Call for 2023 Summer Institute Proposals
Call for Proposals: 2023 Community-initiated Summer Institutes
The ReGathering: Reconsidering Purpose and Meeting with Intention
Ready to submit your proposal? Skip ahead to Submission Guidelines
Turn Everyday Get-Togethers into Transformative Gatherings – Priya Parker
Priya Parker has ignited international conversations about some of the most fundamental social practices that define our culture pre- and post-pandemic through her book The Art of Gathering and her subsequent TED talks and interviews addressing in-person, virtual, and hybrid gatherings. One of the central principles she proposes to creating meaning in gatherings is to deeply question the purpose of any gathering, even the most mundane, assumed, “off the rack” variety of event such as a birthday party, and to redefine each gathering to infuse it with a sense of authentic, unique purpose to fit the needs of the people participating in that event at that point in time.
As we prepare to gather again for the Evergreen Summer Institute 2023, we invite you to deeply consider the purpose behind your proposed Institute. What is needed at this moment in time, for this year, for these faculty and staff, and for these students? What is your unique offering as a convener that can bring benefit to Evergreen in its current stage of evolution? How can this Institute help to bring us together as an academic community around a unifying purpose and vision? What are the stories that we bring into this Institute from the past that illustrate our strengths and lessons learned from recent challenges, and what are the stories we hope to carry forward from the experiences and engagement with our colleagues during the Institute? How can we inspire each other through each session of this Institute and bring our shared aspirations for our students together to energize us for a new year?
What is the purpose of our re-gathering?
In accordance with article 17.2 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Evergreen, the Learning and Teaching Commons invites proposals for community-initiated summer institutes related to the following themes. First-time conveners are especially encouraged to submit.
Equity Goals
The Summer Institutes center specific equity goals for the benefit of participating conveners, faculty, and staff.
Inclusive – The proposed institute should be open to any and all faculty and staff at the institution and present no barriers to full participation or benefit from attendance
Equitable – There is a vast breadth of approaches to and possibilities for equitable pedagogy represented by our identities, positions of privilege, and disciplinary backgrounds. The proposed institute should creatively and positively address equity with consideration for the topic and the context.
Diverse – Our learning is enriched by the diversity of our academic community, and we encourage institutes that highlight diverse perspectives, under-represented populations, interdisciplinary approaches, and new or experimental topics and ideas.
If you have questions about these goals or would like assistance or support with framing the equity goals in your proposal, please contact learningandteaching@evergreen.edu.
Summer Institute Themes
I. Teaching at Evergreen: Culturally Affirming and Inclusive Pedagogical Practices
Summer institutes in this category will explore pedagogical practices that engage and support Evergreen students equitably.
As a learning organization that emphasizes collaborative, interdisciplinary learning across significant differences, Evergreen is uniquely positioned as a leader in culturally affirming and inclusive pedagogical practices. In particular, students at Evergreen experience
- immersive, relationship-rich learning communities.
- transparent interdisciplinary pathways of study that are easy to navigate.
- flexible approaches to learning and evaluation that promote self-efficacy.
- engaging with complex, contested, and capricious issues and questions in the classroom
- learning that incorporates their cultural identities and histories as assets.
[Potential topics: addressing the needs of students with minoritized identities (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, undocumented, unhoused, neurodiversity); facilitating equitable seminars; culturally-sustaining assessment, inclusive program design, developing syllabi & community agreements, transparent assignments, etc.]
II. Our Greener Community: Strengthening Relationships and Navigating Change
Summer Institutes in this category will offer strategies and approaches to meeting the challenges of institutional change; developing equity-minded student, faculty and staff leaders who engage in community care by building a warm, supportive, curious, and resilient Evergreen community where all of us want to come to learn and work.
Our community has embarked on an ambitious project to attract and graduate hundreds of new students, while continuing to maintain and innovate our existing curriculum and services. The onset of a global pandemic presented immense challenges yet also an opportunity to rethink the way we work, and how we work together.
[Potential topics: understanding the nature of institutional change; challenges of leadership; institutional approaches for managing conflict and building trust; learning outcome assessment, using evidence to guide continuous improvement, anti-racist organizations, equity-minded leadership development, partnering across divisions, program evaluation, building community, invigorating teaching and learning through artistic and scholarly exploration, etc.]
Submission Guidelines
Submit proposals using the online form no later than March 10th. The form includes fields requesting the following information:
Convener Information
- Name and email address for each convener
- Convener Experience (first-time conveners are encouraged)
Summer Institute Program Information
- Institute theme (choose from above themes)
- Institute title (10 word limit)
- Institute description (150-word limit)
Activities & Goals
- Participant learning goals
- Plan for participant engagement
Reflect on the institute you planned and describe how you will engage participants in their own learning. What activities will you offer to guide participants towards the goals you articulated above? - Equity goals
How will the institute you have planned address the following equity goals? What activities will you offer to support meeting these goals?- Closing opportunity gaps for students historically underserved in higher education (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, undocumented, immigrant, living with disabilities, first in family to attend college, housing insecure).
- Promoting equitable learning communities through culturally-affirming/anti-racist pedagogies and/or inclusive teaching strategies.
- Redressing systemic inequities at Evergreen such as institutional racism, gender-based discrimination and violence, and ableist structures.
Logistics
- Institute length (0.5-2 days)
- Scheduling preferences
- Preferred number of participants (10-40)
- Additional requests
Upon submission of a proposal, the lead convener should receive an automatic message confirming receipt of the proposal. If you do not receive this message please contact us at learningandteaching@evergreen.edu. Conveners will be notified no later than April 15th.
Review Criteria
Once a proposal is submitted, it is reviewed by members of the Commons Advisory Council using a blind peer review protocol that masks the identities of the proposers and the reviewers. Each proposal is scored by at least two reviewers according to the Evergreen Summer Institute Proposal Review Rubric. Proposals are ranked according to their average scores for consideration.
| Criteria | Description |
| Curriculum Development | advances institutional capacities to build and sustain curricular coherence and stability. |
| Theme Alignment | aligns with themes articulated in the call for proposals. |
| Student Learning and Success | centers student success and has a high potential to yield improvements in student retention and graduation or increase enrollments. |
| Participant Engagement | contains a clear and convincing plan for engaging participants in their own learning through a variety of activities and assignments that support multimodal learning. |
| Equity-producing | Proposed institute aligns with one or more of the following equity-producing goals Closing opportunity gaps for students historically underserved in higher education (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, undocumented, immigrant, living with disabilities, first in family to attend college, housing insecure).Promoting equitable learning communities through culturally-affirming/anti-racist pedagogies and/or inclusive teaching strategies.Redressing systemic inequities at Evergreen such as institutional racism, gender-based discrimination and violence, and ableist structures. |
