Facing the Divides:
Diversity, Learning, and Pathways to Inclusive Excellence

Call for Proposals

The deadline for submitting proposals has passed (March 15, 2010). Please contact Siah Annand at annand@aacu.org with any questions regarding the application process.

Conference Themes
Session Formats
Become a LEAP Featured Session
Writing a Strong Proposal
How to Submit a Proposal
Dates to Remember

Globally and locally, from Main Street to Wall Street, deep divides—political, economic, social, cultural—hinder our abilities to reach democratic aspirations related to inclusion, equity, justice, and belonging. In these challenging times, campus leaders must recommit themselves to fostering inclusion and intercultural engagement in and beyond our colleges and universities.

This will require bridging deep divides in our own administrative structures, including the divides that separate diversity, global, and civic engagement efforts; divides between academic affairs and student affairs; and divided structures that steer some students toward a horizon-expanding liberal education and other students toward narrow training.

Facing the Divides: Diversity, Learning, and Pathways to Inclusive Excellence will focus on the creative ways in which colleges and universities are building these bridges and investing in the kind of learning that matters for our shared futures. AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal invites faculty, administrators, student affairs educators, students, and others to submit proposals that highlight research, promising practices, and innovative institutional structures related to five key areas:

• Framing Goals for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence;
• Ensuring Access and Essential Learning;
• Developing and Assessing Curricular and Co-Curricular Programs;
• Fostering Identity, Civility, and Democratic Classrooms; and
• Building Institutional Capacity to Make Excellence Inclusive.

The conference themes grew out of significant conversation among AAC&U staff and with faculty, administrators, and student affairs educators at an October 2009 planning meeting in Houston. The questions that follow each theme are suggestive and are not meant to cover the full range of topics that can be proposed under each theme.

Conference Themes

Framing Goals for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence. This theme relates to overall efforts by institutions to create a vision and goals for diversity and inclusive excellence. Proposals in this theme can include such issues as developing diversity strategic plans; classroom-, departmental-, and institutional-level goals; and diversity-related learning outcomes (e.g., knowledge about U.S. and global diversity, historically and today; intercultural communication and competency; taking seriously the perspectives of others).

• What kind of learning and development is spurred by thoughtful engagement with diversity in the curriculum and in the campus environment?
• What diversity-related knowledge is important for today’s college students to gain in order to prepare them for a global, interconnected, yet stratified world?
• Many campuses are articulating learning goals related to intercultural competency, empathy, and taking seriously the perspectives of others. What are some good examples of rich yet “assessable” language for these types of goals, and how does this language help shape activities designed to foster these types of outcomes?
• What do we know about the connection between diversity learning and cognitive complexity, critical thinking, moral discernment, and civic commitment?
• How have campus leaders used examples from an institution’s history and traditions—whether inclusive or exclusive—to emphasize diversity vis-à-vis the campus ethos and educational mission?
• How have campuses modeled inclusiveness and difficult dialogues when aspects of institutional mission and history come into conflict with some goals for diversity?
• What research exists that can inform how campuses frame and implement goals for diversity and inclusive excellence?

Ensuring Access and Essential Learning. This theme focuses on broadening college access and ensuring that all students—particularly those historically underserved by the academy—have access to the kinds of educational experiences that will help them to achieve essential learning outcomes.

• What are campuses doing to better identify and close achievement gaps across different populations of students? Are the gaps the same at the national level, at the institutional level, and at the departmental level?
• Evidence is emerging about the educational benefits of active learning pedagogies for underserved students, in particular, across a variety of outcomes; what are campuses doing to ensure greater access to these “high-impact” practices for these students? How are campus leaders building institutional reform around this evidence?
• What are campuses doing to maintain a commitment to access in light of the patchwork of policies and laws regarding undocumented immigrant students and students born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrant parents?
• How are campuses working in partnership with K-12 and other groups in the community to more systematically address student underpreparedness? What models are effective, and what evidence is being gathered to make this claim?
• In what ways do economic class and income level affect students’ access to high-impact educational practices, such as internships, study abroad, and undergraduate research? What are campuses doing to open up such opportunities to low-income students?
• How has technology provided greater access to high-quality education for students with different types of physical and learning disabilities? What other tools are improving access and achievement for these students?
• What are campuses doing to better ensure access and achievement among students who are not continuous, full-time, residential students (e.g., part-time students, students who stop out and re-enroll, and students who attend 2 or more institutions simultaneously)?
• With trends pointing to reductions in need-based financial aid, how are campuses working to maintain economic diversity among their student populations?

Developing and Assessing Curricular and Co-Curricular Programs. In this theme, we seek proposals that describe curricular and co-curricular practices that help students both develop sophisticated knowledge, skills, and abilities related to diversity and utilize these capacities in new settings and to answer new questions. Proposals are also welcome that address pedagogies that enable students to achieve diversity-related outcomes—including hands-on, active learning pedagogies. Proposals can also feature assessment methods that can help document student achievement on diversity-related outcomes.

• What kind of diversity “content” is important for students to know today? Should specific content areas (e.g., courses that advance cultural understanding or teach comparative history or religions) be required of all students? What kind of diversity learning matters in different disciplines? How is this content being assessed over time?
• How are some campuses transitioning from diversity courses to a focus on diversity competencies for students that are developed across the curriculum and co-curriculum? What impact has this had on collaboration across academic and student affairs? On assessment of student learning?
• How can institutions help students apply the learning associated with diversity to new settings and to solve problems, particularly those associated with contemporary challenges facing us locally, nationally, and globally?
• What is the impact of online courses on diversity learning and student engagement across differences? How are students learning about those different from themselves without being in personal contact with other students?
• What specific issues arise in teaching diversity for institutions that are highly diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, ability, gender, class, sexual orientation, and religion? What specific issues arise in teaching diversity for institutions that are less diverse? What strategies have campuses developed to address these issues?
• What kinds of faculty development opportunities exist to assist faculty in creating more inclusive classroom environments and developing classroom materials that better reflect a broad diversity of people and perspectives?
• What kinds of opportunities exist for faculty and student affairs educators to learn techniques to productively handle situations involving conflict, power, and confrontation that arise around issues of diversity, difference, and intolerance? What are campuses doing to help faculty and staff become better equipped at working through such situations so as to retain the dignity of those involved and not simply replicate asymmetries of power and privilege?

Fostering Identity, Civility, and Democratic Classrooms. This theme explores how faculty and student affairs educators engage students in understanding the complexities of identity (their own and others’); help them to take seriously the perspectives of others, and foster productive engagement across differences. The theme also relates to issues of civility and dialogue on campus, and experiences that help students understand their roles and responsibilities in a diverse democracy.

• What curricular and co-curricular models have demonstrated effectiveness in engaging students with difference?
• How are educators engaging students in deliberative dialogue and other practices that are necessary for engaged citizenship in a diverse and still unequal democracy? Given what is known about the educational benefits of deliberative dialogue and other such programs, how are campuses providing these more intensive learning experiences in a time of restricted resources?
• Some campus data indicate that first-year students report more frequent engagement across difference than do sophomores, juniors, and seniors; what can institutions do to assure that engagement across difference, and learning about cultural and other kinds of difference, occurs throughout the college experience?
• In what ways do social identity dimensions, such as race, ethnicity, ability, gender, class, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation, affect how students experience our campus environments? What does national research show? What are institutions doing to improve the campus climate for different populations of students?
• What does it mean to teach for civility? How are topics related to civil discourse being broached on campus, especially within the broader cultural context in which listening, reflection, and grappling with ambiguity and complexity are devalued?
• How do campus diversity efforts relate to encouraging students to clarify and test their values? What happens when students’ personal values clash with institutional values of inclusion and respect for others? How have campuses grappled with student concerns about being punished for their values and beliefs?

Building Institutional Capacity to Make Excellence Inclusive. This track invites proposals related to building an overall campus culture of inclusive excellence. Proposals should address how institutions can examine both assets and gaps in current practices, including structures, incentives, and rewards to help administrators, faculty, staff, and governing bodies make diversity and inclusion central to their educational missions and part of their regular roles and responsibilities.

• How are campuses modeling the values of diversity and inclusion in decision-making, governance, and administrative operations? How are campuses ensuring that diverse perspectives and voices are authentically included and not just tokens “at the table”?
• How can campuses better facilitate the infusion of diversity-related content and more inclusive pedagogies and learning materials into the curriculum and co-curriculum?
• How can campuses work to ensure that diversity efforts are taken up across units, departments, and offices, rather than relegated to one entity, such as student affairs or the “diversity office”?
• What are some promising practices for hiring and supporting underrepresented faculty and for monitoring institutional success and challenges in this area?
• What has been the impact of hiring more contingent and part-time faculty on efforts to diversify the faculty? Who is hired into full-time and tenure-track positions and who is hired into part-time and contingent positions?
• Has diversifying the faculty led to changes in traditional promotion and tenure procedures? Are there examples of more flexible tenure clocks and tenure routes?
• What impact has the advent of diversity strategic plans had on campus planning, policies, and resource allocation at the institutional level? What impact has the hiring of Chief Diversity Officers or other cabinet-level officers had on institutional functioning vis-à-vis diversity efforts?
• What processes exist to monitor and evaluate diversity efforts? What types of success indicators are used in different units, departments, and functional areas? What kinds of incentives and supports can help ensure progress on a variety of goals for diversity, particularly in tough economic times?

Session Formats

There are four session formats from which to choose: (1) Hands-On Workshop, (2) Research/Project Dissemination and Discussion, (3) Topic/Issue Discussion, and (4) Poster Demonstration. Please select the format that will best advance participants’ understanding and potential use of your work. One way to effectively engage participants across the different formats is to have them explore ways to apply your information and resources to their own institutional and professional settings. 

In an effort to conserve resources, proposals are asked to minimize the use of audio visual equipment and extensive handouts.  Electronic resources will be provided to participants both before and after the conference.

Format 1: Hands-On Workshop (90 minutes; 2-3 facilitators; room set in round tables)
Workshops provide an opportunity for the facilitators to significantly engage participants in active learning about the session topic. Workshops should begin with a brief framing of the topic and an overview of intended activities and goals for the session. Facilitators should introduce one or more models or strategies employed in their own work and provide data/findings related to the topic, benchmarks for success, common challenges, and practical examples that enhance participants’ learning. Facilitators should specifically take participants through one or more relevant exercises or activities (including in small groups) that will foster constructive dialogue and help them to move their own efforts forward upon returning to campus.

All sessions should include discussion of how participants might translate and adapt models and strategies to their institutional and professional settings. Please make it clear if the workshop is better suited to a particular type of institution (e.g., community college or research university) or level of expertise (novice, intermediate, advanced).

Hands-On Workshop proposals should:

1. state the conference theme you have selected
2. state the problem or issue that your workshop addresses
3. indicate how models or strategies that you plan to share have effectively addressed the problem or issue
4. describe the intended activities and outcomes of your session, noting how the activities will help participants achieve the outcomes
5. describe the aspects of your work that can be applied to one or more sectors of higher education (i.e., large universities, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive institutions, community colleges)
6. describe the level to which your session is geared (novice, intermediate, advanced)
7. include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
8. include time for participants to discuss how your models and strategies might translate to their own campus contexts and roles

Format 2: Research/Project Dissemination and Discussion (75 minutes; 2-3 facilitators; room set in round tables)
This session should allow for (a) 15-20 minutes for facilitators to highlight their research findings or promising project, model, or other innovation; (b) 35-40 minutes to work through practical applications of this work with participants (e.g., to other institutions or in scaling up to involve greater numbers of students); and (c) 15-20 minutes for discussion. Research-focused proposals should state the research hypothesis, the methodology used, and the major findings, and offer concrete examples/steps related to using the findings to effect change. Data, findings, and applications should be presented in ways that are accessible to participants and allow them to engage in a discussion about applications and implications. Project/model/innovation-focused proposals should briefly describe the project, the parties involved (e.g., humanities and science faculty, residence life staff, first-year students, etc.), the impetus for the project, components, challenges encountered, strategies for implementation and plans for assessing its effectiveness.

NOTE: All sessions should engage participants in thinking about how they might translate and adapt the research or project/model/innovation to their own institutional and professional settings. Facilitators are also welcome to solicit feedback that would inform their work. Please make it clear if the dissemination and discussion session is better suited to a particular type of institution (e.g., community college or research university) or level of expertise (novice, intermediate, advanced).

Research-Focused Dissemination and Discussion proposals should:

1. state the conference theme you have selected
2. state the hypothesis/problem your research has addressed
3. describe briefly the methodology and the parameters of the study
4. provide visual means of presenting findings and applications
5. include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
6. include time throughout the session for participants to discuss the implications of the findings and practical applications

Project/Model/Innovation-Focused Dissemination and Discussion proposals should:

1. state the conference theme you have selected
2. describe the project, model, or innovation to be featured
3. highlight the parties involved (e.g., humanities and science faculty, residence life staff, first-year students), the impetus for the project, components, challenges encountered, and strategies for implementation and assessment.
4. include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
5. include time throughout the session for participants to discuss the implications of the findings and practical applications

Format 3: Topic/Issue Discussions (60 min.; 1-2 facilitators; room set in round tables; no audio-visual)
Facilitated discussions provide time for colleagues to share expertise and experiences on a topic of similar interest. They provide a valuable opportunity to network and reflect upon ideas, challenges, and possible solutions in an informal setting. Facilitated discussions may take one of the following approaches:

• Topical discussion: The facilitator briefly presents information on a topic or challenge related to one of the conference themes and assists the group in examining issues of concern and new ways of thinking about the topic. 
• Practice/strategy discussion: The facilitator prefaces the discussion with a brief overview of a particular practice or strategy she/he is using and provides a handout that includes a longer description as well as a bibliography or other resources. She/he can then pose or invite a question to stimulate and focus the conversation so that others can share their own experiences using the particular practice or strategy.

Topic/Issue Discussion proposals should:

1. state the conference theme you have selected
2. describe the topic or practice/strategy that you will present for discussion and why it is important to address this issue
3. indicate your experience in the topic area or in using the practice/strategy (including relevant theory, goals or purpose of the topic or practice being discussed, benchmarks of success, challenges, and findings, where applicable)
4. indicate the outcomes participants should expect from the discussion and examples of how you will prompt and sustain conversation to achieve those outcomes
5. include links to relevant Web sites or electronic copies of the materials you will share (electronic copies of materials can be provided later)
6. include students or student perspectives where relevant

Format 4: Poster Sessions (60 min.; 1-2 facilitators; 6’x3’ skirted table; no internet access; electrical outlet and other supports as available, upon request)
Poster sessions lend themselves well to combining visual displays of key information with written materials and small group interaction to create a more individualized learning experience. These sessions provide an opportunity for you to share your work with the full conference audience, and they are a valuable way to initiate conversations with colleagues with similar interests. These sessions can include 3’x 4’ boards to display charts, diagrams, pictures, and/or graphs that depict program components, findings, samples of student work, participant testimony, and so on. You may also wish to present information through technological means or other types of visual displays that can be set-up on the 6’x3’ table provided.

Poster Session proposals should:

1. state the conference theme you have selected
2. state the problem or issue that your display will address
3. indicate how your work has effectively addressed the issue
4. describe the visual data, display, etc. that you will provide
5. indicate how the data or information will be useful to a particular or multiple sectors of higher education
6. include links to relevant Web sites or attachments of materials you will share, if available
7. include students or student perspectives where relevant

NOTE: Our ability to provide technical assistance is limited, but if you have a project for which you need such assistance, we are happy to explore options with you. Poster boards are provided upon request.

Become a LEAP Featured Session in the Conference Program

This designation is intended to spotlight the innovative work of colleges and universities that are members of the LEAP Campus Action Network (CAN). CAN brings together colleges, universities, and organizations committed to liberal education; helps them to improve their efforts to ensure that all students achieve essential outcomes; and highlights their effective practices. If you would like your session to be considered for this designation, please review the eligibility section below and if eligible, check this option in the online proposal submission form.

Eligibility

• Any type of session—hands-on workshop, research/project discussion, topic/issue discussion or poster—can be designated as a LEAP Featured Session in the conference program.
• Session presenters must be from CAN member institutions. (To find out if your campus is a member, or to find out about signing up for CAN, click here.)
• Session proposals should explicitly address: (1) one or more of the LEAP essential learning outcomes and (2) one or more of the LEAP principles of excellence or high-impact practices identified as mechanisms for achieving the essential learning outcomes.
• Preference will be given to sessions that address how the campus practice/strategy engages a significant number of students or can be scaled to engage a significant number of students, particularly those students historically underserved by higher education.

About LEAP

Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) is AAC&U’s primary vehicle for advancing and communicating about the importance of undergraduate liberal education for all students. LEAP seeks to engage the public with core questions about what really matters in college, to give students a compass to guide their learning, and to make a set of essential learning outcomes the preferred framework for educational excellence, assessment of learning, and new alignments between school and college. For more information, click here.

Writing a Strong Proposal

The proposal should consist of a session title, a brief abstract, and a longer session description accompanied by presenter names, titles, and institutional/organizational affiliations. Your proposal should be clear and concise and your session title should accurately reflect your session content. Experts in the field and AAC&U staff will review all proposals. Reviewers will look favorably upon proposals that (1) offer practical models and/or innovative strategies that reflect one of the conference themes, (2) reflect sound theory or research, (3) include findings from evaluation and assessment, (4) identify the intended audience and active learning goals for the session (including what attendees will gain from going to the session), and (5) reflect a diversity of innovations, institutions, disciplines, programmatic areas, and individuals. Joint submissions from across campuses and campus-community partners are also encouraged, and we particularly welcome student perspectives on the featured models and strategies.

Tips

• Consider how your work might be useful to individuals at different types of institutions and/or those serving different student populations.
• Indicate if your session will: (1) combine the work of more than one institution, (2) illustrate perspectives of different organizational roles (e.g., faculty, department chairs, student affairs personnel, academic advisors, librarians, students), or (3) focus on a specific audience.
• Include facilitators who bring diverse perspectives and life experiences to the topic or issue your proposal addresses. AAC&U is committed to presenting conferences where sessions and the communities of participants reflect the diversity of our campuses.
• Show how your session will be interactive. AAC&U Network conferences strive to engage participants in reflection, discussion and application activities during sessions. Please do not plan to read a paper.
• Provide a clear sense of how your session will unfold and be prepared to discuss what worked, what did not, and how you addressed challenges along the way.
• “Show and tell” submissions that have little or no applicability to other institutions will not be considered.
• Present work that has proven effective and is well beyond the planning stages.

Below is a sample session title and abstract that clearly states the issue to be explored, provides supporting evidence, and discusses what participants should expect from their attendance. Your longer session description should provide greater detail about these aspects of the session.

Searching for Faculty of Color and Sustaining their Presence on Campus
Recent studies have shown that institutional context affects not only searches for faculty of color but also the socialization processes through which these faculty members negotiate their own cultural backgrounds alongside newly forged identities within the academy. In this session, the facilitators will: (a) highlight emerging practices at institutions that successfully recruit and sustain faculty of color; (b) recommend strategies for institutions to increase the presence of faculty of color; and (c) share a set of socialization experiences of linguistic-minority women faculty. Participants will explore implications for creating a “multi-contextual” campus culture that validates the importance of different ways of thinking and learning, and they will share their own institutional experiences and promising strategies related to the recruitment and success of faculty of color.

How to Submit a Proposal

Deadline
The deadline was Monday, March 15, 2010.

Notification
You should receive an automatic message indicating receipt of your proposal when submitted. If you do not receive this message, we may not have received your proposal. Please e-mail Siah Annand at Annand@aacu.org to confirm receipt of proposal.

Acceptance
You will receive notification about the status of your proposal by mid April.

Registration Fees
All session facilitators at the conference are responsible for the appropriate conference registration fees, travel, and hotel expenses. Please be sure all individuals in your proposal have this information and can be available to present at any time throughout the event. Presentation times range from Thursday, 21, 2010 beginning at 8:30 p.m. through Saturday, October 23 at 12:00 noon.

Resources for Attendees of Your Session
Conference participants like to have resource materials to help them implement and/or share new ideas when they return to campus. In an effort to conserve natural resources, and increase the potential for active participation in your session, we strongly encourage facilitators to provide us with online resources one month in advance of the conference.

If your proposal pertains to a project, program, course, or other feature for which there is (or will be) descriptive materials available on the Web or electronically, please provide the URL address or e-document with your proposal, (or when they become available before the conference). AAC&U’s Web site will include these links when we post the program. After the conference, all presenters will be asked to provide additional electronic resources to make available to conference participants.

Final Reminders
Please complete all fields including information pertaining to all additional facilitators.

• Please include links to supplemental materials, if available.
• Please remember that by submitting a proposal, you agree to:
• Register and pay conference fees if the proposal is accepted
• Inform your co-facilitators about the proposal’s status and the need for all facilitators to pay the conference registration fees and be available throughout the event to present your work as scheduled.

Dates to Remember

• March 15, 2010: Proposals due to AAC&U
• Mid April: Proposal acceptance notification

MEETING LINKS

About the Conference:
  Overview
  Registration
  Hotel
 

Call for Proposals:
  About the Call

Podcasts

Past Meetings:
 2008 Meeting
 2006 Meeting
 2004 Meeting
 2002 Meeting

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