Building the Future
SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14
Calling all conveners! We invite Evergreen faculty and staff to submit their proposals for Community-initiated Summer Institutes for the 2025 program. Summer Institutes provide an opportunity for professional development, community-building, and collaboration. We rely on our Summer Institute conveners to bring creative, innovative, and timely topics to our community. As we continue to navigate shifts and changes in higher education and the students we serve, we look forward to sharing experiences and expertise that support our collective learning community.
In accordance with article 17.2 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Evergreen, the Learning and Teaching Commons and the Commons Advisory Council invites proposals for community-initiated summer institutes. First-time conveners are especially encouraged to submit. The Commons Advisory Council and the Learning and Teaching Commons staff will provide support for the development of proposals and preparation for convening summer institutes through timely workshops, asynchronous resources, and individual consultations.
Summer Institute Themes
I. Teaching at Evergreen: Culturally Affirming and Inclusive Pedagogical Practices
Summer institutes in this category address teaching 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. Summer institutes in this theme will discuss how Evergreen faculty and staff support:
- 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.
- innovative approaches to learning.
Examples of previous institutes within this theme:
- Cultivating Community Belonging: Weaving Indigenous Pedagogy & Scholarship in Academia
- Developing Evergreen’s Best Practices for Online/Hybrid Education
- Knowledge, Strategies, and Tools for Supporting Students with Disabilities
- Critical Response Process: Facilitating Student-centered and Equity-minded Classroom Feedback Sessions
II. Our Greener Community: Strengthening Relationships and Navigating Change
Summer Institutes in this category explore the dynamics of institutional vitality in and beyond the classroom; developing equity-minded student, faculty and staff leaders who engage in community care by building a warm, supportive, curious, and resilient Evergreen community. 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. We must attend to developing strong partnerships around shared goals for the future of Evergreen, with optimism and inventiveness.
Examples of previous institutes within this theme:
- Learning From and Valuing Belonging on Evergreen’s 1000-Acre Campus
- Write that Book! Invigorating Teaching and Learning through Scholarly Exploration
- Evergreen’s Roots: Documenting our Oral History
- What if We Worked Together? Advancing Educational Equity Across and Between Local K-16 Systems
Equity Goals
The Summer Institutes center specific equity goals for the benefit of participating conveners, faculty, and staff. Proposed institutes with a significant emphasis on these goals will be designated in the program as an option to fulfill the Equity and Inclusion Training Requirement (see CBA 6.1.5 and SB5227).
- 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 – Many approaches to and possibilities for equitable pedagogy are 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 support with framing the equity goals in your proposal, we are happy to discuss your ideas and assist. Please contact learningandteaching@evergreen.edu.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit your proposals using the online form no later than February 14.
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 themes: Teaching at Evergreen; Our Greener Community)
- 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)
- Convener option to welcome students or external community members to their Summer Institute
- Modality: Most summer institutes will be hosted in person on the Evergreen Campus. The review committee will select a suite of institutes to be offered online. Should you wish to be considered for an online modality, please indicate on your proposal.
- 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 of the status of their proposal no later than March 17.
Review Criteria
Proposed 2025 Summer Institute titles and descriptions will be shared with Evergreen faculty via a survey in late February to collect broad feedback from our community to indicate interest and help predict attendance for specific sessions. Proposals will then be reviewed by faculty serving on the Commons Advisory Council (CAC) who will design the program based on faculty feedback and the criteria provided below, as well as budgetary and other logistical considerations.
| Criteria | Description |
| Theme Alignment | Aligns with call for proposal themes: Teaching at Evergreen or Our Greener Community |
| Teaching and Learning Focus | Promotes teaching and learning in alignment with the college mission, the Six Expectations, and the Five Foci. |
| Community Building | Strengthens existing partnerships, fosters new partnerships, and improves collaboration |
| Participant Engagement | Includes 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
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