Agenda & Details
8:30 AM Welcome & Connections
Location: Building 8, Room 201
Come enjoy some refreshments, connect with colleagues, and peruse the book exchange table.
9:00 AM Keynote (Remote)
Relationship-rich education: how human connections drive student – and faculty – success
Decades of research demonstrate that the quality of student-faculty, student-staff, and student-student interactions are foundational to engaging, inclusive, and meaningful learning in higher education. Drawing on almost 500 interviews with students, faculty, and staff in the U.S., this interactive session will explore relationships as a flexible, scalable, and humane approach to ensuring that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore the big questions that matter for their lives and our communities – and that faculty have the connections they need to thrive professionally.
Peter Felten is professor of history, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University. He began his academic career as a part-time and then full-time community college faculty member. Since then, he has published seven books about undergraduate education, including Connections are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) co-authored by Isis Artze-Vega, Leo Lambert, and Oscar Miranda Tapia – with an open access online version free to all readers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute.
10:00 AM - Faculty Connections
Round Table Conversations
During this time you will have an opportunity to converse with your colleagues about topics that are important to you and your teaching. Prompts will be provided, but this time is for your to make connections and discuss what interests you.
11:00 AM - Student Connections
Location: Student Success Center | Building 2
During this time you will briefly hear about the new Student Success Center, and you will have the opportunity to talk in small groups with current students. The goals is to get a sense of how students are doing and learn ways that we might create stronger connections with our students.
12:00 PM - Lunch Break
Location: Student Success Center
Lunch will be provided for those who register by the end of Monday, October 9. We will send a link to an order form to those who register by this time.
1:00 PM - Campus Connections
Location: Around Campus
During this time you will be given a list of faculty resources and student service that would be helpful for you to know about as a faculty member. You will be encouraged to go to these different locations on campus to discover more about how they can help support you and/or there will be someone at each of these locations prepared to briefly share what they do and how they might help you.
2:00 PM - Closing & Raffle
Location: Center for Academic Innovation | Building 9 Room 106
We will end the day in the Center for Academic Innovation with a debrief conversation and a raffle.
Please note: While we would love for everyone to stay for the entire day, your schedule may not allow it, so we understand if you need to leave early.
Illustrations by Storyset