Equity and Inclusion – News

�ֲ��ý names Noelle Chaddock as vice president for equity and inclusion

�ֲ��ý News — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 16:00:38 +0000

�ֲ��ý College President Clayton Spencer announced today that Noelle Chaddock, associate provost and deputy Title IX coordinator at Rhodes College, will become vice president for equity and inclusion at �ֲ��ý effective June 1, 2019.

“I am so pleased to welcome Noelle Chaddock to the �ֲ��ý community at a moment of such promise for our work in equity and inclusion,” said Spencer. “Noelle brings a wealth of experience to this role, a clear and compelling vision of why the work is important, and a record of exceptional diligence and effectiveness in carrying it out. Noelle will be an inspiring leader, partner, and colleague as we continue to challenge ourselves to better realize the founding promise of this college.”

Noelle Chaddock, associate provost and deputy Title IX coordinator at Rhodes College, will become vice president for equity and inclusion at �ֲ��ý effective June 1, 2019. (Photograph courtesy of Rhodes College)

“I am terribly excited to continue the work of equity, inclusion, access, and social justice at �ֲ��ý College and in the Lewiston-Auburn community,” said Chaddock. “In visiting �ֲ��ý, it was clear that there is a deep investment in this work across the institution. This matters greatly to me. The opportunity to work with my new colleagues, our stakeholders, and the brilliant students at �ֲ��ý in a position shaped and based on best practices is extremely compelling.”

A member of Spencer’s senior leadership team, Chaddock arrives as �ֲ��ý has redoubled efforts to achieve greater institution-wide equity and inclusion, including significant initiatives throughout the academic program supported by major gifts through the �ֲ��ý Campaign and comprehensive grants funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In strategically advancing the college’s commitment to equity and inclusion, Chaddock will collaborate with colleagues across campus, and provide vision and support for both structural and programmatic initiatives, including the work of the Office of Intercultural Education, the college’s major student-facing organization for equity and inclusion, which is directed by Julisa De Los Santos.

“The �ֲ��ý community seems to have a strong sense of what it takes to move through examinations of power and privilege while also stewarding the college’s most important values.”

The new vice president will work with �ֲ��ý faculty across all disciplines, with a focus on fostering curricular transformation, improved pedagogies, and recruitment and retention of new faculty, with particular attention to those traditionally underrepresented in the academy. Supporting the Office of Human Resources, Chaddock will collaborate on staff hiring and employment practices.

“The �ֲ��ý community seems to have a strong sense of what it takes to move through examinations of power and privilege while also stewarding the college’s most important values,” Chaddock said. “I think we will do some amazing and impactful work over the coming years.”

Chaddock has served as associate provost at Rhodes College since 2018, overseeing faculty recruiting, retention, and development within the Office of Academic Affairs while working with academic departments on classroom climate and other issues around diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and social justice. Joining Rhodes in 2016, they were the college’s first associate dean of academic affairs for diversity and inclusivity.

Among other accomplishments, Chaddock helped increase racial diversity among Rhodes’ new-faculty cohorts from 13 percent to 46 percent in two years. Other significant work at Rhodes included collaborative leadership of Academic Affairs’ effort to prioritize the institutional assessment of inclusion, equity, and campus climate.

“The desire for human equity” in American society “still cannot be put down.”

A frequent speaker and presenter on issues related to equity and inclusion, Chaddock offered remarks at a 2018 Rhodes event marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., telling the audience of first-year students that “the desire for human equity” in American society “still cannot be put down.” Achieving equity “is our work” and must be done in community because “no individual — no group, no identity — stands alone. Our humanity is intertwined, and our histories have traveled together. It is not possible, no matter how we perform our realities, to pull them apart.”

In 2017 and 2018, Chaddock served as a faculty member for the Rhodes Institute of Regional Studies, a distinctive, multidisciplinary, and experiential program that gathers faculty in history, urban studies, music, Africana studies, psychology, religious studies, education, and geography.

At the State University of New York at Cortland from 2008 to 2016, Chaddock rose from director of multicultural life and diversity to become the university’s inaugural chief diversity officer, while also serving as an adjunct professor in philosophy and Africana studies. They chaired the SUNY System’s University Faculty Senate’s Committee on Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity. Chaddock frequently provides equity training to community partners, including the Binghamton Police Department and the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis.

A scholar whose research and teaching include critical race theory, reframing white feminism, examining mixed race identity, Africana theater, making of race in the Americas, and philosophies of hip hop, Chaddock is a co-editor of the forthcoming book Antagonizing White Feminism: Women’s Studies, Feminism, Gender Identity, and the Academy (Lexington Books, 2019).

Chaddock earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the State University of New York at Binghamton, including a doctorate in philosophy, interpretation, and culture. Their dissertation explored “Mixed Race Identity in the Millennial United States: The Power of Naming Our Intimate Realities.”

A committee chaired by Professor of Politics Stephen Engel oversaw the national search to fill the �ֲ��ý position. “The search committee was deeply impressed by Noelle’s collegiality, passion, and demonstrated effectiveness as a leader,” said Engel.

He added, “Noelle has what �ֲ��ý needs in this position: the ability to bring groups and individuals to common ground across lines of difference, a deep commitment to engaging collaboratively with all campus constituencies, and the skill to effectively address their needs and concerns.”

Comprising �ֲ��ý faculty, staff, and students, the 12-member search committee was supported by the national executive search firm Isaacson, Miller.

�ֲ��ý awarded $1.2 million grant to create an inclusive 21st-century curriculum in the humanities

�ֲ��ý News — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 15:27:59 +0000

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded �ֲ��ý College a $1.2 million grant to support the faculty’s ongoing work to strengthen the college’s humanities and humanistic social sciences curriculum and teaching.

The five-year grant will fund strategies to create a 21st-century curriculum, support the faculty’s capacity to more effectively teach and mentor a diverse student population, and remove barriers to academic success particularly experienced by students from marginalized groups.

“This grant comes at a crucial moment for �ֲ��ý,” said President Clayton Spencer. “Moving forward, we must ensure that our teaching and curriculum excite the interest and creativity of all of our students, preparing them to function as leaders in a pluralistic society.”

“�ֲ��ý is committed to being a national leader in liberal arts education, and the Mellon grant is another example of the way our colleagues in the humanities and humanistic sciences are engaging in the national dialogue,” said Malcolm Hill, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs.

The new Mellon Foundation grant “affords new opportunities to build inclusive curricula,” says Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, seen introducing professors at a Back to �ֲ��ý academics panel in October. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“Our faculty already employ powerful pedagogies, conduct consequential scholarship, and enrich the world with inspired creations,” he added. “The Mellon grant affords us new opportunities to build inclusive curricula to ensure that all students have access to these important fields of study. I am excited to support these efforts in the coming years.”

A major thrust of the grant-funded work will be to evaluate and strengthen the curriculum in many of the college’s 22 departments and programs in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, the latter including social and behavioral disciplines, such as history and sociology, that often explore the human experience through methods akin to the humanities.

“Their hope is to go beyond a ‘checklist’ approach and instead address equity and inclusion in a comprehensive way.”

“The �ֲ��ý faculty have already been deeply engaged in discussions about how best to transform the curriculum to include a stronger focus on equity and inclusion. At each turn, their hope is to go beyond a ‘checklist’ approach and instead address equity and inclusion in a comprehensive way,” said Professor of Psychology Kathryn Graff Low, who served as interim dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs in 2017–18. “As such, �ֲ��ý is in a strong position to make the most of this new Mellon grant.”

Specifically, the new grant will fund a series of “Curriculum Transformation Grants” that will enable the faculty, from a holistic perspective, to assess their curricula, courses, syllabi, and major requirements while following best practices for inclusive course design and pedagogy.

The curricular-revision work will also leverage existing best practices in three distinctive areas of the �ֲ��ý curriculum — First-Year Seminars, the Short Term (Re)Design program, and community-engaged courses — to ensure that all points of student contact with the curriculum emphasize critical thinking about power and privilege and reflect an approach to teaching and learning that invites student engagement.

Jahmari Josiah ’20 of the Bronx, N.Y., leads a discussion for the course “Community Organizing for Social Justice,” taught by Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken and focusing on the theory and practice of community organizing for social or political change. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Beyond courses and curricula, the Mellon grant will also support the creation of learning communities and other programs to help the faculty lead discussions about self-awareness, power, and structural barriers to success in the classroom.

“Over the past few years, we have begun to develop a sustainable network of well-trained faculty who are ready to reach out to their colleagues with advice and guidance on how inclusion, equity, and diversity play out in course design, pedagogy, and the mission of the college itself,” said Melinda Plastas, a �ֲ��ý faculty member in gender and sexuality studies and a key designer of the Mellon grant proposal.

“The grant will allow us to expand our network and deepen the faculty’s shared understanding of the path to transform learning at �ֲ��ý.”

Faculty member Melinda Plastas, a key designer of the Mellon grant proposal, watches as award-winning choreographer and dancer Sean Dorsey works with her students in October 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

In recent years, �ֲ��ý has received significant new gifts and grants to fund institution-wide work to redefine academic excellence in a way that encompasses greater equity and inclusion in the college’s academic programs.

In 2015, the college received a $1 million Mellon grant to advance faculty diversity and, in 2013, a $1 million Mellon grant to support innovative approaches to teaching and research in the humanities. �ֲ��ý is also a leading member of the Creating Connections Consortium, which received a $5.5 million Mellon grant in 2017 to help to prepare young scholars from underrepresented groups for careers in liberal arts colleges.

In the sciences, �ֲ��ý recently won a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to transform its STEM culture to better support all students in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In September, �ֲ��ý announced a new professorship dedicated to bringing greater equity and inclusion to the STEM disciplines.

The gifts and grants are all part of the college’s ongoing fundraising initiative, The �ֲ��ý Campaign, a multi-year effort to secure the programs and values that have defined �ֲ��ý for a century and a half and to shape new strategies for a new age.

$3 million gift endows �ֲ��ý professorship in STEM equity and inclusion; April Hill named inaugural appointee

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:21:57 +0000

Funded by a $3 million gift, a new �ֲ��ý College professorship dedicated to STEM equity and inclusion will be held by Professor of Biology April Hill, announced President Clayton Spencer.

Hill, the college’s inaugural Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM, is an evolutionary developmental geneticist with a distinguished record of scholarship.

She brings to �ֲ��ý a national reputation for leading significant programs to dismantle barriers that prevent underrepresented groups from thriving in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Professor of Biology April Hill is the inaugural Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ��ý College)

“We are thrilled with the appointment of April Hill,” Spencer said. “April is a distinguished scientist, outstanding teacher, and successful academic leader who believes that creating diverse, inclusive, and equitable STEM communities is a prerequisite to redefining excellence in the sciences.”

A member of the faculty at the University of Richmond since 2004, Hill joined �ֲ��ý in 2018.

“Helping to build communities of students who thrive in STEM is my vocational cornerstone, so it is a great honor to be the inaugural holder of the Wagener Professorship,” said Hill. “In words and actions, �ֲ��ý cares deeply about finding answers to STEM inequities. I hope to learn from the �ֲ��ý community how I can contribute to fostering inclusive excellence in the context of a �ֲ��ý education.”

The Wagener Professorship has been endowed by a $3 million gift to The �ֲ��ý Campaign from Deborah Heitz P’17 and Shaw Wagener P’17. “The idea for our gift came through our family’s experience at �ֲ��ý,” said Shaw Wagener. “We are so pleased to see the convergence between our goals for this professorship and the college’s plans to create a more inspiring and effective experience for all students who wish to pursue studies in STEM fields.”

“She will be a worthy inaugural recipient of the Wagener Professorship — an exemplar of the important charge of this new endowed chair.”

Hill’s appointment follows a national search begun in fall 2017 by a seven-member �ֲ��ý faculty search committee chaired by Professor of Politics and Associate Dean of the Faculty Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir.

“The committee members are looking forward to April Hill’s leadership as we take on the questions of equity and inclusion in STEM fields,” said Ásgeirsdóttir. “All evidence of her ability to foster institutional change, in addition to being an excellent scientist and a teacher, tells us that she will be a worthy inaugural recipient of the Wagener Professorship — an exemplar of the important charge of this new endowed chair.”

The founding of the Wagener Professorship comes in the same year as �ֲ��ý’ selection, in July, for a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as part of the national HHMI Inclusive Excellence initiative, which aims to catalyze national efforts to broaden participation of students from all backgrounds in the study of science.

As a researcher, teacher, and academic leader, Hill has led numerous efforts that yielded improvements in STEM education.

A first-generation-to-college student, Hill earned a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from the University of North Texas and a doctorate in human genetics from the University of Houston. A postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, she served on the faculties of Fairfield and Yale universities before joining the University of Richmond.

During her 14 years on the University of Richmond faculty, Hill was honored as the Clarence E. Denoon Jr. Professor of Science (2009–15) in recognition of her excellence in research and teaching. Promoted to full professor in 2013, she chaired the Department of Biology from 2016 to 2018.

As a researcher, teacher, and academic leader, Hill has led numerous efforts that yielded improvements in STEM education, making major contributions to the work of three consecutive HHMI grants of more than $3.7 million at UR, the last of which made significant advances in supporting underrepresented populations in STEM.

In 2012–13, Hill served as a Vision & Change Founding Leadership Fellow for the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education. Known as PULSE, the program seeks to stimulate systemic changes within biology departments at all types of post-secondary educational institutions. She is a past recipient of the Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Her research and leadership to improve STEM education has received significant grant support from the National Science Foundation and the Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust, as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and other sources.

A major goal of her UR research laboratory was to create an inclusive community of support that would persist beyond her students’ college years.

She was a member of the university’s Terms of Racial Justice Faculty Knowledge Community, an effort to advance public understanding of racial justice. She served on the university’s Pathways Advising Program, which places first-generation students with faculty who have received training and support to serve as effective mentors.

As a researcher, Hill uses marine and freshwater sponges as model systems to look at the evolution of genetic regulatory pathways that govern the development of animal form and function. Conducted with undergraduates, Hill’s research has been presented and published widely at research conferences and gatherings worldwide and in leading peer-reviewed journals.

A major goal of her UR research laboratory was to create an inclusive community of support that would persist beyond her students’ college years. Forty-six percent of her research students were from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. Thirty-six of her students have been co-authors on 20 of her publications.

“I consider this form of pedagogical engagement to be my best teaching,” she said.

�ֲ��ý wins $1 million grant for equity-driven STEM innovations

�ֲ��ý News — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:23:40 +0000

�ֲ��ý College has won a $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to transform its STEM culture to fully support all students in the sciences throughout their undergraduate years.

With the grant, �ֲ��ý joins 33 colleges and universities selected in 2018 to join the , which aims to catalyze national efforts to broaden participation of students from all backgrounds in the study of science.

At �ֲ��ý, the HHMI grant will fund strategies aimed at:

Transforming the ways that faculty approach their work with students;
Expanding existing programs for student mentoring and leadership;
Redefining the first-year science curriculum to introduce research experiences.

“A commitment to access and equity runs deep in our history and mission,” said President Clayton Spencer. “A �ֲ��ý offer of admission has always stood as a vote of confidence in a student’s talent and potential to make important contributions to our world. This grant will deepen our capacity and speed our progress toward making good on this promise for all students interested in science.”

HHMI is the largest private supporter of academic biomedical research in the U.S., and its funding initiatives and grant choices are considered definitive statements of an institution’s potential for transformative impact.

“What HHMI understands, and what �ֲ��ý embraces, is that science can only be excellent when its culture supports all students for success.”

In accepting the grant, �ֲ��ý becomes part of a national network of colleges and universities committed to making STEM education more inclusive and equitable — especially for students who arrive via nontraditional pathways, including underrepresented ethnic minorities, first-generation students, and working adults with families.

The 33 colleges and universities selected by HHMI in 2018 for the Inclusive Excellence initiative join 24 schools selected in 2017.

“What HHMI understands, and what �ֲ��ý embraces, is that science can only be excellent when its culture supports all students for success,” said Professor of Psychology Kathryn Graff Low, who oversaw the grant process as interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty during the 2017–18 academic year.

STEM culture change

The HHMI grant gives the college’s STEM faculty what it seeks: funding to expand its capacity to effect culture change, said Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Paula Schlax, the principal investigator of the grant.

“My colleagues are interested in and motivated to create an inclusive culture and to support students in ways that traditional science curricula do not,” she said. “We are confident that our strategies, particularly our efforts to design experiences that create a sense of science identity and belonging, will ultimately lead to improved student success in STEM fields.”

The HHMI grant is the third major acknowledgment in as many years of �ֲ��ý’ leadership in the national effort to achieve greater inclusivity and equity in higher education. The grant also supports the major �ֲ��ý Campaign goal to transform the teaching and learning of science at �ֲ��ý, including the creation of an integrated system of science facilities.

Expanded Science Fellows program

In addition to supporting new teaching and learning strategies, the HHMI grant will allow �ֲ��ý to expand and strengthen its Science Fellows program, currently a first-year-only mentoring program for 12 STEM-interested students, especially first-generation and URM students and students from under-resourced high schools.

The program will double in size, to 24 fellows each year, and fellows will remain active all four years, with expanded opportunities for STEM leadership and learning. Ultimately, this 60-student cohort of experienced STEM leaders and mentors will “help all our STEM students strengthen their sense of belonging and confidence to succeed,” Schlax said.

Research in a student’s first year

The grant will also fund innovative opportunities for students to do scientific research as soon as they get to �ֲ��ý. Known as First-Year Research Seminars, the new offerings will provide “research opportunities in the intimate setting of a seminar that maximize opportunities for developing relationships with faculty and fellow students,” Schlax said.

“They will begin to see themselves as scientists.”

Student research is “one of the most important aspects of our curricula,” Schlax said. “It measurably benefits any student.” Yet in higher education, “it is unusual for a first-year student to participate in ‘authentic’ research,” in which a student investigates a compelling research question alongside a professor.

The new seminars will help “build students’ scientific knowledge and toolkits plus their science efficacy, identity, and belonging. They will begin to see themselves as scientists.”

Diversity at �ֲ��ý, other consortium schools to benefit from $5.5 million grant

Doug Hubley — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 15:58:47 +0000

A college and university consortium that advances diversity in higher education has received a $5.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The , which �ֲ��ý College joined as a lead institution in 2015, will use the five-year grant to accelerate efforts to diversify the faculties at its participating colleges and universities.

Nina Hagel is a lecturer in politics and one of �ֲ��ý’ four C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The grant from the New York City-based foundation will also broaden C3’s reach beyond its lead liberal arts colleges — Middlebury, �ֲ��ý, Connecticut, and Williams — and its partner research universities, the University of California at Berkeley, Columbia, Michigan, and the University of Chicago.

“Just a few years into our association with C3, we’re seeing tangible benefits from this innovative program,” said �ֲ��ý President Clayton Spencer.

“�ֲ��ý students from underrepresented groups have gotten a taste of graduate-level academics thanks to C3 fellowships. The consortium has introduced us to bright young teacher-scholars from diverse backgrounds whose experiences and perspectives make our faculty even more creative.

“And, of course, the exchange of ideas and forging of relationships with our C3 partners has been invaluable. We are convinced at �ֲ��ý of the formative value of diversity at every level, and our participation in C3 is a powerful tool for advancing diversity.”

“We are convinced at �ֲ��ý of the formative value of diversity at every level, and our participation in C3 is a powerful tool for advancing diversity.”

Reaching both students and faculty from backgrounds underrepresented on U.S. campuses, C3 bases its work, in part, on strengthening ties between small liberal arts colleges like �ֲ��ý and the partner universities, which are so-called Research I (R1) schools. This benefits both students from the small schools who are considering university postgraduate programs, and university postdocs drawn to teaching in the liberal arts environment.

“The mutual exposure between the universities and the liberal arts schools has presented a terrific opportunity for all concerned,” says Kathryn Low, interim vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at �ֲ��ý. With a particular need to enhance faculty diversity at those small schools, Low says, C3 helps introduce the residential liberal arts model — with its opportunities for strong student-faculty relationships and for involvement across the breadth of academic life — to scholars steeped in the R1 environment.

Kathryn Graff Low is acting dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs during 2017-18. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

For students, the C3 Undergraduate Fellowship Program benefits rising juniors and seniors who attend any of the 28 colleges and universities in the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium. (LADO co-founded C3 with the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School.) Since 2014, nine �ֲ��ý students have received C3 fellowships, supporting academic experiences at the partner universities.

Meanwhile, C3 funding and programming have steered young postdocs to faculty positions at the LADO schools (although that programming is about to change, as explained below). At �ֲ��ý there are four C3 Postdoctoral Fellows. Coming to the college after attaining their terminal degrees at partner universities, they are Nina Hagel, of the politics department, and Hoang Tran, education, both from Berkeley; and from Columbia, Ian Shin, history, and Rohan Sud, philosophy.

Shown with his dog Archie, Rohan Sud is a member of the philosophy faculty and one of four C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows at �ֲ��ý in 2016–17. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

“The C3 postdocs have brought exciting new areas of inquiry to the curriculum, such as Asian American history and the politics of authenticity,” says Kerry O’Brien, assistant dean of the faculty. “And the nature of the post-doc position has given them time to teach, advise thesis writers and other students, but also to pursue their own research.”

�ֲ��ý began participating in LADO in 2013. C3 is one of a variety of avenues �ֲ��ý uses to enrich diversity: For instance, Mellon funding also supports the college’s Diversity and Faculty Renewal Program, which supports young postdocs through a year of curriculum development, research, advising and teaching, after which they’re promoted to a tenure-track position.

Both the Mellon Diversity and the C3 fellows are “mentored, and learn the liberal arts and the way we work at �ֲ��ý,” Low explains. “It’s been good to have these superb scholars on board. It has further diversified our faculty, and students have found these postdocs wonderful to work with.”

“One thing that has truly impressed me is how thoughtful they are about their research and teaching,” Krista Aronson agrees. An associate professor of psychology, Aronson mentors the C3 fellows.

“They put a lot of care into developing their classes and related student work, such as thesis advising. They also bring a rich array of topics, classes and perspectives to campus that we otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Through the new Mellon grant, the Postdoctoral Fellowships will be replaced with C3 Professorships that support up to two years of tenure-track positions in the humanities. With a minimum of 16 such positions to be allocated across all of the LADO colleges, two C3 professors will come to �ֲ��ý and to each of the three other lead liberal arts schools.

A 2016 symposium on Early Modern literature that brought new scholars from underrepresented backgrounds to campus was part of �ֲ��ý’s New Scholars series, which C3 is adapting in conjunction with the Mellon grant. Jose Villagrana, second panelist from right, is now a Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal Fellow at �ֲ��ý. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College).

By putting recipients directly onto the tenure track, Low explains, the new approach gives a sense of security to both the C3 beneficiaries and the institutions that take them on. “If you can offer these talented graduate students or recent grads a permanent position right up front, that’s better for them. And it’s better for us institutionally, because we’re more likely to have this person permanently.

“In terms of diversifying the liberal arts colleges, I think C3 felt that hiring someone right into a tenure-track line would be more successful.”

In other changes related to the grant, graduates of any institution — not just the four partner universities — will now be eligible for C3-supported positions at LADO colleges.

Based on a model pioneered by �ֲ��ý, C3 is also introducing a New Scholar Series to fund opportunities to bring emerging underrepresented scholars to campus for talks or symposia that speak to dynamic areas of their disciplines. The �ֲ��ý series, which began in 2016 with the symposium “New Approaches to Early Modern Literature and Culture,” puts visiting scholars together with �ֲ��ý faculty and students in a variety of academic activities.

That series joins a slate of opportunities — as the name of the consortium states — to create connections among undergrads, faculty and graduate students at the LADO schools and the four research universities. Highlighting its programming are C3 Summits that bring together undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, diversity officers, deans, and presidents to focus on the program’s mission and goals.

In 2015, �ֲ��ý hosted the second C3 Summit, designed to bring together underrepresented students from LADO institutions and graduate students from the partner universities. Williams hosted the 2017 event and Middlebury will host the next in the series in November 2018.

C3, Low says, “has been very productive for �ֲ��ý in many ways. It has been a success here.”

The consortium was launched in 2012 with funding from the Mellon Foundation. The new grant, which began Oct. 1 and supports the program through 2022, will bring the foundation’s commitment to the program to $10.9 million over a decade.

Mellon grants advance faculty diversity on campus and beyond

Doug Hubley — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 18:28:30 +0000

With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, �ֲ��ý looks forward to advancing broad diversity among its faculty. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

How do students benefit from a college faculty that represents a broad diversity of experiences and perspectives?

Crystal Williams, chief diversity officer at �ֲ��ý College, suggests that one answer lies in an essential role of the teacher. Faculty members ask questions, she says — questions whose answers the professors and students explore together.

Those questions “are inextricably linked to our cultural, social, gendered, racialized selves,” Williams explains. “The more diverse the people are who ask those questions, the more complete, exciting and dynamic the resulting knowledge is.

Crystal Williams, associate vice president and chief diversity officer at �ֲ��ý. (Leah Nash)

“So diversifying the faculty is imperative to ensure that we remain as excellent a faculty in the 21st century as we were in the 20th, and doing so requires that we include as many voices and as many questions as possible.”

�ֲ��ý recently received two grants, totaling more than $1.4 million, from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance faculty diversity, both on �ֲ��ý’ own campus and as part of a collaborative effort with other institutions. The Mellon Foundation defines diversity broadly, including first-generation college students and those who have overcome adversity to launch a college career.

“These grants position �ֲ��ý to transform its faculty and ensure that we become a leader in the liberal arts sector with regard to faculty diversification,” says Williams.

The five-year, $1 million Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal grant will support a four-part strategy to put more promising candidates from underrepresented groups on the tenure track at �ֲ��ý during the next five years, as well as to build the college’s long-term capacity for recruiting superior faculty from all walks of life.

Emerging as �ֲ��ý anticipates the retirements of a substantial proportion of its current faculty — about a third during the next decade — this initiative explicitly links the recruiting of diverse candidates for tenure-track positions to faculty retirements.

An additional $419,360 comes to �ֲ��ý from Mellon as the college becomes a leadership institution in the Creating Connections Consortium, a national partnership designed to advance faculty diversity. C3 brings together undergrads, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and administrators to create mentoring and research relationships, and to better prepare young scholars for careers in liberal arts colleges.

Matt Auer, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs at �ֲ��ý. (Sarah Crosby/�ֲ��ý College)

�ֲ��ý is the fourth liberal arts college, and sixth lead institution overall, in C3. It joins Connecticut, Middlebury and Williams colleges and two research institutions, the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.

Among other initiatives, the consortium provides fellowships intended to give young scholars from underrepresented groups a feel for the possibilities in academe. Undergraduate fellowships support students — three from �ֲ��ý in 2014 and two in 2015 — through a summer of graduate-level studies at Berkeley or Columbia.

A second C3 fellowship program enables postdoctoral fellows, aka “postdocs,” from Columbia and Berkeley to teach and do research at C3’s liberal arts colleges, exposing them to the rewards of working in an academic setting distinctly different from the research university. �ֲ��ý will host two or three postdocs in 2016 and 2017.

“Part of the idea is for us to deepen our understanding about diverse groups of postdocs in particular fields, and have the experience of working with them here,” says Matt Auer, the college’s dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs. “At the same time, another part is to get the postdocs, who are coming from great institutions, to recognize the value of a career at a liberal arts college.”

C3 also holds a yearly summit, a national gathering of students, faculty and leaders of the consortium institutions, that �ֲ��ý will host in November.

Receiving Mellon grants that are “focused right on the bull’s-eye of diversity and inclusiveness,” Auer says, “is very much in keeping with �ֲ��ý’ basic mission, which is to learn from our differences and derive strength from that.”

Eileen Lam ’15 of New York City is shown at Columbia University. A fellowship from the Creating Connections Consortium enabled Lam to spend summer 2014 experiencing graduate-level work at Columbia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

The Mellon Foundation specifically supports initiatives involving the humanities and the “humanistic social sciences” (that is, social and behavioral disciplines that explore the human experience through methods akin to the humanities, rather than the scientific method).

Through these grants, �ֲ��ý seeks to encourage applications from individuals from underrepresented groups including African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, other Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans; first-generation college students; individuals who have followed nontraditional pathways to college owing to exceptional talent and motivation in the face of adversity; and individuals with a demonstrated commitment to incorporating diverse backgrounds and perspectives to learning, scholarship, service and academic leadership.

More about the Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal Program

The program will, first, make �ֲ��ý more attractive to strong candidates and, second, better enable existing faculty to find and recruit candidates. Here’s a summary of the four strategies supported by the grant:

Recruitment of up to six postdocs through one- or two-year postdoctoral teaching and research fellowships attached to tenure-track positions;
Creation of a Diversity Advocate Team to help build capacity among faculty to more effectively recruit and retain a broadly diverse faculty. This faculty team will undertake programming tailored to subject areas, and will assist or serve on search committees. This element of the program is designed to have an impact across disciplines;
Outreach and travel to develop recruiting networks through attending appropriate meetings, conferences, etc.;
A New Scholars Program engaging young academics from underrepresented groups through academic programming at �ֲ��ý, such as dialogues and symposia.

Students benefit from a college faculty that represents a broad diversity of experiences and perspectives. Here, �ֲ��ý junior advisers and residence coordinators participate in a mediation training session in August 2014. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Thanks to the Faculty Diversity and Renewal Program, the college can offer “a postdoctoral experience where they’ll get to know the institution, won’t have as high a teaching load and can get quite a bit of scholarship done, which is hard when you’re in your first couple of years as a tenure-track faculty member,” Auer explains.

These postdocs, he adds, will “experience a superb liberal arts college that takes scholarship seriously — and where students are part of the intellectual environment. Students are collaborators and are steeped in the faculty’s own research. That’s a model that the postdocs will frankly be hard-pressed to find at many research universities.”

The Diversity Advocate Team, meanwhile, will enable departments to become “more strategic in how they think about diversity in their fields, and how they can scout a more diverse candidate pool well in advance of actually trying to recruit those candidates,” Auer says.

“The work of building the faculty should be strategic and aggressive” when it comes to broadly representing humanity, Williams says. “We can no longer just sit back patiently and wait for the applications to come in without regard to best practices in the field.

“If you want an extraordinary faculty comprised of the nation’s most diversely cast thinkers and creators, we have to develop much more active recruitment models. And we have to activate the faculty in new and exciting ways.”

“I can’t wait to see what our faculty looks like in five years,” Williams adds. “What lies ahead of us is incredibly exciting.”

Mellon Foundation awards �ֲ��ý $1 million to support innovations in learning and teaching

Roland Adams — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:49:30 +0000

The grant will allow the college to take more advantage of faculty expertise to plan new directions in curriculum and teaching in the humanities.

�ֲ��ý will launch a four-year initiative in the fall of 2013 to foster innovative approaches to teaching and research in the humanities, supported by a recently awarded $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The initiative will allow the college to take advantage of upcoming faculty retirements to approach innovations in curriculum and teaching in a strategic and thoughtful way.

Planning for the project will begin immediately, with two interconnected aspects:

• Appointment of six recent Ph.D. recipients in the humanities as postdoctoral fellows, for terms of two years each, to teach and conduct research. The appointees will be selected partly on the basis of their demonstrated commitment to innovation in the field.

• Release time from teaching duties for current faculty members to undertake enhanced reviews of six departments and programs, focusing on innovation and interdisciplinarity. The work of the postdoctoral fellows will help make the release time possible.

The fellowships and the enhanced reviews will coincide with phased faculty retirements to ensure that the departments and programs are taking advantage of a window of transition to forge new directions in curriculum and teaching.

“Simple demographics mean that we are on the verge of an unusually high number of faculty retirements at colleges and universities nationwide, and �ֲ��ý is no exception, especially in the humanities,” said �ֲ��ý President Clayton Spencer. “This Mellon grant will help us convert a potential challenge into an opportunity for our departments and programs to take advantage of the latest thinking in a range of fields to shape our curriculum for the next generation.”

Dean of the Faculty Pam Baker said, “Humanities departments and programs are part of the core of our liberal arts curriculum. This support for self-study and work with exciting young colleagues will put us in the strongest possible position to enhance our work in this area as we look ahead.”

�ֲ��ý faculty members from across disciplines are already experimenting in teaching and conducting research in ways that enrich both the classroom experience and the campus community. And the college is actively exploring advances in a range of fields, including:

• the use of technology in the liberal arts setting;

• its extensive senior thesis program;

• the integration of theory and practice in scholarship and teaching; and

• pedagogical approaches that cross traditional curricular or disciplinary boundaries.

Equity and Inclusion – News

�ֲ���ý names Noelle Chaddock as vice president for equity and inclusion

�ֲ���ý awarded $1.2 million grant to create an inclusive 21st-century curriculum in the humanities

$3 million gift endows �ֲ���ý professorship in STEM equity and inclusion; April Hill named inaugural appointee

�ֲ���ý wins $1 million grant for equity-driven STEM innovations