OCTOBER 2026

What's In This Issue

Excellence Awards 2027
Fall Virtual Conference
Student Contests
October Events
Innovation Abstracts
The NISOD Papers
Schedule a 30-minute Liaison Orientation or Membership Refresher

EXCELLENCE AWARDS

It's That Time Once Again

We look forward to honoring your institution's top contributors in the 2027 Excellence Awards in the year ahead! This popular benefit gives NISOD member colleges the opportunity to recognize the outstanding faculty, staff and administrators who make a lasting impact on student success and institutional excellence. Here are the milestones to know:

October 1, 2026: The submissions portal opens for recipient names.
February 1, 2027: Deadline to submit names.

Details including the link to the form to submit 2027 Excellence Award recipient names will be emailed to the liaison and president at NISOD member colleges.

Each college determines its own award recipient selection criteria and process. All recipients must be approved by the college president or chancellor. Click this link to learn more.

Email questions about the Excellence Awards to membership@nisod.org

FALL VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Missing the Fall Conference?

The fall virtual conference will resume in 2027, but we are pleased to offer, for the first time ever at no charge, access to archived 2024 and 2025 Virtual Conference sessions for faculty, staff, and administrators at current member colleges throughout the 2026–2027 membership year. Access to conference sessions after the event is typically only available to conference registrants for six months following the event.

The archive sessions are already available in the NISOD Resource Library! Here is how to help your colleagues find the newly available sessions:

Log in to the nisod.org website.
Click on the “Resource Library” link on the home page.
On the Resource Library page, click “Virtual Conference Archive” headline or “click here” in the description.

Questions? Email us at membership@nisod.org.

STUDENT CONTESTS

New Student Contests Timeline

The submissions portals for the Student Contests will open October 15!

Share the contest page links below with department chairs, faculty, and student groups to provide guidelines, spark interest, and encourage participation. Flyers will be made available to download and post around your campus.

The submissions portal will close on February 1, 2027.

These contests are exclusively for students at NISOD member institutions and CCCSE participating colleges. Past contest winners are featured in the linked pages above. We invite prospective entrants and their advisors to check out winning submissions for inspiration!

EVENTS

Webinar

October 8,1:00-2:00 pm CT

Rapport 101: The Secret Ingredient of Great Teaching (free)

Webinar

October 19,1:00-2:00 pm CT

Tools for the Transition: Five Tools for Assessment & Academic Integrity (free)

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

A Sense of Belonging: Asynchronous Learning with a Human Face

THE NISOD PAPERS

Fostering Resilience in College Students: Strategies for Support and Success

Taking the fall season in stride

We are excited to kick off the Excellence Awards and Student Contests and begin to receive the always inspiring submissions.

Before it gets much busier, please let your team know about the availability of sessions from the past two fall virtual conferences, nearly 100 engaging and thought provoking presentations in our Resource Library! Especially if budget or time didn't allow for attending the past virtual conferences, accessing these sessions is a great way to take advantage of the resources in this on-demand offering.

If I can help with questions about that or anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me. I hope the term is going well for you, colleagues and students!

Victoria Rios

Memberships and Partnership Manager

512-471-4054 | victoria@nisod.org

Forward to a colleague.