The Diverse Campus: Improving Access, Equity, and the Student Experience

 

Thursday, October 17, 2019 
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Mills College, Oakland, CA

 

Click here for a draft of the program schedule.

Description

Schools and colleges across the higher education landscape are working to find the most effective ways to enhance access, equity, and inclusion in their educational programs. As efforts are undertaken to realize these goals, longstanding inequities that limit the effectiveness of learning environments continue to be revealed while controversies focused on identity and ideology disrupt institutions around the country. Demographic changes play a role in driving some measures of compositional diversity among students, but many campuses encounter near-stagnant faculty diversity and face ongoing challenges to foster a positive and inclusive campus climate. All of these conditions persist alongside the imperative to graduate students with the cultural awareness and collaborative skill necessary to support personal growth, professional success, and informed civic engagement.

These realities give rise to a set of critical questions: how do we articulate the value of diversity, and how do we develop organizational structures and educational opportunities that support these values and align with institutional missions and strategic plans? And how can planning processes and mission support engagement, access, and success among increasingly diverse students?

This workshop will explore a variety of potential solutions to these questions drawn from current research, demographic trends and their implications, and learning and teaching tools and resources. Facilitators will help participants frame plans to enhance equity and inclusion at their institutions and explore seminal and recent theory in diversity studies, learning, and organizational change. This knowledge will be applied to key levers for organizational and individual change. By the close of the workshop, participants will have solid working knowledge of evidence-informed practices, familiarity with multiple strategies for improvement, and models to frame planning and evaluation for equity and inclusion efforts.

Workshop Learning Outcomes

In this workshop, participants will:

  • Understand and compare definitions of access, diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education
  • Identify how theories of learning, college student development, and organizational change inform effective institutional practices and diversity scholarship
  • Evaluate resources and tools for use in implementing access, equity, and inclusion strategies for students, staff, faculty, and public constituents
  • Apply strategies for effective programming, coalition-building, reporting, and accountability to institutional contexts
  • Create a framework for diversity planning and assessment guided by facilitators’ models and other evidence-based tools

Intended Audience

This workshop is designed for faculty, staff, and administrators from across the entire institution who are interested in addressing issues surrounding diversity and in improving equity, access, and inclusion on their campus.

Workshop Facilitators

Marguerite Bonous-Hammarth, Executive Director, Office of Inclusive Excellence, University of California, Irvine

Joe Slowensky, Professor, Vice Provost of Institutional Effectiveness, Faculty Affairs, and ALO, Chapman University

Hotel Reservations: We encourage participants to make their hotel reservations as soon as possible. Given the workshop is being held on a campus, WSCUC has not contracted nor secured a group rate with any particular hotel. There are many websites online that help with finding reasonably priced hotels.

Registration
Registration fee includes lunch. Beverages and snacks will be available during breaks. Attendees will be on their own for all other meals.

Registration fees: $350/per team member until 10/3/19.  After the registration deadline, if space is available, the late registration fee will be $395/per team member.

Discount for Combined Registration: The Assessment 201: Advanced Topics in Assessment workshop will be offered on October 18, 2019 at Mills College. The special rate for a combined registration for The Diverse Campus and Assessment 201 workshops is $595 until the registration deadline on 10/3/2019. After the registration deadline, if space is available, the late registration fee will be $695/per team member.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE:  October 3, 2019

This educational program has been developed by national and regional experts and is offered as a service to WSCUC member institutions and others who wish to learn about good practices applicable to all institutions. It is entirely optional, and our hope is that member institutions will find it helpful. WSCUC staff will be present to answer questions related specifically to accreditation expectations.

Event Details

Date: October 17, 2019 - 9:00am - 4:00pm

Fee: Free