Ten Institutions Selected to Participate in AAC&U Institute on Reframing Institutional Transformation to Include Non-Tenure-Track STEM Faculty

Washington, DC—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) announced today the ten institutions selected to participate in its Institute on Reframing Institutional Transformation to Include Non-Tenure-Track STEM Faculty. Funded by the National Science Foundation and developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Southern California, this new AAC&U Institute is aimed at transforming institutions in ways that will address the unique needs of our nation’s non-tenure track STEM faculty. The Institute will be held virtually on July 27–30.

“Non-tenure-track faculty, who teach a disproportionate number of introductory core STEM courses, are essential to any national effort to reform undergraduate STEM education,” said AAC&U President Lynn Pasquerella. “AAC&U is grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting this new institute, and we look forward to partnering with our colleagues at the University of Southern California and the ten participating institutions to ensure that non-tenure-track faculty are fully included in institutional transformation efforts.”

The ten institutions will each send to the 2021 Institute a team consisting of tenure-track and non-tenure-track STEM faculty and administrators. The participating teams will be led by national scholars in an examination and interrogation of the institutional conditions that marginalize our most essential STEM faculty, adjunct, and contingent professors and instructors.

“The practices and traditions of disempowering and disenfranchising vulnerable groups of STEM faculty is one that we have historically been wholly committed to confronting and combatting,” said Kelly Mack, AAC&U vice president for undergraduate STEM education and executive director of Project Kaleidoscope. “We are honored to co-labor with the participating institutions and the many others who share in our desire for change.”

Institute sessions will be grounded in a blended conceptual model for institutional transformation that emphasizes organizational learning and organizational change as well as professional development for STEM faculty. Programming will focus on cultivating tools such as critical self-reflection, mindfulness, and strategic design mapping as the skills and competencies that are necessary for institutional change. As an added benefit, each team will be paired with an institutional transformation coach who has expertise and experience in a range of disciplines and areas, including but not limited to institutional transformation, broadening participation, organizational change theory, STEM education research, and culturally responsive evaluation.

The following institutions will send teams to the 2021 Institute on Reframing Institutional Transformation to Include Non-Tenure-Track STEM Faculty:

• California State University, Monterey Bay
• Clemson University
• North Carolina Central University
• Providence College
• Syracuse University
• University of Minnesota Duluth
• University of Puerto Rico Humacao
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Virginia Tech
• Western Washington University

About AAC&U

AAC&U is the leading national association dedicated to advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education by making quality and equity the foundations for excellence in undergraduate education in service to democracy. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,000 member institutions—including accredited public and private colleges, community colleges, research universities, and comprehensive universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, faculty, and staff engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Through a broad range of activities, AAC&U reinforces the collective commitment to liberal education at the national, local, and global levels. Its high-quality programs, publications, research, meetings, institutes, public outreach efforts, and campus-based projects help individual institutions ensure that the quality of student learning is central to their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

For more information, visit www.aacu.org.