Institutional Development

During the period of time that we have been involved in the SAGE 2YC: Faculty as Change Agents project our institution has been undergoing large scale changes. A new president started at the college just when we were beginning the project. In the two years after that point, we experienced changeover in nearly all of the vice-president positions and welcomed a new provost. At the same time, our institution has been going through the Achieving the Dream coaching process and begun to implement Guided Pathways. With these kinds of institutional changes going on, we have remained focused on changes within our program (Earth and Space Sciences) and our division (Science Division).

At the college level, we did meet with the Provost, who leads Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. We discussed what we learned from our recent 5-year program review and highlighted what we learned from the student success data. She heard our goals for the program's future, which were strongly shaped by goals developed within this project. The meeting built awareness of our program's strengths and allowed us to share our focus for improvements.

Finally, we notice that involvement in the SAGE 2YC: Faculty as Change Agents project has helped us develop our leadership and expertise. We now can contribute more to our institution through familiarity with SERC resources, literature on increasing student engagement, improving inclusivity, and assessing student data. As college-wide conversations continue to focus on student success, diversity and inclusion, and student or program data -- in particular because of our campus's involvement with Achieving the Dream and Guided Pathways -- we are able to be more informed participants in those faculty discussions. It is also gratifying to see that there are strong parallels between the geoscience-focused goals of the SAGE 2YC project and the larger-scale college projects.