Administrators Institute

The Administrator’s Institute has been designed to help leaders throughout the organization to facilitate change process from a variety of roles. The challenges that are confronting Higher Education means that most universities and colleges need to transform themselves. This is evident when analyzing strategic plans and their initiatives. This event provides strong grounding in change process within Higher Education, the roles that administrators play, and building skills in leadership and management that integrate into this change process.

Theme Areas

Topics/Themes to be Explored through a Series of Activities

Administrators as agents of change

  • Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?

  • Is a new administrative paradigm required?

Thinking in new ways

  • How does the level of past investments affect the willingness to embrace change?

  • Why do so many find it hard to acquire new behaviors?

  • When is it right to change and when is change not appropriate?

  • How do you free people up to think and act in new ways?

Characteristics of a good administrator

  • What are key best practices?

  • What are the qualities to be cultivated?

Leadership versus management

  • Is it true that you manage systems and processes, but you lead people?

  • What does it mean to have management without leadership or vice versa?

  • What considerations are there for managing cultures?

  • What skills, attitudes, and processes are most important for a good leader as compared to a good manager?

  • What behaviors are important when managing practices that directly affect individuals?

  • How do we hold others accountable for agreed-upon expectations?

Program assessment

  • Why is it so difficult to be accountable?

  • How do you establish accountability standards?

Tangible Take-Aways

Each participant/college group will leave the institute with the following items:

  • an annotated bibliography of valuable resources/ readings with brief descriptions of their value,

  • a collection of best practices presented at the institute by the attending participants,

  • a networking contact list including performance vitas and self assessments of the participants, and

  • two readings (sent in advance to prepare for the event).

Overview

Teams from institutions in the following situations should plan to attend:

  • Are you trying to meet changing expectations?

  • Are you serious about measuring learning and growth in their students?

  • Are you expecting faculty to perform with an emphasis on student success?

  • Are you expecting administrators to be skilled at leading and supporting change?

Between 30 and 50 administrators from up to fifteen institutions are expected to attend. This community of scholars will have an excellent opportunity to network with administrators from across the country facing similar challenges and opportunities.

Suggested Team Make-up

A team should consist of three individuals: (1) a department chair (lead instructor) or new administrator, (2) a dean, and (3) a vice president (senior administrator). We recommend that one of the individuals be from a nonacademic area.

Learning Outcomes

  • Create a work plan for advancing change at your institution.

  • Assess one's own performance as a facilitator of change and design a professional growth plan.

  • Enhance appreciation of current trends influencing higher education.

  • Develop skills in establishing priorities among competing demands for change.

  • Cultivate an understanding of the changing role of an administrator in a faculty-centered/student-centered learning environment.

  • Develop an understanding for the difference between assessment and evaluation in the administrative role.

  • Improve understanding of the role of internal versus external facilitators of change.

Sample Agenda

There is no sample agenda for this Institute.

Scheduled Events

June 19-21, 2007

Kettering University

If you're interested in scheduling an Administrator's Institute at
your college, please contact us at inquiries@pcrest.com.