At the beginning of the fall 2024 semester, the College of Arts and Sciences solicited faculty proposals for two initiatives to help the college achieve goals set forth in its strategic plan and forge a sustainable path into the future.
The college is pleased to announce that several proposals in each initiative have been funded.
High-Impact Service Initiative Grants
The High-Impact Service Initiative (HISI) seeks to reorient faculty service activities away from isolated efforts with individual benefits and towards collective efforts that combat sustainability challenges common to arts and sciences colleges across the country.
Teams awarded HISI grants will work on their projects over the following months, with the aim to complete substantive work by March 2025.
HISI grants were awarded to projects in two clusters:
Policy Cluster
Department of History
Lisa McClain (co-Lead), Ida Meftahi, (co-Lead) and Lisa Brady
This team will review all departmental policies in light of college values and departmental aspirations and goals. It will organize its findings into a faculty handbook.
School for the Digital Future
Jen Schneider (co-Lead), Jon Schneider (co-Lead) and School for the Digital Future faculty
This team will develop policy for the School for the Digital Future, including faculty development and programming.
Recruitment, Retention and Career Readiness Cluster
School of the Arts
Jack Polifka (Lead), Baker Lawley, Derek Ganong, Nicole Molumby, Rulon Wood, Susan Latta and Tracy Sunderland
This team will evaluate, coordinate and enhance undergraduate internships across all School of the Arts departments and programs.
Department of Communication
Manda Hicks (co-Lead), Matt Isbell (co-Lead), Mark Nagel, Melissa Klassen and Julie Lane
This team will evaluate, coordinate and enhance undergraduate mentoring through alumni engagement.
School of the Environment
Emily Wakild (co-Lead), Mari Rice (co-Lead), Vicken Hillis, Jen Pierce, Bob Reinhardt and Jared Talley
This team will evaluate, coordinate, and enhance undergraduate mentoring across all School of the Environment programs.
Department of History
Emily Fritchman (Lead), Lisa Brady, Bob Reinhardt and Ray Krohn
This team will evaluate, design and restructure faculty service activities in support of student success efforts.
Strategic Retention Initiative Grants
The Strategic Retention Initiative (SRI) aims to improve retention outcomes through a recursive process of goal-setting, needs assessment, intervention design, implementation and evaluation.
Teams awarded SRI grants will work over two years. In the first year, they will gather data alongside the College of Arts and Sciences Data Team to collect an evaluate enrollment and retention data. They will launch retention initiatives in the second year of the program.
This year, four department teams received SRI grants, with representation from all major areas of the college: arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Department of Biological Sciences
Emily Meredith, Bia Mizoguchi, Eric Hayden and Sarah Dalrymple
Department of Communication
Cody Coker, Rachel Silverman and Manda Hicks
Department of History
Lisa Brady, Nick Miller and Raymond Krohn
Department of Theatre Arts
Raquel Davis, Ann Price, Gordon Reinhart, Nate Pohl and Paul Miller
Congratulations to the teams awarded grants. Stay tuned for updates on their progress over the next two years.