Day 1: New insights on student academic experiences, adaptations to the pandemic, and institutional challenges confronted by students from diverse backgrounds.

February 3, 2022 - Full Recording Here.

Richard Arum, Professor of Sociology and Education, School of Education, University of California Irvine

A large group of interdisciplinary researchers have come together at UCI with support from the Mellon Foundation to develop a state-of-the-art measurement system focused on supporting institutional improvement, advancing educational equity, and demonstrating the value of undergraduate education.  The project team developed a framework for measuring student development and has integrated unprecedented data from students’ administrative records, clickstream data from the campus' learning management system, weekly surveys, experiential sampling logs, and innovative performance assessments.  Project findings have generated new insights on student academic experiences, adaptations to pursuing education during a pandemic, and institutional challenges confronted by students from diverse backgrounds.  Data-driven approaches to improving undergraduate education that capture the breadth and depth of student experiences hold the promise of improving student outcomes, rallying public support, and transforming the sector to expand access and equity during troubled times.

Michael Dennin, Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Dean of Division of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning University of California Irvine

John Gardner, Founder, and Executive Chair, John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute, Indiana University School of Education, and Board of Directors, Gardner Institute

Shari G. McMahan, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, California State University, San Bernardino

Thomas Parham, President, California State University, Dominguez Hills

Jamey Rorison, Senior Program Officer at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Americans believe strongly in the value of college, and they are asking “What is college worth?” To help answer that question, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported the launch of the Postsecondary Value Commission, a group of thirty leaders representing post-secondary institutions, federal and state policy offices, the civil rights, workforce, and research communities, advocates, and undergraduate students. So what did the commission find? More importantly, what does it mean for our shared efforts to help more of today’s students start and complete the path to an education that puts them on the path to a better living and a better life?

Henry Shannon, Superintendent/President, Chaffey College

Day 2: Socially Just Design in Postsecondary Education: A Call to Action

February 10, 2022- Full Recording Here

Isis Artze-Vega, Provost & Vice President, Academic Affairs, Valencia College

Carlos Ayala, President & CEO, Growing Indalnd Achievement

 Supporting Equitable Student Success: A Regional Approach – Learn about Growing Inland Achievement’s work in the Inland Empire region to support equitable goals for student success.

Ed Ayers, President Emeritus and director of New American History at the University of Richmond

Reggie Ellis, Interim Dean, School of Graduate Studies, and Research, Florida A & M University

John Gardner, Founder, and Executive Chair, John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Aryelle Jacobsen, Student, University of North Carolina Asheville

Andrew Koch, Chief Executive Officer, Gardner Insitute

Colleges and universities in the twenty-first century are not designed to optimally advance social justice and equity goals. One need only examine both who gets to go to college and who ultimately completes a postsecondary credential to see that race/ethnicity and family income determine far too much about who does and does not become a “college graduate.” Changing this inequitable reality requires colleges, universities, and educators of all kinds to actively and intentionally embrace socially just design in postsecondary education and to operationalize socially just design in the various subsystems – academic advising, academic labor, courses and the curriculum, transfer, etc. – that make up the broader postsecondary education system.

Makayla Towns, Student, University of North Carolina Asheville

Day 3: Student Success: Stories of Inspiration and Practice from all sectors of California Post Secondary Education

February 17, 2022

Watch the full recording here.

Erandi Albor, Undergraduate student in the Psychology department, University of the Pacific

Robert Bowman,  STEP-UP Program Director, Restorative Justice, Shasta College

John Gardner, Founder, and Executive Chair, John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Shelly Gulati, Faculty Fellow for Academic Advising & Chair of Bioengineering, University of the Pacific

Olaseni Sode, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, California State University, Los Angeles

Meynard Ancheta, Lead Coordinator of the Tutorial Wing of the Center for Academic Success, California State University, Los Angeles

Catherine Haras, Executive Director, Center for Effective Teaching and Learning, California State University, Los Angeles

Michele Hawley, Associate Vice President and Dean, California State University, Los Angeles

Addressing Equity and Student Success Post-Pandemic: Lessons learned from aligning student support with professional development in course redesign

In 2018,  the California State University system ended remediation. The Cal State LA division of Undergraduate Studies and campus Center for Effective Teaching and Learning joined forces to design a professional development program for course redesign which addressed scale and was structured for continuous improvement.  Five years later, Cal State LA still uses this model to address equity gaps in so-called low-completion courses.  The Cal State La panel of faculty, staff, and administrators will describe their collaborative model of redesign, which has improved pass rates for redesigned courses and transformed the way we work within and across various areas. 

Eva Jimenez, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development, Shasta College

Shasta College STEP-UP Program

STEP-UP’s mission is to provide academic, logistical, and limited financial support, for students who have been formerly incarcerated and/or have suffered from drug or alcohol addiction.

Christine McLaughlin, STEP-UP graduate, Shasta College

Kevin McAninch, Second year STEP-UP student, Shasta College

Tracy Patton, Executive Director Community Involvement and Educational Equity, University of the Pacific

Ann Marie Sakrekoff, Chief Operating Officer, Growing Inland Achievement

Practical Ideas to Increase Equitable Student Success in the Postsecondary Pipeline

Growing Inland Achievement will engage with a few of the regional champions who will share how the region is building out the path for equitable student success.

Sonia Singh,  Second-year student in the accelerated 3+3 Pre-Pharmacy/PharmD program, University of the Pacific

Edie Sparks, Vice Provost & Professor of History, University of the Pacific

The Community Involvement Program at the University of the Pacific

At University of the Pacific, the Community Involvement Program (CIP), launched in 1969 by a group of students, community members, faculty and staff who wanted to provide educational opportunities to the local community and diversify the campus, has been advancing student success and social justice for over fifty years.  This comprehensive need-based scholarship and retention program for first-generation college students from the local community who have demonstrated potential for sustainable leadership and community involvement has graduated more than 1,000 students since its founding.    Administrative leaders, faculty, and students will discuss what makes CIP successful and how the university has seeded elements of the program in other initiatives to scale their benefits to the larger undergraduate student population.  The university’s #CaliforniansForAll College Corps program—a recently expanded community engagement and service-learning program funded through the California Volunteer Office and AmeriCorps—as well as the university’s First-year advising pilot which embeds extensive individual mentoring and metacognitive coaching into the experience of first-year students will be explored by the panelists.  Join us to learn about University of the Pacific’s “stories of hope”: community-engaged learning as student success and advising as social justice.

Summer Steele, Director, Pre-College Programs, California State University, San Bernardino 

Talisa Sullivan, Administrator, Equity and Access, Educational Services, Riverside County Office of Education 

Dari Tran, Co-Program Manager, College Corps Program & Professor of Political Science, University of the Pacific

Mary Wardell-Ghiraduzzi,  Vice President for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion & Professor of Communication, University of the Pacific

John Whiteley, Professor of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine

Moral Education for Social Justice with First-Year  Students Centered In a University Residence Hall

This presentation describes the UC Irvine curriculum of a  residence hall delivered academic year class now in its 47th year. In the context of a supportive just community, the purpose is to stimulate first-year student thinking about the uses to which education can be put toward greater social justice from examining the moral challenges in the broader society. This initiative is an approach to meeting the responsibility of higher education to provide a context where moral issues can be addressed reflectively by university students.

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