The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) serves more than high school and college counselors who help students and families navigate the admissions process.

Shanda Ivory, NACAC’s director of communications, joins us this week to discuss how the pandemic might permanently change college recruiting. Will the days of college fairs in convention centers with thousands of students ever come back? Is it such a bad thing if they don’t?

We explore those questions and talk about how admissions professionals can strike a balance between not getting stuck and the status quo and not going after every new trend that comes along.

Links to cool stuff

• Shanda Ivory on LinkedIn
• College Admission Decoded podcast
• 2021 NACAC National Conference

Morgan Campbell is only a few years out of college but already making a name for herself as a pioneer of TikTok in higher ed. She joins us this week to talk about how she built a successful presence for Indiana University and how her team plans to build on that strategy by expanding the use of vertical video on Instagram Reels and other platforms this year. We also talk about how TikTok seemed like a breath of fresh air during the pandemic at a time when it’s easy to fall victim to doom scrolling on other social media platforms.

Links to cool stuff

• Morgan’s website
• Morgan on Twitter

Higher Ed Social founder and co-host emerita Jackie Vetrano joins Lougan and Jenna to celebrate 200 episodes. We talk about returning to work on campus, returning to pre-pandemic activities, and the media empire Jackie’s building through her podcast and Twitch streams — with a few diversions to things like hot tub Twitch and dads on TikTok.

We are also excited to share that Jenna will be part of a panel on podcasting at organizations at the 2021 Podcast Movement conference in Nashville during the first week of August. Reach out to her if you’ll be attending the conference and want to meet up!

Links to cool stuff

• Jackie on Twitter
• JackiePlaysStuff on Twitch
• Jackie Watches Stuff podcast

Bill Zimmerman, an instructor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State and host of the Happy Valley Hustle podcast, returns to the show to discuss his experience with a year of remote learning and how he hopes education will look different as schools fully come back in person this fall. He talks about how he managed — or sometimes didn’t manage — Zoom fatigue for his students and for himself and how the time in remote learning might strengthen the desire for in-person connections inside and outside the classroom.

Bill is an eternal optimist, and that sentiment really comes through in this conversation. We also talk about running and how it helps focus our minds that are constantly distracted by our inboxes and social media notifications. 

Links to cool stuff:

• Our first episode with Bill
• Happy Valley Hustle podcast
• Bill on Twitter

Anyone who works in communications knows that it’s easy for productive conversions to turn dark and hurtful, particularly when it comes to issues like race and identity. Dr. Mordecai Ian Brownlee leans into the difficult parts of these conversations in his work as a leader, teacher, mentor, speaker, and more. He joins us this week to discuss the need for spaces where we can freely share our own experiences and learn from the experiences of others. We also talk about how to set a positive example on social media and use it to lift people up, rather than get dragged into the latest conflict of the day.

Mordecai currently serves as the Vice President for Student Success at St. Philip’s College. Effective July 15, 2021, he will serve as the sixth President of the Community College of Aurora within the Colorado Community College System. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Morgan State University School of Education & Urban Studies and the University of Charleston School of Business and Leadership, as well as a higher education columnist for EdSurge.

His mission as an educator is to work collectively with all stakeholders to create a safe and equitable learning environment that promotes student inclusion, student engagement, and student success. That mission comes through loud and clear in this conversation.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Mordecai’s website
• Mordecai on Twitter

The Registrar’s office is one that even those of us who have been in higher ed for a long time sometimes struggle to understand. The profession has come a long way from the days of long lines of students waiting to register for classes and taken even more importance during the pandemic. Doug McKenna, the University Registrar at George Mason University, joins us this week for a dose of Registrar 101 in the most fun way possible.

If you enjoy this episode and want to hear more from Doug — including the theme song we talk about — check out his podcast For the Record, which he hosts for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Doug McKenna on LinkedIn
• For the Record podcast

Many of the episodes on this show focus on traditional, four-year universities, but community colleges have the same responsibilities when it comes to social media, enrollment management, and many other aspects of higher ed. 

This week, we welcome Van Nguyen and Olivia Perry of Schoolcraft College just outside Detroit, to talk about the challenges and the opportunities of working at a community college. We also talk about how the pandemic impacted community college staff and students and chat about plans for commencement and how to pull off ceremonies that honor students and their achievements in a safe way. 

Van Nguyen is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Schoolcraft College; Olivia Perry is the school’s Marketing and Events Coordinator. 

Links to cool stuff

• Schoolcraft College
• Van Nguyen on LinkedIn
• Olivia Perry on LinkedIn
• QR Codes Kill Kittens by Scott Stratten

We are very excited to have Dr. Josie Ahlquist back on the show to discuss her new book, Digital Leadership in Higher Education. We talk about the book and what leadership looks like during global pandemic and ongoing struggles for racial justice. 

No matter what’s going in the world, Josie stresses that higher education leaders need to show up authentically to their interactions with students. With so much misinformation out there, students need to know that they can trust their institution and its leaders before they will believe what they’re reading in an email or seeing in a video.

Josie also reminds us about the importance of taking time to recognize the difficulty of the work we’re doing right now and the fact that we can’t vent to colleagues or celebrate achievements in the normal ways right now. That’s where the digital hug comes in. Josie talks about how she uses them and the power of building mastermind cohorts that are on part strategy session and one part therapy session.

Links to cool stuff:

• Josie’s first appearance on the show – way back in 2017!
• Josie’s website
• Josie on Twitter
• Josie on LinkedIn

Many of our organizations have spent the past year working on ways to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion on our campuses. However, that work sometimes stalls out before it even gets going because it’s such a big task that it’s hard to know where to start or how to keep the momentum going. That’s where Dar Mayweather shines. 

Dar is the founder of Good Mayweather Consulting, where he helps his clients confidently engage in critical conversations around diversity and inclusion.He has more than 15 years of professional leadership experience in higher education, business, and diversity & inclusion training. His professional journey began in the corporate world, then he moved to mental health, and now calls higher ed home. He believes in fast tracking his client’s learning by utilizing research and lived experiences to develop actionable solutions. 

Lougan and Jenna talk with Dar about what these high-level concepts look like at a granular level — everything from time blocking and task prioritization to starting difficult conversations and resisting the pressure for quick, superficial change rather than something more meaningful. The tips Dar shares are important not just for DEI work, but for managing workloads and dealing with burnout in general.

Dar is a first-generation college student. He earned a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice, a Master of Science in Education and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Educational Leadership while teaching Leadership to undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Links to cool stuff:

• Dar’s website: doingthegoodwork.com
• Dar on Twitter
• Dar on Instagram
• Dar on LinkedIn

We’re a year into the pandemic, and many of us are getting ready for commencement and everything that the end of the school year brings. Anyone feeling a little (or maybe a lot) of burnout? Ken Schneck has been there and joins us this week to share his journey from student affairs professional to an administrator in his mid-20s to a tenured faculty member and published author.

Ken found himself burned out at age 35 and spoke up about what he was experiencing. The message resonated more than he ever thought it would and became the catalyst for launching his speaking and writing career. In this episode, Ken talks with us about that journey and the advice he now gives to his students in the Leadership in Higher Education program at Baldwin Wallace University.

Ken also talks with Lougan and Jenna about how escaping the grind of administrative work allowed him to pursue a writing career and tell the stories of Ohio’s LGBTQ communities.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Ken’s website
• Ken on Twitter
• Ken on LinkedIn
• Ken’s HuffPost article “Student Affairs Administrators Get Suicidal Too”
• Baldwin Wallace University Leadership in Higher Education
• Download the episode transcript