Western receives grant to aid student retention
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Western Michigan University was one of three Michigan postsecondary institutions selected to participate in a program to improve student outcomes and reduce equity gaps in high-risk courses. WMU’s Merze Tate College will oversee the implementation of the the John N. Gardner Institute’s Courses and Curricula in Urban Ecosystems (CCUE) program, a partnership between Western, the Gardner Institute and the Kresge Foundation that looks to eliminate race, ethnicity and family income as the best predictors of who succeeds in gateway courses and examine the broader curricula of those courses.
The project has a 36-month timeline, during which WMU will work with the Gardner Institute and its partners to identify and address unjust design in courses and curricula. Western will continue to provide the Gardner Institute with student outcomes tracking data for at least three years following the completion of the project to allow for ongoing tracking of lagging indicators.
Other Michigan institutions selected for the program include Henry Ford College and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
The project’s goals are to:
Expand access and increase success for low-income and underrepresented students.
Address the limitations of previous gateway course design work the Gardner Institute has undertaken.
Offer course changes and curriculum solutions that can change and adapt over time.
Working out of Merze Tate College, the implementation of CCUE at WMU is led by project liaison Katie Easley, director of student success. Easley is supported by executive sponsor Dr. Edwin Martini, vice provost for teaching and learning and dean of Merze Tate College, and faculty liaison Dr. Adrienne Redding, faculty specialist II of English.
“I was thrilled to learn that WMU was a recipient of the CCUE grant, empowering us to participate in a third cohort of Gateways to Completion,” Easley says. “Our involvement in the two previous cohorts showed us the impact of working collaboratively with a team of student success staff, advisors and instructors to make our gateway courses a wonderful learning experience for all students. We are excited to begin this work, reduce equity gaps and help our students thrive as Broncos.”
CCUE-targeted courses are from the College of Arts and Sciences, specifically the departments of philosophy and Spanish and the institute for intercultural and anthropological studies, as well as the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, including the departments of computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering.
Departmental-level committees have been charged with laying the foundation for each course's redesign and include faculty, advisors and graduate students as well as others from across the University.
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