Professional staff, non-faculty employees who support the work of faculty and students, are one of the fastest-growing segments in the higher education workforce (Nadler et al., 2010; Mousavizadeh, 2021). Despite their expertise in a myriad of functional areas on a college campus, staff are not privileged as participants in the shared governance…

Democratic processes are at the foundation of the students-as-partners (SaP) framework. Student selection for SaP projects however, is typically in the hands of staff, which is undemocratic and faculty assumptions and practice exclude particular students from co-creation projects. We describe a case study in which students and staff jointly select…

The purpose of the study is to explore the ways of involving university stakeholders specifically in updating educational services. It combined exploratory and observational research methods which relied on qualitative or quantitative data gathered through the researcher-designed and validated tools which were the empirical and methodological…

In this report, the second in the On Shared Equity Leadership series, we highlight four distinct ways to structure Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) that we observed from our participating institutions. We lay the groundwork for understanding these structures by first describing some of the more common or traditional ways that diversity leadership…

This qualitative case study was designed to explore how student services leaders adapted their leadership behaviors and practices in response to moving to the virtual working environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study site was a midsized university in southwestern Ontario. The data collected for the study came from three sources:…

Group and team class decision-making activities often focus on demonstrating that "two heads are better than one." Typically, students solve a problem or complete an assessment individually, then in a group. Generally, the group does better and that is what the students learn. However, if that is all such an activity conveys, then a…

This report presents an innovative approach for higher education institutions to better support students from diverse backgrounds. It explores how colleges and universities can fulfill a student success agenda through the creation of a diverse infrastructure that enables the overall institution to effectively mobilize to serve diverse student…

With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting education across the globe in early 2020, many educators found themselves rapidly transitioning to remote learning without the appropriate knowledge, skills or resources. For many higher education students, this resulted in less than optimal learning experiences. To ensure that high quality online learning is…

This study reports on a participatory design approach including the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a mobile app-based personal response system (PRS). The first cycle formulated initial design principles through context and needs analysis; the second utilized the collaboration with instructors and experts embodying specific…

This Partnerships Working Group (PWG) study responds to recommendations from the National Research Council's (NRC) NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique (2010) for NOAA to better understand how NOAA Education partnerships are formed, fostered, sustained, and evaluated. The NRC report noted that while partnerships were mentioned as a means…

This study describes the perceptions of embedded teaching and learning leadership teams working on curriculum reform in science teaching departments. The teams combined a formally recognised leader, School Director of Learning and Teaching, with a project-based, more junior academic, Curriculum Fellow, to better leverage support for curriculum…

This paper deals with an attempt by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) to strive for excellence in education via a collaborative approach to administrator preparation. The approach utilizes professionals from both the university community and the local education agency in forming a training team to prepare preservice supervisors and…

Three critical factors in the Terrence E. Deal model for examining organizational climate and culture are values, rites and rituals, and communication networks, and these were assessed in a study of 80 graduate students to determine their perceptions of these elements in a university graduate program in Administration and Policy Studies (APS). The…

Research has documented that individuals feel a greater sense of responsibility and commitment to an organization when they are active members in organizational decision making. To investigate the level of student involvement in doctoral level counseling psychology programs, student involvement surveys were completed in the spring of 1983, by 28…

Project LIRO (Leadership for Improved Restructuring Outcomes) was an attempt to influence student outcomes and school change through a year-long work experience and training of department chairs and administrators. The project used Teacher Collegial Groups (TCGs) to encourage collaboration between personnel from Institutions of Higher Education…