tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39993741825962563692024-02-21T08:41:55.035-08:00Reflections: The process of changeThe reflections of education stakeholders who are involved in an exploration of transformationLinda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-23137877635796973272016-05-25T05:33:00.002-07:002016-05-25T05:33:40.806-07:00When your dean calls the police to keep you out of a meeting...Yesterday I showed up to a routine college "leadership" meeting (dean's office and department chairs) at the request of my chair to find that my dean called an armed police officer to "keep the peace," in the event that I would not willingly leave the meeting. The irony of it was that the circulated agenda listed "Rumor control." I guess that is one way to control the rumor...to Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-44838083652843409712016-01-11T14:09:00.001-08:002016-01-11T14:09:05.990-08:00Thanks for inviting me to post. I am not really familiar with Blogger but have been slow blogging for awhile on Blogspot. I thought I would share a link to my own blog (which went into hibernation when I went to NSF) since it may contribute to the larger conversation or at the very least clarify my own interests and the place I am coming from. All my posts current reside on Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04562033811639353006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-67109118104079794082015-03-11T20:37:00.001-07:002015-03-11T21:20:19.436-07:00Speaking at the National Science Foundation, "Can you hear me now?"Today I had a chance to speak to a small group of senior advisers of the Engineering directorate of the National Science Foundation. Oh, and there was a secret tribunal over WebEx as well. I was invited to speak as part of the Emerging Frontiers of Research Innovation program. Every three years, NSF puts out a call to the research community to submit emerging research that is potentially Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-79190433364029944812015-02-24T10:26:00.001-08:002015-03-01T15:27:55.572-08:00Summoned to the Provost's LairThis is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek entry. It details part of the (non) change process at today's universities. The actual people might even be considered "fungible." It is easy to personalize the actors, yet anyone in their shoes, with the same set of goals, might make the same choices.
Let me tell you a story...
As a background, several of us have been working since 2007 to bring forth aLinda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-50388174384621334082014-05-04T12:26:00.001-07:002014-05-04T12:26:52.614-07:00Returning for a look at 'real' social changeOn Friday, Roger, Kylie, Fatma and I went to see our colleague Sarah Ramirez receive a great honor: the 2014 Thomas I. Yamashita Award for Social Change at an event hosted by the Center for Research on Social Change at UC Berkeley (link). The event itself was a 35 year celebration of the work by the Institute for Study of Social Issues at Berkeley. It, in my experience, was quite odd.  Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-14671061001701036122014-02-20T19:34:00.002-08:002014-02-20T19:35:43.585-08:00On the precipiceHow so very hard it is to record the change as it happens. Right now, SUSTAIN is about to "step off" somewhat of an edge. Perhaps this is overly dramatic. We are in the midst of evaluating whether we want to take the gift of partnership that has been offered to us by the VP of Student Affairs: an entire dormitory for 2014-2015.
The dorm comes in the form of a "living learning" Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-1114436451278050222013-08-09T18:54:00.002-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.242-07:00wishing i had kept recording my thoughtsI am looking back on all that has happened and now really wish I had continued to keep a record of what I have been thinking and feeling all along.
Well, the truth is, I have, but much of it felt too private to reveal. It may be that this is the way I participate in keeping the present dynamics in place.
I feel like I have been through a profound change. This year, with the possible Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-64205072103810253592013-02-22T19:18:00.001-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.277-07:00The unintended consequences of successI don't know if I ever really considered what "success" would look like beyond "glorious." I find that I now understand that transforming STEM education system means that I will experience a transformation, as the system is IN me.
I suppose that in thinking about transformation of STEM, my thoughts were superficial. I didn't consider the fact that profound change might mean not only that I Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-85463080162812007772012-05-15T21:17:00.002-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.286-07:00Turning the mind away from war...what it takesRoger came back from his time in Washington D.C. and offered this observation: The mind of engineering and higher education is turned toward war and the consolidation of profit (or that unholy alliance of the two). In essence, the dynamic is "domination for personal gratification."
You might think that sounds ridiculous, but I find that when I consider the stated purpose of higher Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-9089152074954431542012-05-01T20:41:00.003-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.291-07:00Some more data...
I asked the SUSTAIN students a few simple questions in order to undated some of the financial analysis. I am still working on the financial analysis, but here are a few tidbits of information.
When asked if they are leaving Cal Poly next year 2 of the 37 answered "yes." This is a 94% retention rate approximately equal to Cal Poly's one-year retention rate of 93% in 2010.
When asked if Liz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-74804613487100252832012-05-01T15:26:00.002-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.279-07:00What are the differences?Of course, there are no perfect measures of anything. We used an instrument called the Course Valuing Inventory. It has four scales within it: Course Valuing, Course Learning, Personal Learning, Behavioral Learning.
We administered this test to the SUSTAIN students after 1 quarter and a group of freshmen in physics after 1 quarter. The physics class consisted largely of engineeringLinda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-29508427105226147642012-04-12T10:10:00.003-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.259-07:00So, I like you, just not when you're visiting my classLike Ginger, Monday's check-in conversation struck me in a few different ways. During my conversation with Bill on Tuesday, we discussed it and explored ideas around its emergence. For me, the hypothetical notion of faculty visiting my classes sounded wonderful. "Please, come in, sit down, and enjoy the wonders of my rich learning environment." said to me, in my head with some sense of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-38128805224069337172012-03-27T09:37:00.004-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.263-07:00What if they left hungry?I had a really great time teaching Project Management last quarter. Roger and I collaborated on the content and delivery. I must say when I was teaching, or preparing, I felt very much like Roger was "slowing me down." I could have covered so much more, I asserted. If you know Roger, you will know why this happened. His "ignorance," that Linda spoke of, causes so many questions. It was actually Liz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-31493760812540630952012-03-18T12:42:00.001-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.261-07:00our successes...don't forget them!
One of the things that we noticed during our last faculty collaboration meeting of the quarter was that we are intolerant of talking about our successes. We will spend hours on "problem solving" but after 10 minutes of reviewing what "went right," we were saying, "Okay, what is the point of this meeting? Why are we talking about this?"
I also noticed my tendency to document my complaintsLinda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-22964444565463609242012-03-18T12:39:00.001-07:002013-08-12T11:58:59.254-07:00it's all too muchmiraculously, we have made it through the first quarter. to hear me talk, you'd think that we were in some sort of collective "donner pass"-hell scenario, when in fact we are simply learning together.
what is rather funny is how horrific learning can feel sometimes, especially to those whose egos are invested in their "expertise," the "rightness." roger often says his value is his "profound Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-49960215900473895792012-03-10T09:33:00.003-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.270-07:00SUSTAINing each otherOur colleague and friend (and vilified teacher of Physics) had a terrible life threatening health crisis on Thursday. It was horrific and wonderful all in the same moment. It looks like he will be fine, but is in the ICU about an hour away.
This crisis revealed to us how we are with each other. We are a community who care for each other, not only the faculty, but the students too. From the Liz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-18892637799962358152012-02-12T19:55:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.252-07:00relinquishing controlEach Friday, during the last hour, we have a "check-out." The faculty often design something: a sticky wall, a team building exercise, or a discussion about Spring quarter. This last Friday we thought of a lot of things we could do, fish bowl or debrief on the emotional upheaval of physics, but Linda had a brilliant idea of asking the students what they wanted as a gesture of our co-ownership ofLiz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-13720759442126735682012-02-09T09:54:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.245-07:00what if.........it fails?
....I will most definitely blame Physics.
This is kind of funny to me: my blaming, my vilification of physics (I am an engineer, trained and participating in the very masculine system!). Of course, this is my immaturity, this blaming. I am reading a book (very slowly because sustain takes up all my time), but the author said that issues or problems are always overdetermined. SoLiz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-15296712007543157142012-02-09T00:41:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.249-07:00the hidden cost of change - week 6it's been nearly a month since my last entry here.
i've been reflecting a great deal on all that is happening, but not here...not in the open. there is a way in which i don't want my thoughts to be known. in terms of the students in SUSTAIN, in some ways, they are thriving. their relationships with one another are strong and they are deeply engaged in their community projects. they have Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-80921052315975115222012-01-30T20:46:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.284-07:00Starting somethingI know that the reason I am Liz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-40900561919556010012012-01-17T23:01:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.266-07:00Day 9-Profoundly gratefuli am profoundly grateful for my colleagues. today, while the students were checking-in in their project teams, the faculty rounded up to also check in. this is always a sweet time for me because i have such feelings of warmth toward all my colleagues. by the way, it is true that not all of us were there and i do miss those who weren't.
pete and i recreated a conflict that we Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-86185875311919428622012-01-14T11:57:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.288-07:00Faculty collaboration - The only hopeWe, the faculty teaching in SUSTAIN, have been meeting for almost a year each week for two hours. Right now the meetings are on Friday from 9 to 11. So here we are. Roger reminded us that we did this because we wanted to confront and consider how to live sustainably. We are now inside of this thing we call SUSTAIN and are confronted in a direct way with the ways we are, the system is, Liz Schlemerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08008858142366553159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-27482969396135124822012-01-11T16:14:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.257-07:00When students are given a choice, they take itWe, the faculty, have been talking with the students about treating them as co-learners. We have been talking about treating them as people, with values, interests, motivations of their own.
Among the first thing that we discovered is that they want to exercise their human rights: During the times that they don't have assigned classes, they asked if they have to "be there."
They want to Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-5419433072312583812012-01-11T16:07:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.275-07:00The ways we oppress each otherI am teaching the Physics for the liberal arts and business students. This course is a conceptual course that includes some math, but is more of a survey than a focus on proficiency of analysis.
Last Thursday, it was announced that there were two different sets of physics students. One of the very motivated students in my class took me aside and wanted to know if they were really going to be Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3999374182596256369.post-7774105164494642912012-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:002013-08-12T11:58:59.281-07:00Day 6-Down for the count alreadyMy colleague Liz just dropped me off at home out of mercy for me. I'm so sick that I'm rather a menace to society. I was supposed to be 2-hours in studio time today with SUSTAIN.
It feels like we are in a delightful whirlwind of creativity, but these whirlwinds are someone personal vortices, colliding with others in the 60 seconds after a meeting in which we are all running in different Linda Vanasupahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468568257682711446noreply@blogger.com0