Higher Ed in 2025: Thriving Through Strategic Adaptation
The future may be uncertain, but that doesn’t mean your institution has to face it unprepared. By focusing on foundational priorities—accreditation, state licensure, strategic planning, and institutional effectiveness—you’ll be positioned to tackle whatever challenges come your way.
SMART Goals for Strategic Planning Explained
Resolutions are a lot like cotton candy. They’re sweet ideas but will disappear under any kind of pressure (or in any kind of puddle). A SMART goal is the key to turning these ephemeral wishes into lasting change. Specificity, Measurability, Achievability, Relevance, and a Timeline give your goals the structure and shape you need in order to achieve them.
Beyond the Bench: The Legacy of a Balanced Life
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s legacy transcends her defining legal decisions; its true weight is in the reminder that people, with their hopes, dreams, and opinions, are the heart of the law. She believed in a world where the law provided equal opportunity for all and knew that ambition without humanity leads to a fundamental imbalance in society.
A Grape Resiliency
A big part of students’ success depends on how well they connect with faculty and their peers, but it also hinges on having an environment where there is freedom to make mistakes, form opinions, and engage in debate without judgment. Sometimes breaking with tradition means that we thoughtfully set the table for the students, not the other way around.
What’s Most Important?
A new year gives us a chance to ask ourselves: what’s most important? Do we want to be “right” or do we want to grow?
Embracing Failure: A Key to Success in Higher Education
Successful organizations do not plan for failure, of course, but they expect it to (infrequently, hopefully) occur. When failure does happen, successful organizations study it, not to place blame, but to inform better decisions next time. If you truly want to succeed, there must always be a next time.