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Curriculum Transparency and Complexity: Improving Programs of Study 

Curriculum Transparency and Complexity: Improving Programs of Study focuses on transforming the curriculum system to create clearer, more navigable programs of study that support timely student advancement. 

This workshop explores how curricular complexity—particularly prerequisite chains and program structure—affects student progress. Participants will examine the Gardner Institute’s approach to curricular redesign through complexity mapping and improvement science. Teams will work with custom or in‑session maps to analyze a chosen program of study, identify friction points, and consider changes that support timely, coherent student progression. Read more.

Transforming the Graduate Student Experience Through Institutional Self‑Study 

Transforming the Graduate Student Experience Through Institutional Self‑Study focuses on transforming the graduate student experience system through structured institutional self‑study and evidence‑informed improvement.

This session will provide an opportunity for a guided discussion and exercises on transforming the graduate student experience. In this workshop, participants will explore current conditions affecting graduate students, learn more about what other institutions believe are the most urgent needs of graduate students to address, and discuss promising practices. This session will introduce the Gardner Institute’s task-force-based approach to institutional self-study, applied specifically to the graduate student experience, and will explore strategies for leading structured, collaborative inquiry. The workshop focuses on reviewing evidence, fostering collaboration across campuses, and driving improvement at the departmental or school level. Read more.

Leading Institutional Transformation for Student Success

Leading Institutional Transformation for Student Success focuses on transforming the leadership and alignment system that supports institution‑wide student success planning, coordination, and implementation.

This workshop supports faculty and staff who lead institutional change efforts. Participants will explore leadership approaches aligned with the Gardner Institute’s model of student‑centered transformation. The session emphasizes building alignment across units, translating strategic priorities into actionable steps, and fostering the conditions needed for sustained change. Read more.

Purpose‑Driven Advising: Redesigning the Advising Ecosystem

Purpose‑Driven Advising: Redesigning the Advising Ecosystem focuses on transforming the advising system to strengthen how institutions guide students through educational, life, and career decision‑making and progression. 

This workshop introduces participants to the Gardner Institute’s advising redesign framework and the concept of purpose‑driven advising. The session focuses on examining how advising structures, practices, and evidence can guide students as they make informed decisions aligned with their long‑term educational and career goals. Through collaborative analysis, participants will consider how institutional advising ecosystems can be strengthened using evidence, system mapping, and consistent expectations. Read more.

Strengthening the Student‑Athlete Experience 

Strengthening the Student‑Athlete Experience focuses on transforming the student‑athlete support system to strengthen academic momentum, engagement, and overall educational experience.

This workshop examines the academic and co‑curricular experience of student‑athletes, focusing on structures that support their success in and beyond the classroom. Using a system‑level lens, participants will review evidence, identify opportunities to improve coordination between academic affairs, student affairs, and athletic units, and discuss practices that deepen engagement and academic momentum for student‑athletes. Read more.

Transforming the Gateway Course Experience

Transforming the Gateway Course Experience focuses on transforming the gateway courses to improve outcomes in high‑enrollment, high‑impact introductory courses. 

In this workshop, participants learn how to apply the Gardner Institute’s gateway course redesign model to improve high‑enrollment, high‑risk introductory courses. Participants will review evidence‑based strategies for redesigning gateway courses to increase student success and reduce DFWI rates. The session provides a structured approach for analyzing current conditions, identifying misalignments, and developing practical next steps for gateway course transformation. Read more.

Transforming the First Year of College – Foundations of Excellence

Transforming the First Year of College – Foundations of Excellence focuses on transforming the first‑year experience system through structured institutional self‑study and evidence‑informed improvement. 

This workshop introduces participants to the Gardner Institute’s Foundations of Excellence principles, guiding teams through a critical examination of the first‑year student experience. Participants will explore how effectively their institution supports new students, for whom the current experience works, and why. Through structured reflection, evidence review, and facilitated inquiry, teams will identify strengths and gaps across the first‑year system and develop actionable ideas for improving student transitions, engagement, and success. Read more.

Using AI to Strengthen Student Success Systems

Using AI to Strengthen Student Success Systems focuses on transforming institutional systems that use AI so they align human decision‑making, academic processes, and technology in support of student success. 

This workshop supports institutions exploring and experimenting with generative AI, agentic workflows, or interconnected AI systems. We will seek to build a shared understanding about appropriate use, boundaries, and purpose. This session offers a structured way to pause, learn, and align AI adoption with student success before expanding further. Read more.

Grounding AI for Student Success: From Decision Points to Deliberate Action- 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM 

How institutions frame AI shapes everything: what problems they see, whose concerns they center, what counts as success, and whether adoption is treated as inevitable or as one of several legitimate options. This pre-conference workshop gives cross-functional institutional teams the time and structure to examine a real AI initiative together, not by starting with tools, but by starting with the decision itself. Participants will explore how their institution's orientation toward AI is shaping what choices become visible and build the shared language to engage those choices more deliberately when they return.

Working from that premise, teams will map the systems and people their decision affects, surface the governance tensions in play, and examine where feedback loops between AI tools and student success outcomes are misaligned or missing. The goal is not to arrive at any particular answer. It is to arrive at greater clarity and to return to your institution better equipped to lead the conversation. 

Facilitators:

Rob Rodier

Tracie Yorke

From Initiatives to Transformation:

Harnessing Transformative Innovation to Align Student Success Efforts, Scale What Works, and Create a Whole Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts (1–4 pm)

Student success work often grows as a collection of worthwhile but disconnected initiatives. This three-hour workshop helps participants move from activity to coherence by applying the Gardner Institute’s definition of transformative innovation: focused, achievable, scalable, context-sensitive change that improves outcomes for the greatest number of students while strengthening institutional vitality. Participants will distinguish reformative, formative, and transformative innovation; examine why evidence, alignment, ownership, and scalability matter; and inventory current student success initiatives at their institutions. They will assess what is working, what remains boutique, what could be scaled or stopped, what evidence is available or missing, and who must be involved in governing the work as an intentional whole. Participants will leave with an initiative inventory, an evidence-and-scale assessment, a stakeholder and oversight map, and practical next steps for advancing transformative innovation at their institutions.

Facilitators:

John Gardner

Drew Koch

Supporting Faculty in Gateway Course Design/Redesign 2- 3:30 PM

Roundtable Discussion

Gateway courses can make or break a student's path through higher education, yet the faculty tasked with redesigning these high-stakes, high-enrollment courses often do so with little institutional support or recognition. Join facilitators Stephanie Foote, Joshua Caulkins, and Katie Easley for a lively, interactive conversation on how institutions can better champion the faculty behind the scenes. Through small-group discussions, you'll connect with peers across institution types and experience levels, dig into guiding questions on institutional barriers, and swap strategies that actually work. Walk away with concrete approaches you can use right away, a curated resource list, and a new network of colleagues invested in the same work.

Facilitators:

Stephanie M. Foote

Joshua Caulkins

Katie Easley

Regular Registration: $925

Student Registration (graduate and undergraduate): $450

Pre-conference Workshop fees are listed below.

Registration Fee includes: Reception, two breakfasts, two lunches, refreshment breaks, and conference materials.

Registration discounts:
• Students receive a discounted registration rate.
• Registrants from Transformation schools receive a discounted rate of $700.
• Returning Symposium attendees from 2023, 2024, or 2025 receive a $50 discount on posted fees.

To receive a discount code, email [email protected].
Only one discount may be applied per registration. Discounts may not be combined.

Hotel 

Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, 1 S Capitol Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46204

Room Rate: $209 per night

Parking Options

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Flights

Delta Air Lines is pleased to offer special discounts for John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education

Please click here to book your flights.

You may also call Conferences and Events® at 1.800.328.1111* Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. (EST) and refer to Meeting Event Code: NY4H9

*Please note there is no service fee for reservations booked and ticketed via our reservation 800 number.

For more information, contact [email protected]