IngenioUs

It’s not every day — or every decade — that you hear of a new university starting up. For a nonprofit, it's not the most lucrative business venture, and the startup costs and regulatory hurdles are intense. But Caitlin O’R. B. Carter and Maren Rosenbach are determined to build a new kind of higher-education institution in the Seattle area. In this first episode of 2022, we speak with these bold fo...

What kind of education do today's college students need to thrive in a constantly changing world?  In his latest IngenioUs blog post, historian and futurist David Staley suggests a 'dynamic change curriculum that is flexible and forward-looking.'  Staley argues that rather than narrowly specialized, vocational training, emerging adults most need an education that prepares them to live and work in...

In this IngenioUs mini episode we speak with enrollment management expert Tim Fuller about what it takes to bring in the class during these anxious and uncertain times in higher education. Long time enrollment practitioner, owner and SVP at Credo and now founder of his own consulting firm, Fuller Higher Ed Solutions , Tim is our featured presenter at our January 19th, 2022 Leading Edge Thinking in...

When Dr. Stephen Lehmkuhle became the chancellor of the brand-new University of Minnesota-Rochester campus, he had to start from scratch. There was no legacy mission, no physical campus, no academic programs, no athletic teams and so on.  Lehmkuhle quickly realized that his first and most important act was to confirm the central organizing purpose of the campus. In our conversation, Stephen s...

As Maryville University' s 10th president (since 2007), Dr. Mark Lombardi has led an innovative revolution, earning national distinction, resulting in mind-bending enrollment growth and gains in student learning, success, and retention.  With enrollment reaching 11,000 and with 90+ campus-based, online, undergraduate and graduate degree programs and a 98% job placement rate (meaning students...

In his latest IngenioUs blog article, David J. Staley, Ph. D . suggests that higher education leaders need to be thinking in more imaginative ways about what universities can be.  According to Staley, bringing change to the university means 'reforming the university as a new discipline or a new design practice.'  As usual, Staley's thinking is provocative and is informing how we think ab...

According to Dr. Tia Brown McNair and the co-authors of her recent book, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk , rhetoric alone about equity, diversity and inclusion won't get the job done in higher education.  During our recent conversation with Dr. Brown McNair, we learn more about what it takes to make equity work stick including having leaders willing to examine their own perceptions of equity,...

In this IngenioUs Mini episode, we hear from nationally renowned expert on college student recruitment, J eff Kallay, co-founder of Render Experiences (now  RNL+Render ), the leading firm for campus visit experiences.  As a respected authority on the emerging “experience economy,” Jeff’s presentations on American generations with particular expertise on the current youth generation and t...

Based on his latest best-selling book, Failure to Disrupt , it is clear that Justin Reich believes that a digital transformation is, at its core, a very human endeavor. In this week’s IngenioUs episode with the MIT professor, learning scientist and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, Justin separates truth from hype and helps us understand what technology can—and can’t—do to transform learni...

With two doctorates and an MBA, Dr. Mary Beth Cooper was clearly qualified to assume the presidency of Springfield College.  Now in her 9th year, President Cooper has instituted several new innovative partnerships and initiatives that have extended Springfield College's impact in the community and she has gained a reputation as a mission-driven and highly strategic, student-centric leader. &n...

Is it time to reform higher education accreditation?  David Staley thinks so.  In his latest IngenioUs blog, he suggests it is time to design a new category of accreditation agency that can accommodate innovative and outside-the-box activities.  According to Staley: 'With an innovation accreditor guiding them and granting them permission, colleges and universities might be unleashed...

In this episode, we speak with the pioneering scholar, poet, Dominican immigrant and remarkably inspiring higher education leader, Dr. Daisy Cocco De Filippis, who recently returned to her beloved Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of The City University of New York to serve as President.  A highly student-centric leader, Daisy's tenure as a faculty member, dean, provost and two-time p...

In this week’s episode, we speak with educational entrepreneur and innovator of one of higher ed’s most revolutionary experiments, Shai Reshef . Shai is founder and president of The University of the People , the world’s first and only nonprofit, tuition-free, American accredited online university. Driven by a personal passion to provide higher ed access to qualified individuals regardless of geog...

Transformational change leadership is all the buzz these days.  And yet, very few leaders have been trained or are skilled in how to actually pull it off.  In this episode, we speak with one of higher ed’s foremost experts on transformational change leadership, someone who has been in the trenches leading organizations through significant, successful change processes: Dr. Wallace Pond ....

As a highly successful two-time college president, provost and award winning teacher, Dr. Marjorie Hass is very well informed about the challenges facing college and university leaders.  And yet, she is both hopeful and realistic about the future and what leaders need to know and do to navigate these dynamic times.  Recently elected as the first woman president of The Council of Independ...

For a very long time now, higher education has trended toward growth.  Indeed, the emergence of a new class of organizational type, e.g., the mega university, reflects a business strategy that many institutions are emulating; a strategy rooted in a belief that one's survival in this increasingly competitive environment is best assured through increasing scale.  In this latest I...

Each of us has the potential for breakthrough creative thought and action. But only when we can get outside of the perspectives and experiences that hold us back and limit our ability to think and see in new ways. If we have learned anything from the pandemic it is this: None of us work or exist in isolation. Not on our campuses, nor in the academy more globally. And while the challenges we face o...

Even while men still hold the majority of executive leadership positions in higher education, women represent more than half of administrators overall, according to a study from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Women in higher education leadership bring unique and valuable skills and perspectives to bear on their approach to leading, something that...

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas. Under Dr. Sorrell’s 13-year tenure as president, Paul Quinn has become a national movement for its efforts to remake higher education in order to serve the needs of under-resourced students and communities. Join us to learn more about President Sorrell’s unconventional pathway to the presidency an...

It seems like everyone is talking about innovation these days. Boards of trustees are looking for innovative leaders, and there is a sense of urgency around the need to think and act differently. And yet, what does it mean to innovate in this rapidly evolving and increasingly challenging context? What does it take to build and sustain an innovative culture? Where do innovative leaders get their be...

If you could start a university today from scratch, what would you create?  In his latest IngenioUs blog article, David Staley suggests that a critical challenge facing many higher education institutions today is their lack of distinctiveness or differentiation.  Citing University of Minnesota at Rochester, founding chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle's new book,  Campus With Purpose: Building a Mission-...

The challenges facing nearly all of higher education in the years ahead are daunting.  From declining demographics and accelerating competition to increasing questioning about the value of a college education, the need for new innovative models has never been greater.  Going forward, institutional resilience will require that colleges and universities understand and leverage their unique...

What is on your radar right now?  As you look the future, what keeps you awake at night?  At the end of each interview, we ask our guests to respond to these same questions, to tell us what is top of mind as they contemplate the post-pandemic future.  We are pleased to share a compilation of the wisdom and insights that these extraordinary thought leaders shared with us during Seaso...

Is tenure still viable?  Has the pandemic triggered an erosion of faculty governance?  What new models of leadership and governance do we need to consider for the years ahead?  These are just a few of the questions we discuss with higher ed's foremost expert on organizational change, governance and leadership, Dr. Adrianna Kezar.  As Dean's Professor of Leadership, Wilbur-Kieff...

We are very excited about this final episode of season 2 wherein we speak with a highly innovative and wise leader— Scott L. Wyatt —who serves as the 16th president of Southern Utah University.  You may have heard about Wyatt recently—he and his team have just launched the $9,000 bachelor’s degree. What many people don’t know is that this is one of a steady stream of innovations that Wyatt ha...