Institute for Inclusive Excellence Sustained Engagement

Expand the photo: NFC and CTL collaboration

Targeting all new faculty, this year-long, bi-weekly, series of meetings aims to help new members of our community learn about the college and develop a sustained practice as inclusive teacher-scholars.

The DEI Faculty Cohorts engage in a year-long program designed for any continuing faculty member interested in discussing efforts to enhance/practice their inclusive teaching practice and improve equity, inclusion, and belonging on campus.  Previous themes included: building classroom communities, equity curriculums, and ideas for institutional change. 

DEI Cohorts meet anywhere from 6 to 8 times per semester and discuss/reflect on current progress and future plans for inclusive pedagogy. One of the cohort expectations is community building, so commitment to the program includes attendance at all (or most) of the planned sessions each semester. Some of the events will be directed (reading discussion, workshop, etc.) and some of the events will be more informal. 

Faculty pairs work together to develop and implement proposals focused on inclusive teaching and mentoring practices in their work with students. As faculty pairs develop projects, they consult with the IIE staff, and then meet with an IIE Research and Assessment Fellow who will provide their perspective on the project from a student perspective. Faculty pairs will use the fall semester to develop a project proposal, and work to implement the finished project in the spring.

Sample Projects include (but are not limited to):

• Redesign aspects of a course they teach with equity in mind
• Propose an equity minded educational intervention in the classroom
• Decolonizing a syllabus
• Modifications to assessment and grading structures aimed at increasing equity
• Developing inclusive pedagogy in response to generative AI
• Creating novel programs for more inclusive mentoring structures for a research group

Additional commitments include:

• Participants meet bi-weekly in their pairs throughout the year
• Faculty pairs meet twice a semester with the entire faculty pairs group
• Occasional consultations with the IIE on assessment/evaluation
• Meeting with the assigned Research and Assessment Fellow