Category: University

Immigration Comes Home

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The Executive Order on Immigration has already inspired protest, sparked confusion, praise, and been struck down in the courts. Now there is the real possibility of a second Executive Order along similar lines, which makes it hard to fully understand the implications these policies might have for students and professors.

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Universities have played a central role in this debate. The arguments about impacts on students and scholars were some of most persuasive ones used in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Students and colleagues come from all over the world will experience changes in immigration policy in ways that are often invisible to citizens. Last week Faculty Development, in partnership with Faculty Affairs and the Global Faculty Initiative, brought a local immigration attorney to campus for presentation and questions about general topics. Today (Tuesday) we welcome Chris Fowler, general counsel for Chico, to campus to discuss implications for campus. Chris is in a better position to answer questions about faculty searches, hiring, and concerns about students. Please join us in Selvester’s at 3:30 for more.

Some reminders for you:
The Academy e-Learning application is live!
Faculty Development is searching for the next director!
We held a popular workshop on Dossier Prep for Lecturers earlier this semester. Find the video archive and handouts here.

Dr. Sara Cooper has provided additional Book in Common Material. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources.

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Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Our newest episode is out now! Mary, Tracy, and I discuss what it means to be an alum with Aaron Skaggs of the Alumni Association. Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

What do they need to know?

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Welcome to the second week of the semester!

As students settle into the rhythm of their courses they will also be settling into old patterns. You have the opportunity to intervene and many of you do by highlighting the behavior of historically successful students. Maybe your course is supported by Supplemental Instruction through the Student Learning Center and you know if they go regularly, they will probably pass. Maybe your course uses online videos and you know students who watch in advance of the class always do better. Sharing this information with students is almost always appreciated and can lead to student success, but it is our responsibility to make sure we are sharing the right information. When I taught the public speaking course I assumed the students who failed were getting low speech grades. It was actually much more common that if they were failing they were missing the weekly quizzes. This information changed the advice I gave students and how I trained my Teaching Associates.

In light of that, I have homework for you. Go back through grades from one or two semesters to look at some landmark assignments like the first exam or project. Even if you are not fluent in statistics you can probably draw some conclusions about early success and overall performance in the course. You may find similar markers like attendance or one of the things mentioned earlier. You may be quite surprised. I am urging you to be intentional about it rather than relying on assumptions. This will start to give you markers for when students are headed for trouble. In some other Universities, like Georgia State, they have used information like this to radically improve student performance. In my conversations with colleagues around campus they are often surprised to learn the number of students who fail their courses or that there is an achievement gap between Under Represented Minority students and non-Under Represented Minority students. We can only unravel these dynamics when we pay attention to why students do well and why they don’t and then fashion solutions. Most of us share advice at the beginning of the semester about how to do well and when students are headed for trouble, let’s be sure we are giving the right advice.

Digging into these dynamics can require help from Institutional Research, your Assessment Coordinator, or a colleague, but it is almost always worth it.

Dr. Sara Cooper has provided additional Book in Common Material. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources.

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Our fourth episode of the Fall is out now! Mary, Tracy, and I discuss the election with Juni Banerjee-Stevens and Mike Pence (not really, just checking to see if you were still reading). Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

Use this one weird trick to finish all your grading in one day!

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Today’s tip is a three-parter, and while I lack the magic solution you may have craved when you opened this email, there is a lesson to be learned; keep reading to find out!

Part One: Audience analysis, perspective taking, teaching empathy—these are all variations on similar teaching practices that cut across all disciplines. In a recent Teaching in Higher Ed podcast about this topic I was struck by one particular example. One of the guests who teaches Android application development dramatically improved his class by incorporating perspective taking and directing his students to start from the consumer perspective and design the application around their needs rather than starting with the technology. It was a powerful example because it illustrated to me the extreme utility of perspective taking, regardless of discipline. In this forum I have often urged you to think about things from the perspective of your students; this is a little different as we are trying to get our students to engage in that same practice. This practice is powerful because it is practical and personally transformative. In a world increasingly customized to our own perspectives and tastes it is easy to assume other people will adjust to us, when in reality we have to start by understanding them.

Part Two: Friday is the deadline for our Spring Programming including Faculty Learning Communities for: Write your article in 12 weeks, We are a Hispanic Serving Institution, Now What?, Improve Your Teaching Practice, Quality Online Learning and Teaching, and the Leadership Initiative. Make Spring a great semester, and get involved with a rewarding community.

Part Three: The Faculty Grading Oasis is as close to “one weird trick” as you are going to get and we will be in full effect during finals week. See the flyer below for details.

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Dr. Sara Cooper has provided additional Book in Common Material. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources.

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Our third episode of the Fall is out now! Mary, Tracy, and I explore athletics at Chico and beyond in the aptly titled “locker room talk.” Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

Trick or Treat

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Image result for halloweenHalloween is less than a week away. It is a tradition with a complicated history at Chico as Tracy, Mary, and our guest Holly explored in our most recent podcast. The responsibility of faculty around events like Halloween is not always clear. I usually took some time, especially when dealing with first-year students to share some of the same messages the Diversity and Inclusion office has emphasized. I felt it was a public service to talk to students about the implications of their actions and the impact they had on the reputation of the institution and their peers. Less than a year ago a prominent administrator at Yale resigned following backlash over her position on Halloween costumes, especially as they relate to race proving just how difficult these issues can be to address.

Nevertheless, I would encourage you to share your insights with your students. There is an ethical part of this conversation when it comes to treating each other with respect, but there is a practical one too. With the ubiquitous nature of photos and videos, it is a reasonable to think that embarrassing costumes and behavior might very well be archived for future employers, parents, or partners. Our students represent the institution, but they also represent themselves. Be safe and respectful out there, and encourage your students to do the same.

Dr. Sara Cooper has provided additional Book in Common Material. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources.

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Our second episode of the Fall is out now! Mary, Tracy, and I explore Chico traditions just in time for Halloween! Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

Race as a Classroom Topic

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Last year I shared some thoughts and resources for the classroom relating to conversations about race. Many of those themes remain relevant today. Nationally, a wave of racist social media expressions and in-class episodes have many Universities reeling. Locally, many of us participated in a student led event on campus yesterday raising awareness about the experiences of minority groups in the United States and on campus. In light of these developments I asked my friend, colleague, and podcast co-host, Tracy Butts, to offer some insight to help us navigate these issues in the classroom. Here is what Tracy shared.

On Thursday morning, I walked into my 8:00 a.m. class, and one of my white male students greeted me with “are we going to talk about Charlotte?”  While my intention had been to talk about the officer-involved killing of a black man in Charlotte, North Carolina, the subsequent protests in response to the incident, and how it all related to the text we had been reading, Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad, I was certainly not expecting one of my students to initiate the conversation.

Later that afternoon, I attended a Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA) meeting during which two students in attendance shared that they were dismayed and discouraged by the seeming lack of conversation regarding these current events, and they challenged us to model for them behaviors that they might be able to emulate. A number of us were chagrined by their comments because we have been talking—a lot—about these incidents—with one another, with colleagues, in classes, on social media. But, ultimately, we realized that the same university silos that make it difficult for us to see and know what our colleagues in other departments and divisions are doing are the same ones that make it difficult for our students to know what we are doing in our workspaces, classrooms, and conversations with others.

Just like my colleagues in BFSA, I know that many of my faculty colleagues are talking about these issues amongst their networks of family and friends.  Yet, it is crucial that faculty model for students what activism and social justice looks like in our respective academic disciplines, that we demonstrate how our fields take up and respond to issues of injustice, inequity, privilege, and oppression. Do not reserve your discussions about social issues simply for the members of your social networks. Do not assume that your students who are not of color are unaffected by, uninterested in, indifferent to, or even struggling themselves to make sense of these issues. Do let your students know that your care and goodwill towards them extend beyond their academic success to their personal well-being as well. Finally, do not be afraid to engage your students in difficult conversations. Not only are they watching and waiting for your validation, your support, they might also surprise and teach you something.

Dr. Sara Cooper has provided addition Book in Common Material. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources.

The CELT Conference preliminary program and registration link are now available. See you on October 6-7!

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! There will be a new episode posted in the next few days. Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

Good News!

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In lieu of a normal Teaching Tip we are sharing two pieces of good news for faculty across campus.

First, we have great news regarding MLIB 459, also known as the Rose Garden room. Library Dean Patrick Newell worked with Interim Provost Mike Ward and Interim Dean of Graduate Studies Sharon Barrios over the summer to open up multi-use, multi-purpose spaces for collaboration in the Meriam Library. There are more plans in development, but as of Fall 2016 MLIB 459 is a space for faculty to meet and collaborate during working hours. The space is beautiful, bright, quiet, and welcoming to faculty who want to work outside their offices. It is adjacent to the Faculty Development Office which means you can get a cup of coffee, learn about campus programs, and get to work. The space is secure enough you can leave your laptop open and not have to worry about leaving to use the restroom or get a snack from the BMU. The same space is open to graduate students after hours and is soon to be bustling with late night thesis writing. We want to extend a sincere thanks to Dean Newell, Interim Dean Barrios, and Interim Provost Ward for making this possible and invite faculty to come to MLIB 459 to do great work.

Second, we also want to pass along a more traditional tip in relation to this year’s Book in Common “My Life on The Road” by Gloria Steinem. Dr. Sara Cooper is providing the campus with a valuable resource: teaching notes on integrating this powerful book into your curriculum. Check out this section of the CELT page for regular synopsis updates, discussion questions, and other resources. This work is a wonderful guide if you want to draw in themes and conversation about the book and are looking for expert guidance.

The CELT Conference preliminary program and registration link are now available. See you on October 6-7!

Got feedback on this tip? Got an idea for a tip? Send it along. Check out our new and improved wordpress site here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

Get by with a little help from your friends

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Get by with a little help from your friends at Faculty Development this week. Maybe you don’t consider us friends, “colleagues” maybe? How about “acquaintances with snacks”?

This week we are running the Faculty Grading Oasis in MLIB 458 and we would love to see you in the office. We offer fresh coffee, snacks, a place outside your normal office, and students to assist you with grading/clerical tasks. Our schedule this week is:

Tuesday Open 8-12, 1-5, Student help 1-5

Wednesday Open 8-5, Student help 8-10:30, 11-5

Thursday Open 8-2, Student help 8-2

Friday Open 8-11:30, Student help 8-11 (we are working on the afternoon schedule)

Without further procrastination, your top 10 reasons for visiting the faculty grading oasis (revised from Fall).

  1. Students studying on the 4th floor are more stressed than you are, feel better by proxy.
  2. No one knocks on our door asking to redo an assignment from early February.
  3. Student workers to help with basic tasks like alphabetizing (remember to be FERPA compliant).
  4. We have dedicated dual monitor workstations you can use and print from. They are probably newer than the post-war ENIAC surplus machine you are reading this on.
  5. Get away from that judgy colleague who already has all their grading done.
  6. Experience one of the only offices on campus where control of the thermostat is possible.
  7. Our office has windows, you know the magical devices that allow light to come in.
  8. We are closer to Common Grounds than where you normally work.
  9. Our office is now is now 173 4 days since our last Chupacabra attack. You will probably possibly be safe.
  10. Have you ever seen the library vaccum Zamboni machine? Need I say more?

Got feedback on this tip? Leave a comment or email it to us. Got an idea for a tip? Send it along.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! The newest episode is on the strike that wasn’t. Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook. 

Take the long view

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This is not the time in the semester when we usually think about planning ahead. We are usually pushing through those last few portfolios, finalizing our cumulative exam, or wondering how much coffee the human body can consume during 24 hours and still function normally. I want to encourage you to take 15 minutes to take a longer view of your work at Chico.

I want you to think about teaching and learning in relation to three events/deadlines this week and invest in yourself by taking advantage of them.

  1. How many great student ideas find their final destination on your desk or in gradebook and never see the light of day? One solution that helps showcase student ideas while also helping us with assessment and content management are ePortfolios. The ePortfolio assessment team is bringing vendors to campus on Wednesday and there will be examples of current ePortfolio work on campus. These platforms can be powerful in promoting teaching and learning, they can also help students transition to the workforce. Find out more about the event here. If you are unable to attend, but want more information visit http://www.csuchico.edu/eportfolios/.
  1. One of our most popular programs in Faculty Development is the article in 12 weeks faculty learning community. Chris Fosen leads interdisciplinary groups through encouragement and mutual accountability toward publication. This program is popular because it works. The participants in the past three semesters have almost all met their goals and some have utilized the lessons learned to publish multiple articles. The deadline for Fall 2016 participation is this Friday (5/13).The application process is straight forward and brief. Writing can be a real challenge during the semester, take advantage of this proven program to get the work done.
  2. The CELT conference submission deadline has been extended to 5/13 at 5pm. The conference is a great opportunity to share your own innovations and learn from others. There is no cost to participants and the audience numbers (we averaged 14 per session in 2015) are solid. We welcome submissions from faculty, students, and staff. Take a few minutes to submit an abstract or coordinate with colleagues on a topic, it will be worth your time.

One last reminder, the Faculty Grading Oasis will be available to you again this semester. We will have fresh coffee, snacks, and our student staff will be available to you to help with grading as long as schedules and FERPA guidelines permit. Come see us in MLIB 458 next week and get some help!

Got feedback on this tip? Leave a comment or email it to us. Got an idea for a tip? Send it along.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! The newest episode is on the strike that wasn’t. Link to it on soundcloud, itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

 

Why Would I Ever Need to Know This?

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Today’s tip is brought to you by Patti Horsley and Ellie Ertle from the Office of Civic Engagement.

StudeWhy-Picnts often struggle to connect course content outside the classroom. This can lead to uncomfortable classroom moments with questions like “why would I ever need to know this?” and “who cares about this?” CSU, Chico is a national leader at answering this question with civic engagement, our newest strategic priority.

Simply put, civic engagement is helping students engage with real problems and opportunities in the community and world in which they live. Chico State faculty have a rich history of civic engagement – whether it is working with community leaders to research and address local issues, teaching lessons in schools, or engaging students in service learning projects. In doing so, we create space for students to learn more about themselves as well as about how they can use their unique talents, and academic expertise to impact the world for the better.

Civic Engagement provides a host of benefits for students and faculty members. It fosters student growth by enhancing academic engagement and performance, increases the likelihood of graduation and positively impacts understanding of civic involvement, community roles, democracy and public life. With the new strategic priority, faculty can now connect their civic engagement work specifically to the service section of RTP.

Chico State values civic engagement and education for the public good. It may seem intimidating, but there are resources on campus to facilitate these opportunities for your courses. The Office of Civic Engagement (OCE) can help you incorporate civic engagement into your curriculum in a way that works for you, your class and your students. For more information, visit OCE’s website or email us at oce@csuchico.edu.

Check out these upcoming civic engagement opportunities:

  1. Civic Engagement Forum: Join us May 2nd, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm in Colusa 100 and dialogue with Chico State students as they showcase their civic engagement projects! This is a great opportunity to get ideas for your future civic engagement work!
  2. Know someone doing great work? Nominate them for the 2016 Civic Engagement Recognitions! OCE is proud to celebrate civic engagement achievements at Chico State by recognizing excellence in civic engagement among Chico State faculty, academic departments/ centers/programs, student organizations and community partners. For more information or to submit a nomination, please visit our website at www.csuchico.edu/civic/. 

Got feedback on this tip? Leave a comment or email it to us. Got an idea for a tip? Send it along.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Caffeinated Cats podcast! The newest episode is on our new President. Link to it on itunes, overcast, or follow the podcast on facebook.

 

It is all political

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When we think of “Department Politics” we often dwell on who got the better office or their preferred teaching schedule. However, this time of year the term can take on a different meaning in relation to national political issues. Recent flare ups at Liberty University and Georgetown have brought this issue into focus. Chico State is a public institution so our free speech rights are more robust than they would be at private colleges and universities. However, not all questions are legal ones. How do you feel about discussions of Presidential proposals for health care in a nursing class? About your officemate with the Marco Rubio bumper sticker on the door? Or your colleague who also volunteers for Bernie Sanders going door-to-door?

A situation at St. John’s earlier this month led to a threat of violence over social media. This was not the fault of the faculty member, but it does highlight the volatility and passion that are sometimes a part of election season. As faculty we need to recognize that the activities of our students and our peers are constitutionally protected. We also need to realize that we have a responsibility to create learning environments for all of our students, not just the ones we agree with.