Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

Do you know that rare, rare feeling, as a faculty member or part of university staff, when you’re talking with someone from outside of your institution, but within the profession, and they absolutely get it? It’s that feeling when you connect with someone who understands deeply the context you’re working within, sees the potentials and the roadblocks, and has actual ideas for moving forward. It’s the sometimes too frequently rare feeling of being energized through work—motivated to plan a bit, think a bit, act a bit, even though you’re tired and overwhelmed.

I had the opportunity to experience that feeling yesterday, for the brief twenty seven minutes I spent on the telephone with Cathy Davidson, the author of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux. That energetic conversation carried me through the entire rest of an email-and-meeting-filled day. To be honest, that conversation carried me through an intense evening of parenting, painting my bathroom, and avoiding doing dishes-laundry-tidying.

I am so happy to be able to provide an invitation for you to spend a virtual hour with Cathy on Wednesday May 4, at 7 p.m. because I know it will energize you, focus you, and provide you with concrete examples of how to shift your pedagogy and practices in ways that will benefit our students. Dr. Davidson is the winner of the 2021 Annual Advocacy Award from the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the Founding Director of the Futures Initiative at CUNY, and a founding member of HASTAC: Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory.  Her keynote address to the campus community will kick off an entire month of programming that I’m designing, meant to help our faculty and staff address the ethical imperative of meeting our students where they are—emotionally, intellectually, and socially—in a post-pandemic but always-disrupted world.

Sign up to receive the link to this event. If you’d like to join us for a catered Watch Party and after-presentation discussion, please let us know, here. We will also have the opportunity to gather together on Monday, May 9, from 3:30–5 p.m. in Howard Hall, Room 210, to discuss Dr. Davidson’s book, after her visit. Please register here, so we know how many books to buy and can provide an appropriate amount of refreshments.

If you are teaching an FYS in the fall (or have always wanted to spend a day or two learning more about FYS), or a writing intensive course, or a course that you want to make certain is accessible to all learners, extend the energy you’ll get from Cathy’s talk, by attending a newly imagined All Faculty Development Workshop: Meeting Our Students As We Find Them Post-COVID. You can plan now for an intensive two-and-a-half day workshop; we will meet as a whole group, and in cohorts, on May 18 and 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, and from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday, May 20.  Faculty who attend and participate will receive $375 stipends, access to some terrific guest speakers, all materials, ample time in shared conversation and directed learning, and meals – as well as an invitation to be part of compensated faculty learning communities meeting through fall and summer. To assist in our planning, please register at this link, as soon as you are able to commit.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost