Announcement from Eve Stoddard
Chair, Teagle Steering Committee
Invitation to October 3
Launch Dinner and Workshop for
Teagle Grant for Assessing Diversity
September 1, 2008
You will all have read the Dean’s announcement that we received a grant from the Teagle Foundation to assess our diversity efforts on campus. The main idea we are working with is that we need to figure out how to assess what students are learning through our general education requirements as part of the process of rethinking them. But we are especially interested in the relationship between diversity courses and the development of critical thinking and communication skills. Thus we need participation by faculty and staff interested in each of these areas.
The Friday, October 3, launch of the project will include a workshop starting at 3:30 in Eben Holden and a dinner with wine and beer at 6:30, followed by a wrap-up until about 8 pm. We invite all faculty and staff who are interested, not just those who teach courses that serve the diversity requirement.
Subsequently we will be inviting those who are interested to commit to a learning community of people who will work together on improving the teaching of diversity for a period of about six to eight months; each learning community will attend a workshop in January, meet several times during the spring semester, and reconvene for a workshop the following summer. For this they will be paid a $2000 stipend. This process will be repeated with differing emphases for three years. In the third year the learning community will focus on education in diversity beyond the course level. We especially encourage people who are interested in critical thinking and cognitive development to join as well as those who focus on diversity issues.
Please RSVP as soon as possible, at the latest by September 22, to Eileen Lacourse in the CTL if you would like to attend the launch of the project on October 3. If you cannot attend but are interested in joining the Learning Community in January, please email me, Eve Stoddard.
