1. Searching for What Matters Most
2019 Annual University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Adult Student Recruitment and Retention Conference
March 4, 2019
Madison, WI
John N. Gardner

2. Just like you, everything I do, including this talk, was/still is, influenced by my college experience.

3. One of those “D”s was in Speech 101!

4. What I learned from Speech 101:
Don’t overcut!
In retrospect it was basis for my career
Don’t knowingly insult your audience
Don’t begin with any kind of apology
Important to immediately ask them to do something!
Do audience analysis
Identify with your audience

5. John and Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin
I have been to Wisconsin before!
Visited following UW campuses:
And Wisconsin Technical Colleges:
Eau Claire
Madison Area Technical College
Madison
Milwaukee Technical College
Milwaukee
Oshkosh
Fox Valley Technical College
Parkside
Edgewood College
River Falls
Concordia University Wisconsin
Stout
Waukesha
Lakeland University
Whitewater

6. In college I studied and came to respect WI as the birthplace of the American “progressive” movement
As a USC branch/regional campus administrator, I learned that the UW System was/is the gold standard
Takes more than one aberrant governor to kill you off!

7. Your, my, our work is really a Good News story: what we have is in demand. The country and state is always going to need us!
But we must adapt higher education to needs of students for whom it was not designed.
Yes, you have demographics that are causing you some problems.
On balance, immigration is a good news story. The story of the US is the story of immigration.

8. The Importance of THE BIG IDEAS
They are bases of our lives. They provide contexts for what we do.

9. They help us understand our fit, and what we must do.

10. The Big Ideas: Many of them begin in college. (Back to Speech 101)
The oral exam of a lifetime: Escape from Freedom
Why is freedom a burden for so many?
Why do people give up their freedom?
Why do some democracies move to authoritarianism?
What are you doing with your freedom?

11. The Lonely Crowd
The Inner vs outer-directed person: which are you?

12. My junior yea r, November 22, 1963
The questions: what is justice? Who should rule?

13. What were your big ideas from college?
Which of these are still the basis of your life and work?

14. The Undergraduate Experience: Focusing Institutions on What Matters Most (2016)

15. What Matters Most? You tell me (please)  For your work… create a brief list. And I will show you mine

16. Learning
Relationships
Expectations
Alignment
Leadership
Assessment

17. To succeed and advance in your work you have to:
Take maximum advantage of your freedom(s) (and responsibilities)
Focus on what you can control
Build the work on the big ideas that drive you (and others)

18. Examples:
The movement for student success and how it is redefining roles
Moving beyond “access” to “success”
Not settling for just “completion”
“Completion” for what?
Moving beyond retention to excellence
Drives the need for:  
standards for excellence (see paper examples distributed to you)
processes for measuring attainment of excellence
developing plans for excellence
executing those plans to a high degree

19. Remember: what you are doing right now is yielding the results you are getting right now? Want different results? Gotta change how you are doing what you are doing!

20. The IEO theory from Alexander Astin:
Moral of the story: if you want different outcomes, have to change either the “input” or the “environment”
Note, the environment Is YOU and what you do for students
And it’s easier to change YOU in Wisconsin than the Input!

21. An illustration of some big ideas at work: Excellence in Academic Advising+

22. The Big Ideas: Not satisfied with Advisement
Been working on it since first NACADA conference in 1977
Remains one of most frequently cited problems
Why: not owned by senior leadership; no grand design; no institution-wide plan
Need a planning process based on evidence
Need to assess based on an aspirational concept of what excellent advising would look like
Need to execute a campus wide strategic plan for EAA

23. Take a look at the paper copy you have of the Conditions of Excellence Note: you can use these! They’re free, in the public domain. You are invited to do so.

24. Your Legacy
Where can you be taking this?

25. University of South Carolina Horseshoe

26. No matter what your role, status, age, I recommend you be deliberate about considering the concept of legacy…and yours in particular.   This is not an exercise in modesty!   You must be deliberate/intentional about this This all happens gradually, cumulatively, evolutionary, progressively as you move through the seasons of your career and life What do you want to be the major impacts from your life?

27. What do you want to be known/remembered for
What do you want to be known/remembered for? How do you want to be remembered for making your institution and your units of responsibility better than you found them? What elements of your legacy are already evident? Where are you now on your life continuum of establishing, sustaining that legacy? What ideas can you get at this conference that you can incorporate into some part of your legacy building?

28. Contact: John N. Gardner gardner@jngi.org 828-885-6014