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 COF STRATEGIC PLAN
FOR ACADEMIC COLLABORATION
Background
(Environment and current position)
Since the inception of the Colleges of the Fenway
collaboration in 1996, the colleges involved have come together to
implement a variety of academic initiatives. One of the first acts
of the presidents was to mandate alignment of the academic
calendars and the implementation of a cross registration program.
In the past four years students have taken over 2000 courses
through this program. Cross registration has opened up more than
1800 courses to the students enrolled at the colleges. A sizable
grant from the Davis Educational Foundation has provided faculty
with the opportunity to collaborate on new courses, new curricular
initiatives, and new pedagogy. The faculty Mini-Grants made
possible by the Davis Foundation’s gift allowed 26 groups of
faculty to work together developing projects that enrich the
academic environment of the colleges. In addition a grant from the
New England Science Faculty Collaborative brought together science
faculty to look at effective teaching techniques for introductory
science courses. Prior to the Davis grant two faculty members from
Simmons and Wentworth developed a new jointly taught course, and
the same two schools collaborated to hire a shared professor to
cover sabbaticals. While all of the efforts have been laudable and
applauded none of them has spurred a broader vision of systematic
academic collaboration that was hoped for in the founding of the
consortium. The initial Davis Education Foundation Grant has
played a significant role in breaking down some of the real and/or
imagined barriers to faculty collaboration. By offering funding to
groups of faculty who came together across the schools to develop
programs, or explore pedagogy, the Mini-Grants provided a tangible
incentive for faculty to collaborate. In doing so, those faculty
who participated were able to get to know their colleagues, and in
many cases the students, from the other schools. What they found
were academic partners; faculty with similar visions, struggles,
and concerns. In addition, many of the faculty who did not
participate in the grants saw the products and benefits realized
by their colleagues. The effects of the grants have moved beyond
the participants. Students who have cross-registered for classes
report both satisfaction with the classes and the expanded options
this opportunity offers them. Potential students, and in
particular their parents, are very interested in the enhancements
to both academic and social life COF promises. It is within this
context of success, continued apprehension, and potential that a
three-year plan for furthering academic collaboration is
presented.
Vision for the
future
The Colleges of the Fenway is and will be:
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A think-tank. A place to bring together
faculty and academic administrators, brainstorm new
approaches, share ideas.
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A place to take risks; be creative, try out
approaches that one is unable to take within a particular
individual institution for political or financial reasons.
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A place to share resources rather than
duplicate every office and effort on each campus. It may be
that a service or discipline offered jointly has more depth
and breadth than one college could afford.
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Capitalizing on success of current joint
efforts, and institutionalizing those that warrant sustained
support.
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Creating flexible partnerships that capitalize
on institutional strengths and can disband and reconfigure as
new ideas and opportunities emerge.
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Bringing visibility to the Colleges of the
Fenway.
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Broadening resources for faculty, and
students.
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Enhancing faculty opportunities and improve
recruitment of faculty and students.
The future we seek is one in which faculty from
across the consortium will collaborate on curricular and
pedagogical issues through joint teaching efforts, joint programs
and shared appointments. and where partnering with the other
schools enhances resources, and provides opportunities for new
ideas and new relationships between disciplines to be tested.
This vision requires flexibility, creativity, and new ways of
thinking. Faculty and administrators will be required to think
beyond their own campus boundaries and see challenges as
opportunities to explore a shared approach. It requires building a
sense of trust, and broadening one’s institutional definition of
who “we” are.
Plan for Getting
There
Through discussion and careful assessment of the
needs of the colleges and the opportunities presented by the
collaboration, the Chief Academic Officers have identified three
areas for focusing academic collaboration over the next three
years.
Collaborative
Programs
One of the foremost goals of this plan is to find
ways to draw faculty into the process, for successful
collaboration can only occur if they are full participants. This
past year has provided us with several examples of successful
models that have provided faculty with incentives to participate
in the collaboration. Building upon these models will serve as a
key component of furthering the collaboration. The success of the
academic technology workshops, the Davis symposium and the
department chairs' conference point to the many ways the faculty
from the schools can learn from each other. Many at the department
chairs workshop benefited as much from the opportunity to talk
with their colleagues about shared challenges as they did from the
presentations. This plan calls for a strong focus on faculty
development with the following components:
COF Conference for Teaching and Learning
The Chief Academic Officers believe that annual
conference for teaching and learning is the next step in promoting
faculty development. A one-day conference hosted each year at a
different school will be effective and inexpensive. The conference
will have a different focused theme each year, geared towards
specific academic disciplines, and panels led by faculty from
different COF schools which explore new ideas of best practices at
each of the schools. Other consortia have been very successful
with this model as it has brought together faculty from related
disciplines and provided a context for developing relationships,
while providing opportunities to focus on pedagogy. $10,000 has
been included in the COF budget to fund this program.
COF/ProArts
Consortium Department Chairs and Program Coordinators Workshop
This
spring COF department chairs participated in a 1 1/2-day workshop
with their colleagues from the ProArts Consortium. The workshop
was planned in conjunction with the American Council on Education’s
programs for department chairs and brought several “experts”
in the field to Boston. The overwhelming recommendation from
participants was that this program continue, tapping into local
experts as well as national presenters. Many on the current
planning committee are interested in continuing their efforts.
They recommend that this become an annual event eventually moving
to the fall semester and include a specific session for newly
appointed department chairs. The Chief Academic Officers support
this recommendation and have tentatively scheduled this program
for February2001. Simmons College has volunteered to host the
workshop.
Davis Mini-Grants
The initial funding from the Davis Educational Foundation has been
instrumental in providing an incentive to faculty to collaborate.
During the course of the fall semester the Chief Academic Officers
will be meeting with each of the mini-grant teams to review their
projects and determine which initiatives should be pushed forward
and if warranted, formally institutionalized. In addition, we have
received a second grant to continue the faculty mini-grant
program. These grants have brought a sense of excitement to the
faculty and have encouraged new and innovative thinking about
curriculum and collaboration. MassArt is a new member of the
consortium and the grant program will play a pivotal role in
bringing their faculty into the collaboration.
Faculty
Seminars/Colloquia
One of the keys to furthering academic collaboration is building
the relationships and trust among the individual faculty. While
the faculty development opportunities we have identified will
begin this process, a systematic and faculty driven approach is
also needed. The Chief Academic Officers recommend that funds be
designated for faculty seminars and available through a specific
petition process. Possible uses include faculty in a particular
discipline coming together to share their research on a regular
basis, faculty who share a common interest across disciplines
meeting to discuss scholarship or common concerns, or faculty
bringing together students to share their research with each
other. The following criteria are under consideration for
structuring the program: the group requesting funding has to
represent at least three institutions; funds can pay for
refreshments, not meals; funds will not pay honoraria to COF
faculty; funds could pay small honoraria to bring in outside
speakers. It is envisioned that these seminars could serve as
start-ups for future joint programs. It is important that the
faculty have a role in defining how they could best use these
funds. A portion of these funds will be allocated for supporting
joint speakers when at least three institutions have already
contributed to a planned event. The Chief Academic Officers Group
will review fund requests and a limit will be placed on the amount
that can be requested. $15,000 has been allocated in the COF
budget to fund this initiative.
Joint Academic
Initiatives
As many other consortiums with an academic focus have found, the
benefits of joint academic programs are significant. Pooling
resources from two or more campuses can form a program or course
that cannot be created on one campus alone. Combined faculties
produce a stronger more diverse curriculum. The costs for the
program or course are shared, each institution hiring part of the
faculty with the costs of operation, accreditation, and
professional membership split among the group. The paradigm of
cooperation generates a creative mind-set in which faculty are
likely to develop a strong relationship and maintain a positive
attitude seeking proactive solutions for the challenges that
arise. (Strandness, 1999) At the same time there are many
challenges to moving in this direction, as it comes closer to
touching the heart of each of our schools. In order to move
forward in this area we need to engage in extensive planning
beginning with the building of relationships and trust among those
faculty and administrators in the targeted areas. We are confident
that many new ideas will emerge once faculty come together and are
given the opportunity and incentives to collaborate.
It is certainly easier to look at potential new
programs on an inter-institutional cooperative basis than to merge
two existing departments. The Chief Academic Officers recommend
that the first steps in this area be a commitment to reviewing all
institutional requests for new academic programs in light of the
collaboration and to assess existing areas of academic
collaboration. An individual school should approve no new academic
program without a careful review to see if it could be achieved
collaboratively, and an assessment of what resources the other
schools have to offer. Once a few new joint academic programs are
in place, it will be easier to look at existing programs. As
academic administrators at each of the schools plan for the
future, the opportunity to develop joint programs and majors needs
to be part of their environmental scan. At the same time, a few
joint academic programs currently exist between pairs of COF
schools. It is time to assess these programs, determining whether
they are living up to their potential and identifying what other
opportunities may exist. An emphasis will be placed on developing
joint courses and programs in the new Davis Mini-Grant RFP.
Faculty
Scholars Program
The goal of the Faculty Scholars Program (FSP) is
to provide an opportunity for highly motivated students to develop
innovative courses of study that maximize the collective resources
of the Colleges of the Fenway. A planning committee of faculty and
administrators will be convened in the Fall 2000 to develop this
program.
Center for Innovation in
Technology, Education, Art, Communication and Health (CI/TEACH)
By capitalizing on our core academic strengths,
the Chief Academic Officers propose the establishment of a center
for innovative collaboration among the faculties and professional
staffs of the six member institutions. The Center for Innovation
in Technology, Education, Art, Communication and Health-or
CI/TEACH-would be a think-tank that would serve as an incubator
and clearinghouse for collaborative programs in areas such as the
following:
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environmental engineering (toxicology, public
health, technology, design)
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industrial design (architecture, art,
technology)
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medical design (health, architecture, art,
technology)
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alternative healing practices (health,
education, cultural studies)
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health literacy (health, education,
communication, technology)
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drug development, regulation and marketing
(health, management, communication, design)
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women's studies (all disciplines)
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graphic design (all disciplines)
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teacher preparation and re-certification (all
disciplines)
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gerontology studies (all disciplines)
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COF Honors Program
Drawing on Greg Prince's ideas on creating
web-like relationships that bring together disciplines and faculty
in a flexible format, we envision a virtual center that will allow
groups of faculty to explore innovative collaboration online.
CI/TEACH would be coordinated by co-directors, initially supported
through external funding source, who would be responsible for
three main initiatives:
1. establishing the CI/TEACH website;
2. creating an electronic journal/newsletter on CI/TEACH
activities; and
3. planning an annual summer institute
In consultation with the COF Presidents, the Chief
Academic Officers will assemble a board of advisors, with members
drawn from education and industry, to help us think about the
nature and shape of the center and identify appropriate funding
sources.
Collaborative
Grants
Academic collaborations and consortiums across the
country are currently seeing strong support from both private and
government funding agencies. The challenge COF faces is to get the
appropriate group of faculty and/or administrators together to
develop these grant applications. The goal is to develop an
ongoing system for identifying and engaging groups of faculty
interested in a particular area, and providing them with support
in soliciting grants. The Chief Academic Officers recommend that
the grants/development officers collaborate on a monthly listing
of grants available, and that the schools develop a system for
notifying faculty about grant opportunities and identifying
faculty who might work on a particular project together. We
envision informal meetings, coordinated by the COF office,
inviting potential collaborators on specific RFPs to brainstorm
potential responses. The corollary to this is to provide support
for informal groups of faculty to come together to identify shared
interests and ideas for scholarship and then enlist the grants
officers assistance in identifying funding sources as initiatives
emerge. During the review of Davis Mini-Grant projects, the Chief
Academic Officers will be identifying those initiatives that merit
institutionalization and/or further financial support from other
outside funders. They will be looking to the grants' officers to
support these faculty in moving forward. In conjunction, it is
important that the corporation and foundation officers develop an
ongoing and trusting communications network in order to avoid
misunderstanding around competition for grants. This will require
giving them clear direction that they are to support collaborative
efforts and develop a means of regular communication and
relationship building.
As higher education continues to undergo scrutiny
in the public eye, both long standing supporters, and those who
wish to push the academy to make changes more quickly, are willing
to provide support to collaborative efforts among colleges to
efficiently use their resources. We need to position the Colleges
of the Fenway to make the most of this support for collaboration
and further the benefits faculty can realize through working
together.
Cross Registration
There needs to be a recommitment to the shared
academic calendar from the highest level at all the institutions
in order for the basic foundation of the collaboration, cross
registration, to realize the potential it offers students. In
addition, the time has come to codify academic policies and
grading as they relate to cross registration. Over the course of
the first four years of COF, several areas of difference in
relation to grading, academic policy, and scheduling have emerged.
While some of these may be mere nuisances that each school needs
to make an effort to overcome, others have the potential to be
seen as major stumbling blocks to cross registration for those who
have to manage them. It is time to carefully review the issues
that have arisen and put more formal guidelines in place where
appropriate. We also need to review the information that is shared
with faculty and make sure that they are aware of the policies and
agreements among the institutions.
Academic Calendar
The Chief Academic Officers recommend that all
schools agree that classes will start each semester within five
academic days of each other, and that the home institution will
accommodate cross-registered students who have any end or
beginning of the semester extended housing needs. The Chief
Academic Officers are looking to the presidents to endorse this
recommendation through a written agreement that is sent to the
parties responsible for developing the academic calendar at each
school.
Academic
Policies and Grading
The Chief Academic Officers will review all
academic and grading policy issues that have arisen during the
last four years. Once all are codified, the Chief Academic
Officers will charge the registrars to develop a
cross-registration handbook which outlines all the academic
policies and grading policies impacted by cross registration.
Appropriate versions of this handbook will be distributed to
faculty each fall.
Academic
Technology
There are a number of current initiatives within
the Colleges of the Fenway intended to better utilize future
technologies for the academic environment, including committees on
information technology and distance learning. However, except for
those specific initiatives that have been supported through the
Davis Mini-Grant process, most of those participating in these
larger COF efforts have not included faculty. As a result,
successes of these committees have been marginal, and to some
extent ignored by the faculty. The COF Faculty Information
Technology Taskforce is a short-term project to bring a new level
of COF faculty participation and provide a more visible example of
what a successful collaboration among the COF faculty can bring to
the academic environment.
The long-term goal is to capitalize on the role
technology can play in helping the schools to achieve all of the
goals related to academic collaboration, including facilitating
curricular development, scholarly activities, grant writing,
faculty professional development, and academic departmental
collaboration. In order to do this, we propose to: involve faculty
in an on-going discussion regarding information technology and the
impact this has on pedagogy, learning resources, and curriculum
development; create initiatives that further develop the level of
faculty competencies in the academic and administrative uses of
information technology in the learning environment; seek
opportunities to standardize basic instructional software tools,
mediated resources and electronic communications to facilitate
links among the COF faculties and students; and build on previous
IT initiatives or studies begun through the Davis Foundation and
COF IT and Distance Learning Committees.
COF Faculty Information Technology Taskforce
We recommend the creation of a faculty task force
comprised of one representative from each college and co-chaired
by one CAO to assist in the COF IT network strategic planning
initiatives. This task force would survey faculty (full and
adjuncts) regarding current and projected needs for technology to
enhance current pedagogy, support academic research, and enable
students to gain more from their learning experience. The task
force will then identify a common web instructional software tool
that is convenient to use by faculty and students, and can be
supported and maintained by the six colleges in a collaborative
way. The system will at minimum allow faculty to distribute
syllabi, provide bulletin board options, chat rooms for
instructional discussions, and other amenities to help facilitate
learning such as e-mail and the use of attachments. Upon
completion of their work, the task force would then conduct a
series of panel discussions at each of the colleges during the
following spring semester to report on their work and lead
discussions related to the impact of technology in the classroom.
Proceedings from these discussions could then be published on the
COF web site.
The faculty members involved will receive release
time to begin this work in the fall of 2000, which will allow them
to complete their work by the end of the fall semester. This could
be funded in part from the Davis Mini-Grant program.
Subject to the approval of the COF Presidents on
the COF networking initiative, then this same task force could
re-convene to determine the training needs of faculty, including
on-going help desk requirements to implement the selected web
software.
Faculty
Technology Workshops
In May 1999, the IT directors sponsored a faculty
technology workshop at Simmons. Featuring presentations by current
faculty on integration of technology into the classroom, the 100
participants gave the program high ratings and made several
suggestions for future programs. Moving forward, the Chief
Academic Officers plan to identify one or two days at the
beginning of the fall semester for an annual faculty technology
workshop. The focus of the program will range from basic training,
to applications within specific disciplines. The Chief Academic
Officers will work with the COF IT Committee to identify topics or
themes for each workshop, and the IT committee will coordinate the
development and delivery of the presentations. While the primary
goal of the program is to educate faculty about academic
technology and provide them with some hands-on examples of how
their colleagues are using these tools, a secondary goal is to
link faculty with others within the COF who can serve as resources
and collaborators in integrating technology into the curriculum of
all the schools.
Davis
Mini-Grant Projects
Several of the Faculty Mini-Grant projects funded
with the first grant from the Davis Educational Foundation focused
on utilizing technology to support academic initiatives. Many of
these were quite successful in what they accomplished. The Chief
Academic Officers will specifically review the projects related to
academic technology and work with the faculty to institutionalize
those that are appropriate, and/or find additional funding to
further develop the project.
Institutionalizing
Shared Resources
Sharing of Academic/Administrative Resources
There are two areas that come to immediate
attention as opportunities to enhance services and share costs
through some form of shared offices: Academic Support Services
/Disability Services and part-time faculty. The Chief Academic
Officers already consult with each other when looking to fill
part-time positions. In order to assess the real opportunities in
this area, we need to review all part-time faculty positions to
identify areas of overlap. In addition, each school needs to
identify who their strongest part-time faculty are; these could be
the faculty that the schools want to make a stronger commitment to
through a shared contract. Concurrently, the Chief Academic
Officers will develop a template for shared faculty contracts.
Academic Support Services/Disability Services is
an area in which each of the colleges sees a need for assessment
and possible enhancement. This makes it an ideal initial candidate
for consideration as an opportunity to develop shared delivery
services. The first step will be to conduct a needs assessment in
order to determine the current needs and services offered at each
school, and identify the areas of convergence. From there we can
research other operations of this nature and develop a proposal
for creating a new-shared entity. This is an area that may lend
itself to seeking outside support as a pilot program. There are
several other areas where shared services and resources are worth
considering, (career planning, sponsored programs, etc.) however
it is important to focus on one area and be successful before
moving into other areas.
Closing
While this plan is ambitious, it takes into
account the significant potential that this collaboration offers.
Over the course of the meetings and conversations between the
Chief Academic Officers, many innovative ideas for new academic
programs emerged. The challenge is separating the wheat from the
shaft. It is hoped that a new round of Davis Foundation funding
for Faculty Mini-Grants will bring some of these ideas to fruition
and raise new ones. The plan outlined here is designed to support
and enhance that which has been started through the initial round
of Davis Grants and through the slowly growing relationships
between the faculties of the schools. Energy, creativity, and
excellence are resources that we have on each of the campuses.
This plan is designed to capitalize and support this potential.
Timeline for
Implementation of Strategic Plan
Year One
2000 – 2001
Summer
2000
Strategic
Plan to presidents
Site visit from Davis Educational Foundation Trustees
Identify faculty for COF Faculty IT Taskforce
Select dates for Faculty Technology Workshop
Solicit comprehensive list of academic and grading policy concerns
from Registrars
Develop guidelines for Faculty Seminars/Colloquia Fund
Pursue possibility of ACE Fellow to work on Strategic Plan
Fall
2000
Convene
COF Faculty IT Taskforce
COF Conference on Teaching and Learning planning committee
appointed
Department Chairs and Program Coordinators Workshop planning
committee appointed.
Formal Review of 1st Davis Mini-grant projects begins
Set-up and announce Faculty Seminars/Colloquia Fund
Publicize Second Davis Mini-Grant RFP *
Select themes for Faculty Technology Workshop
Convene grants officers; develop protocol for sharing grant
information with faculty
Outline of plan for needs/current conditions assessment for
academic support services and disability services
Convene Faculty Scholars Program planning committee
Spring
2001
Cross
Registration handbook completed
First Annual COF Conference on Teaching and Learning
Review and select David Mini-Grant proposals
Begin implementing recommendations from report from COF Faculty IT
Taskforce
Template for joint part-time faculty contracts completed
Inventory of all part-time faculty positions completed
Second Annual COF/ProArts Consortium Department Chairs and
Program Coordinators Workshop at Simmons College.
COF Faculty Technology Workshop
Create CI/TEACH board of directors and secure funding
Year Two 2001-2002
Fall
2001
Continue
to implement Davis Mini-grant program (if awarded)
Third Annual COF/ProArts Consortium Department Chairs and Program
Coordinators
Workshop (moves to fall semester).
Implementation of joint part-time positions begun
Assessment for shared academic support services and disability
services completed
Appoint CI/TEACH co-directors and develop concrete implementation
plan
Assess current joint academic programs
Develop agreement to review all proposals for new academic
programs
COF Faculty Technology Workshop moves to fall
Spring
2002
Second
Davis Symposium*
Second Annual COF Conference on Teaching and Learning
Implementation plan for shared academic support services and
disability services completed.
Year Three 2002-2003
Fall
2002
Implementation
of programs and initiatives
Annual COF/ProArts Consortium Department Chairs and Program
Coordinators Workshop
Shared COF Office for Academic and Disability Support Services
Assessment of status of plan and revisions for the future
Implement CI/TEACH plan
COF Faculty Technology Workshop
Spring
2003
Third
Annual COF Conference on Teaching and Learning
Assess and develop plan for moving forward from here.
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