READY OR NOT
Global Challenges, College Learning, and America’s Promise

January 21-24, 2009
Seattle, Washington

The Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning

In 2000, a group of leading liberal arts institutions from across the nation came together with the idea of creating a flexible, comprehensive system that synthesizes and disseminates key aspects of their success and serves as an incubator for new, improved, learning practices.  The impetus was the conviction that so-called “alternative” colleges and universities have much to contribute to the national dialogue on higher education, as well as to one another.  CIEL colleagues envision a consortium in which a greater number of institutions would collaborate toward three primary objectives:

• Mutual support—for continued improvement and innovation in student learning;
• Institutional sharing—of powerful practices and pedagogical approaches through collective cost-effective projects, programs, and products; and
• Outreach—to help other institutions seeking to transform learning environments and institutional structures

Pre-Meeting Workshop – Wednesday, January 21, 2:00-5:00 pm

Grades and Grading in an Age of Assessment
The use of letter grades to measure student achievement is nearly immune to critical examination, but there are mounting signs of wear.  Grade inflation, competency and performance-based learning, the use of portfolios, even the assessment movement itself, all suggest that while grades may carry more weight, they may also convey less information.  Participants will reflect on and re-evaluate the functions of grades, envision alternatives, and explore realistic ways to experiment with change.  The workshop will also address the history of grading in American higher education – the assumptions, meanings, and values that underlie the process, as well as the place of grading in the current context of assessment.
Kathleen O’Brien, Provost, Alverno College; Elizabeth Williamson, Assistant Professor, The Evergreen State College; Marie Eaton, Professor of Humanities and Education, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University; Deborah Quick, Chair of the Department of Social Sciences, Johnson C. Smith University; Maribeth Clark, Associate Provost and Associate Professor of Music, New College of Florida

Thursday, January 22, 10:45 am - 12:00 noon

Disciplines and Interdisciplinary Studies:  Our Achilles Heel
The widespread interest in “interdisciplinary studies” reflects both a critical and constructive response to the limitations of disciplines, and an interest in exploring new, and more adequate, models for integrated learning and civic engagement. On this panel, we will consider what is both encouraging and troubling in the current efforts toward interdisciplinary studies. The schools represented all have interdisciplinary studies as their primary mode of teaching and learning, while each is also distinctive in its approach. We will draw on our experiences as faculty members and academic administrators along with ethnographic data collected from students and faculty at our colleges over the last 18 months to consider questions like the following: What do students and faculty members say is the most powerful experience for them doing interdisciplinary studies? How can these experiences shape our understanding of interdisciplinary studies and guide our future work as educators? What have we found to be the most authentic means of planning and assessing interdisciplinary learning and scholarship? What are the principles, practices and conditions crucial to engage in interdisciplinary teaching and learning?
Rita Pougiales, Member of the Faculty, The Evergreen State College; Don Bantz, Provost and Academic Vice President, The Evergreen State College; Brenda Foley, Professor of Theatre, Marlboro College; Roger Gilman, Academic Dean, Fairhaven College

Thursday, January 22, 4:15-5:30 pm

Building a Comprehensive Response to the Challenges of Globalization
This panel highlights the efforts of four institutions in the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning to operationalize what it means to be socially responsible members of a global society.  Approaches include fresh conceptualizations of global education, sequenced field and study abroad experiences, thematic learning, and assessment of learning outcomes.  As intentionally innovative institutions, these colleges have undertaken the challenge of getting beyond piecemeal offerings to make global education a cornerstone of academic work.
Edwin Clausen, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Daemen College; Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo, Director of International Exchanges and Assistant Professor in Gender and Feminist Studies, and Tessa Hicks, Interim Director, Center for California Cultural and Social Issues and Visiting Lecturer, Urban Studies – both of  Pitzer College; Roger Gilman, Dean, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies; Jack Herring, Dean of the Resident Degree Program, Prescott College