Pre-Conference Workshops

Participants in this pre-conference workshop will learn how to use human-centered, strategic design tools to improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. The session will introduce a series of tools that use convergent and divergent strategies to evaluate and improve upon participants' DEI practices, allowing them to learn collaboratively from each other. The tools can be applied at various levels of experience, from introductory to advanced, and participants will be provided with strategies to facilitate their use across their campuses. Detailed digital handouts of each tool will be available to participants, including descriptions of use and potential applications.

This pre-conference workshop aims to equip educational leaders and practitioners with the necessary skills to navigate the challenging political environments surrounding higher education institutions. Participants will learn about the current media and narrative landscape and understand how to deploy smart communication strategies to build support for necessary reforms. The workshop will also cover practical problem-solving techniques to help participants advocate for key principles that underpin American public higher education and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ultimately, this workshop will help participants build an equity-minded approach to the civic mission of higher education.

This pre-conference workshop will focus on how the pandemic affected student learning and how institutions can apply their learnings to create new and sustainable pathways to equity. Participants will use program-based learning frameworks to identify what was lost, what was gained, and how to apply those learnings to create positive impact moving forward. The workshop will draw from examples of the University of California and University of Texas campuses before, during, and after the pandemic's peak, highlighting the importance of both recovery and discovery in finding new ways to support students.

This workshop is recommended for racial healing circle practitioners and institutions engaged with AAC&U’s Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers. FREE.

This workshop provides a high-level overview of the steps and components for being an effective Racial Healing Circle facilitator and is targeted to those practitioners who have participated in a training at the TRHT Institute and/or facilitated circles at their institutions. Racial Healing Circle practitioners will deepen their knowledge of the methodology to strengthen their facilitation skills in the practice. The learning objectives include a review of the core components of the Racial Healing Circle methodology, unpacking the intentions for each of the core components, and sharing ways to facilitate meaningful manifestations of these intentions in the circle space.

Leaders from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM will present grant opportunities that can support diversity, equity, inclusion, and access goals at higher education institutions. These programs focus on gender, disability, and race/ethnicity diversity and equity for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as STEM faculty. The session will provide information on the NSF proposal review process, becoming a peer reviewer, and tips on writing competitive grant proposals. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and sign up for one-on-one virtual meetings with NSF program officers after the AAC&U meeting.