Data and Decisions™ Workshop
for Independent Colleges and Universities
 
Sponsored by
Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
&
the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC)
Renaissance Indianapolis North Hotel, Carmel, Indiana
September 27-29, 2009
Click here to download the AIR-CIC Data and Decisions™ Workshop Brochure
The Application Period for 2009 is now Closed
Applicants will be notified via e-mail of the selection results by Friday, July 17, 2009.
The ability to access, analyze, and convert data into strategic information is critical to institutions operating in today’s competitive educational climate. Increasingly, college and university leaders seek to base strategic decisions on data-targeted information about their own institutions and up-to-date, comparative information about other institutions. Institutional accountability to trustees, accrediting agencies, and the public requires benchmarking on key indicators of institutional performance.
AIR and CIC are again offering a workshop on the use of data for strategic decision-making. The Data and Decisions™ Workshop addresses ways to identify peer and competitor institutions, define key institutional performance measures, and compare relative positions of these measures with other institutions. These measures include tuition revenue and financial aid, faculty salaries, instructional expenditures per FTE student, as well as retention and graduation rates. Workshop instruction is based on the use of existing national data sets. For example, the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) provides online tools to identify similar institutions and analyze comparative information. These and other data sources are addressed as resources for improving institutional effectiveness. In addition, CIC offers a variety of benchmarking services for member colleges, including the Key Indicators Tool (KIT) and Financial Indicators Tool (FIT). Combining these resources with institutional data and knowledge provides Workshop participants with an understanding of core competencies and feasible strategies for continuous institutional improvement.
Workshop Goals
- Provide tools and strategies to improve data-informed decision-making
- Evaluate availability and quality of institutional data
- Identify internal and external data sources (e.g. finance, enrollment, staffing)
- Develop new strategies for using existing data (e.g. IPEDS)
- Identify effective approaches for using data in strategic management
- Increase the use of CIC’s benchmarking tools and services (e.g. KIT and FIT)
- Create a cross-functional team of data users
Instructors
Workshop instructors combine experience in institutional research, knowledge of available data, and an understanding of independent institutions. Instructors are:
- Mary Ann Coughlin, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Research and Statistics, Springfield College (MA);
- Harold V. Hartley III, Senior Vice President, Council of Independent Colleges;
- Richard Howard, Director of Institutional Research and Reporting, University of Minnesota;
- Gerald McLaughlin, Associate Vice President for Institutional Planning and Research, DePaul University (IL);
- Josetta McLaughlin, Associate Professor of Management, Roosevelt University; and
- Randy Swing, Executive Director, Association for Institutional Research.
What to Bring
Several of the sessions involve hands-on work with national data sets. Each team must bring at least one laptop computer with wireless internet capacity. Instruction and demonstrations will use Microsoft Office programs (Excel and Internet Explorer). PC or Mac equivalent programs may be used by participants during the hands-on activities.
In addition, each team should review in advance and bring with them to the Workshop the most recent copies of three benchmarking reports:
- CIC’s Key Indicators Tool (KIT)
- CIC’s Financial Indicators Tool (FIT)
- IPEDS Data Feedback Report
Access to the confidential KIT and FIT reports can be obtained through the President’s office of each institution (for assistance, please contact Eric Godin, CIC’s Manager of Research Projects at egodin@cic.nche.edu or by phone at 202-466-7230).
The IPEDS Data Feedback Report for each institution is available through the IPEDS Executive Peer Tool at http:nces.ed.gov/ipedspas.
Schedule
Workshop registration begins at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 27. The Workshop begins with a welcome session at 2:30 p.m. and concludes by noon on Tuesday, September 29.
| Sunday, September 27 |
|
| 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. |
Registration Open |
| 2:30 p.m. |
Workshop Begins |
| 2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. |
Sessions |
| 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. |
Reception |
| 6:30 p.m. |
Dinner |
| Monday, September 28 |
|
| 7:15 a.m. – 8:15 a.m. |
Breakfast |
| 8:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. |
Sessions |
| 12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. |
Lunch |
| 1:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. |
Sessions |
| 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. |
Reception |
| 6:30 p.m. |
Dinner on your own |
| Tuesday, September 29 |
|
| 7:15 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. |
Breakfast |
| 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Sessions |
| 12:00 p.m. |
Workshop Concludes |
Meeting Location
The Workshop sessions will be held at the Renaissance Indianapolis North Hotel. Participants stay Sunday and Monday nights in the hotel, which is located at 11925 N. Meridian Street, Carmel, Indiana 46032. Reservations for additional nights can be made, through AIR at the group rate, but paid for on your own. Visit www.renaissanceindianapolis.com for more information.
Costs
The team registration fee is $750.00 for a three-person team and $1050.00 for a four person-team. This fee, in conjunction with funding from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) covers a private hotel room for each participant for two nights, breakfast and lunch for two days, one dinner, receptions, and instructional materials. Additional hotel nights may be reserved for $109.00 plus taxes at the participant’s expense.
Team members will be responsible for their own travel to and from the Workshop, for dinner on Friday evening, and for any incidental expenses.
Questions
Questions about the Workshop may be addressed to the AIR Meeting Planning Staff at air@airweb.org or by phone to 850-385-4155 extension 201.
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