Room at the Table: Giving Thanks for Strange Sides
The beauty of Thanksgiving, or any holiday, isn’t in the delicious dishes (the ones that actually make sense), it’s in the people who bring them. Friends. Family. Neighbors. New faces who become familiar ones. When we pull up chairs, set extra plates, and welcome everyone as they are, something incredible happens. We have the chance to engage in richer conversations, even if we don’t always agree.
How Not to Write a Syllabus (and What to Do Instead)
The syllabus isn’t your annual report. It’s not a compliance memo. And it’s definitely not a legal deposition written in passive voice. It’s a guide for your students (actual human beings), many of whom are trying to make sense of a new class, a new semester, and, in some cases, a whole new life direction.
Weddings, Rubrics, and IEPs: Falling in Love with Institutional Effectiveness
At its heart, a strong IEP is your institution’s way of saying “I do”—to accountability, to continuous improvement, and to the students and communities you serve. And like any good marriage, the commitment doesn’t end with the ceremony. It’s something you show up for, work on, and grow through, year after year, ‘til death (or retirement) do you part.
State Authorization in Higher Ed: Strategy Over Stress
Ask any institutional leader about their least favorite compliance task, and there’s a good chance “state authorization” will come up. Much like “root canal” or “surprise tax audit”, “state authorization” is one of those phrases that inspires dread, confusion, and the unshakeable feeling that you’ve forgotten something. But what if we told you it doesn’t have to be that way? With the right mindset, state authorization can shift from a stress-inducing obligation to a strategic advantage.
The Starbucks Method: 7 Things Higher Ed Can Learn About Institutional Effectiveness
Behind the pumpkin cold foam and cinnamon sprinkles is a finely tuned operation that constantly monitors, measures, tweaks, and improves. In higher education, we call this Institutional Effectiveness: the ongoing practice of evaluating whether you're doing what you said you'd do and making changes when you're not. Even if this means that the thing you used to do before is more effective than the thing you’re doing now.
8 Things No One Tells You About Accreditation (But We Will)
Whether you’re a seasoned administrator or someone who got voluntold to help with the self-study, understanding how accreditation actually works and what it really means for your institution is crucial. And while there’s no shortage of formal definitions and policy handbooks out there, there’s a lot that tends to go unsaid. That’s where we come in. Today, we're sharing 8 things no one tells you about accreditation (but we absolutely will).