COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
ROADMAP REPORT FALL 2016
The driving vision in the College’s Roadmap is to transform the College of Liberal Arts into a destination college. • We are determined to have CLA on the short list for students across the country—and indeed around the world—when they are thinking of the preeminent places to earn their degrees.
• We want the College of Liberal Arts to be among the first institutions considered when organizations, agencies, groups, and firms from the local to the global are seeking to engage with a higher education partner.
• We are determined to have the College be widely known as one of the absolute best locations for faculty to build their careers.
• We want this to be a place where staff can be full partners in achieving our mission.
The 2015-16 academic year saw some significant progress around our four Roadmap goals of improving student readiness, strengthening research and creative activities, expanding engagement opportunities, and building a more diverse and inclusive community.
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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS | ROADMAP REPORT | FALL 2016
GIFTS TO SUPPORT ROADMAP PRIORITIES Fiscal year 2016 was CLA’s second-best fundraising year ever. More than 4,000 alumni and supporters gave $16.8 million to advance our Roadmap goals. Among our accomplishments this year:
STUDENT READINESS Scholarships helped us recruit the brightest minds, offering students opportunities to study abroad, complete unpaid internships, conduct research, and participate in service-learning courses
INCLUSIVENESS, ACCESS, AND DIVERSITY Competitive graduate student fellowships allowed us to recruit a more diverse cohort of students
RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITIES
ROADMAP GIVING HIGHLIGHTS
New funds for endowed chairs and seed grants helped launch innovative research projects
ENGAGEMENT Private grants provided faculty and staff opportunities to more deeply engage with our communities and build a more inclusive campus
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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS | ROADMAP REPORT | FALL 2016
READINESS
CLA ALUMNI WILL BE THE MOST DESIRABLE GRADUATES AVAILABLE
Employers today are looking for people who can solve problems, think inventively, communicate well, consider multiple and diverse perspectives, work nimbly, conduct research, analyze the past, understand the present, and imagine the future. These tools are the fruits of a liberal arts education. The impact of a liberal arts education extends far beyond a diploma on graduation day. We want our graduates to be confident they can succeed as leaders in their chosen careers, in higher education, and in service to their communities. To do this, we’re helping them translate academic experiences in applied settings through research, internships, and service-learning opportunities, giving students practical skills to pursue their goals after graduation.
In the area of readiness, we’ve made great progress this year in preparing students for the world of work. With industry partners, we’ve developed a set of core career competencies and are integrating them throughout students’ classroom and co-curricular experiences.
We’ve doubled the number of career counselors and rolled out a new model of providing career services assistance for all departments. In addition, we hired ten new academic advisors to support our students.
X2 10
Our staff has been revising the First-Year Experience class to incorporate more aspects of career readiness into the course, and the number of organizations joining us for internship and career fairs continues to grow.
The number of firstyear students who conduct research with faculty in our Freshman Research and Creative Scholars Program has doubled, with over 70 faculty and 150 students participating.
CAREER COUNSELORS NEW ACADEMIC ADVISORS
We also prepare our students for life after college with inventive curricular opportunities, like: • Advanced proficiency certificates in languages • A reconfiguration of degree paths in the School of Statistics to more clearly serve students pursuing an applied path versus those pursuing graduate training • A minor in creative writing and a certificate in technical communication • Minors in health psychology and public health, a BA/MA in health communication, and a new BA/MD program
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RESEARCH
CLA WILL HAVE A RELENTLESS FOCUS ON RESEARCH AND CREATIVE EXCELLENCE
In the liberal arts we analyze disparities and conflicts and place them in historical, economic, and social context. We study what brings communities together and what divides them. We describe and explain the past and present and imagine possible futures. In other words, the liberal arts contribute basic building blocks for prosperous, equitable, and democratic societies. The College made bold investments this year in research and creative excellence. We had an exceptionally active faculty recruiting year in 2015-16, adding 32 tenured and tenuretrack faculty across 18 departments.
+32
FACULTY FOR 18 DEPARTMENTS
We launched the Talle Faculty Research Awards. Over the next five years the fund will provide $1.5 million in research support to recently promoted associate professors.
Grand Challenges Exploratory Research Grants were awarded to 22 faculty across the College, elevating the College’s interdisciplinary research strengths for greater impact on the critical societal issues facing our state and the world.
$1.5M
$140K
IN RESEARCH SUPPORT GRANTS WERE AWARDED TO
22 FACULTY
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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS | ROADMAP REPORT | FALL 2016
The Human Rights Initiative, a joint project with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, invested $140,000 in supporting faculty research in human rights. This work complements our new master’s in human rights.
TO SUPPORT RESEARCH IN HUMAN RIGHTS
We raised the base graduate assistant stipend in CLA by 14% to improve our ability to recruit top students and to ease some of the financial burden they face. Through special funding from the provost’s office, we were able to offer 14 of our CLA graduate fellowship recipients a second year of support.
RESEARCH & INNOVATION HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2015-16 ACADEMIC YEAR
Professor Monica Luciana and Regents Professor William Iacono (psychology) received a $21.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study). This study follows 10,000 children beginning at ages 9 to 10 through the period of highest risk for substance use and other mental health disorders. The study seeks to address questions related to substance use, helping to inform prevention and treatment research priorities, public health strategies, and policy decisions.
Associate Professor Alan Love (philosophy) received a $2 million John Templeton Foundation grant to advance a new branch of scientific metaphysics. Professor Love says, "By introducing this project to biologists and philosophers around the world, it will influence and change the way we approach future problems. By shifting our view of science from theory-tunneled to open-minded and nontraditional, it will open up a realm of possibilities, giving us the ability to solve some of the world's most complex problems."
Associate Professor Michael Goldman (sociology) and Associate Professor Vinay Gidwani (geography, environment & society) were awarded a $500,000 threeyear NSF grant for their project, "Speculative Urbanism: Land, Livelihoods, and Finance Capital." This project examines how policymakers, international banks, entrepreneurs, land developers, and ordinary residents shape real estate and infrastructure projects and whether the outcomes benefit or disadvantage the urban majority.
The Immigration History Research Center received a $148,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant for their project, Global Minnesota: Immigrants Past and Present, a yearlong series of public programming that engaged diverse public audiences across the state on immigration's role in shaping American life, extending the public dialogue about immigration into local communities.
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INCLUSIVENESS, ACCESS & DIVERSITY
THE CLA COMMUNITY WILL MIRROR THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE
To truly engage with the community, CLA must be a reflection of the community. To make better decisions and to be first-rate in identifying emerging research questions, we need diverse perspectives. And to maintain the gains we achieve, we must establish a supportive, welcoming, and encouraging climate that attracts diverse faculty, students, and staff and enables them to thrive.
Diversity must be at the center of everything we do. The College is committed to mirroring the community at large, bringing together faculty, staff, and students who represent multiple points of view. To advance our diversity goals, we’re creating more inclusive ways of knowing and building awareness of the world from different perspectives. One-third of the CLA tenured and tenure track faculty hired in 2015-16 are faculty of color or American Indian. FACULTY HIRED (2015-16)
1/3
ARE FACULTY OF COLOR OR AMERICAN INDIAN
On the undergraduate side, we enhanced advising and other services in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Program. This increasingly popular program provides an inclusive and supportive environment for students from diverse backgrounds, including first-generation college students. To provide more opportunity and improve access to CLA, we also offered a record amount of scholarship support for students with financial need.
We increased funding for recipients of the University’s Diversity of Views and Experiences (DOVE) Graduate Student Fellowships, boosting our acceptance rate among recipients to 73 percent, compared to 2016 AVERAGE a 54 percent average the DOVE – ACCEPTANCE RATE preceding six years. AMONG RECIPIENTS
73%
Four new colleagues joined us this fall as part of the Race, Indigeneity, Gender, and Sexualtiy Studies Cluster Hiring Initiative. This group of scholars will spark new research, courses, creative work, and community engagement across the College of Liberal Arts and the University: • Professor Karen Mary Davalos (Chicano & Latino studies) • Assistant Professor Juliana Hu-Pegues (American Indian studies; Asian American studies; gender, women & sexuality studies)
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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS | ROADMAP REPORT | FALL 2016
54%
• Assistant Professor Gabriela Spears-Rico (Chicano & Latino studies; American Indian studies) • Assistant Professor Terrion Williamson (African American & African studies; gender, women & sexuality studies; American studies)
ENGAGEMENT
CLA WILL DEEPEN A CULTURE OF ENGAGEMENT FOR OUR ALUMNI, COMMUNITY, AND STATE
The College of Liberal Arts does not end at the borders of our campus. As the heart of Minnesota’s flagship university, CLA has deep ties to multiple communities: those who work and study with us; those who support us; and those who occupy spaces, both physical and theoretical, with connections to us.
The CLA Roadmap promises that we will deepen a culture of engagement for our alumni, community, and state. In a practical sense, this commitment means dedicating time and resources to increasing access in both directions—our access to the community, and theirs to us. Here are highlights from the past year. We launched the Big Questions series, a joint production with Minnesota Public Radio, to discuss important issues—such as the nature of protest and the opportunity gap—from a range of perspectives, including CLA faculty and representatives of off-campus organizations and agencies.
We expanded our partnership with the Minnesota Historical Society, hosting 2,800 students, teachers, parents, and volunteer judges for State History Day. Forty-four CLA students served as mentors in schools around the Twin Cities. While on campus, History Day participants took part in programming designed to enhance their college readiness.
We also recently completed a survey of our alumni that will provide excellent insight on what we do well and where we can do better.
Finally, we launched the Joan Aldous Innovation Fund to provide seed grants for faculty and staff to test pilot projects that support both our engagement and diversity goals. About $125,000 was awarded across 25 projects.
$125K
TO SUPPORT ENGAGEMENT AND DIVERSITY GOALS
“We help kids learn how to do research projects at a higher level, how to write full sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes the success isn’t in the completion of a full-blown research project, but in the little steps of writing a single sentence with zero mistakes. Or finding a topic that they can connect to personally and apply to their everyday lives, allowing them to grow as an individual. These are the moments, that as a teacher and human being, I live for.” — Klaudia Markel, CLA student and History Day mentor
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SPOTLIGHT ON JOAN ALDOUS
AWARD
FOR DIVERSITY AND ENGAGEMENT IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING GREAT
Five hundred students from Parkway Montessori & Community School on St. Paul’s east side participated in a new initiative designed to better engage them in their education and to help close the opportunity gap. Post-doctoral researcher Kari Smalkoski, professor Jigna Desai, and a small team of CLA undergraduate and graduate students worked last year with English-languagearts teachers at Parkway to develop a new curriculum that teaches students to create digital stories. This program is a pilot for a 5-year longitudinal project. Eighth-grader Jewels Vang Soua Tao said more kids need to feel inspired by people they see outside of the media. “A lot of kids are, like, ‘Oh, I want to be a rapper or a basketball player,’” she said. “It’s because there are a lot of black people that are basketball players or rappers. You don’t see a lot of black people anywhere else.” Soua Tao said meeting college students and professors of color through the University’s program gave her role models to look up to. When she graduates high school, she hopes to go to college to become a veterinarian, she said, and she’s glad their school was picked for the pilot. On May 4 CLA hosted these students for a festival at Northrop where their work was screened. While here, students toured campus with guides from the Office of Admissions. Organized by the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, this project is a community-engaged partnership between the University’s Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center; Sprockets, the city of St. Paul’s after-school programming network; and Parkway Montessori and Community Middle School.
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COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS | ROADMAP REPORT | FALL 2016
“I think it’s interesting that we’ve never asked the students, ‘What is it that you need? What matters to you?’ We want to focus on how to empower them on what they know already and build on that.” — Jigna Desai, professor
For more information contact: Mark Baumgartner Assistant Dean for Development and Chief Philanthropic Officer for the Arts Email: baumg011@umn.edu Tel: 612-624-1397
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