Innovations Library

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Creating Appreciative Learning Cultures: From Problems to Possibilities
Nancy E. Stetson February 2006
Volume: 19 Issue: 2
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David Cooperrider, the originator of a relatively new approach to organizational or institutional change called Appreciative Inquiry, tells the story of a conversation he had with the father of modern management, Peter Drucker, before his recent death. He asked Drucker, then 93, to distill the essence of what he knew about leadership. Drucker told Cooperrider, "The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths, making our weaknesses irrelevant."
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Data Don't Drive: Building a Practitioner-Driven Culture of Inquiry to Assess Community College Performance
Lumina Foundation for Education January 2006
Volume: 19 Issue: 1
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A variety of formal benchmarking practices is being used in higher education today, and these efforts seem to be growing in sophistication. This abstract is from a recent Lumina Foundation report, written by Alicia C. Dowd, an assistant professor in the higher education doctoral program in the Graduate College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The report reviews those benchmarking practices, particularly those being used at community colleges, and introduces the concept of a culture of inquiry as a means for judging their potential value.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Discovering the Improvement Powers of Six Sigma
Deborah Pape December 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 12
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Educators are constantly barraged with new ideas on how to improve performance. Many of these ideas are theory based and untried. Six Sigma is neither a new nor unproven methodology. It has been used very successfully in the business world and has the potential to be a powerful tool for use within higher education institutions as well. That was the expectation when West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) embarked on the program last spring.   
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
A Little "Java" Can Energize Friendraising, Fundraising, and Advocacy Efforts
Para Jones November 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 11
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Colleges and universities have become so sophisticated in marketing educational programs and services that we sometimes forget the power of personal interaction. We are deeply committed to the importance of using market research to analyze and understand the needs of our target market, and we certainly know how to develop slick media campaigns, interactive websites, and impressive community events, and how to combine the right mix of media to deliver our marketing messages to the target market.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Community and Technical Colleges, Information Technology, and Revolutionary Times
Edward J. Leach October 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 10
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity . . .Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Observations From a New President: Year Two
Becky Paneitz September 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 9
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As I approach the second anniversary of my presidency at NorthWest Arkansas Community College (NWACC), I reflect on the past two years in an effort to gauge the successes as well as the challenges that I continue to face. There is one indisputable fact: Nothing can truly prepare one for the experience of being a community college president.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Three Birds with One Stone
Allen Goben August 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 8
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At AIB College of Business (IA), the leadership team chose to collaboratively develop the organization's strategic plan in a tightly interwoven framework with both operational planning and accreditation criteria. This planning framework effectively takes care of three birds with one stone, while also creating synergy to move the strategic plan from a shelf document into daily implementation.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
The New Core Competence of the Community College
David Jacobson July 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 7
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The Bush Administration’s announcement last year of $250 million in job training grants to community colleges is the latest indication of the institution’s growing prominence. The community college is increasingly recognized for its flexibility and cost-effectiveness, providing affordable access to higher education and tailoring occupational training programs to local workforce needs. Yet even this welcome recognition woefully underestimates the community college’s potential.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Community Colleges and the ICS: Compliance With the National Incident Management System
Daryl Johnston June 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 6
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All crises begin and end locally. Even given the national impact of the World Trade Center destruction, the event required extensive and sustained local resources and personnel. As local institutions, community colleges need to know how to manage crisis situations. They are the ideal source for training first responders and leaders in crisis management.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
A Firm Foundation
Allen Edwards May 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 5
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Pellissippi State Technical Community College is a multicampus comprehensive community college located in Knox County in East Tennessee. The college operates from a main campus near Knoxville, and, as this case began, operated two satellite campuses that served a two-county area of about 450,000 people. Pellissippi State is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents System, which governs 13 community colleges, 6 universities, and 27 technology centers. The college receives its funding from state appropriations and from student tuition and fees.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Team-Based Institutional Effectiveness as Guided by Mission Statement
Susan Stenerson, Hanna Erpestad April 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 4
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Lake Superior College (MN) has experienced rapid growth over the last five years, with a greater than 50 percent increase in FYE. A legislatively mandated merger of three of the four higher education systems of the state, combined with rapid growth and the consolidation of two faculty unions, prompted the institution to examine its capacity to accommodate and respond to significant change.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Faculty Load Fairness?
Peter D. Boyse March 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 3
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Delta College is a public community college located in the Midwest. Its fall semester headcount enrollment is 10,500 credit students, with another 35,000 trained through its Corporate Services division each year. The college also has a public television and public radio station. The students come mostly from the three counties served by the college and from several other adjacent counties that are not served by a community college. The students generally reflect the demographic makeup of the surrounding area.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Transformative, Collaborative, and Integrated Leadership
Gayle Nolan, Cynthia Siegrist February 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 2
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When the new chancellor at Delgado Community College (LA) announced that the multicampus community college was to be a more unified learning-centered institution, he simultaneously recognized the need to integrate the implementation of this vision with leadership development. He charged the small but passionate three-woman Office of Faculty and Staff Development with creating and executing a leadership development plan, effective almost immediately.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Lessons From a Successful Bond Campaign
Jesus "Jess" Carreon January 2005
Volume: 18 Issue: 1
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On May 15, 2004, the Dallas County Community Colleges (DCCC) passed a $450 million bond referendum with more than a 70 percent margin. The victory provided a special reinforcing moment for a system that had not undertaken a bond campaign since 1972. The case to the voters was a good one: a growing enrollment, an excellent reputation, a history of low tax and tuition rates, along with a high-profile state report, Closing the Gap, which strongly recommended that community colleges reach greater numbers in the coming decade.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations
Academic Capitalism and Entrepreneurial College Leadership or Lessons in How to Juggle
Gordon Nixon December 2004
Volume: 17 Issue: 12
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Colleges operate in an increasingly challenging and complex environment. Each aspect of this environment is a ball that has to be kept in the air at all times, twirling and interlacing with the other balls. If any one falls, the whole scheme is affected. The challenges include issues of globalization, the knowledge economy, competition, reduced government funding, accountability, and the changing expectations of stakeholders. The new environment requires colleges to operate very differently from the way they did in the past.
Tags: Leadership and Organization, Innovations

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