The School of Education hosted a virtual “tea-time” with Dean Diana Hess on Nov. 11, offering an informal opportunity for the Dean to share updates and to answer questions from faculty and staff.
After welcoming participants and thanking them for their work within the School through the COVID-19 pandemic, Hess took time to respond to questions that had been submitted in advance of the event.
One question that Hess addressed was about the School’s progress toward anti-racism objectives. Though the School has made diverse faculty hires over the last few years and has the most diverse student population — with the greatest percentage of Pell grant recipients — on campus, Hess said the School needs to continue to work harder to diversify its faculty, staff, and students.
Hess remarked on work being done to create Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) plans within individual departments and units, and to create additional professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
The recent campus Diversity Forum is one such professional development opportunity, and Hess said she was pleased so many School faculty, staff, and students attended.
Hess also spoke about the Real Talk for Real Change symposia series, hosted by the School of Education’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the office of Professional Learning and Community Engagement (PLACE), which has provided faculty, staff, and community members a forum to come together to discuss critical issues of racial justice.
More generally — and within the context of COVID-19 — Hess outlined the School of Education’s priorities over the next five years as:
- Prioritizing the health and safety of students, staff, and faculty, as well as promoting health and safety in the community;
- Maintaining excellence within the School’s academic programs;
- Continuing to focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion goals;
- Growing undergraduate and program enrollment, with a goal of adding 500 students majoring in School of Education programs. Hess noted that two new majors, Education Studies in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, and Health Promotion and Health Equity (HPHE), a collaborative effort across the departments of Kinesiology, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education (RPSE), have been very successful and are surpassing enrollment projections. In addition, RPSE’s new Disability Rights and Services certificate has attracted students from all over campus;
- Continue to support high-quality learning opportunities, whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person;
- Continue to support high-quality outreach in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and across the School;
- Execute the Impact 2030 initiative, including the Teacher Pledge, study abroad, and global engagement opportunities. Hess noted that, currently, there are 160 students signed up for the Teacher Pledge, and this will help diversify the teacher workforce across the state.
Hess expressed hope that School of Education faculty, staff, and students would continue to work together, support and encourage each other, and be a resource for one another to help boost morale and build a sense of belonging during these difficult times.
“We have had an extremely challenging year, but the School of Education’s spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and support is enabling us to weather these storms,” she said.