Integrating Diversity and Education
Inclusive Excellence is an active process through which colleges and universities intentionally integrate diversity and educational quality efforts (AAC&U, 2012). The Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs plays a critical role in making excellence inclusive at SIUE. We will continue to partner with units within Academic Affairs and cross-divisionally to advance the success of all of our students and faculty.
A commitment to Inclusive Excellence challenges us to hold ourselves accountable for the success of every student we admit. It demands that we apply an equity-minded framework to the development of new and the enhancement of existing programs to retain students, promote student learning and engagement, and increase degree completion.
Equity and Student Success
African American Male Initiative
The Office of the Provost, in partnership with Student Affairs is developing an African American Male Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to support the enrollment, retention, graduation and career placement of Black males at SIUE. As part of the cohort-based mentoring program, students will enroll in classes together and participate in intentionally designed high-impact practices throughout their matriculation. The program is set to launch fall 2019.
We hope to develop similar initiatives in the future to support other historically underserved student populations.
Course Redesigns
On October 5, 2018, Dr. David Laude, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin visited our campus. He offered workshops throughout the day and helped launch a new effort to address equity gaps in STEM and Health Sciences gateway courses. As part of this effort, we will work with faculty and other campus partners to consider how we can redesign courses and develop early alert systems to help support student learning and success.
High-Impact Practices
- In June 2018, we sent a five-member team to the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success. High-impact educational practices (HIPs) are recognized for their positive impact on retention and learning outcomes for students across many backgrounds. The results of the team's work this summer will inform a plan to integrate high-impact practices throughout the general education and major curriculum. The first step in this process will be to work with campus partners to develop a fully integrated, comprehensive first-year experience. Our office will continue its efforts to increase the number of high impact practices available to our students and address disparities in participation.
- Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program (URCA)
- Capstone/Senior Assignment
- Diversity and Global Learning
- Service-Learning/High Impact Community Engagement Practices
