All-College Meeting explores concepts of belonging, turning values ‘into action’

As NIU begins another COVID-impacted semester, including an all-virtual start, the charge for College of Education faculty and staff is unmistakable.

Students want to belong, Dean Laurie Elish-Piper said Jan. 13 during the spring All-College Meeting, and appreciate visible indications that they are indeed welcome, valued, heard, seen and safe here.

Consciously turning the college’s values into actions, including with downloadable “Student Success Champion” signs to post physically on walls and office doors or digitally within Blackboard pages, documents or in email signatures, will help to launch that process.

Student Success Champion downloadable resources

Encouragement also will come this spring through sticky notes, video messages, photo displays, postcards and more.

But it’s only the first step, Elish-Piper said.

“We understand that visual displays, in and of themselves, do not create a community or an environment that fosters belonging,” the dean said. “These tools will be there just to show that you’re someone who is clearly committed to student success, and to send the message to all of our students that there are lots of us here – that they’re not alone. There are lots of us who support, care about and are invested in their success.”

The initiative advances the conversations began last August when J.Q. Adams addressed faculty and staff about humanity and his “pillars” of dignity, respect, trust and safety. It also embraces the ongoing cooperation between NIU and the City of DeKalb to promote “belonging.”

Locally, the mission will further evolve through collating the stories and ideas shared in the All-College Meeting’s two breakout sessions as well as through the continued Social Justice Curricular Review process.

David Walker, associate dean for Academic Affairs, asked faculty and staff to think about the lives of students beyond the demographics of class rank or race.

More than half of the college’s students are Pell-eligible. More than half are the first in their families to enroll in higher education.

Fifty-nine percent worry that they will run out of food, Walker said, while 55% regularly cut meals due to lack of funds and 46% report being hungry due to lack of food and money.

Insecurities also include transportation and, increasingly, mental health and access to counseling.

“NIU is no different than many other colleges and universities across the country during the pandemic,” Walker said. “We just don’t have enough professionals to handle the volume of mental health issues that we’re seeing our students experiencing.”

He spoke of revelations gleaned from last fall’s listening sessions with individuals, groups and student organizations.

Many undergraduates come to NIU from high schools with performance-based outcomes – the retaking of tests or projects, for example, allowing students to provide narratives of how their answers or responses were corrected and how they could improve upon or demonstrate the knowledge gained.

Others described themselves as more focused on knowledge and preparation rather than grades: “A learner more than a student.”

Critically, Walker added, some teacher-licensure candidates challenged what they see as a gap in their education.

“A number of students – quite a large percentage – tell us they’re taught in the classroom here at NIU to take ‘the whole child’ into consideration as part of their lesson plans,” he said, “yet they don’t believe we are always modeling this practice.”

Bill Pitney, associate dean of Research, Resources and Innovation, addressed the third of those responsibilities in his title by introducing a new mechanism to deliberate and potentially enact change: the College Strategic Innovation Team (C-SIT).

“While we’ve always sought to hear ideas, and have encouraged the sharing of ideas, we want to advance that and formalize that,” Pitney said, “so we can better move forward in meaningful ways.”

The new “Commitment to Innovation” website will collect those ideas; members of C-SIT then will review those proposals to discuss feasibility; alignment with missions, vision, values and priorities; and the likelihood of positive impacts.

Suggestions selected for implementation then will rely on the committee’s recommendations for best approaches. The person who submits the first idea will receive a special gift, and anyone who submits ideas by March 15 is entered in a drawing for a prize.

C-SIT members will conduct their work in cycles; the first round of ideas will conclude May 15. The program will expand this fall to begin collecting ideas from students and alumni; next spring, it will grow again to include the NIU community and the college’s external partners.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The college’s Strategic Action Planning Framework, launched in January 2017, will undergo a year-long “revision, refresh and refocus,” Elish-Piper announced. The updated plan will debut in January 2023.
→ “To facilitate that process, we are going to be soliciting input from various stakeholder groups, such as faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners,” Elish-Piper said. “We’ll be doing surveys and having focus groups to get feedback to help us refine what our framework looks at, and hopefully, bring greater prominence to some of the areas where we want to focus.”
Along with the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences, the College of Education has begun the work to enroll 160 students or more through the state’s Early Childhood Access for Equity Consortium. Prospective students can apply for full-cost-of-attendance scholarships from federal dollars provided to the State of Illinois.
→ “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” the dean said. “We’re very excited that Illinois has decided to invest so much of its COVID relief funding into Early Childhood Education, which we know is the foundation not only for young children but is also the foundation for our economy and our workforce.”
Programs under the umbrella of PLEDGE: Partnering to Lead and Empower District-Grown Educators are multiplying in number and purpose, and are achieving excellent outcomes, many of which are changing the lives of working adults who need convenient course delivery. The latest is LEAP (Licensed Educator Accelerated Pathway), which has begun in U-46 with 35 paraprofessionals who are pursuing their B.S.Ed. degrees in Special Education. A cohort in Rockford Public Schools 205 will launch this spring.
The College of Education is planning two cohorts as part of the Golden Apple Accelerators program for career-changers with bachelor’s degrees in other disciplines who want to earn their master’s degrees and professional educator licensure to become teachers. Between 20 and 25 students in each cohort – one in Elementary Education and the other in Early Childhood Education – will complete 15-month residencies on their way to become “fully licensed and ready to go.”
→ Like ECACE, subsidized by statewide funding of $200 million, and LEAP, covered by U-46 and RPS-205 with some of its federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief dollars, “all of these are revenue generators being paid for either through contracts or grants. It’s a wonderful way for us to make our programs available and accessible.”
The college’s Social Justice Curricular Review found that 26 of 32 degree programs are “highly engaged,” based on five factors: curricular, co-curricular, research, service and professional development.
→ Walker pledged that the commitment demonstrated during the review process will continue, adding that the college’s marketing materials, websites and social media will better highlight the diverse and inclusive climate. “We just didn’t want this to be another black binder. We want to live this. We want to breathe it. We want it to be part of our framework,” Walker said. “This is a hallmark of the College of Education and our degree programs. This is what parents and students can expect.”
The college will soon post a job application for a director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion who will work with students, faculty, staff and external partners to “take our commitment and actually put it into action,” Elish-Piper said.
→ “Many of us are very committed to this work, and we do it, but we have other responsibilities that prevent us from going full-in in this area,” the dean said. “We need to have someone who’s driving and leading this work all day, every day.”

“I’m so honored to be able to serve as the dean of this amazing college and to get to work with all of you. To see the work that collectively we are doing to offer accessible, rigorous and transformational academic experiences for all of our students is just such a privilege,” Elish-Piper said.

“I want to thank each of you for all that you do to make it work and to make our students have access to the support they need to be successful,” she added. “Remember: We are the College of Education, and we make a difference. It’s going to be a great semester.”