Join us at Franklin & Marshall for a pre-CLAC conference gathering to share our successes and leverage our collective efforts and ideas around the implications of AI.
We are limiting initial registration to 50 people, and will expand if we are able.
Join us at Franklin & Marshall for a pre-CLAC conference gathering to share our successes and leverage our collective efforts and ideas around the implications of AI.
We are limiting initial registration to 50 people, and will expand if we are able.
‘Back Stage Tour’ - Led by campus celebrities, AVP & Director of TSS, John Coccia, and Director of IET, Teb Locke. This dynamic duo will lead participants on an ‘excellent adventure’. This informal and surely entertaining tour of some of our more highly tech-enabled spaces will likely be both informative and a good time. Sites on the tour will range from our ‘guerrilla efforts’ to birth a contemporary studio from an ancient and largely abandoned campus space to our maker space, hybrid-optimized classrooms and a few of our other campus favorites. We will happily stop off at some ‘tech sad’ spaces and maybe you can give us a few of your favorite ideas for making something better and more usable with limited resources, for example.
Meet at Martin Library to join us for a campus walkabout.
Tour the Winter Visual Arts Center with Franklin and Marshall's Sheldon Wenger, Assistant Director for Project Management. Designed by Steven Holl Architects. Drawing on Franklin & Marshall College’s motto Lux et Lex, the Winter Visual Arts Center for the Art, Art History, and Film Department is conceived as ‘light’ in complementary/contrast to the ‘heavy’ exemplary brick architecture of the 1856 ‘Old Main’ original campus building. A gradual exterior ramp connects from Old Main’s axis to a second-floor entrance of our new building, just above a ground floor entrance facing the newly formed ’Arts Quad.’ The building activates the southern end of the campus as a new campus destination as well as reinforcing the college’s historic axis by extending it to the south and reaching out to the town.
Did you know Lancaster was once infamous as a “wide open” city for vice? Around 1900, police and other officials encouraged and even participated in prostitution, gambling, and drinking. Join Alison Kibler, professor of American Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, on this history tour, walk the streets of Lancaster with an expert guide and learn about the brothel keepers, bartenders, and pool hall hustlers who shared the streets with corrupt politicians and righteous reformers a century ago. Discover the history of wage-earning women, Lancaster nightlife, and changing sexual values through the stories of the men and women of Lancaster’s red-light districts. The tour lasts 90 minutes and ends near the evening Reception location, Tellus 360.
This tour is off-campus. Attendees will meet the tour guide at 38 Penn Square in Downtown Lancaster. It is a 90-minute walking tour (wear comfortable shoes). It will conclude at the location of our Opening Reception.
We encourage you to explore any of a variety of local dinner options and use this time to connect with your colleagues. There are MANY restaurants with varying price points within walking distance of the hotel. We won't formally endorse any in particular but here are a few you might want to take a look at.
DOWNTOWN The Lancaster Dispensing Company Plough (in the Marriott) C'est La Vie Southern Market (a variety of restaurants and large central bar in a market configuration) Annie Bailey's The Belvedere Bistro Barbaret Himalayan Curry & Grill
CLOSER TO Lancaster Arts Hotel Iron Hill John Jeffries (in hotel) Sukhothai Bad Garden The Fridge Oka Luca Calabar Meat Lombardo's Italian American Restaurant
CLAC Attack(Ed): Good news, you'll never stop teaching the basics. Nina began her career as an educator, and even though her travels through infosec have been uncommon and erratic, the lessons have remained the same. Join her as she talks about her experiences and experiments in information security and hackers.
Dr. Nina Kollars is an associate professor in the Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute at the US Naval War College. She holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in political science and an M.A. from GWU in international relations. She holds a number of editorial and policy affiliations to include: executive board member of Cyber Conflict Studies Association; and an editorial board member for Texas National Security Review. She publishes on cybersecurity, hackers and military innovation. She presented her own hacker project at DefCon27, “Confessions of a Nespresso Money Mule.” She will soon publish her book “Trustworthy Deviants: White Hat Hackers and Security.” Kollars is also an Executive Bourbon Steward.
Beverages and light snacks are available throughout the day. Take a break and chat with colleagues, get some work done, or visit the exhibition on view highlighting computer history at Franklin & Marshall over the decades!
I helped 12 faculty and the Curriculum Committee "level-set" on AI teaching/learning, shed some tears, doubt, debate, and ultimately approve an “AI as a Partner” course for me to teach students.
Director of Academic Technology, Dickinson College
I am the Director of Academic Technology at Dickinson College. Prior to joining Dickinson, I spent 7 years at Wilson College in a similar role. As a former classroom teacher who has an invisible disability, I am very interested in how technology can have positive impacts on student... Read More →
Join an informal roundtable and open Q&A with Dr. Nina Kollars, the morning keynote. This informal session will be an opportunity to talk about all things information security, the threat landscape and emerging trends. Moderated by Alan Bowen, Chief Information Security Officer, Franklin and Marshall College
Join our roundtable on integrating digital tools for accessibility to support inclusive practices. Share experiences, challenges, and solutions for creating equitable learning environments for all.
For a year you've have been telling alumni about storage reduction. Delete day comes! Goodbye alumni storage. Next day: Faculty says “I’ve lost ten years of research data” What would *you* do?
The presentation will highlight a range of additional services offered by REN-ISAC, including general cybersecurity assessments aligned with NIST CSF 2.0, penetration testing, tabletop exercises, and policy and compliance reviews. It will also introduce OMNI-SOC, a dedicated operational arm of REN-ISAC focused on real-time threat detection and collaborative security operations.
As generative AI tools continue to reshape possibilities across higher education, institutions must explore a spectrum of thoughtful, practical strategies that meet both their culture and operational goals. This panel brings together leaders from Wesleyan and Colgate to share three complementary case studies of how AI is being deployed to enhance administrative operations, campus support, and technical infrastructure. From empowering staff to experiment with AI tools, to introducing automated support in a high-touch environment, to building custom in-house solutions, this session offers a multi-dimensional look at how AI adoption can align with institutional values while paving the way for innovation. Rachel Schnepper will share how Wesleyan University launched an AI Staff Ambassador Program that trains administrative staff to explore efficiencies using generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Karen Warren will follow with Wesleyan’s experience rolling out a ServiceNow chatbot to support the Workday transition, balancing automation with the personal touch their campus expects. Ahmad Khazaee and Tolga Dincer from Colgate University will conclude by showcasing their journey in developing and deploying custom, private AI tools on campus, including applications in research support, creative technologies, and systems automation. Together, these presentations demonstrate how institutions can creatively and responsibly adopt AI in ways that match their missions and needs. Attendees will walk away with models for staff empowerment, strategies for scalable support, and inspiration for building in-house solutions that respect data privacy while enabling cutting-edge exploration. Whether you're just beginning to explore AI or already deploying tools, this session offers grounded insights to spark your next move.
Leadership in IT increasingly means voicing ethical principles to our institutions as the custodians of technology. This talk addresses that responsibility.
We will discuss how small liberal arts colleges can leverage computing to contribute in significant and exciting ways to research, including approaches to starting and scaling up a computing cluster.
A panel of four small to mid-size institutions at different stages of their ERP journey share lessons learned, surprises faced, and challenges along the course to student-centered transformation. We'll share what’s working, what we wish we had known before starting, key steps any institution can take now to set themselves up for success, and unexpected wins. There will be discussions on the various implementation methodologies, the partner ecosystem, and what life has been like post go-live. Bring all of your hard-hitting questions and hear from panelists that are known for their open and honest feedback.
Having grown up in Germany and Austria, I moved to the US at age 18 and attended Western Michigan University. I earned my PhD in Sociology at Boston College. My areas of focus were critical and feminist social theory, and the sociology of gender. At BC in the 1980s and 90s I also... Read More →
Led by ITS, the Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) Program is a campus-wide initiative to reimagine and modernize Trinity’s educational spaces through strategic technology upgrades, flexible design, and long-term planning. This session will explore the vision behind ILE and the steps being taken to create dynamic, student-centered classrooms that foster creativity, collaboration, and academic success. In partnership with Academic Affairs, Facilities, and faculty, the A/V, Instructional Design, and TSS teams are delivering standardized upgrades, a 10-year classroom technology forecast, and targeted faculty training to ensure sustainable, future-ready learning environments.
We have wowed you with acronyms! Join us for a discussion of what research and education networks (RENs) can do for liberal arts colleges. We will start with a use case example in PA that involves several PA liberal arts colleges but would love to hear your experiences, ideas and also questions about how LACs are engaging with RENs wherever you are!
Families with approaching college-age children increasingly are interested in the financial return on their investment. They are also increasingly concerned about costs. The soon-to-be students are increasingly interested in the totality of their college experience, with increasing interest in a broad social scene, affiliation with a "big brand" institution, and breadth of special experiences. How do liberal arts colleges compete in this landscape? In fact, they can, and powerfully, and in this talk we'll explore how.
As the conference theme this year-- CLAC Attack(Ed)-- suggests, many of us feel particularly under siege these days. Whether it's the enrollment cliff, cybercriminals, uncertainty of federal funding and resources, the media, global supply chains, or any of a myriad of other threats or concerns; it can be hard to navigate as an institutional leader. Just the sheer volume and variety of challenges can feel overwhelming. Join a few colleagues for a highly interactive and also informal discussion of the challenges (and maybe even some opportunities?) that come from leading in times of great institutional uncertainty. Bring your questions, ideas and insights! Let's share our best thinking on approaches for navigating in these particularly rough waters.
Dave Baird joined Wesleyan in 2012. He holds a PhD in geophysics from Cornell University and obtained his undergraduate degree in geology and physics from the University of New Brunswick (Canada). He has over 20 years of leadership experience using technology to improve education... Read More →
From data governance newbies to seasoned pros, join fellow CLAC data nerds from Denison, Haverford, Macalester, and Pomona to swap stories, share battle scars, and build alliances.
MHC and Colgate University share successes of project-based learning for student staff. We’ll cover topics from high-level frameworks guiding growth, to niche skills of digital fabrication and design.
Join the CLAC Information Security and Data Privacy Affinity Group [REDACTED] for an interactive discussion on current challenges and opportunities. We encourage participation from all who have an interest in data privacy, governance, and information security as our affinity group is focused on building community and leveraging our shared strengths. Come connect with peers, share knowledge, and strengthen your institution's defenses in our collaborative community.
The session will explore how our structured, tiered training model — encompassing systems training, data analysis skills, and leadership development — drives strategic outcomes.
Incident response tabletop exercises are an efficient and effective way to test your organization's incident response plan. They provide a low-stakes opportunity for your staff to learn to respond to incidents in your environment and identify areas of improvement in your incident response process. Tabletop exercises also help highlight the need for collaboration among various roles and teams during an incident. Attendees will learn the fundamentals of planning and facilitating an incident response tabletop exercise with the goal of increasing their organization's resilience to information security risk. A small portion of this session (<5 minutes) will be dedicated to discussing the value of REN-ISAC's Information Security Assessment and Advisory Services' tabletop exercise offerings.
Explore how strategic storytelling and creative writing techniques enable IT teams in higher ed to convey complex goals, align stakeholders, and advocate for resources through compelling narratives.
This session will be a debrief of the two CLAC Mindshares on the topic of AI. The first was in October at Denison University and the second will be a CLAC pre-conference on June 9-10th. This session will summarize the lessons and approaches being used to evaluate and support AI efforts across CLAC institutions. We will collectively reflect on AI conversations that occurred throughout the CLAC conference and identify ways we can continue to support each other's AI efforts.
I've spent my career working at the intersections of education, technology and the arts. I love talking about connecting with students, supporting more powerful learning experiences, building collaborative and empowering teams, creating more healthy and sustainable workplaces, and... Read More →
Presenters detail the difficult journey of creating 16 shared credits (5 courses) across programs that have helped to address the enrollment declines in Hamline School of Education and Leadership.
How our LMS Evaluation made the Sr. Assoc. Provost say “This was a model for how to initiate broad systems-level change in a collaborative, inclusive manner. I’ve learned a lot through this process.”
Director of Academic Technology, Dickinson College
I am the Director of Academic Technology at Dickinson College. Prior to joining Dickinson, I spent 7 years at Wilson College in a similar role. As a former classroom teacher who has an invisible disability, I am very interested in how technology can have positive impacts on student... Read More →
Developing a series of interactive workshops for new faculty who may be and are teaching digital natives; keeping digital advancements and research needs in the forefront during a time of technology evolution.
