How can higher education institutions foster a deeper sense of belonging for first-generation students through connected programs, services, and physical spaces? What national trends and campus-level strategies best empower first-gen success? We talk through these with Carrie West, Director of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction at UT Austin, and Jeff Doyle, former leader at UT Austin and current Vice President at Marymount University. Together, we explore how holistic approaches, cross-departmental collaboration, peer coaching networks, and strategic facility design can break down administrative silos and improve first generation student recruitment and retention. [Recorded live at the NASPA Student Success in Higher Education Conference in June 2026]

As we think about how students transition to college, how do we set expectations, how do we support students, and how is this all changing with social media - including for the better in some ways? We talk through these with Alexis Redding, developmental psychologist at Harvard's Graduate School of Education who co-leads their Transition to Adulthood Lab and Editor of the Book Mental Health in College: What Research Tells Us About Supporting Students. Discover how to dismantle perfectionist myths, support students through typical developmental hurdles, and build a stronger sense of campus belonging.

How can higher education institutions connect the entire student lifecycle from applicants through alumni using a unified technology platform? How can consolidating systems curb digital sprawl while enhancing user experience and data quality and lowering cost? We talk through these with Sarah Williams, Product Manager and Interim Associate Dean for Online Education at the University of Utah. Discover how leveraging role-based access, overcoming political data silos, and deploying personalized platforms and communications can transform student engagement, streamline operations, and support continuous institutional improvement across campus departments.

What does it take to build, operate, and scale a successful degree apprenticeship program? How can higher education institutions and employers collaborate to drive student retention, mobility, and career growth? We talk through these with Stacia Edwards the Deputy Provost at City Colleges of Chicago and Daniel Serota the Vice President of Government Affairs at Aon. Together, they outline actionable strategies for managing curriculum, providing wraparound support, solving the early-career experience catch-22, and scaling regional employer networks to future-proof the workforce in the age of AI.

How can institutions close the gap between modern consumer tech expectations and reality? How do we connect the digital and physical campus to drive student success? In what was originally an EDUCAUSE webinar, Elliot shares insights on student experience gaps from The Connected College. Then, we talk through these gaps and how to close them with Sarah Williams from University of Utah, Melanie Hardy from Valencia College, Tom Ellett from Quinnipiac University, and Chase Williams from Pathify. The panel shares actionable strategies for mapping journeys, streamlining communication fatigue, sunsetting outdated tools, building communities, and leading the organizational change to make it all happen.

How can career design transform student success when integrated directly with academic courses and advising, starting in the first year? How can higher education institutions shift student mindsets from passive box-checking to true agency and self-discovery where every experience is an experiment or prototype they can reflect on and learn from? How will AI change the “products” of career development like a LinkedIn profile or a project portfolio and what does that mean for students? We talk through these with Christa Acampora the Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Julia Lapan the Director of Career Design and Discovery at University of Virginia.

How can higher education institutions expand the definition – and impact! – of entrepreneurship beyond the startup to maximize student success? What skills and relationships can students build and how can they apply them whether they start a company or a non-profit or work within a larger business as someone who know how to actually get things done, creating, communicating, solving problems? How can colleges and companies build mutually beneficial ecosystems make this happen? We talk through these with Antwon Foreman, the entrepreneurship professor and Founder of the social business support-u.org.

How can institutions bridge the gap between traditional academic programs and dynamic labor market needs? How can you move from one-off internships and class projects to build true partnerships? What role can data, technology, and systems play? What strategies can you use to combat organizational silos and institutional risk-aversion? In this special episode  from a session at the Ellucian Live Conference, Elliot Felix presents the whitepaper he partnered with Ellucian on and then facilitates a panel discussion on these questions with Noah Brown from Ellucian, Rupa Saran from Coast Community College District, Antwon Foreman from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and Norman Palmer from Complete College America.

How can institutions define and measure belonging? What are inspirational examples of programs, spaces, and support services that foster it? How is student belonging changing, and how can folks adapt? In a LinkedIn Live Webinar, Elliot Felix talked through these with Suzanne Rivera the President at Macalester College, Jeff Doyle the Executive Director of Student Support at UT Austin, and James Vasquez the Associate Dean of Operations and Strategy at the USC Annenberg School. They share different perspectives along with the programs and places they’ve used to foster belonging and drive student success – from environments to athletics to communications and more.

How do we define student success holistically across the full end-to-end experience? How can institutions use digital transformation to catalyze improvements rather than just overlaying new technologies? How do leaders effectively manage adoption, operations, and process redesign to continuously adapt? We talk through these with Chrysoula Malogianni the Chief Digital Experience Officer at Old Dominion University. Together, we explore actionable strategies for dismantling institutional silos and cultivating a highly connected campus ecosystem that drives long-term student retention and achievement.

Should we hack colleges so students link their courses, clubs, and careers on their own? Or should we connect colleges with strategy that breaks down silos so that students succeed? What role do culture, policies, and technology play in how easy or hard they are to navigate? When you want to make progress, where do you start – is it top-down or bottom up? In this special episode, Elliot discusses this with Scott Carlson and Ned Laff, authors of Hacking College.

How can you build the skills and habits around empathy and emotional intelligence to elevate students' EQ so that they can be effective, inspiring leaders and people who can just get stuff done and move things forward? What are the habits and norms from phones and social media that we all have to unlearn to do this? How does this help students show up differently in school, work, and life? We talk through these questions with Francesca Schuler, Executive Director of Dialogue Vanderbilt.

How wide is the gap between what the media says about the value of a degree and what students are actually experiencing? In this episode, Elliot talks through this with Courtney Brown, Vice President of Strategic Impact at the Lumina Foundation, to deconstruct their recent "Reality Check" research conducted with Gallup. By comparing hard data against public perception for three pillars of the student experience – belonging, career readiness, and affordability – we explore how institutions better communicate value and increase actual value through high-impact strategies like work-integrated learning.

How can you a variety of experiential learning opportunities accessible to all students? How might projects make an impact internally with the institution as client and externally for companies and community groups? What barriers might you (and students) encounter and how can you get over, around, or through them? We talk through these with Susan McCahan, Vice Provost for Innovations in Undergraduate Education at the University of Toronto.

What causes the tensions that lead to votes of No Confidence? What are the impacts of these disconnects on student success? What can institutions do to proactively avoid these through orientation, education, communication, org design, and more? We discuss these questions with Mike Nietzel and Chuck Ambrose, authors of No Confidence: When College Faculty Turn Against Their Presidents. Available on Amazon

How can you tackle student success challenges with a bias toward action and practical solutions? How can you do this collaboratively as a community of practice? Along the way, how do you build a continuous improvement culture and sustain your initiatives and innovations in the long term?We discuss these questions with two inspirational leaders from the University of Washington Tacoma: Bonnie Becker, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success and Amanda Figueroa, Associate Vice Chancellor for Social Mobility.

How can you make AI a practice in your institution so that it's not just something you use but something you are? How can you embed it in your curriculum, culture, and operations? How does doing this enable responsiveness, personalization, standardization, scalability, and more. We discuss these questions and more with Sasha Thackaberry-Voinovich, Co-Founder and President of Newstate University.

How can you embed career discovery and development into your first year experience? How can you get advisors, faculty and employers engaged in experiential learning activities? How is AI changing the curriculum and career development and placement? We talk through these with Maggie Lewis, Vice Dean for Student Success at Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communication and Interim AVP for Enrollment Management for Temple University.

What does it look like for an institution to be truly connected? How can design thinking help us define problems and create solutions together during times of seismic change? How can leadership move from managing risk to green-lighting progress to create a transformative campus experience? We dive into these questions in a special bonus episode where Champlain College Provost Monique Taylor interviews Elliot Felix at their annual college retreat.

What are the best metrics to measure the student journey? How can you use these to structure mergers and acquisitions, consolidations, and partnerships among institutions? How can you manage the change process to create a positive impact on the student journey? We dive into these questions as Jeremy Anderson shares his personal experience with assessment, technology, and M&A and in higher ed.