Association for Continuing Higher Education 80th Annual Conference and Meeting Newport Marriott Hotel • 25 America’s Cup Avenue • Newport, RI
Have You Heard??? We're Having a Party... I Mean.. a Conference!
With all of the exciting opportunities in Newport, Rhode Island, the ACHE 2018 Conference may feel like a party as much as a professional learning opportunity! Don't you want to be part of both???
We hope you are making your professional learning travel plans for ACHE 2018 in Newport, Rhode Island, Keeping the Beacon of Continuing Education Burning Bright!
To assist you in making your travel arrangements and potential tourist experiences while you are in town for the conference, we have a few updates and reminders to share.
CONFERENCE UPDATES
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FUN THINGS TO DO IN NEWPORT
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE
Sunday, October 7
9:00 a.m. – noon
ACHE Board of Directors Meeting
noon – 1:00 p.m.
Leadership Lunch
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Leadership Institute
Meeting Registration & Information Desk Open
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
First Timers Reception [First Time Conference Attendees]
6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Conference Volunteer/ELI Reception
Monday, October 8
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Exhibits Open
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.
First Timers Welcome & Breakfast [First Time Conference Attendees]
Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
ASL Chapter Council Meeting
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Welcome & Announcements
9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
General Session 1 / Keynote 1
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Break
11:00 a.m. – noon
Breakout Sessions
noon – 1:15 p.m.
Meet 'n Greet Lunch
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
2:30 – 3:00 pm
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
4:00 – 4:30 p.m.
First Timers Meet and Greet
4:30 – 5:30 pm
Regional Business Meetings
5:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Mentor/Mentee Meet and Greet
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Opening Reception
Tuesday, October 9
8:00 – 8:45 a.m.
ACHE Committee Meetings
ASL Councilor Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
General Session 2 / Keynote 2
10:15 – 10:45 a.m.
10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
12:15 – 2:15 p.m.
ACHE Annual Luncheon & Awards ACHE Annual Business Meeting
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
3:30 – 4:00 pm
Wednesday, October 10
8:00 a.m. – noon
8:00 – 10:30 a.m.
8:00 – 9:10 a.m.
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
10:15 – 10:30 a.m.
10:30 – noon
General Session 3 / Keynote 3 and Closing Ceremony
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Don't miss your opportunity to attend the 80th Annual Conference in Meeting on Scholarship!
The ACHE Graduate Student Conference Grant and the ACHE Memorial Staff Development Grant are designed exactly for that purpose! Application Deadline is TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018.
If you answered yes, please consider applying for a 2018 ACHE Grant before July 31! Click here for details. Other ACHE Grants and Scholarships are also available, including the Alex Charters Research Grant, Wayne L. Whelan Scholarship, and Institutional Minigrants.
Learn more about these other ACHE Grants and Scholarships! Click here for details.
If you have any questions or need additional information, let us know. Grant and Scholarship recipients will be recognized at the Awards Luncheon during the 2018 ACHE Annual Conference & Meeting in Newport, Rhode Island.
Check out the ACHE 2018 Conference Website for all the details! Learn more about the various types of registration available.
Dear Colleagues,
I am excited that ACHE is heading back to Newport, RI for the 2018 conference. My first ACHE Meeting was in Newport nearly 14 years ago. I didn’t know then how much ACHE would influence my life and my career. I started my volunteer work with the organization simply by agreeing to serve as a presider during a concurrent session at an ACHE South meeting. Presiding doesn’t require much commitment. You simply serve as an assistant to session presenters, distribute and collect evaluations, and help to ensure that the session ends on time. At every subsequent meeting, I was encouraged by one of my colleagues to dive in a little farther into the work of the organization. Soon I was serving as chair of my region, running for the Board of Directors, and chairing committees. Last year, I was honored to be elected Vice President of ACHE. ACHE has given me a team of colleagues who serve as both creative think-tank and crisis management team. ACHE professionals are the people I call when I need ideas, solutions, and very often – courage.
One thing I rarely share with folks is that I’m a pretty big gambler. I love a good black jack game and I can spend hours at a slot machine. Fortunately, a small casino, the Newport Grand is less than 2 miles from the hotel. I’m looking forward to meeting you in Newport – If I’m hard to spot, I’m sure it won’t be because I’m at a poker table.
Amy Johnson ACHE Vice President East Tennessee State University
Colleagues,
I hope the summer months are treating you well, and you’re finding some time to relax, decompress, and spend time with family and loved ones. Currently, I’m teaching a pre-college program, the Boston College Experience coordinating the Business & Leadership Institute for rising high school juniors and seniors. For many of these students, it’s their first experience with college coursework, campus living, and greater independence. Summer is a season of discovery, reflection, and improvement, both personally and professionally.
The second thought that comes to mind is the truly year-round calendar on which many of our continuing and extended education divisions operate. While some of our campus counterparts say their goodbyes at commencement and return at Labor Day, we are in the midst of summer programming; planning for the next enrollment cycle; and “business as usual” with many program formats.
So, when will you take a break? Take some time to reassess and reconnect with family and loved ones. Carve out some time this summer and fall for professional development, retooling and recharging your skill set while elevating your professional profile.
With this in mind, the ACHE planning committee is counting down the weeks leading up to the 2018 ACHE Annual Conference in Newport, RI. Please register and book your accommodations now! Columbus Day weekend is the finale of the tourist season in Newport, so rooms are in great demand. Please take a moment to register.
I look forward to seeing you this fall. Enjoy the latter half of the summer, and get ready for another great academic year.
With Warmest Regards,
Bill Boozang, Ed.D. ACHE President, 2018 Boston College
As graduations have concluded in May and early June, vacations have been scheduled, and fall semester is around the corner, I wanted to share what some ACHE members have been up to!!
From June 20-22, 2018 at Loyola University Chicago, the 3rd Annual ACHE Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI) was held. Eleven incredible individuals from various colleges and universities around the country embarked on an intense 2½ days of professional development and leadership training!
The Emerging Leaders Institute, as stated on our website, “Is a premier leadership opportunity for all involved.” Our 2018 speakers included Dr. Regina Lewis, Dr. Sean Gallagher, Dr. Kris Lee, Mr. Nick Eremita, and Dr. Amy Johnson.
Dr. Lewis’s workshops included Rhythmic Leadership. Dr. Gallagher’s presentation was all about Visionary Leadership & Continuing Higher Education, whereas Dr. Lee led a workshop about Cultivating Resilience in Today’s Complex Higher Education Landscape.As the excitement and learning continued, Mr. Nick Eremita led the group interaction diving into Cultivating Innovation & Killing Vampires: Leadership and Planning in Action. Dr. Amy Johnson led workshops on Strength, Trust, and Integration: ELI Reflection and Action Planning.
Day 1 of ELI: Participants learned about rhythmic leadership in a discussion led by Dr. Lewis. In a game called Colourblind Team Building & Communication Training Game, ELI participants enhanced their team building and communication skills.
The days were full of discussions, interaction, learning, action planning, socializing, and so much more. In addition, new connections were made and the group will be moving forward on a project for ACHE!
Some participant comments include:
“I truly enjoyed every aspect of the institute. I took in a great deal of information and now plan to go home and reflect on what aspects I can incorporate into my life/work. I enjoyed the holistic approach to the person; it was not just about the job.”
“I'm so thankful to have been involved in this institute and have gained invaluable insight into myself.”
“This institute was excellent and I was honestly very honored to be part of it. Dr. Lewis was such an inspiration and I really enjoyed her sessions. All of the speakers were absolutely great and the take-aways from this week are limitless. Thank you!”
I would like to extend a special thank you to my Co-Chair of this event, Dr. Amy Johnson. To have a partner like Amy is truly a gift.
Also, a HUGE thank you goes to the following:
Sincerely, Dr. Dorothy Williams ACHE President-Elect
I became involved with ACHE, in 2007, through an adult degree completion program at my institution. We won an award at the regional level and were fortunate to win at the national level. I attended the national conference, to accept the award, and I was pleasantly surprised how friendly and welcoming the people were.
Since that time, I have been “hooked” on ACHE and the great people and experiences the organization offers. The opportunity to meet folks from all over the country who share the same problems and issues has been very rewarding.
I can pick up the phone and seek advice and assistance from a multitude of educational professionals -- and you do not always find that in every organization. ACHE has become an integral part of my professional life, and I really appreciate my ACHE family.
I would encourage anyone who deals with adult and continuing education to give ACHE a try.
Check out the ACHE 2018 Conference Website for all the details!
Tim McElroy Exhibitors/Sponsors Committee Co-Chair Northeastern Oklahoma State University
Dr. Tim McElroy has served as Dean of the Northeastern State University (NSU) campus in Muskogee, Oklahoma since June 1, 1999, and has 40 years of experience. Before going to NSU he held positions of Public Information Director, Director of High School and College Relations, Director of Admissions, and Registrar at four other institutions.
He became involved with ACHE in 2007 while directing the statewide Reach Higher, degree completion program. Reach Higher is a consortium of nine regional universities and 14 community colleges throughout Oklahoma.
His ACHE involvement includes serving as both chair-elect and chair of the Great Plains Region, Director at Large on the ACHE National Board, and member of the planning committee for International Conferences in Albuquerque, Las Vegas, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Newport.
Dr. McElroy has an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from Oklahoma State University and both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University.
"Relaxing! Wonderful and informative conference."
"I came away with so many ideas."
The 2018 ACHE South Annual Conference was held April 10-12 in Austin, TX at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at The Capitol. Austin was a beautiful setting for a relaxing conference with plenty of opportunities to network and build new or existing relationships across the south region. The “Keep Austin Weird” slogan celebrates the city’s desire to protect small, unique, and local businesses as it becomes a boom town and technology leader, while supporting the arts and entertainment industries. This desire to support the community and its creativity inspired the conference theme, “Cultivate Your Community: Partnerships and Relationships in Higher Education.”
Three tracks were developed to support the theme. Leadership and Relationships offered sessions related to leadership experiences that led to improved relationships in team building, community relations, as well as an executive shared vision. Due to Austin’s economic growth and increased career opportunities, a track titled Growing Partnerships offered sessions related to successful program partnerships that led to prosperity for students, departments, and the institutions. The third track, When Weird Works…or Doesn’t, celebrated those unexpected partnerships that led to wonderful opportunities as well as odd collaborations that didn’t go as planned. Concurrent sessions included topics on coaching, motivation and engagement, partnerships, online learning, communication strategies and reorganization to name a few.
Keynote speakers included Dr. Gerald Napoles, president of Lone Star College – North Harris, who discussed the value of partnerships and relationships throughout his professional career and journey to become president. Dr. Bethany Bear Hebbard,Community Corps director at Mobile Loaves & Fishes, shared her passion for teaching and inspiring the creation of true homes in a homeless world through relationship building. Ben Kennedy, founder and managing partner of Kennedy & Company, has been a long time partner to the South Region and shared his current research on enrollment management. Each keynote also graciously offered a follow-up concurrent session to provide an additional opportunity for participants to ask questions and learn more about their experiences.
Attendees also had time to take a city walking tour, visit parks around the Capitol, shop, eat out on historic Sixth Street, and relax in the outdoor backyard at the hotel playing yard games.
Audrey Johnson coordinated our annual philanthropy project, supporting Community First! Village, which offers housing and services for the disabled and chronically homeless in Central Texas.
The 2018 Regional Award winners included:
During the business meeting, the mini-grant was amended to allow recipients to utilize the funds to attend the Emerging Leaders Institute.
At the conclusion of the conference, outgoing ACHE South chair Dr. Chris Nesmith reflected on the accomplishments of the organization this past year and handed the gavel to incoming chair Debbie Poweleit. Also recognized for their amazing work, organizational skills, and overall support were our co-hosts Michelle Chappell and David Grebel form Texas Christian University and Audrey Johnson and Gabriela Coleman from Baylor University, and their teams, who along with the entire Conference Planning Committee designed a successful conference. Plans are already underway for the 2019 conference in Gatlinburg, TN, at the Park Vista hotel with Eastern Tennessee State University serving as the host institution.
Alex Read is the Chair for the West Region of ACHE. He works at Sacramento State in the College of Continuing Education as a Senior Program Strategist. He is responsible for the development of new certificate programs and the day-to-day operations of existing certificate programs. Alex lives in Sacramento California in the neighborhood where the movie Lady Bird was filmed. Alex is married to his wife Jennifer whom he met attending California State University, Chico. Alex and Jennifer have three kids Ross (9), Elyse (6), and Claire (3).
The West region had a successful regional conference this last February in Salt Lake City. The conference was well attended, but the presentations and breakout sessions were the highlight of the conference. The conference attracted three corporate sponsors and seven university sponsorships. The engagement between the sponsors and attendees provided a fun environment that really sparked the networking opportunities. Alex would like to thank the BYU downtown center again for hosting the conference! The 2019 ACHE West Regional Conference will be held March 4th – 6th at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
Alex’s predictions for 2019:
I hope to see everyone in Newport Rhode Island.
Cheers,
Those of us who work at colleges and universities understand the critical role that successful enrollment plays in the sustainability of our institutions. As in private industry, the number of students whom we enroll annually represents the successful “sales” that our institutions need to achieve to operate reliably and fulfill their role of educating students. Particularly when institutions miss their enrollment targets or lose students through attrition, life can become very challenging for them. While high-end elite universities typically don’t have this problem and public institutions are often buffered by both the large volume of students enrolled and state funding, the rest of our institutions must work to attract and retain sufficient supplies of new students yearly.
To make things more complex, the supply of traditional high school students is waning, forcing campuses to come up with more innovative ways to achieve their enrollment goals. Increasingly, student-centric admissions and retention strategies have helped many colleges succeed. Administrators, advisors, and faculty with a common mission and determination to provide excellent educational experiences and high levels of customer service to all students are winning in this race.
The numbers of students that are now predicted to grow significantly are students from diverse backgrounds, including nontraditional learners and those who are first generation, underserved Latino students. High-touch, student-centered strategies of retention, persistence, and completion are evidencing higher success rates particularly with such populations. Current innovations such as those regarding predictive analytics being implemented by Civitas Learning and the Education Advisory Board that track the students’ footprint through their university journey and pinpoint when and where they succeed and fail, with appropriate and timely interventions to ensure that they don’t fall off track, are breaking new ground in the field of student-centered enrollment practice.
At Fairleigh Dickinson University, a new degree completion program is being created and Petrocelli College has been transformed from an atomized and siloed series of individual programs to a unit that has built a far more proactive, efficient enrollment structure. We meet weekly with all program directors to review the success of our lead generation, conversion rates, applications, and registration data. Our model is blended, flipped to ensure that students can rely upon online learning and instruction and come to campus once a week or less; current research shows that flipped class models work well for adult cohorts and helps them to remain in their study programs. We are also conducting focus groups and consultant studies to work on ways that our operation can reduce the many inconveniences that often drive students away from degree study. We consistently communicate the message to students that we are there to enable their degree completion and to remove obstacles in the way of their goal. Such student-centric messages and behaviors help to instill trust in our students and serve as the glue in a high-touch model that grows degree completion programs.
This watershed moment of change and opportunity signals that our institutions of higher learning must change and adapt to the times if they are to survive. Especially tuition-driven private institutions must find ways to alter and adapt their business models. Renowned Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen warns:
"…higher education is just on the edge of the crevasse. Generally, universities are doing very well financially, so they don’t feel from the data that their world is going to collapse. But I think even five years from now these enterprises are going to be in real trouble."
This focus on the student, rather than on the institution, shifts the paradigm and underscores the real reason that we work in universities—i.e., to serve the student. Students need to know that those on campus care about their development as individuals. Implementing this practice can make the difference between holding onto students and watching them walk away from our campuses. Developing proactive, student-centric business models that are systemized and a regular part of our day-to-day operations can significantly increase enrollment growth and keep our students happy and in class.
Lisa R. Braverman, Ph.D. Dean of the Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies Fairleigh Dickinson University
Greetings from Halifax, Nova Scotia!
Over the last few days, I have enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of our sister organization, the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE) . In addition to wonderful keynotes, the CAUCE Communities of Practice presented a dynamic and innovative series of sessions featuring the best of Canadian continuing education.
There are many ACHE action items to consider this time of year. Please take some time to contribute and participate in the following:
Recognize your achievements! The Call for Awards deadline is June 15, 2018, so be sure to submit your nominations soon! These awards are meant to help you bring recognition to your unit and individuals on your own campus as we will also give you press releases to share in your community. We need to share the good work that happens in continuing education!
Our individual awards categories are:
Our program award categories include:
You can find out more about our Call for Awards by clicking here. Remember, you must submit a nomination to win!
Vice President & Board of Directors
The ACHE Nominations Committee is currently accepting nominations through June 8, 2018 for:
Click here to submit a nomination. Individuals may self-nominate or be nominated by a colleague.
Once nominations are received, the Chair of the Nominations Committee, Clare Roby, will contact nominees with requests for additional information. The Association will present its slate of candidates to the membership for consideration in July by email and in Five Minutes with ACHE. Please direct questions to the Nominations Committee Chair, Clare Roby at croby@csuchico.edu.
Eligibility for Office Basic Eligibility for Directors at Large and Vice President
Additional Eligibility Criteria for Vice President
For a complete description of the requirements, roles, and responsibilities of ACHE Officers, please consult the ACHE Guide for Candidates.
We hope that you will consider nominating yourself or a colleague this year!
If you answered yes, please consider applying for a 2018 ACHE Grant before July 31, 2018! Click here for details. Other ACHE Grants and Scholarships are also available, including the Alex Charters Research Grant, Wayne L. Whelan Scholarship, and Institutional Minigrants.
Have a wonderful June, Colleagues!
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