Developing Strong Partnerships with Community and Faculty

1. Developing Strong Partnerships with Community and Faculty Ken Brill, Augustana College Dave DeAngelis, Suffolk University

2. “Our challenges are no longer technical issues of how to allocate rising revenues, but difficult adaptive problems of how to lead when conditions are constantly changing, resources are tight, expectations are high, and options are limited. We live in an age of transformational, not technical, change. Our leadership, like our institutions, must become transformational as well.” Kellogg Commission (1997) “Returning to Our Roots: The Student Experience”

3. Definition • A permanent merger between two organizations is perhaps the most intense example, but collaboration also includes simpler efforts such as short-term joint programming.

4. The Importance of Shared Leadership & Collaboration • Develop a shared understanding of institutional mission and philosophy. • Use collaborations to engage the campus community in conversations about student success. • Advocate for shared governance. • Ensure that students have a prominent voice in campus governance. • Alter structures to encourage cross-functional activities focused on student success. • Tighten the philosophical and operational linkages between academic and student affairs. • Empower and support faculty leadership. • Create and capitalize on cross-functional, boundary spanning activities. • Kezar (2005).

5. Eight features emerge at highly collaborative institutions. • Mission/Philosophy • Campus Networks • Integrating Structures • Rewards • Sense of priority for senior leadership • External Pressure • Values • Learning Kezar (2006)

6. Three of these are considered critical to good collaboration • Mission/Philosophy • Does the guiding mission of institution promote collaboration? • Are these themes communicated through word and deed? • Campus Networks • Do potential collaborators have the connections to collaborate? • Does the institution encourage cross-departmental interaction? • Integrating Structures • Is campus set up to allow for effective collaboration? • Are there cross-disciplinary institutes or centers that are charged with collaboration? Kezar (2006)

7. Three types of barriers restrict collaboration. • Cultural-Historical • The norms, customs, values, and informal operating procedures • Bureaucratic-Structural • The institution’s formal organizational and reward structures • Institutional Leadership • Senior leadership’s direction of the institution through what they say and do • Kuh and Banta (200)

8. Example of collaborations • Student Worker Training • Leadership Development • Living-Learning Communities • Major Events • What kind of collaborations are happening in your neck of the woods?

9. White Privilege Summit

10. Leadership Exchange

11. DC Leadership Exchange

12. Team Exercise Questions to answer in your workgroups • Choose a model • Identify the potential stakeholders and how they might contribute to the collaboration or partnership? • Define the important assumptions and expectations ground rules that should be discussed among partners? • Identify key learning outcomes or program goals? • Brainstorm critical features that might be considered toward designing your program or service

13. Questions, Thoughts, Random Outbursts