Throughout this academic year, I will be using this Initiatives column to share parts of the college’s strategic plan. My goal is to help you understand the goals and how we aim to reach them, and to help you see yourself in the plan as someone who can not only help to implement it, but also can benefit from it.
This week’s initiatives column will focus on goal 2 (transforming educational professionals), objective 3 (innovative pathways and programs) in our strategic plan for 2021-25. You can read the full plan on our website.
This objective calls for us to transform existing programs and create new programs to capture the interest of students seeking to engage as meaningful agents of change through education with a particular focus on high-need areas. There is one action item related to this objective: develop innovative new courses and programs that broaden the reach and impact of education beyond our traditional student population.
The implementation tasks that will help us to reach our objective are:
- Based on the gap and market analyses (objective 2.1.1, Task 4), transform existing programs as well as explore and innovate new programs to address known needs in the development of an equity-focused educational workforce (e.g., online D.Ed., dual credit, alternative certification and new undergraduate programs).
- Develop new general education courses that facilitate the development of equity-focused skills and the enactment of those skills in a variety of disciplines and contexts.
- Explore creative new technologies and other means to provide programming across a variety of modalities, including new modes of instruction.
- Explore the development of a Teaching Scholars program for high-needs areas (e.g., special education, STEAM, ESL).
- Plan for new faculty hires where current capacities and skills are insufficient to support program transformation and growth.
While the target dates for these implementation tasks are Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2024, we already have begun work in this area. Our hiring of new faculty at the start of this academic year is just one of the ways in which we are working to achieve this objective. In addition, the work of the BIPOC Council we formed in March of this year, is critical to making sure we progress with our mission of becoming a college that can change education to meaningfully address known inequities in educational outcomes. The council is composed of faculty, staff, and students of color and equity allies and accomplices, and serves as an advisory body to college leadership to support justice-oriented impact.
The BIPOC Council is part of our Equity Coalition, which also includes an equity team that is working on curricular review and revision; ongoing professional development; and the creation of processes and structures to increase faculty governance and activity on these and other topics. The Equity Coalition also includes the Diversity and Community Enhancement Committee (DCEC) and other areas of the college that engage in DEI work.
In addition, in fall 2020 we piloted equity-based curriculum in several First-Year Seminar (FYS) classes, and we included updated and revised equity-based modules in this year’s FYS classes, based on a research project that explored last year’s efforts.
As our work continues on this objective, I encourage you to engage with your colleagues across the college. It is that interdisciplinary, cross-departmental collaboration that will lead to our overall success.
Coming up
The next Initiatives column will include a look at goal 3, objective 1.