This site’s Resources page has been updated with additional data and articles on many topics relevant to Professional and Continuing Education at Evergreen.
This site’s Resources page has been updated with additional data and articles on many topics relevant to Professional and Continuing Education at Evergreen.
Here is a PDF version of the presentation on the School for Professional and Continuing Education at the September 15th, 2021 portion of the faculty retreat:
In early July we completed and on July 9th Interim Provost David McAvity shared with the campus the latest comprehensive report on the New Directions initiative, which is available here:
https://sites.evergreen.edu/newdirections/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2021/07/New-Directions-summary-report-July-2021-sent-to-campus.pdf
The report documents the significant accomplishments of the project this year. This includes the detailed implementation of the Paths project, creation of a framework for offering academic and professional certificates at the college, work on Holistic Advising and the Holistic Advising Policy and Practices Review, and creation of the Center for Climate Action and Sustainability. Plus progress on Capstones, crafting a system for broader use of upper division credits, and an initial plan for supporting workforce development at Evergreen.
It also summarizes the project plan going forward. This will initially emphasize development of the Flexible studies model within a School of Professional Studies, further development of certificates, and support for creating Paths in psychology/health and wellness, and business/entrepreneurship.
To comment on the report, please email bigbets@evergreen.edu.
We are excited about the progress we are making toward opening the Center for Climate Action and Sustainability! Here is a prospectus that provides some details on the Center’s mission, scope and the many ways it will support our students and efforts to impact climate change and sustainability. Many thanks to the team of faculty and staff who have contributed to this effort, as well as the donors who have supported this work. And we are about to begin the hiring process for the Center Director–details coming soon!
The Workforce Development team is refining its vision and goals and developing answers to a series of important planning questions:
How to ensure all key stakeholders are involved in workforce development planning at the college? How do we pull the college into the region’s workforce development system and planning?
What will the process be for developing future curriculum/programs/certificates that will be linked to workforce development? How to collaborate with the Path groups and Centers?
What staff will be needed to support the initiative as well as students who may be eligible for state and national workforce development funding?
How do we market internally and externally?
We will seek to coordinate our efforts with several other workteams, including the Capstone and Certificates groups.
In particular, we will work closely with the Certificates workgroup with the goal of developing a small number of certificates with a workforce development theme for fall 2021.
Welcome to Winter 2021! It’s time to share an update on the New Directions for Evergreen initiative. We’ve been busy, and a lot of work is underway. We’ve structured this update with an overview at the top, a summary of the implementation timeline, and details on the work of the several New Directions workgroups below. Please send us any feedback you have at bigbets@evergreen.edu.
The project is moving through a crucial phase translating the ideas and dreams generated this summer into actionable workplans. Ten workgroups are working in three areas: Curriculum Enhancement, Holistic Advising, and Curricular Coherence (see the figure below). Most of these teams began their work in earnest following a “Kick Off” event organized by JuliA Metzker on November 4th. This event brought the teams together for an orientation on the project, an update to the community, and an initial structured session for each workgroup that allowed them to review their specific charge, establish community agreements and equity practices, and clarify their goals.
These workgroups are in the process of developing detailed proposals, with the goal to have these proposals ready for consideration by the New Directions Steering Committee before the end of winter quarter or early in spring quarter. The Project Oversight group is keeping an eye on the big picture of the initiative and ensuring that these proposals are harmonized in order to maximize their impact once implemented. Brief updates on the work of many of these teams is provided at the end of this message.
Teams continue to explore new curriculum in Climate Action and Sustainability, Interdisciplinary Art and Design, and development of a Psychology Path of Study.
In addition, we are exploring a variety of partnerships with other institutions. Notably, an articulation agreement with Centralia College is being developed. This aims to prepare interested students graduating from Centralia to enroll in Evergreen programs associated with some specific paths.
Finally, we received 21 nominations of students to participate in the New Directions initiative. Participating students may join workteams, or be part of a standing focus group that will provide feedback to the workteams on emerging proposals. We thank these students in advance for their help!
The timeline below includes key dates and milestones for the project. As the workgroup proposals are finalized and adopted, a more detailed timeline will be developed.
We encourage you to visit the project website (sites.evergreen.edu/newdirections) for an archive of project updates, key resource documents and workgroup membership.
The Standing Committee on the Curriculum (SCC) has made progress toward developing a consensus model for undergraduate schools at the College and is refining the details. This model will be shared with a variety of groups early winter quarter, with the goal of sharing it with the Agenda Committee week 5 and presenting it at the week 6 faculty meeting.
The School of Graduate and Professional Studies team is developing a detailed concept for that school, which will incorporate the college’s three current graduate programs, plus provide support for our future certificate programs.
The Paths of Study project is moving forward rapidly on several fronts. A subteam consisting of Farra Hayes, Eric Pedersen, Allen Thompson, Wade Arave, Julie Russo, Stephen Beck, Kristina Ackley and Amy Betz is working to clarify the Path “story” that should be communicated to various categories of current and potential students, and will craft a plan for incorporating those in our external promotion and recruitment materials and the college website. The group is also working with Information Technology Team to update our current systems, including the Curriculum Management Database, Banner, Radius, Online Catalog, and Path web pages to incorporate the Paths model. Another group is crafting a revised budget for our Mellon Grant to support the Paths over the last year of the grant. And in late winter quarter we will provide students with an opportunity to indicate which Paths they intend to follow, including a “student-design” path model.
Two groups are working on different elements of Holistic Advising. The team working on Advisor Roles and Expectations led by Therese Saliba, Cholee Gladney, Andy Corn, and Allen Thompson is refining their proposal and will present their model incorporating Holistic Advising to Senior Leadership in January and to the Faculty in February. The team’s pilot plan will focus on historically underserved students with lower retention rates in hopes of improving these students’ success. The team is also exploring best practices to coordinate technology system(s) for Holistic Advising and will seek a Title lll grant to support the project.
The Holistic Advising – Academic Policy and Practices Review (HAAPPieR) team led by Karen Gaul is doing a deep review of the college’s policies and practices regarding syllabi, accessibility, learning outcomes and earning credit, credit equivalencies, and attendance policies. Their goal is to update these policies and practices in ways that will be equity-producing, transparent, and promote student success and belonging. Karen and the team gave a very helpful gave a presentation at the week 8 faculty meeting fall quarter.
The Hybrid/Online Learning team is preparing to work with a group of faculty to facilitate their participation in an online teaching certification program in spring 2021, once funding is obtained. The goal will be for these participants to offer online programs and courses during the 2021-22 academic year.
The Certificates team has drafted a policy framework on certificates for the college that is being refined. The team’s goal is to have 2-4 certificate programs, including both for-credit and non-credit certificates, offered beginning fall ’21, with a more extensive set of offerings ready for the 22-23 academic year.
The Workforce Development team also has a goal of offering a small number of workforce-oriented certificates by fall ’21. They are developing a vision for workforce development at the college that incorporates a variety of elements that will help current and potential students envision Evergreen as a great place to prepare themselves for future careers and graduate school.
A full description of the work of all of the New Directions workteams and their membership is available at https://sites.evergreen.edu/newdirections/members/.
Best wishes–
New Directions for Evergreen Lead Team
Amy Betz
Larry Geri
JuliA Metzker
(bigbets@evergreen.edu)
On August 24th Interim Provost David McAvity sent out the initial New Academic Directions summary report, which is available here:
https://sites.evergreen.edu/bigbets/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2020/09/NAD-Report-1_8-24-20.pdf.
We will complete additional versions of this report in the coming weeks as the project continues to progress.
Please send on any feedback on the report to bigbets@evergreen.edu.
The Schools Team has been working hard the last several weeks on the process of developing prototype models for schools that would be components of The Evergreen State University. The Conceptual Plan for New Academic Directions passed at the June 10, 2020 faculty meeting includes this language on the creation of undergraduate schools:
The names and structures of the Interdisciplinary Schools for undergraduates will be developed during the summer and fall of 2020, and approved through a vote of the faculty by the end of fall 2020. The new structure will commence in academic year 2021-2022. This new structure will be evaluated during the summer of 2024.
The Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Schools (“schools” is a working term) will help students better understand the curriculum; will provide an organizational hub for wrap-around advising; and will better allow for various features of the curriculum, including certificates, capstones, and first year programs. Existing Paths (and emerging or new paths) will be grouped to form the Schools based on interdisciplinary clusters that are meaningful to students.
Here are two models of undergraduate schools that have been developed by sub-groups of the Schools Team. These models were crafted to meet a set of design criteria agreed upon by the overall team (see the document below for details).
INTERDIVISIONAL “COLOR SCHOOLS” PROTOTYPE. Schools Development Team #1: Kristina Ackley, Krishna Chowdary, Savvina Chowdhury, Stacey Davis, Zoltán Grossman: https://sites.evergreen.edu/bigbets/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2020/09/Interdivisional-Color-Schools-Prototype-9-2.pdf
THREE SCHOOLS MODEL: Dawn Barron and Coral Garey: https://sites.evergreen.edu/bigbets/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2020/09/Schools-Model-DB-and-CG-9-2-20.pdf .
And here is a proposal for the structure of the The School of Graduate and Professional Studies. Note that under the Conceptual Plan passed by the faculty, no vote will be required on this plan, though it will still proceed through an approval process.
GRADUATE SCHOOL TEAM MODEL.Grad School Team model: John Withey, Mike Craw and Sue Feldman: https://sites.evergreen.edu/bigbets/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2020/09/Schools_Model_Graduate-School-9-2-20.pdf.
Here are the design criteria that each team responded to: https://sites.evergreen.edu/bigbets/wp-content/uploads/sites/529/2020/09/Design-Criteria-for-Schools-at-Evergreen-3-8-19-20.pdf.
Here is a more detailed list of the team membership for feasibility and implementation work this summer.
The project is stewarded by a “nesting dolls” leadership structure described by the three groups listed below. Membership for these teams is shown in the document linked above.
In addition to these oversight teams, the true work is distributed to project teams working on designing and developing the components of the initiative such as new curriculum, certificates, capstones, advising and equity. If you have any interest in joining these teams, please send an email to bigbets@evergreen.edu.