Leadership Development

The Big Ten Academic Alliance offers a comprehensive range of leadership development programs designed for faculty and higher education administrators and bring perspectives that are unique to individuals from large R1 universities. These targeted collaborative professional development opportunities garner on the expertise of its member institutions and complement existing development programs on each Big Ten Academic Alliance campus. Participation is available to member university faculty, academic administrators, and staff as determined by the program eligibility requirements and university selection process(es).

Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Institute:

The Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Institute houses the Alliance's highly regarded and often emulated portfolio of academic leadership programs for emerging leaders, department executives, and newly appointed deans. The Institute’s comprehensive range of leadership development programs are designed for faculty and higher education administrators across the leadership continuum and breadth of academic disciplinary units. Bringing perspectives that are unique to individuals from large R1 universities, these programs leverage the deep well of expertise within the Alliance universities to deliver skills-based, strategically focused and culturally competent training in cohort-enriched environments. The Institute programs complement existing development programs on each Big Ten Academic Alliance campus. Participation is available to member university faculty and academic administrators with each university setting its selection process.

Addressing the broad expanse of areas and issues at the core of higher education, the Institute is comprised of the following:

Academic Leadership Program (ALP): An intensive year-long leadership program that develops the leadership and managerial skills, as well as, provides an orientation for faculty, including those currently appointed as academic administrators, to gain a better understanding of university-level academic administrative leadership and its challenges.
Department Executive Officer Program (DEO): This hybrid program is designed for recently appointed department heads/chairs to hone key skills specifically related to their role. Topics range from conflict competency and communication to faculty development, performance reviews, and group problem solving.
Deans Leadership Program (DLP): A six-month intensive leadership program designed specifically for deans who have been recently appointed to their roles. The program focuses on critical issues that occur in the initial months and years of the dean’s role.

IT Leaders Program (ITLP):

The Big Ten Academic Alliance Chief Information Officers know that the excellence of their respective IT organizations and higher education in general depends upon the excellence of their IT leaders. Driven by this commitment to preparing their staff to meet the ever-evolving IT needs of their universities, in 2005 the CIOs partnered with MOR Associates to develop the Big Ten Academic Alliance MOR IT Leaders Program. Since that time, more than 700 IT staff from member universities are graduates of this intensive, cohort-based program.