LVAIC Celebrates Second Cohort of Higher Education Leaders Institute
June 10, 2019, @ 11:36 AM
On May 29, 2019, LVAIC celebrated the completion of the second cohort of its Higher Education Leaders Institute with a program at Blue Grillhouse.
This program was designed as a development opportunity for mid-career faculty and mid-level administrators who have interest and potential for advanced administrative leadership in higher education. Beginning as a project developed out of the LVAIC Chief Academic Officers, this program grew to encompass both faculty and staff in order to maximize its potential for cross-campus collaboration throughout the process.
The LVAIC Higher Education Leaders Institute is a 10-month program that allows participants to explore multiple aspects of leadership in higher education while building their personal and organizational capacity for leadership. Areas to be explored include:
- The future of Higher Education
- Academic Affairs
- Student Affairs
- Finances
- Human Resources
- Enrollment Management
- Assessment and Accreditation
- Role of President and External Relationships
In-room sessions, remote learning, self reflection and mentor conversation are all utilized to provide participants with an opportunity to network and grow their understanding of higher education leadership. Meeting once each month for an in-room half-day session, participants had the opportunity to hear from panels of campus leadership, including Provosts, Chief Financial Officers, Human Resources Directors, Vice Presidents of Enrollment Management, Senior Student Affairs Officers, Institutional Research Directors, and campus Presidents. These panels included breakout discussions and opportunities to apply the knowledge imparted from these leadership groups. Beyond these in-room sessions, participants were tasked with pre-session readings and work, as well as regularly meeting with their mentors.
Throughout the year, participants were tasked with completing a group project with the other participants from their campuses. The group project was to focus on improving one aspect of their campus using the knowledge garnered from the entirety of the LVAIC Higher Education Leaders Institute, highlighting each aspect of the program and how it would affect the project from their campus. Participants presented their final projects on Thursday, May 31, 2018 while LVAIC commemorated the hard work of these 23 participants with a completion celebration at the Hotel Bethlehem surrounded by campus leadership, presenters from the program, and the program’s mentors.
Presenters commented on the value of this program not just in terms of expanding their knowledge and empathy for all departments across their home institutions, but also regarding how the program has allowed them to create and foster deep relationships with departments with whom they would have otherwise not interacted. Further, these participants now have a cohort of LVAIC colleagues across the Lehigh Valley as part of their network of resources. The diverse backgrounds of participants allow the reaches of collaboration to expand even further including members of enrollment, finance, development, information technology, student affairs, student conduct, and many more.
After wrapping up this second year, the LVAIC staff is already planning the next year of the LVAIC Higher Education Leaders Institute with the third cohort already selected. This year’s kick-off session will take place on Wednesday, August 15, 2019 at DeSales University.
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