Six-Year Grant Will Help Faculty Foster Inclusivity

Saint Ben’s, in collaboration with Saint John’s, has received a six-year grant worth $505,000 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to work with a group of other colleges and universities to research how to cultivate, evaluate and reward effective and inclusive teaching. The funding is part of an Inclusive Excellence 3 (IE3) grant program offered by HHMI. Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s are among 104 schools divided into seven learning community clusters that will work together to increase capacity for inclusion of all students, especially those who belong to groups underrepresented in the sciences.

This work builds on the results of several previous grants. In 2021, CSB and SJU received a two-year HHMI grant for $30,000 to build intra- and intercampus relationships, examine institutional barriers to inclusion, establish processes and leverage diversity to increase institutional capacity as a prelude to the larger IE3 funding. In 2018, Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s received a $600,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support BECOMING Community, an initiative focused on transformative inclusion and community building. And, in 2015, CSB and SJU each received a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to kickstart planning and piloting pedagogical experiments.

Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s will be part of a group that includes Boise State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, National University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Queens

College, Skidmore College, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Tuskegee University, Union College, the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Rhode Island and Willamette University.

“This is a grant that was for faculty by faculty,” said Amanda Macht Jantzer, associate professor of psychology and project director for the grant. “It’s primarily about faculty development. How can we do more to serve our students in a really inclusive way? What is inclusive, just, diverse, equitable, accessible teaching? How do we demonstrate and measure it? How do we do it better? This is about professional development. Instead of having a model where faculty need to do it on their own or get funding to go somewhere for training, we can join together to do this work better and more efficiently.”

Bennies and Johnnies Recognized for Student Voting

In November’s mid-term elections, Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s students were recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) as 2022 ALL IN Most Engaged Campuses for College Student

Voting – recognizing colleges and universities for making intentional efforts to increase student voter participation. CSB and SJU joined a group of 394 colleges and universities recognized by ALL IN for completing these four actions:

• Participating in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge

• Sharing 2020 NSLVE Reports with campus voting data with ALL IN

• Developing and submitting a 2022 democratic engagement action plan with ALL IN

• Having a current signatory to ALL IN’s Higher Education Presidents’ Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.

“This national recognition affirms the exceptional student leadership and civic engagement of the CSB and SJU Votes Coalition and all students who participate in elections,” said Matt Lindstrom, Edward Henry professor of political science and director of the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN Challenge staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, political engagement, and voter participation on their campus. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge currently engages over 9 million students from more than 950 institutions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.