Message from the Chair

Stephanie Jacobson

Western Academic Leadership Forum is a community of regional colleagues and leaders who inform and learn from one another, collaborate on projects for mutual benefit, and annually bring in experts on topics of timely import. As leaders in 4-year institutions and higher education systems, we are called upon to be well informed on national and state issues and to provide leadership to our organizations in a local context. Those of us who have been active in the Forum have learned how valuable our connections with our colleagues in the WICHE region are in executing these responsibilities.

The focus of our most recent annual meeting, “The Politics of Student Success: Meeting the Challenges—from Readiness to Completion”, was on higher education’s role in the national effort to improve educational achievement along the P-20 continuum. And, for the first time, representatives from the newly formed Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders joined us. Initiatives such as two high profiles consortia (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers—PARCC and Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium—SBAC) funded under Race to the Top to develop assessments for the new common core state standards for K-12 anticipate a much higher level of collaboration across sectors than we have ever seen. On a regional basis the Forum aims to support its members, as we navigate these new waters.

I invite you to explore our newest collaborative effort, “The Academic Leaders Toolkit”, a repository of tools developed by and for members to address solutions to common issues or problems http://alt.wiche.edu/. We are still in the early stages of populating the ‘tool box’. Is there something your organization has developed that might be a ‘best practice’? Have you had a valuable failure that could help the rest of us avoid that particular pot hole? We want to hear from you!

If you have not yet joined the Forum, please consider doing so. The strength of our organization is in our members and we would love to include you.

Stephanie Jacobson, Forum Chair
Associate Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, Arizona Board of Regents