Undergraduate Teaching
Initiative @ SA
What
is the UTI?
Dartmouth has long prided itself on the quality of its undergraduate
teaching among its Ivy League peers. Many consider it to be the very
hallmark of a Dartmouth education. This commitment cannot become trite.
Last year’s Academic Direction Report presented by the SA emphasized
the distinction between mere public emphasis on teaching and institutional
support of teaching. There is no bigger academic issue at the College
than the continued preeminence of undergraduate teaching. The aim of
the Undergraduate Teaching Initiative is to strive to ensure that SA
plays an active role in ensuring that undergraduate teaching remains
front and center of the academic institutional agenda. The UTI is envisioned
as a permanent and continuous initiative of the Student Assembly dedicated
to keeping teaching at the fore of any discussion about the academic
reorientation of Dartmouth.
Currently the UTI is composed of four components, each of which attempts
to use a different aspect of advocacy available to the SA. Component
1 is an annual assessment of undergraduate teaching. This assessment
will be a departmental report card. The methodology employed will be
rigorous and transparent, and will involve a combination of survey data
and important statistical indicators such as average class size and
faculty-major ratio. The surveys will ask majors in each department
to rate the quality of undergraduate teaching in their respective departments.
Though rankings are never exhaustive in their assessment, they never
fail to catalyze response, and generate dialogue on the issues. Ideally,
the introduction of these rankings and their wide public dissemination
will play a role in galvanizing otherwise complacent departments to
take action to ensure a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.
The statistical indicators being used are certainly not hollow. After
all, there is little that is more telling than a department’s
own majors giving it a poor score.
UTI Component 2 builds upon previous attempts by the SA to recognize
superior faculty through the Excellence in Teaching Profiles Awards.
Such awards would be presented on a quarterly basis. An outstanding
teaching would be selected for recognition through nomination to the
SA. A profile of this teacher’s excellence in teaching would be
written up for publication in The Dartmouth and on the SA website. The
teacher would then be invited to a forum where the award would be presented.
Following the presentation the professor would facilitate a discussion
on the current state and future of undergraduate teaching at Dartmouth.
The minutes of the discussion would be archived in the SA records. Recognizing
and engaging in open discussion with excellent educators with an outstanding
commitment to undergraduate teaching can undoubtedly be valuable in
generating new ideas about improving teaching at Dartmouth within the
larger scope of the UTI.
UTI component 3 provides faculty with the opportunity to apply to the
SA for innovative teaching grants. Though faculty have access to grants
for various research initiatives, access to grants for pursuing innovative
ideas for the classroom do not exist in any real form at the College.
At other colleges such grants exist, ranging in amount from $500 to
$20,000. This component would see the SA allocating three to four $1000
grants to be awarded for professors with creative and innovate ideas
they desire to pursue in order to complement teaching. Through this
component, the SA is able to make a tangible contribution to the process
of improving undergraduate teaching through the power of our own purse.
This action is meant to demonstrate our resolve to the administration
in the hopes that the College will seriously take up the awarding of
such grants at a more significant institutional level.
UTI component 4 involves drafting a report in support of the creation
of a center for undergraduate teaching at Dartmouth. Such centers are
invaluable resources for fostering undergraduate teaching on campuses
across the United States. One of the exemplary models is the Center
for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.
The emphasis of this center is on providing various types of support
and resources to ensure excellence in undergraduate teaching at the
university. Through expert staff, the center provides consultations
to professors on student evaluations, immediate teaching concerns (ranging
from how to enhance class discussion to multiculturalism in the classroom),
and various other learning and teaching topics. The center also conducts
regular faculty seminars on salient issues of undergraduate teaching.
Another important aspect of the center’s mission is a comprehensive
orientation for all new facultyÑduring this time important issues and
strategies of undergraduate teaching are raised. A unique aspect of
the center’s function is its ‘Midterm Student Feedback,’
to provide professors with an optional external audit of the teaching
in their classrooms. Yet another key function of the center is the administration
and awarding the types of grants discussed earlier for the improvement
of teaching and learning by professors. The above is a very cursory
snapshot of the type of institution that could contribute tremendously
to undergraduate education at Dartmouth. In order to lobby for this
Center more information will have to be collected about Michigan’s
Center and other similar centers throughout America. A detailed report
will be compiled and submitted to the relevant administrators and the
trustees, and numerous meetings will be held with the appropriate persons.
Fortunately, a committee under the supervision of the Provost has been
convened in the last week to discuss this very issue, and so this vision
has a strong prospect of becoming a reality. We have an ideal opportunity
to make our voices heard, and make sure this does not fall by the wayside.
The UTI is about the SA embracing a “big issue” that concerns
every single undergraduate on this campus. Ideally the UTI will evolve
to incorporate more components, with each uniquely contributing to the
continued preeminence of undergraduate teaching at Dartmouth. If you
have ideas about other projects that could be pursued under the UTI
banner, please contact me.
All comments, criticism, and insights are welcome. If we are to uphold
what is most valuable to us in our classroom experiences than we must
come together with a common strategyÑit is our hope that the UTI , as
it grows and expands over the year, will fulfill this vital function.
RESOLUTION
TO LAUNCH THE UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING INITIATIVE
Sponsored by Aly Rahim '02 and the Academic Affairs Committee
Whereas Dartmouth has long prided itself on the quality of its undergraduate
teaching that makes it stand apart among its peer Colleges;
Whereas the Student Assembly's 2001 report entitled The Soul of Dartmouth:
The Academic Direction of Dartmouth College raised important questions
about the increasing research orientation of Dartmouth and the future
of undergraduate teaching at the college;
Whereas the aforementioned report makes clear that the public emphasis
on teaching alone by the Dartmouth College administration means little
without equally strong material and institutional support of teaching;
Let it be resolved that the Student Assembly adopt in principle the
following Undergraduate Teaching Initiative (UTI) as a permanent and
continuous initiative of the Student Assembly, that will be managed
and implemented by the Student Assembly Vice-President of Academic Affairs
and the Academic Affairs Committee, and will advocate for and materially
support undergraduate teaching at Dartmouth College;
Let it be resolved that this UTI be initially constituted of the following
four components:
A) UTI Component 1: An Annual Assessment of Undergraduate Teaching to
be developed using qualitative survey data of majors in every department,
and relevant statistical indicators to gauge each respective department's
commitment to undergraduate teaching.
B) UTI Component 2: Excellence in Teaching Profiles/Awards to recognize
a different superior faculty member every quarter and have them facilitate
a discussion on the current state and future of undergraduate teaching
at Dartmouth, with the minutes of these discussion being archived with
other UTI materials.
C) UTI Component 3: Innovative Teaching Grants to be awarded, in amounts
to be determined in a future resolution, to faculty members on the basis
of application to the Student Assembly for the purpose of fostering
creative and innovative activities that will improve undergraduate teaching
and learning in and beyond the classroom.
D) UTI Component 4: A Report Supporting the Creation of a Center for
Undergraduate Teaching at Dartmouth to be drafted and submitted to the
relevant administrators, containing examples of prominent centers at
universities throughout America and suggestions for relevant functions
at Dartmouth;
Let be resolved that the UTI will be a dynamic and continually evolving
initiative to which other components can be added, and whose current
components can be abrogated or amended by the Student Assembly;
Let it be further resolved that all necessary funding allocations will
be requested of the general assembly of the Student Assembly in independent
resolutions;
Let it be further resolved that upon completion, under the aegis of
the Academic Affairs Committee, each of the four current components
of the UTI be presented to the general assembly of the SA for formal
adoption.
Let it be further resolved that while the Student Assembly is expressing
its commitment to teaching through this resolution, the Academic Affairs
Committee, in conjunction with other Assembly committees, will continue
the effort of advocating for the College to adopt initiatives similar
to those in this resolution at the institutional level.
Adopted by the Dartmouth College Student Assembly - 16 October, 2001
33 Voted in Favor, 1 in Opposition, and there were 2 abstentions.
Media
Coverage
Towards
Teaching (Editorial by Aly Rahim, SA Vice President of Academic
Affairs) - October 25, 2001 Assembly
passses undergraduate teaching initiative - The Dartmouth, October
17, 2001
Rahim
'02 sponsors teaching initiative - The Dartmouth, October 9, 2001
