Thomas J TobinFriends, if you attended my "UDL at Scale" session at the @ACUE_HQ #NHETC conference on June 22, or if you're just curious, here are the handout [PDF] and recording from the session.
Derek BruffNew game: How long does it take in a conference session before someone mentions ChatGPT?
This session: 27 minutes.
Ellis: "You move an agenda by having an agenda... and being clear about what you want to see happen in the world."
"If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority."
(This all sounds a little cliché, but it's coming from someone who is all about getting important stuff done.)
On that note, I'm finding that Mississippi is somewhere in between. Faculty and admin will often say, We have to do X and we can't do Y because of state policy. But sometimes I'll also hear, We can probably get an exception for Z if we make a good case.
That is, in part, because my boss' boss is very savvy about navigating state policy.
Great discussion at my table about state-level policy, some of which is very top down and dictated by (perhaps uninformed) legislators, and some of which is developed in collaboration with the people who will be implementing that policy.
A certain very big state was called out as using the former approach re: EDI. One colleague: "How can I serve the students actually attending my institution without losing my job?"
Arnold: What can policy do? Protect civil rights, scale effective practices, seed promising practices, require or prohibit or incentivize behavior, drive research and design, etc.
He's sharing a pyramid with federal policy at the top and students/faculty at the bottom, with information and advocacy going up the ladder and policy going down. (I'm oversimplifying.)
"If there are policies that are constraining your efforts, those are limits that no one else but you will know about."
Next up at #NHETC: Zakiya Ellis and Nathan Arnold from EducationCounsel, https://educationcounsel.com/, with a session about politics, policy, and advocacy.
Ellis has quite the resume, having served as NJ's secretary of higher ed and worked on White Policy ed policies. And Arnold has experience at the US Dept of Education.
Arnold: "Think about what you want to be true in the world."
Good discussion at our table about the barriers toward using shared governance for teaching / student success initiatives.
There's often an oppositional nature to how faculty and administrators work together, and sometimes neither group has student success as a priority.
Also, faculty are asked to lead curricular initiatives, but they don't control the budget. That's a problem.
OTOH, faculty often don't see much beyond their department, where admin has a broader view.
Santiba Campbell, from tiny (300 student) Bennett College: We administrators are up here playing chess (making strategy for the college), but we need information from everyone. That's what shared governance means at Bennett.
Me: Now that makes sense. It's not that everyone gets a vote, but the ones who do vote rely on good info from everyone who doesn't vote.
In my experience, it's when the leaders (faculty or admin) stop seeking out that info that things fall off the rails.
Rebecca Karoff mentions having skeptical (curmudgeonly?) faculty in your pilot program.
I'll second that. If you win them over, they become powerful champions. And even if they come out neutral on the new program, other skeptics will know that their concerns were voiced.
And, yes, I have a particular Vandy professor in mind as I type this.