Alan Lamborn and Blanche Hughes, who worked together for more than a decade on the university initiatives to improve the educational experience and student success at Colorado State University, have been honored by the creation of the Lamborn-Hughes Institute by the Reinvention Collaborative.
The inaugural event, designed to share best practices among academic and co-curricular leaders at research universities across the nation, will be held on the CSU campus in June.
Two architects of Colorado State University’s renowned Student Success Initiative have been honored with the creation of a national initiative devoted to strengthening the student-centered research university.
The Lamborn-Hughes Institute was announced at the biennial national conference of the Reinvention Collaborative in Washington, D.C., in early November. Alan Lamborn, recently retired associate provost for educational attainment, and Blanche Hughes, vice president for the Division of Student Affairs, have been instrumental in the success of CSU’s decade-long SSI and both were on hand to accept the honor.
“The Institute recognizes Dr. Lamborn’s and Dr. Hughes’ many years of highly productive student-centered collaboration,” said Steve Dandaneau, executive director of the Reinvention Collaborative and associate provost of CSU. “We aim to foster similarly helpful collaboration for the benefit of Institute participants, and will be greatly aided by the fact that we are able to draw on CSU’s considerable accumulated experience and expertise in this area.”
The Reinvention Collaborative, hosted at Colorado State, is the only national organization to focus exclusively on undergraduate education at research universities. It brings together more than six dozen institutions known for their high-level of research activity that are also dedicated to improving the undergraduate learning experience on their campuses. Lamborn served as the executive director of the Collaborative from 2013 until his retirement this year; Hughes serves on the Collaborative board.
Who should attend?
Teams from Research I and II universities are welcome to apply to attend the Lamborn-Hughes Institute. Teams should be led jointly by student affairs and academic leaders, including, for example, institutional research; diversity, inclusion, and equity; enrollment management, and others, with an ideal team size of between six and eight members. For the inaugural Institute, up to 10 applicant institutions will be invited, with selection decisions made jointly between the Reinvention Collaborative Board and Colorado State University leaders.
Complete application information is available on the Reinvention Collaborative website; deadline to apply is March 1, 2019.
Institute objectives
The Lamborn-Hughes Institute will help participants define, analyze, and advance the student-centered research university as a vital response to a range of undergraduate issues, from recruitment to retention, access to success. The inaugural program is set for June 26-28, 2019, on the CSU campus in Fort Collins, and will focus on topics such as:
- Closing student achievement gaps
- Increasing graduation success
- Faculty engagement/partnerships
- Curricular/co-curricular engagement and learning
- Integration of high-impact practices
- Comparative administrative models
Institute faculty will be drawn from CSU; The Reinvention Collaborative, including members who lead undergraduate affairs at private research universities; and other guests and plenary speakers who offer distinctive perspectives, expertise, and experience. A full listing will be available by Jan. 31, 2019, on the Reinvention Collaborative website.
Initial response to the Lamborn-Hughes Institute has been overwhelmingly positive, with Kevin Kruger, president of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators calling it “a great opportunity to inspire collaboration.”
Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, agreed.
“APLU applauds the Reinvention Collaboration’s new initiative, the Lamborn-Hughes Institute,” he said. “Educating the whole student has long been the mission and privilege of public research universities, and high quality education involves the integration of academic and student affairs. This initiative will help leverage and synthesize all of this work to increase student success.”
