ICF Online

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How do decisions made on a college campus — about curriculum, facilities, enrollment, and financial aid, for example — play out in the college’s budget and affect strategic planning?

That question is central to ICF Online, a short professional development course for faculty and administrative staff that explores the economics of higher education and, more specifically, the financial challenges facing small liberal arts colleges.

The course is designed to help people with budgetary and planning responsibilities gain an understanding of the dynamics of college finances and use that knowledge to inform campus-wide decision-making.

Flexible, Effective Professional Development for Faculty and Staff

ICF Online builds on the success of in-person seminars sponsored by the ACM Institute on College Futures (ICF).

The course can be taken anywhere and at any time, and typically takes about four hours to complete. ICF Online uses an adaptive learning platform to make the rich content of the in-person seminars easily available to faculty and staff across the ACM and the broader higher education community.

Guided by the supplementary materials and discussion tools on the free ICF Online resource site, groups of faculty and staff on a campus can apply their learning from the course to the circumstances at their own institution.

The creation of ICF Online was funded by a grant from The Teagle Foundation.

ICF Steering Committees

Steering Committees composed of the following institutional leaders oversaw the development of Institute on College Futures events and schedule.

ICF: Shared Governance Steering Committee (seminar in 2018)

  • Teresa Amott, Former President, Knox College
  • Michael Latham, Former Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Grinnell College
  • Ed Wingenbach, Former Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Ripon College
  • Sandi Wong, Former Dean of the College and Dean of the Faculty, Colorado College

ICF: College Finances Steering Committee (seminars in 2013-2017)

  • Gary Muir, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, St. Olaf College
  • Michael Orr, Former Krebs Provost & Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
  • Jill Tiefenthaler, Former President, Colorado College
  • David Wheaton, Retired Chief Financial Officer, Macalester College

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