have a unique power to shape the future of their local communities and why Karen Stout calls “leveraging your localness” their secret sauce.
→ You’ll hear how Achieving the Dream used a transformative unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott to build capacity, strengthen reserves, and reinvest in under-resourced colleges.
→ Karen explains why higher ed leaders must own their data, especially around completion, transfer, bachelor’s degree attainment, mobility, and workforce outcomes.
→ She also shares why institutions need to stop chasing shiny objects and instead pursue innovation with intention, clear priorities, and a deeper focus on teaching, learning, faculty engagement, and shared governance.
Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, speaks with Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet of University of Colorado Colorado Springs on the Innovating Together Podcast. Chancellor Sobanet talks about accepting the emotional weight of leadership, the need for ongoing executive coaching, her own nontraditional path to leadership, and how a foundation in the humanities will prepare students for the future. Topics include:
- Supportive leadership in a time of campus crisis
- How higher ed leaders can benefit from continual coaching
- Aligning both head and heart with the mission
- A new type of leader to meet new expectations
- Putting the human in humanities
Tune in to learn more about how a private-sector business background combines with human self-awareness in support of an institution whose mission is preparing capable, innovative students for careers that are still emerging.
Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and Sara Custer, Editor-in-Chief of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Kenneth Christensen, Chancellor of University of Colorado Denver, on the Innovating Together Podcast. Chancellor Christensen talks about why he chose a career in higher ed leadership, removing barriers for nontraditional students, embedding in his campus community, clarity and purpose in challenging times, speaking truth with civility, and creating a model for urban public universities. Topics include:
- The qualities of a servant leader
- Expanding opportunities for student access to education
- How leaders can engage with their constituency groups
- Meeting the moment as a higher ed institution
- Leadership advice and recommended reading
- The university of the future
Tune in to learn more about embracing the values of servant leadership.