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 Live Event Series
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.
Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Dr. Garnett Stokes, University of New Mexico President, on the Weekly Wisdom Podcast. President Stokes talks about the mindset of accepting new leadership challenges, the responsibilities of institutional leaders as employers, required skills for effective leadership, and navigating the small world of higher ed. Topics include:
- President Stokes’ readiness for new leadership opportunities
- How to avoid thinking of management responsibilities as “the dark side”
- Walking the fine line of authenticity
- Building a successful leadership career on honesty and integrity
Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Dr. Chris Howard, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Arizona State University on the Weekly Wisdom Podcast. Dr. Howard talks about how leadership is more than a title, what a president actually does, an early lesson from the military, and three books that helped him define his role. Topics include:
- The natural shift from leadership to administrative team member
- Looking behind the curtain at a college president's day-to-day
- Dr. Howard’s mantra: “lead, serve, grow”
- Wisdom from Malcolm X, Warren Bennis, and Stanley McChrystal
Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and Candice Staples, the UIA’s Senior Director of Alliance Engagement, speak with Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker, President of Colorado State University Global on the Weekly Wisdom Podcast. President Takeda-Tinker shares her thoughts about higher ed for working adults, how university leaders must balance positivity and assertiveness, and the increasing role of data in running an institution and in leadership decisions. Topics include:
- Her own leadership as a legacy of her father’s hard work and determination
- How to lead through human connection while demanding accountability
- Relying on data in responding to the needs of students who are working adults
- Leadership through communication, inclusion, grit, and joy