Celebrating the Good

(A. Solano)

Over the past four years, higher education has faced its share of challenges and has come through with some surprising and innovative changes. While much of this was driven by necessity during the pandemic, it’s important to step back and look at the bright spots. As we continue to work on improving, let’s also take a moment to appreciate the progress that’s been made. There’s a lot to be proud of, and it’s worth recognizing these achievements. Here are my observations, in no particular order.

Increased Accessibility: From the use of alt text to a greater awareness of how to support neurodivergent students, there’s been a strong faculty-led charge towards inclusivity for individuals with disabilities at many campuses.

Grading Reform: More faculty than ever before are reimagining grading practices. They’re focusing more on student learning than on student point accumulation.

Improved Student Onboarding: A multitude of institutions have improved the onboarding process for students with less ping-ponging across the campus and departments, wet signature requirement elimination, program maps that provide students with a course-taking picture for the first two years, career & academic pathways (e.g., meta-majors) to help students better explore their goals within curriculum and career-alike majors, and intrusive outreach and communication to check-in with students.

Developmental Education Reform: The data shows that it works when implemented well. More students of color are completing college-level English and math than ever before!

Emphasis on Mental Health: Initiatives have bloomed at many campuses, offering students and college personnel services to support their wellbeing.

Increase in Basic Needs: From free on-campus food pantries to free LinkedIn headshots, campuses have invested heavily to provide students with essentials.

Improved Digital Literacy: Students, faculty, and administrators have become more adept at using digital tools, and more educators are responding to AI with less fear, and instead, with a means of how to leverage AI to improve organizational and classroom outcomes.

Open Educational Resources: An increased speed in the trend toward using and creating resources that are freely available to students.

Community Engagement: Colleges are creating more partnerships with local communities for mutual benefit. Dual enrollment partnerships with K12 and internship partnerships with business and industry are just two examples.

Technology as a Pedagogical Ally: The technology faculty were forced to use during the Great Shift to Online is now being leveraged to improve their craft for in-person instruction.

Professional Development with Purpose: From culturally responsive teaching to anti-racist strategies, countless faculty and student services professionals have been more intentional about responding to the needs of their disproportionately impacted students.

Retirements: Many of the old timer obstructionists with student-deficit mindsets and/or poor leadership and teaching practices retired. This has cleared the stage for fresh ideas and voices to champion student success and equity.

Of course, there’s still significantly more room for improvement, and it’s worth noting that some states are going backward with anti-DEIA policies, but we should take a moment to celebrate the positives. If we don’t pause to recognize the good, it’s easy to be demoralized with the constant doom and gloom talk. We need the energy to continue to fight the good fight. Take a moment to celebrate your hard work!

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