2026 Deans Executive Roundtable

12:00 p.m.
Guest Arrival and Registration
Lunch Provided

1:00 p.m. 
Welcome

1:30 p.m.
2025–2026 State of the Sector: Managing Four Fronts of Sector Upheaval as Deans

Higher education is facing unprecedented upheaval—eroding public trust, intensifying political scrutiny, deepening financial strain, and rapid technological and economic change—and deans are on the front lines of response. As the role of the dean continues to transform, managing the college has become more complex, more public, and more consequential than ever before. Today’s deans must navigate four critical fronts simultaneously: strengthening external accountability amid partisan policymaking, building financially sustainable models for a post-growth future, ensuring market relevance in an AI-transformed economy, and driving institutional agility despite change fatigue and ongoing ambiguity.

This session will help deans broaden their lens beyond day-to-day operational pressures to focus on the long-term shifts reshaping the sector. Participants will leave better equipped to anticipate emerging challenges and opportunities—and to identify the critical decisions they must make today to position their colleges for tomorrow’s success.

3:30 p.m.
Navigating What’s Next: Advancement Opportunities and Risks

Fundraising used to be a secondary responsibility for many deans. Today, at some institutions, it represents 50% or more of the role. Expectations for academic leadership have shifted significantly—and a recent EAB poll makes clear how urgent that shift is: deans ranked advancement and fundraising capacity among the top capabilities they must prioritize heading into 2026. Amid constrained budgets, policy uncertainty, and generational changes in giving, fundraising is no longer peripheral to the role—it is central.

This session will help deans understand the evolving fundraising landscape and its impact on their colleges. The session examines policy shifts and generational challenges, identifies high-impact investment priorities, and outlines the most critical risks. For deans balancing academic vision with growing revenue responsibility, it offers clear guidance on where to focus, invest, and lead with confidence in this new era of advancement.

Deans will:

• Examine the current fundraising landscape, including persistent historic challenges and emerging generational shifts
• Distinguish between two major advancement opportunities—principal gifts and corporate and foundation relations—and two critical risks: campaign relevance and declining alumni engagement
• Identify a clear next step aligned with their institution’s advancement priorities, their professional skill set, and their college’s specific demands

5:15 p.m.
Adjournment

5:30 p.m.
Dinner

8:30 a.m.
Breakfast

9:00 a.m.
Welcome

9:15 a.m.
Turning Around Faltering Programs: The Dean’s Playbook for Program Revitalization

Academic programs sit at the center of today’s most urgent institutional risks—but many are no longer positioned to deliver sustainable revenue or demonstrated value. Rising instructional costs, tightening public funding, and intensifying scrutiny from policymakers are exposing underperforming programs as financial liabilities rather than strategic assets. At the same time, AI-driven labor market disruption is accelerating concerns about program relevance: early-career roles are changing rapidly, and a growing share of Gen Z students question whether their degrees will translate into meaningful employment. Waiting for programs to show distress before acting is no longer viable. Deans must revitalize programs now to protect college sustainability, academic credibility, and student outcomes.

This research helps deans define what successful revitalization looks like, select the right intervention strategies, and redesign programs to increase student interest while aligning more tightly with evolving workforce needs. Deans will participate in a series of scenario planning revitalization exercises with their discipline-specific peers and leave with a compendium of revitalization case studies that can act as a revitalization roadmap back on campus.

Deans will:

• Analyze their current program revitalization efforts by mapping them to the two primary drivers of revitalization—student demand and employer value—using a program revitalization matrix to prioritize high-impact strategies
• Identify the five levers of program revitalization and select tactics within each of the levers they could deploy to revitalize a program
• Collaborate with discipline-specific peers to apply program revitalization tactics through structured scenario-planning exercises focused on an at-risk program within their field
• Apply lessons from 30+ case studies of successful program revitalization efforts

10:45 a.m.
Translating Insights into Action Across Your Portfolio and Team

In the final session, deans will move from discussions, scenario planning, and peer conversations into action. Participants will identify priorities and outline the next steps needed to advance them, leaving with a clear path and a practical timeline to sustain momentum.

12:00 p.m.
Adjournment