Meg Bollwerk
Staff Reporter
On October 3rd through 5th a team of educators and administrators from Washington College is coming to McDaniel to get a sense of what the college does well or could do better with regards to student learning and engagement.
The group will also try to capture a sense of how well the college is doing with diversity initiatives inside and outside the classroom.
According to Dr. Rebecca Ursin, an assistant professor with the English Department, McDaniel is hosting this event because along with four other schools it “has been awarded a grant through the Teagle Foundation to implement a three-year project to improve student learning and engagement and to assess and enhance diversity initiatives inside and outside the classroom.”
The Teagle Foundation is an organization whose mission is “[to provide] leadership for liberal education, marshalling the intellectual and financial resources necessary to ensure that today’s students have access to challenging, wide-ranging, and enriching college educations.”
During this visit, the team from Washington College will talk with Dr. Casey, tour and observe the campus, and conduct focus groups with staff, faculty, and students, Ursin explained. “Having an outside party conduct focus groups encourages participants to be as honest as possible because anonymity is maintained,” she explained.
“The Teagle focus groups give everybody a voice. If your college does something really well, you can say that,” said senior Andrew Rauch. “The visiting team also allows students to get a view of other colleges. Different places have different strengths, but it really puts McDaniel in perspective.”
Four other colleges- Ursinus, Washington & Jefferson, Washington, and Goucher join McDaniel’s efforts to make improvements.Each of the five campuses has a Planning Team that coordinates events and communicates with the other colleges, Ursin explained. Each campus has a Home Team of faculty, students and staff who suggest strategies and initiatives for enhancing diversity, and a Visiting Team that conducts focus groups and interviews at the other campuses.
The McDaniel Planning Team is led by Dr. Gretchen McKay (Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence) and includes Dr. Debbi Johnson-Ross (Associate Dean of Academic Affairs), Mahlia Joyce (Director of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs) and Dr. Ursin.
Last spring a team from Ursinus College visited McDaniel and collected information on diversity in the formal and informal curriculum, and McDaniel’s Visiting Team traveled to Washington & Jefferson College.
“After the Washington College team submits a report of their findings, we’ll have a better sense of our strengths at McDaniel, as well as those areas in which we might improve,” Ursin explained. “Each college will develop small-scale changes to diversity initiatives that will ultimately lead to large-scale changes during and following the grant period.”
In addition to the campus visits, each member of the collaborative selects a student as their Teagle Diversity Fellow. The student conducts a summer research project related to diversity under the guidance of a faculty mentor, and then presents his/her findings at a Summer Research Symposium hosted by Ursinus College.
Expenses for travel to Ursinus are subsidized by the grant, and the faculty mentor and student each receive stipends of $2500. Jocelyn McKinley was our 2010 Teagle Diversity Fellow, and under the guidance of Dr. Linda Semu, she circulated a survey to staff and faculty to assess campus diversity.
“We’re hoping that many students will apply this spring when we begin accepting applications for the 2011 Diversity Fellow,” Ursin said.
This visit will be a great opportunity for McDaniel and its students. For more information, please visit the Teagle Foundation’s website at http://www.teaglefoundation.org/.
