University of La Verne – Faculty Retreat 2011 – Notes

Retreat Agenda

Friday, January 14, 2011

9:00 a.m.: Depart by bus, Founder’s Hall 11:30 a.m.: Arrival & early registration 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:15-1:45: Special Tribute to Steve Morgan (Pine View) 1:45-2:45 p.m.: Keynote: Provost Greg Dewey (Pine View) 3:00-4:00 p.m.: Breakouts (three simultaneous) (Pine View, Cedar, and Redwood)

(1) Developing a common culture of research and scholarship (Pine View) Abe Helou and Christine Broussard

(2) A common vision through community engagement (Cedar) Jonathan Reed, Jack Meek, Marc Roark (3) Facilitating a common culture of student-centered pedagogy AND Lifelong learning and rejuvenation

(Redwood) Mark Goor, Allen Easley, Anita Flemington 4:15 p.m.: Group picture (front lawn) 4:30 p.m.: Personal networking free time 6:30 p.m.: Dinner (Main lodge) 8:00-9:30 p.m.: Very special film screening: “Voices Unbound” (Cedar) 9:30 p.m.: Follow-up and discussion with very special guest star Erin Gruwell (Freedom Writers) (Cedar)

Saturday, January 15, 2011 8:00 a.m.: Breakfast, room checkout (Main lodge) 9:00-9:45 a.m.: Breakout session sharing (Cedar) 10:00-11:00 a.m.: Recap by Provost and Deans (Cedar) 11:00 a.m.: “Leopard Tales” story contest (Cedar) 11:30 a.m.: Faculty recap (Cedar) 12:00-1:00 p.m.: Lunch (Main lodge) 1:30 p.m.: Bus departs 3:00 p.m.: Bus arrives at La Verne

Provost Greg Dewey

Creating a Common Vision – More than a WASC Mandate

(Notes by Paul Alvarez)

Following the last WASC visit, the University was charged with creating a common vision. Provost

Dewey visited various units both on and off campus and heard many, often similar descriptions of

what we do well. But that is a mission, not a vision. Having a common mission is not a common

vision. Therefore, the University does need to find a common vision, not just because WASC

mandated it, but also because it makes sense for the continued growth of the University.

Benefits of a shared vision include:

More cohesive planning and resource distribution

More cohesive marketing and fundraising

More distinctive image

A common purpose builds team and community relationships

La Verne appears to be a puzzle – different colleges, different students, the presence of RCA – that to

many appears jumbled. A common vision will help put the pieces together into one cohesive picture.

A common theme when Provost Dewey talked to the different units was the perception that “the tail

wags the dog”. In other words, the sense that units with less impact on the mission of the University

are promoted and supported over those unites that are perceived to be more mission-centered. But

who is truly the tail and who is the dog? In a complex organization, all are equally important.

Creating a shared vision:

Agree and prioritize the development of common building blocks – foundational language and components that are essential to all

Seek university-wide solutions to the problems in American higher education

Create distinctive shared programmatic approaches

So what are the common building blocks? What are the ingredients for success?

Quality of faculty. Quality faculty will support quality programs of distinction.

Quality of students. Programs of distinction will attract quality students, who will promote and expand the academic mission.

Quality of services. Both academic and administrative support services must be of the highest quality to support the efforts of students, faculty, and staff.

Quality of physical plant. Attractive, durable, and state of the art facilities further attract and support quality students, faculty, and staff.

These building blocks are the start point, the foundation of a quality institution. However, every

institution has these elements in their foundation. So where do we go from here to create a common

vision for La Verne?

Beyond the basics, there are two elements that distinguish one institution from another:

Distinctiveness – How are you different from peer institutions?

Distinction – What do you do better than anyone else? One way we can determine these is by looking at issues confronting American higher education.

Institutions are confronted with problems they must solve, both local and global. Local problems are

determined by institutional setting, history, configuration, etc. Global problems are common to all

institutions. Long-term problems are best solved through a shared strategic plan that addresses long-

term objectives. A working hypothesis – global problems are harder than local problems to solve.

However, if you work to solve global problems, you will also solve many local problems.

Global problems confronting American higher education include:

Accountability – standards, evaluations, etc.

Access – who gets in, who is kept out?

Relevance – are individuals educated to issues for the 21st century?

To become more accountable, we need:

Tighter program reviews and reporting

Stronger culture of service

Strong stewardship of intellection property

To address issues of access, we must:

Sustain our current population – we are already doing well

Promote strong fundraising for scholarships – our students need the resources

Address issues of quality and ethnicity in student admissions

To address issues of relevancy, we should:

Focus on theory and practice

Focus on an applied research mission

Emphasize student-centered learning

Promote social entrepreneurship

In creating program distinction, we need to distinguish ourselves from other institutions. In academic

settings, the emphasis is on Teaching and Learning, and Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work.

We can add Community Engagement to the traditional two cornerstones of academe’, and

distinguish ourselves.

Deconstructing who we are, or, an attempt to define our vision (note: I did not get the full

statement):

The University of La Verne is a private, comprehensive, liberal arts university

This reflects small class size, providing a comprehensive education

Faith-based

We have been given a moral compass derived from our Church of the Brethren roots

Educates a diverse community

Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and beliefs

Focusing on our core values of

Values Orientation

Community and Diversity

Lifelong Learning

Community Service

Why Community Engagement?

All units can participate

Appropriate for our students

Appropriate for our faculty

We are already doing it

Integrative role for RCA

We can be distinctive and with distinction

What does it mean?

There are educational, research, and community components

Form true partnerships with the community, not charity

Exchange resources with community

Share development and recruitment efforts

Breakout Session:

Actions to Achieve a Common Culture for Research and Scholarship

Facilitated by Abe Helou and Christine Broussard (Notes by Omid Furutan)

Kinds of Research

• Discipline Based Research--Discovery of New Knowledge

• Pedagogical Research—Discovery to Enhance Teaching and Learning Knowledge

• Technical Assistance Research—Application of Knowledge to Enhance Practice

• Community Based Research--Assistance & Discovery to Enhance Knowledge and Quality of

Life in Local Settings

Goals and Objectives

• University/College Goals

• Encourage and promote excellence in all kinds of research

• Provide the infrastructure and administrative support to promote quality in research

• Disseminate the impact of research to the community through diverse academic and

non-traditional means of communication

• Faculty Goals

• Identify issues and venues for collaboration and partnerships between La Verne and

stakeholders

Proposed Actions

• Attract, nurture and retain outstanding scholars in all areas of research

• Develop a Provost and Deans funds to provide monetary award for outstanding research,

scholarly and creative contributions

• Create Research Centers and Institutes to address Inter/multi-disciplinary research agendas

and questions

• Ensure competitive faculty compensation

• Attract, nurture, retain, and promote outstanding scholars in all areas of research

• Reduce administrative burdens on faculty

• Support graduate and especially doctoral programs

• Support efforts to attract outside funding

• Encourage productive and mutually beneficial research collaboration between faculty and

undergraduate students

Breakout Session:

A Community Vision through Community Engagement

Facilitated by Jack Meek, Jonathan Reed, and Marc Roark

(Notes by Loren Dyck)

1. How can La Verne live its mission through community engagement?

2. What do faculty view as potential avenues for community engagement?

3. What kinds of research – experiential, action, applied, or other – should be considered for

community engagement?

4. What kind of funding can be attracted to ensure quality and consistency of community

engagement research and actions?

Marc Rourke COL – How does interdisciplinary aspect work? What about the budget? If Law school

gets lion share of results should they pay more. Need to agree on these matters up front.

Wants to create a business incubator with CBPM and has had conversations with Abe. Who shares

burden of costs, academic resources? What do we do about academic resources?

Jonathon Reed – CAS – ULV values. Community engagement is based on mission statement. Poor job

of “curricularizing” the mission statement. Community engagement is a tool to curricularize the

mission statement. Start at beginning of all degree programs and throughout. Thinking about

values, community and service.

Believe it is part of mission statement.

How does com. Engagement relate to academic quality, academic research, ….?

How does community engagement relate to issue of diversity?

It can be complementary. It should not be seen at expense of academic quality/research/promotion

and tenure.

Jack – Attendees – what have we been doing and what can we do?

Homa – data collected on what the four colleges have done based on survey.

Aghop – N = 45

Ford – should develop registry

Kent – how are we defining community? He has put on numerous symposia/colloquia but is that a

part of the definition? Or is it working on project?

Paul – within training students need to spend clinical hours. Two-fold process in health care and

contact from community. Promote nature of major. Explains what students are learning and do?

Zandra – Helps make community arrangements. Community partners want to be in relationship with

us but our students come out with a degree but some semesters courses are not available. Not

continuing/ongoing structure. It is better to pick community partnerships that can continue over

the long term.

Marc – 1st year students did community service for four hours and that’s it. Need to restructure.

Another faculty stated in contrast that one of her students told her – “this is the most valuable part

of my learning”

Zandra – if students could see that they have made a difference – learn through it – ULV should make

a bigger contribution

David – theatre and community has done workshops in communities and highlighted stars in our

community. How you define community engagement is important. Is it disciplinary, promotion

and tenure, is promotion of ULV?

Another faculty member stated – some things done in our dept. are disrupted. There is no

infrastructure. Community engagement is done on a class-by-class basis. Now trying to develop

ongoing relationships. E.g. LA Opera. Give students tickets. Students see that. Culture arts society

of La Verne producing a season of productions with ULV students. If institutionalize community

engagement then it needs to be curricular, institutionalized, and ongoing.

George – communications – community service moves you to the real world.

Another faculty – we take care of maintenance of Fairplex learning center and we are doing research

with students.

Another faculty - don’t forget the staff!

Another faculty – PE example – ask client what they want. – offering classes versus recreational

mentors

Worry about stumbles can’t recover from.

Loretta – student life and campus life doing lots of outreach. Davenport example - 130 students and

their families.

Darj? Important to take steps to reduce student costs, lobby government for funding, show ULV can

doing something unique. Create a better image of university.

Sean – community garden – teaches a food related class. Class eats food and other food goes to

inland valley partners. Food drive raised a lot of money and food. Students heavily involved.

Daniel – met with reps from 7 colleges and universities that recognized by Carnegie as institute of

community engagement.

Themes:

1. Definitions are needed

a. What is community?

i. Which community?

1. Local, regional, national, international?

2. Student, business, or academic populations?

b. What is community engagement?

i. At what level do we engage?

1. Annual, occasional, ongoing?

2. Determine how community engagement fits into academic priorities

a. Ensure adds to academic quality

b. Ensure does not detract from academic research

c. Is it part of promotion and tenure?

d. How and to what level is it resourced?

3. Need to institutionalize or “curricularize” it once we figure out what it is!

a. Make it part of the ongoing curriculum

b. Ensure continuity between semesters

c. Work with companies for internships and course experiences to ensure continuity

4. Need to capture good examples that already exist

a. Especially within La Verne

i. Great examples were shared from each of the colleges

ii. Survey data collected from 45 ULV respondents

b. Colleges and universities already recognized as stellar examples of community

engagement (e.g. Carnegie certification/recognition)

Breakout Session:

Student-Centered Pedagogy & Lifelong learning

Facilitated by Mark Goor, Allen Easley, and Anita Flemington

(Notes by Kathy Garcia)

Mark Goor, Allen Easley, & Anita Flemington facilitated group discussion of prepared questions

Student-Centered Pedagogy

What does student centered learning mean to you?

o Active learning

o Participatory learning

o Welcoming learning environment

o Emotionally safe learning environment – student guided to some extent

o Organic learning (everything changes – v. this is what I always do – working from the

ground up

Student needs

Building blocks

Relevance

Student-knowledge & -experience based

NOT Traditional model (here’s what I want you to memorize & regurgitate) –

from student perspective: this is what I want out of this & teachers facilitate

that learning

Facilitated learning

Not bulimic

o Taking advantage of the teachable moment – deviating from the plan when needed to

seize upon the teachable moment

“Steve did this on 9/11 – sent a memo to hold class & seize the teachable

moment”

Involvement with and communication with teachers / students – more

involved with our students - compassionate

How do you get to know your students?

o Model what you want them to do – if you want them to risk asking questions, do that

with them

o Respecting them

o Sharing with them our own life experiences – letting them know we’re human & have

some weaknesses

o Seeing how they react, respond, & extrapolating

o Social activities – something different from the classroom & small groups—have them

over to your home - & small groups

o Ways to build into the content means of tapping into their personal experience

o Be available – can’t be someone who they can’t ever find

o Business program – sharing my business experience with them – what I do in my FT

job & life experiences

o Explaining real-life setting differences from classroom setting

o Allow for grappling & uncertainty & it’s ok to be uncertain (it’s not so clean & tidy)

o Transitioning to teaching fully online – learn technologies that are rich in media, so we

can see each other & share media with each other

How can I stay student oriented online?

o Approachable

But knowing boundaries (& sensitive to them)

o Sharing with each other – building that safe environment, model it & put the

expectations out there, the classroom is a sacred space where no one will ridicule

anyone - & have students agree (by raising hands) – in some classes we have “at least

half the class crying & it’s a good thing”

Do you remember the moment when you shifted from thinking about your teaching & to

thinking about their learning?

o I used to think about students having relationship just with me & now, they have

relationships with each other (in groups)

o Had a lot of luck reading teacher evaluations – evolved based on comments from

students – generally a there was a recurring theme for each class, and I learned from

them

So it was a gentle evolution?

Yes, in the beginning, there was so much criticism I couldn’t do it all at once

o Sometimes one has an epiphany, but most of the time it’s a process – an evolutionary

process

o Early on, felt I had to control every moment & would panic at dead air. Sometime I

learned I cannot control every moment, I can only create an environment – set the

parameters for learning to happen

o Not in a vacuum (in the university), talking about buzz words, in liberal studies with

future teachers, if they don’t get the modeling, if we can’t create and experience it

here, how can we expect it of them? Pay it forward. This is where future teachers are

coming from & must go beyond the rhetoric.

o I was once teaching standard deviation, & a student said,” I can see what you’re doing,

but I just don’t get it.” That shifted for me. I thought I was teaching wonderfully, but

they weren’t learning wonderfully. So I shifted – what are they learning & what do I

want them to learn.

o I once observed a teacher having so much fun at the board but students were

completely unengaged

o I became an adjunct 18 years after receiving my master’s degree, I didn’t think I

wanted to teach because I didn’t want to lecture. So I don’t lecture, & at first I had a

student who said she just wanted lecture but later loved the facilitated learning

o Believable instructor & that they believe in what they’re teaching

o Student comment: Feedback should be not just “good job” but “what did you mean

by this?” – honest believable feedback – I jump on board with your mission when I get

honest believable feedback

What do you do with the student who just wants to be lectured to?

o I tell them to choose another cohort

o Sometimes you just have to deal with it when they won’t engage (e.g., all Chinese)

o In my teaching program, I once had a teacher who looked at everyone’s eyes for a few

seconds when no one volunteered until one student finally volunteered, and then kept

referring back to the 1st student’s comment.

After the session, the teacher explained how he handled the lack of

volunteering—“I went around & found the weak point & 1 student said

something – it wasn’t great, but pretty good - & I kept rewarding it”

It’s rewarding the person who takes that leap

The next person thinks maybe they’ll get a reward if they speak up

o I’m teaching a class right now, 1st time teaching it, I knew it would be hard because it’s

about death. They have to create a lesson plan and teach a section, but they can’t

lecture. & they have to hand out readings & hope students read it, & have objectives. I

get 95% participation.

Lifelong Learning

What do you see as the connection – how is student centered learning connected to lifelong

learning?

o Life-embedded learning – not just “I’m in school until I’m dead,” but “this is what I do”

o How do you define lifelong learning? Students who’re more mature, already in the

workforce in a professional situation, coming back to complete their degree or get

their master’s. Maybe to advance in their profession or change careers.

Different from traditional undergrad, who are smarter but not as street smart

Trick is to not bore the mature students to death

o Instill in the student the desire to continue learning more about their profession

To keep current

To keep learning

Have continued access to library resources

Should be a joy – learn until you die

o Instill in the student a desire to continue to learn – one of my professors had a way of

teaching – engage the student & teach in the context of current events & a different

way of engaging (& asking students (individually, by name) “what do you think about

that”)

Instilled interest in continuing to relate money and banking to what is

happening today

Reads financial page to 2-year-old grandson

o The other piece is the adult learner – come with a different place in life & different

base of experience than traditional undergrad.

The class dynamic is different if it’s all one or the other (traditional v. adult

learner)

Or if the class is mixed

o Continuing education – but I do it because I want to & want to instill that in them

o Int’l students – use this time to practice speaking English – if you’re going to make

mistakes, make them here in the classroom instead of in the workplace later on

o Life experiences happen & we lose that sense of wonder & awe that kids have – as

teachers, it’s good to tap back into that, even if you’re flipping burgers, maybe there’s

a new oven. Tap back into awe. We were once awe-filled.

o Taking something that I learned & giving back. 1st-generation student, not just ending

with me but passing on to siblings & creating pathways. One generation to the next.

o Encourages professionalism. Encourage students to make professional associations

and go to conferences. They need to know where to go to find out about changes in

the profession.

o It’s up to us to make it fun. Even tests – look for the fun in everything.

Do you think student centered learning makes them more likely to be lifelong learners?

o Get to know them well enough to know what they’re about & make learning fun - &

hopefully spur them on to continue learning

o Applied research assignments that connect it to the students. Create assignments

with applied research to their school sites (teacher candidates) focused on the student

centeredness of it but also emphasizing that these are skills they can use for the rest

of their lives.

o Learned how much each other knew – learning from each other. Really wanted to

come to our class every week even when they didn’t feel like it. Learning is good

o I went through a period where I wasn’t learning anything new, & now learning

softchalk, & it’s a high. I want to instill that in students. The high in learning a new

skill.

o As a student, undergrad at ULV, then didn’t feel that anything I had to give back to the

world was relevant, but because of student centered learning when I graduated I did

& wanted to become a lifelong learner. Felt empowered & valued. It’s a personal

thing, but when it’s relevant, I’m more apt to seek it out.

o Empowered & valued. I empower & value my students.

o Relevance part of it is more relevant the more you’re talking about lifelong learning.

The lifelong learner, & the more mature student, has an idea of what’s relevant &

that’s what they want to see.

o Intellectual curiosity & sense of awe – open to learning all things v. making it relevant

to …

o What if you have a class of both (traditional & adult)?

Try to meet the needs of both

o I want to take the time to thank Allen, because he took the time to help me, creating

that environment where the two can link…

o In one class, students have name tags, colored by discipline, purposely in groups that

are mixed. At first they’re resistant but later they love it.

In schools, they have to be together

& it’s a way to work on the strengths of each other

Must be willing to let go of control

o Lifelong learning has to be student centered – because instructors disappear.

Other thoughts about equipping people to be life-long learners?

o Instructor would talk about things we couldn’t learn yet – throw teasers out there –

when you graduate you can….(learn more in depth)

o I’m hoping to know ways I can help to facilitate these things & be a part of infusing

this into the university culture?

o Letting go…& as a facilitator I let it go so long I wasn’t sure learning was going on. May

not have been effective.

o Parker Palmer cited two examples of “best teachers”: one was a lecturer, the other

almost didn’t know what would happen each class period. Both knew how to create a

community. We can’t criticize other teachers because we each do what we know how

to do.

o One teacher communicated that she’s always learning from students. One day

students were unprepared & she said “I’ve learned nothing from you today!”

o Building knowledge off of the students. & telling them so.

o Modeling lifelong learning.

o At ULV we are very student centered & can be proud of this. As we think about our

vision, lifelong learning & student centered learning must be a part of the building of

our vision.

o Being empowered – in my undergrad program, we had only 2 courses in the entire

time when students introduced themselves. How can you be empowered when

you’re anonymous? We have a lot going for us that we don’t always appreciate.

They’re not anonymous here.

How do you move an institution from one where there are a lot of things going on, to one

where it’s embedded in the culture? So it’s not just something we do now but instead it

will last?

o Applied learning concept – mainly in the major courses, not necessarily in the GE

courses – so they can take that learning back to the community

o More than just the students. Forums like this are rare opportunities to share our

techniques & experiences & talk about it, and the more chances we have, the more

we can develop this into the vision

o In my class: discussion was disposing of bodies in the Ganges. Discussion was about

how to change a culture.

My students decided it was knowledge & information - & how to disseminate it

You have to have buy-in.

o We run into a risk with the focus on assessment – it becomes about the …instead of

about the material itself.

Constitutional law – teaching them to be supreme court justices even though

they won’t all make it

Teach them as though they’re going to be the innovator

The way the student engages the material instead of the material itself.

o That’s about the art of teaching – it’s not just about the knowledge.

o Peer visitation is an awesome thing

o College of education is developing peer observation.

Retreat General Recap

(Notes by Kathy Garcia)

Recap:

Student-Centered Pedagogy & Lifelong learning

Define Student-centered learning

o Organic

o Experience based

o Relevant

o Emotionally safe

o Must get to know students

How to get to know students

o Share about yourself & have them share

When did the shift take place?

o Evolution

o Epiphany

Evaluations

o Learning to let go

o Begin to realize that students valued honest feedback & believable feedback (from

student)

How is student-centered learning connected to lifelong learning?

o Building the foundation at undergrad level

o At graduate level, transforming their profession

o Teaching in a way that learning becomes a joy

o Make teaching relevant

o Teaching & learning have a sense of wonder – communicate that well

o Disposition toward the content & that helps you have the curiosity to become a

lifelong learner

o Taking what you’ve learned & passing it to the younger siblings & generations –

especially as a first-generation student

o Encourage students to learn from each other

o Degree empowered individual to go back into the community & share

o Lifelong learning is student centered learning

Questions

How does student-centered learning relate to class size?

o Especially when class sizes are large

o Smaller class probably provides more opportunity for student-centered learning, at

least intuitively. Some may get lost in the process in larger classes.

Can you expand idea of faculty learning to let go?

o It’s let go of control

o Example: Research immersion called “design your own experiment” – requires

students to design within parameters. Prof’s have to try to pull together everything

the students might need for the experiments they come up with. Students grow much

more than if the experiments were designed for them.

How do you make that student-centered approach to learning part of the curriculum?

o The experiment design concept is a curricular plan that allows for that.

How does class duration affect student-centered learning – especially when class duration is

different for different sections of the same class?

Class size – with bigger class size, assign groups to projects so that there may be 10 projects

and 10 reports (instead of more)

School size is important too, especially K-12 (smaller schools are a community, in larger

schools students can get lost)

Teachers that can facilitate teamwork

Strong correlation between what Erin Gruwell has done and student-centered learning - 150

students & she had a relationship with each of them that allowed them to grow

This group was really eclectic

Developing a common culture of research & scholarship

Started where Provost’s discussion ended – 3 pillars (teaching & learning, scholarship,

community engagement)

Need for us to develop a research mission

o What do we want to accomplish by engaging in research and scholarly activities?

Relevance of research – our research should be relevant

Doesn’t matter what type of research, pure, applied, pedagogy, etc., or

community based research & we’re not clear about what we mean by

community-based research (locally based, globally, what kind of problems we

should tackle)

It doesn’t matter, as an institution we can’t legislate what the faculty should

focus research on – this is faculty individual creativity

Encourage and nurture & build a research culture & infrastructure to help

faculty achieve whatever their research agenda

Action items to make sure we have the infrastructure & manpower

o Time

o Time release

o Faculty salaries

o How can we help the faculty who have an active research agenda do that?

Reward faculty ($, recognition, course release)

Regardless of the type of research

Ensure competitive salary

o Two ways to build research agenda

Buy faculty from other schools (and pay high salaries)

Recruiting becomes critical – what kind of people we recruit, retain, nurture, &

support

Have been constrained by salary in the past – much better these days – to

attract people who have the potential to become a star

o A lot of good things are happening at La Verne right now, but nobody knows about it,

except on the website

The need to disseminate the activities & their impact to the community

We’re the best kept secret

Should hire one of our marketing faculty to bring to the surface the good

things that are happening at La Verne

Comments & Questions

Billboards create impression that La Verne is an online school (from student rep)

“check the website for a campus near you” is giving a very different image of what La Verne

really is (this has already been taken care of – the new billboards say “one of America’s best

colleges”)

Through scholarship and conferences, people will see that La Verne isn’t just an online

program

Looked at research strategic plans at other schools

o One had $30,000 for conferences and research

Push for nonacademic research – will have an impact

o Poster viewing that Al has put together – great venues for viewing what everyone is

doing

o Some discussion of moving the time of that program so community can view

o A lot of institutions are having administrative folks research, which is playing a

significant role in promoting the university (ex: Kansas State re academic advisors)

o It should be part of our mission & vision for research agenda

Creating a common vision through community engagement (4 themes)

A need for definitions – what do we mean by community?

o What is community engagement – at what level do we engage?

o What activities constitute community engagement

Assignment of resources

o Community engagement shouldn’t come at expense of academics

o Priorities

Institutionalizing community engagement

o “Curricularizing” – put it into the curriculum and have it continue on an ongoing basis

A need to capture the good examples that are already occurring

o A lot of good is already occurring

o Each college had examples

Comments & Questions

o Survey produced – but needs to be publicized

o Carnegie institution already accredits this? Classification is on a public website

It’s a good set of guidelines & would give us some goals

Wagner College has this classification and we may use as example

Other schools have shared with us their examples in a conference

o Set of 5 focus groups by the Provost – to find out what community engagement means

to each of the different stakeholder groups

Community leaders (e.g., religious leaders) to get their perspective

Higher Ed folks

Business session is coming up

Economic development

Elected officials

The community itself – a very open broad meeting (coming in March) &

representatives from each of these groups

o Should tap into our 50,000 alumni – engage them again with the University

o Listserves /discussion groups may be a community engagement example

o A little bit of fear that faculty will be saddled with as part of their performance

(particularly new faculty)

These three themes overlap & complement each other – synthesis, need coordinated approach to

synthesize these ideas

Provost and Deans’ Recap

Provost: Creating a Shared Vision

(Notes by Kathy Garcia, COL)

Greg Dewey

This is about building community & we’ve made great strides; it’s been a delightful, wonderful

retreat

Building toward Excellence

o Faculty, students, services, physical plant

Solving problems

o Accountability, accessibility, relevance

Common Programmatic approaches

o Values orientation, community & diversity, lifelong learning, community service

Entire talk was meant to be a roadmap

Building blocks to excellence – must invest in quality in a “planful” way

o Need to have a common vision of how to take care of, develop, & ? these

How do we collectively solve problems

Creating common programmatic approaches that will be distinctive – look to our core values

to create them

o Our 3-legged stool is the embodiment of this

Deans

Abe Helou

What is our role as administrators in order to promote the research agenda and help the

faculty succeed in pursuit of scholarly excellence?

o Not our job to set the agenda – that is faculty role

o & Daniel made a good point about service scholarship

Teaching overloads – one of the things all of our faculty suffer from (overload = $3,000 per

course)

o To work on a paper takes about 6 times it takes to do an overload, but don’t get much

except advancement of career

o College of business started last year – using funds raised from outside sources

Grading system based on ranking of journal the article is published in

Every faculty will get a % of $20,000

Recognize research with at least a small amount of $ - to recognize excellence

in research

This program should be expanded

2nd thing administrators can do:

o Faculty burdened with a lot of administrative activities (e.g., schedules, student

advising)

Faculty shouldn’t be involved in scheduling for students

Advising should be focused on the educational aspects

Reduce the administrative tasks for faculty if they can be easily done by

administrators

o Hiring – key should be what is their potential

Critical factor in hiring should be this

o Funding – it’s not faculty role to look for grants

Or spend countless hours writing a grant

& if you don’t get it, you get discouraged

Faculty should help, but administrators should write

o All of this ties to the mission by building toward excellence

Teaching

Research – more relevant & more impactful

Faculty & students and the people of this institution are what makes this

institution, so anything we can do to make faculty, students, and the people of

this institution better makes the institution build toward excellence

Jonathan Reed

Huge fan of community engagement

I see it as based on and arising from the mission of ULV

But we’ve done a poor job of “curricularizing” and operationalizing the mission

We have a surface level – we need a transformative engagement with the mission

o Community engagement is a way to do that

o Community engagement is secondary to the mission – it implements the mission

Example: Swimmers – it’s what happens underwater that advances you as a swimmer, not

really above water

o We need to have structure and follow through (like what good swimmers need)

o We can kind of start now (instead of waiting until we have perfect form), but if we

stick with it we’ll refine it

Mark Goor

Continuous improvement (building toward excellence) (improvising)

o Which means, looking at yourself, gathering evidence, looking at the evidence and

asking, “How can we get better?”

o Kept hearing, how do I make the student experience better, how do I improve my

practice so that the student experience is more powerful

o Would like to expand student learning beyond the classroom – it’s student experience,

& what we want them to experience is a deep growth

o This broader sense of student growth

o Community engagement is another way for students to have this personal growth

experience

Solving problems

o Accreditation process is all about accountability

o All about “Here is the evidence that shows we make a difference” (or”here is what we

thought we were doing – is that what students experienced?”)

o Creating a culture of evidence

o Relevance – are students changed by what happened in the classroom & in the

community?

Questions & comments

How will you assure accountability? (to provost)

o The weakness in our current program review process is, it ultimately gathers dust – we

need a loop-closing process in program review

How do we ensure quality in program review?

I’ve seen many here that just say, we’re ok, but we need more resources (I

don’t believe that)

We need thoughtful program review that we accept as stringent & we need

loop closure (actions in result)

Is it continually improving? Continuous improvement is very small changes toward…

o We need a broader more strategic view for continuous improvement

Sometimes when we’ve had contentiousness – difference in vision- that puts us at odds with

each other. And may even cause some to feel threatened. How do we do this in a way that

avoids this?

o Source is in “building toward excellence” because that’s about prioritizing resources.

We need to all get on board with common programmatic approaches, and then we

can go back to building toward excellence

Student centered learning & class size – silence I hear (from Phil) about budget-centered

teaching

o Phil: it’s never been budge-driven teaching. Budget supports what we’re trying to

accomplish

o It takes resources, & the discussion of class size; it’s the basic building block of our

health

Are we allocating resources because we’re doing it or are we planning and then allocating

resources?

Creating a culture of evidence & relevance & focusing on how we’re exceeding expectations.

Satisfied students (as consumers) tell people

o How are we finding out what they want & communicating that?

o We have climate surveys & use them as a gauge; maybe we can be more sophisticated

than our current approaches. Accountability goes to metrics, & tracking metrics, and

we haven’t always done that.

o We might want to think about what are our strategic metrics that we want to strive

for. That would give us a goal.

We’re looking at accountability, but we also want to keep in mind transparency. We have to

communicate & have to involve everyone & have a common goal. I hear a lot of the word

faculty, but we have to involve everyone. (from a faculty member)

Jeff Rouse: in and of itself the retreat has meaning, but there’s an implication of next steps &

I’m not clear what the next set of processes are?

o Building excellence:

I disagree that students are consumers, but creating a shared vision should include students

in the conversation.

Next Steps: (1 & 3 (from PowerPoint slide)) (2 w/b used as metrics)

Only one of those 4 areas in 1 has a master plan

We’re in a position to shape the student population (for the 1st time in our history)

o What do we want this population to look like?

We haven’t looked at faculty or students

o Do we need a faculty development plan? What are the ingredients?

FT faculty coverage

Early & often (support for conference, professional development, research

support, and differentiate newer faculty – mentoring)

Professional engagement

Engagement

Workload

FT coverage

Development plan for the part-timers (we have some long time faculty and

want to keep them) – part-time support

Collaboration (FT/PT)

Erin had a relationship with students that transcended the classroom – don’t

know if that’s part of the faculty engagement responsibility (there’s a mentor

role for faculty – faculty mentoring students)

Faculty outreaching with students – clubs, organization, going to cultural

celebrations, being there, fellowship, faculty as community members,

participating, co-curricular engagement

Instructional strategies

Technology-enhanced learning

Culture of understanding among the faculty that we have different gifts and

strengths – none of us can do it all but together we can – complementation;

interconnectedness – capitalize on the strengths of the individuals, team

building, trans-disciplinary & mutual respect, interdisciplinary

Faculty could help staff by offering professional development to staff. Work

better with staff. Reach out to staff & vice versa

Pedagogy & research

Internal consulting – offer the services that we teach our students about &

maybe perform outside, internally

o Create a faculty development plan with built-in metrics

Services have organically grown

Common programmatic approaches – traits such an approach should have

o research informed

o student centered

o transforming

o integrated

o sustainable

o relevant

o measurable – outcome driven

o documented

o safe learning environment (comfortable)

o emergent (responsive, adaptive, open to discarding the plan and new possibilities;

unafraid to fail)

o risk-taking

o progressive

o entrepreneurial

o visionary

o collaborative

o client centered (client – community, student community, outside community)

o reflective, self-examining

o mission driven

o holistic

o transparent

& can think of structures outside the curriculum too

o Centers of synergy

Devorah Lieberman:

This has been the most valuable use of my time – to educate me on the La Verne culture &

the La Verne caring community

As an outsider, this is a phenomenal community & insiders may not fully realize it

You’re in “violent agreement” with one another – all of these phenomenal ideas are new to

us as an institution but have been discussed in some form in institutions across the country –

we can use other models – not to adopt, but to thoughtfully use pieces of other models to

make us unique. But let’s not wait; let’s get on the road & do it. Our job to create that

holistic, engaged, co-curricular, model, so that students will be proud. Instead of teaching –

maybe change to teaching and learning or learning & teaching (focused on outcomes).

What did you get out of the retreat?

When I heard the title, I was trying to figure out what it means, & I did – we delivered on that

title, planning, vision, building of this community together

Student rep: thank you for being enthusiastic & helping us grow as individuals and become

future leaders. Thank you. I’m grateful to be here to see what you put into our education

I see this as a conducive connection. We often connect, but it’s not always conducive, this has

been. Thank you for inviting administrators

Inspiration

I haven’t been to retreat for several years & I’m glad I came. In violent agreement – terribilità

– there’s an energy to what you said, Devorah, it’s a fearlessness. Great how robust the

administrative & faculty dialogue has been & having a student here

Ann Morgan: thank you for inviting me & for all the kind words (emotional)

We all have great stories about the people who – let’s be conscious of who we are, and we’re

the resource. Certain faculty members have been violently opposed to having administrators

here & retreat was born out of contentiousness, but without the administrators here, all this

talk is nothing but talk. Having administrators here to be engaged & feel the passion…

Director of Financial Aid – thank you for inviting me, it was engaging

Thinking back to the movie last night: how could people hear the screams & not do anything;

what would we do if the screams were in La Verne? & now, we don’t have to be there to hear

the screams.

How much do students learn in & out of the classroom? These sessions have been

productive, but the opportunity to talk with faculty that I don’t get to see...

This is a common activity & we’ll all draw on this

I had a great experience. It was great to meet everyone & get to know faces with names. It’s

nice to have the collegiality & camaraderie. It’s nice to have that time because we spend so

much time in the classroom.

Finding my academic home

Got to party with colleagues in other colleges & spend time with people I didn’t know & didn’t

know me.

Thank the organizers, very “informatizing”

Pres. Morgan: my final “retreatization”, & how thrilled I am at the trajectory I see, & pleased

to see Devorah’s role coming into focus, and the collaboration I see & it’s only with that

collaboration….I am thrilled.

All pictures by Darryl Swarm

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2011 Faculty Retreat Evaluation Summary

(Compiled by Paul Alvarez)

DNA Poor So-So Good Great Wow

Retreat Theme 3 25 17

Keynote Speaker 8 25 10

Breakout Session: Research 7 6 2

Breakout Session: Community Engage 5 9 1

Breakout Session: Student-Centered 2 9 4

Food/Dining 12 22 12

Accommodations/Lodging 2 9 18 13

Film and Book 2 1 9 31

Erin Gruwell 2 1 10 31

Recap/Discussion 1 4 23 17

Other 2

What was the highlight of the retreat for you?

21 positive comments about interaction: Just being here; Interaction with faculty and staff from

throughout the University; Collaborative spirit; Meeting new people; Group energy and

engagement; Bonding, reflective, affirming; To get to know other faculty and staff members. To

get to know the culture of La Verne, and to the session of discussion of research, scholarship,

Poor

Good

Wow05

101520

25

30

35

Poor

So-So

Good

Great

Wow

teaching, and the community service; Networking; Being with all faculty, admin, staff, and student

represent; Happy hour and informal “networking”. Seeing other faculty from different colleges; I

also enjoyed meeting and getting to know the faculty; Interaction. Relationships inspired by

shared ambition for university; Spending time will colleagues; High level of great discussion;

Spending time will colleagues; Getting acquainted with colleagues; Being with all faculty groups all

colleges; Talking to people; Vitality and Idea sharing of ideas; Camaraderie – opportunity to meet

admins and faculty from other colleges; Finding my academic home!

14 positive comments about Erin Gruwell: Erin Gruwell; The video; The movie; Erin Gruwell’s

graciousness, magnetic personality, passion. She was a wonderful speaker and resource; Erin

Gruwell; The film; The film and discussion; The film and guest speaking was awesome! Great story

and inspiring!; It was great for the honor to meet Erin Gruwell because she has been an inspiration

to me; Erin and her documentary; Erin Gruwell; Film and special guest; Film “Voices Unbound” and

meeting Erin Gruwell; Erin Gruwell.

6 additional comments: ALL; Saturday was great – so (unreadable); The breakout session on student

pedagogy and life-long learning. The contributions of all attendees was positive and meaningful;

Retreat exceeded my expectations. As an administrator, I appreciated being invited to the retreat.

I believe it helped build bridges between faculty and administrators; The Theme; One University!

4 specific comments about the Presidents: Steve, Ann, Devorah here to share, to learn; Meeting new

pres and getting to know outgoing pres and wife better; The video celebrating Steve and Ann’s

accomplishments; Steve and Ann Morgan. Wow! What a rich history and legacy. Best wishes to

you both.

How could next year’s retreat be improved?

8 general compliments: No idea; Tough to top; None; I can’t wait to see (smiley face); Nothing; See

results from this year’s retreat; Felt it improved a lot from last year, no comments, just keep it up;

This year was great.

6 suggestions for activities: I think people could benefit more to attend all the breakout sessions. I

also think that a fun group activity would be fun; This year’s retreat had a large chunk of time

devoted to re-capping Steve Morgan’s time at La Verne – which is appropriate. I’m looking

forward to more breakout time next year; Include time to formulate concrete action steps; Follow-

up and re-evaluation of goals set at this year’s retreat; A bit more free time; Make it longer – we

just started to relax with one another.

4 comments about facilities: Possibly bigger room and air conditioning and heat; Need better

ventilation in meeting rooms; Breakouts in Pine Room; Meeting Room – not up such a hill – rooms

closer to dining hall.

3 suggestions for dates: Have it on Thursday/Friday; Thursday Friday schedule; Was perfect at this

time.

3 comments about participation: Invite PT faculty; More attendees; Invite even more participation;

More Faculty . . . I can pick out some faculty who were not here . . . and I wish they were.

3 suggestions for preparation: More information leading into retreat; Short introduction of all

participants; Room arrangements – recommend seating in breakout sessions be arranged so that

people face each other, instead of talking to back of heads. (smiley face)

3 complaints about (this year’s unforeseeable) room tripling: Please do not put 3 in a room; No

tripling of rooms; Room arrangements – tripling was awkward especially without individualized

advanced notice.

1 complaint about exclusivity: Make it a FACULTY retreat! If administrators must be invited, keep it

to a half-dozen deans and above. Having so many administrators, and staff even, completely

changed the atmosphere. It’s much better with only faculty. It was totally appropriate to have

Steve and Ann there, given the context, of course.

1 compliment about inclusivity: If appropriate, keep inviting/engaging AP and other non-faculty.

What did you gain from the retreat that you will apply in your personal life/work?

13 comments about working together: Contacts; Sharing and getting to know new faculty;

Community; Personal networking on projects that I want to do in research; Sitting with colleagues

from all four colleges; The wonderful work of the various schools; Meeting faculty; Collaborations

with other faculty/staff/admin; An appreciation for the views of other faculty from colleges

outside my own; I got to know new faculty better, which will help me in my interactions with them

in university governance; The opportunity to meet faculty that I did not know. Enhanced my

critical thinking skills; Team worker, improve relationship with other faculties and staff; I am

excited to possibly work with Erin in the future. I also thoroughly enjoyed “conferencing” with

many colleagues throughout the University!

9 comments about vision and/or the future: How to integrate teaching and research, how to

embrace the college culture to teaching, how to motivate and encourage students; Moving ahead

on community engagement; I will go my part as a student, to take back what I learn to the

students and gain feedback to return to the faculty so that they can excel in moving forward to

reach the University’s “vision”; Engage the community be involved in making the world better;

Continued personal and professional reflection with relevant application of student centered

instruction! (smiley face); Common vision; A better sense of where ULV as an institution is headed

– vision and mission; Feel more inspired to help change the world and give a voice to the voiceless

like Erin Gruwell stated; More service to make a difference.

6 comments about passion and commitment: Even more commitment to La Verne; Moving forward

toward one vision; One mission, one University; How inspired I am to work at the University; The

passion that we all have for the school and our students; Energized me!

27 additional comments: Everything; A reminder to listen; Communicating and understanding of

vision and purpose; Holistic view of community engagement; Ideas born out of the open

discussions will definitely be applied; Many ways; Excellent process!; Feeling the passion!; Thank

you, Thank you!; Well done!; It’s been inspirational – again!; Well done! Exciting! Thank you to the

Committee! Issam is a wonderful leader; Thank you to the committee as always – Issam and John

B.; Great experience; Thanks to the hard work of the committee!; The book as a gift – I can’t wait

to read it!; Thanks John and Linda!; Bravo on a conference well done! (smiley face); Great Retreat;

Thank you for planning the retreat (smiley face); Why were we so short of seating at the opening

session and the movie? (also the recap session). A few extra chairs would have been appropriate.

Lastly, the lodging turned out better than I thought it would. No complaints; Great job!; THANK

YOU SO MUCH for including A/P staff – this experience has been eternally profound; I would like

to see the theme of the retreat carried over to the entire University community, i.e. staff. This

should be an ongoing conversation; Great Job and thanks to all members of retreat committee;

Thank you. This was my third faculty retreat and the best by far. Thank you one and all!; Thank

you!! Especially to the committee – awesome energy; Question – how do we engage those not

here? Such Richness.

2011 Faculty Retreat Committee: Issam Ghazzawi (Chair), Paul Alvarez, Kent Badger, John Bartelt, Loren Dyck, Omid

Furutan, Kathy Garcia, Jozef Goetz, Linda Gordon, Jeanny Liu, Peggy Redman, Darryl Swarm, Shelley Urbizagastegui.

…Until next year…

(This is really teensy print, isn’t it?)