Update a Colleague is a series of posts where faculty members share the resources and information they gained from attending CTL-sponsored events. Look for more upcoming posts from other faculty members to read about their experiences at events and conferences, and stay tuned for future conference applications!
Below the summary from your colleague, please find the resources gained from their attendance at the event.
Ashoka U Exchange:
March 18 2021
I attended multiple sessions and left the conference with a lot of new ideas and feeling supported in the DEI and community building work we’ve been doing in Film/Video. It was great to learn that there is a network of colleges and universities that consider themselves “changemaker campuses” where social justice and social innovation are integrated into the entire curriculum and the culture of the campus. We have a lot of this work going on at Pratt but I love the idea of the campuses really integrating this into their identities in a big way. Here are some of the some of the ideas that stood out to me, not all new ideas but all worth mentioning.
* Listen to students. Bring them into the conversation and the planning. They often know what they need.
* Cultivate a community of care- “we all succeed or no one succeeds”.
* Invest time and energy in the power of the micro. Individual conversations, relationships, and connections can lead to great things.
* Apply creation logic. Try something, learn something, listen to feedback. Repeat. Be responsive.
* A focus on purpose, compassion, and strengths is integral to organizational happiness.
* Try appreciative inquiry- strength-based focus instead of problem solving- negativity bias. Ask “If everything paused and you could magically return to our institution a year from now, but it is an institution that completely supports the well-being of all constituents, what would it look like? What would you do more of? Less of? What would you start doing?”
* We must meet this moment and lead with love.
Sincerely,
Kara Hearn, Film/Video
Resources from this event:
- Ashoka Executive Summary Brochure: Becoming a Changemaker Institution
- Appreciative Inquiry
- A Better Kind of Happiness