Initiatives ranging from enhancing environmental education and research at PSU to developing and implementing antiracist writing pedagogy for the largest general education writing course are among the college-led ReImagine projects that have been funded by the provost.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had a total of 11 projects funded as part of ReImagine PSU, an intentional effort by the provost to provide space and resources to groups of faculty and staff to collaborate and design mechanisms addressing challenges and opportunities facing the university.
Todd Rosenstiel, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says the projects reflect the creativity and forward-looking approach faculty and staff in the college are taking.
"I'm excited to see what these projects yield," he said. "A lot of them speak to our collective goal of becoming an authentically inclusive and future-ready college."
Heejun Chang, interim associate dean of research and graduate programs, will meet with the projects' lead PIs on a regular basis so they can engage with and learn from one another as their projects progress.
Here are the projects:
Reimagining Systems Science at PSU (Summer 2021)
Project Leads: Wayne Wakeland, Martin Zwick (Systems Science)
The working group outlined three potential futures: merge the Systems Science with Engineering & Technology Management in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, move Systems Science to the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health and create a complex systems institute, or create a transdisciplinary complex systems unit hosted by CLAS and designed in collaboration with and supported by MCECS and SPH.
Read the final report.
Exploring Shared Services in PSU's Largest Multidisciplinary College
Project Leads: Matt Carlson, DeLys Ostlund and Angela Canton (Dean's Office); Sarah Bartlett (Chemistry), Julie Bilski (Psychology), Rob Fullmer (Dean's Office), Becky Hoven (Anthropology), Aislyn Matias (Conflict Resolution), Vicky Mazzone (Judaic Studies), Sydney Meyer (Applied Linguistics), Joann Ng (Geography), Bren O'Guinn (English) and Josh Powell (Indigenous Nations Studies)
A staff working group began meeting in October with the goal of surveying current shared service models, creating surveys and communications to the CLAS community, identifying collegewide needs, gaps and redundancies in staffing and proposing a pilot for shared services in CLAS.
The Vernier Science Center's STEM Equity Career Hub: Developing a Distinctive Strategy for Growing the Climate Workforce of the Future
Project Leads: Melissa Appleyard, Juan Barraza, Fletcher Beaudoin, Judy BlueHorse Skelton (Indigenous Nations Studies), Carlos Crespo, Suzanne Estes (Dean's Office), Toeutu Faaleava, Greg Flores, Gabriel Hernandez, Thomas Keller, Ame Lambert, Linda Liu, Joyce Pieretti, Lindsay Romasanta, Melissa Yates, Theodore Van Alst (Indigenous Nations Studies and School of Gender, Race and Nations)
The second floor of the Vernier Science Center will catalyze the creation of a new STEM Equity Career Hub, which will work across multiple student-facing programs that aim to close the racial equity gap in STEM and health and Indigenous Nations Studies to directly support external partnerships that can lead to internships, mentorships, and employment for Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian students, and inclusive mentor training and support for externship providers from white-dominated sectors.
Reimagine Creative Industries at PSU
Project Leads: Kathi Inman Berens, Susan Kirtley, Rachel Noorda (English)
This project will build a freestanding, interdisciplinary Creative Industries Program housed within CLAS, based on the model of the new Emergency Management and Community Resilience program.
Visualizing Comics Studies at PSU
Project Leads: Susan Kirtley (English), Kacy McKinney, J.J. Vazquez
This project will develop the PSU Comics Studies program as a center of comics scholarship and education in the U.S., defining and creating a project for a new interdisciplinary, community-based and possibly hybrid Comics Studies degree at PSU.
Antiracist Writing Assessment in General Education
Project Leads: Keri Behre, Kate Comer, Tracy Dillon, Susan Kirtley, Marie Lo, Susan Reese (English)
In this initiative, PSU’s Composition faculty will create a curriculum and lead a learning community of WR 323 instructors to foster the practical implementation of antiracist writing assessment.
An Initiative to Enhance Earth, Environment and Climate Adaptation Education and Research at PSU
Project Leads: Max Nielsen-Pincus (Environmental Science & Management), Martin Lafrenz (Geography), Martin Streck, Jonathan Fink (Geology)
This project will identify a long-term vision and short-term steps to implement changes that streamline and strengthen earth, environment, and climate science curriculum that in turn will attract a more diverse student body, reduce curricular redundancy, leverage student interests and career opportunities, and improve administrative support.
Linguistic Diversity and Discrimination Awareness Project: Raising Awareness and Addressing Systemic Language Bias at PSU
Project Leads: Lynn Santelmann, John Hellermann, Jenny Mittelstaedt and Janet Cowal (Applied Linguistics), Steve Thorne (World Languages and Literatures), Kate Comer (English), Eowyn Ferey, Julie Haun, Teresa Roberts (Speech and Hearing Sciences), Regina Weaver
This interdisciplinary project aims to raise awareness of language bias within the PSU community and begin to develop institutional capacity to address language bias and discrimination campus-wide.
The Global Scholar Pathway
Project Leads: Brenda Glascott, Yasmeen Hanoosh (World Languages and Literatures), William York
The Department of World Languages and Literatures and the University Honors College will pilot, evaluate, and refine a new collaborative program of study and certificate option within the University Honors College to increase the number of undergraduate Honors students who graduate with two to three years of study of a foreign language and an intercultural/international learning experience.
Reimagine Anti-Racist STEM Education: Addressing Structural Racism and Improving Outcomes for Historically Underrepresented Studnets via Chemistry Educator Training and Support
Project Leads: Nicole Javali, David Stuart, Gwen Shusterman (Chemistry)
In this project, the Department of Chemistry aims to address the impacts of systematic racism in its department and promote more equitable teaching and assessment practices through a 10-week anti-racism workshop each term to chemistry TAs, staff and faculty, and an Equity Fellows program to recognize the additional mentoring that so often falls on BIPOC graduate students.
Nuestro Futuro Éxito, Our Future Success: Describing Key Recommendations as PSU Becomes an Emerging, Urban Hispanic Serving/Thriving Institution
Project Leads: Óscar Fernández, Melissa Patiño-Vega (Chicano-Latino Studies/World Languages and Literatures), Martín Alberto Gonzalez (Chicano-Latino Studies), Cristina Herrera (Chicano-Latino Studies), Joe Rivera Soto, Tania Sanchez, Rebecca Rodas, Emanuel Magaña
This project and report will provide key insights to administrators and faculty on improving recruitment, retention and graduation efforts for Latina/o/x students across campus, and making long-term changes in policies, teaching practices and inclusive programs.