Supporting the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Students in a Post-quarantine Academic Year
Following the move to online instruction to combat the spread of COVID-19, a number of publications have been more frequently discussing the related mental health impact on LGBTQ+ students. In short, many of these articles focus on how stay-at-home orders have affected this student demographic. Examples of such topics include...
How to Respond to Toxic Leadership: Six Practical Approaches
Do you work for a dean, provost, president, or department chair who belittles you regularly? Or someone who seems to enjoy criticizing you and brings up your past mistakes? Perhaps your leader is someone who believes they are destined for greatness and refuses to admit they have faults. Or do...
Building Trust among Employees: Secrets to Success
Change is everywhere in higher education (Ceschi et al., 2017; Warr Pedersen et al., 2017). Numerous articles discuss the rate of change, impending changes, and reflection of the changes made in higher education institutions (Bouckenooghe, 2010). But comparatively little is written on how higher education professionals support faculty and staff...
Lessons Learned from the Chinese System of Higher Education
During a brief trip to Beijing, China, during which I presented seminars at three major universities, I had the opportunity to learn more about the Chinese system of higher education. I spoke with a number of professors and graduate students and learned about their perspectives on the educational process at...
My Return to Practice and Considerations for the Academy
The superintendent of schools called me at 9:00 p.m. on August 13. “Can you come and be an interim principal? My principal left on short notice, and I need an experienced K–12 principal starting in September.” “Are you crazy?” I said. “The fall semester starts August 24th!” As we talked...
Petty Principles: A Challenge to Higher Education Leaders in the Wake of a Social Injustice Crisis
Often I find myself writing and providing leadership strategies to assist academic leaders on their respective journeys in higher education. Thus, now I find myself distraught as we operate in the face of an increasingly unbearable reality of social injustice. As higher education administrators we have a role and responsibility...
Two Simple Steps to Inspire Better Student Engagement
The stereotypical college student is always searching for clubs, activities, and other ways to be engaged on campus. Unfortunately, not every student fits that description, leaving department chairs, deans, and other leaders in higher education looking for creative ways to pique students’ interest in those events and experiences that promote...
Petty Principles: A Toolbox for Leaders in Higher Education
If you are a leader in higher education, you can attest that academia can be a little cluttered. The challenges to improving teaching and learning are many as administrators continue to evolve into their roles as institutional leaders. Whether you are a novice or experienced leader, there is always room...
STEM Fatigue
For a little more than a decade, the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have been enjoying something of a privileged status at American colleges and universities. While enrollments in some other areas are stagnant or declining, they have been rising steadily in many STEM courses. In state systems,...
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Culture for Student Success
I served for several years on my college readiness, transition, and retention committee at a large public university. The committee researched, surveyed, and interviewed students, faculty, and administrators, as well as our feeder community college and high school personnel. Below are the findings from our efforts as well as my...
