I remember passing on advice from Carl Arendsen, one of my mentors, to a faculty member whom I was mentoring: there are more opportunities for service than you will ever have time for, find the ones you really believe in and try your best to make an impact. (I'm positive that Carl put it more eloquently than that.) For me that was great advice, as I have had a long history of over-volunteering.
One of the reasons that I enjoy teaching mathematics is that I truly believe that mathematical understanding is empowering. Not only will teaching someone how to be a good problem solver definitely make their life better, but the achievement of mastering content that has been deemed to be difficult can change students' perceptions of themselves. It is tremendous content for teaching metacognition and becoming the context where students learn how to learn. And I want that opportunity for all people. While I appreciate the work that all our committees do, the opportunities to try to further equity and inclusion here at Grand Valley are the efforts that are near and dear to my heart.
Students
The first half of my career at GVSU, the focus felt like it was on efforts to support students. One of the first opportunities was through Char Beckmann's Eisenhower grant to homegrow minority math and science teachers. I had the opportunity to teach for the TRIO program my second summer, and early opportunities like the Divisional Minority Student Support Committee. Led by Eduardo Sanchez and John Bender, the committee worked on materials and programs to support all students. What is now the CLAS Advising Center grew from recommendations that came out of our committee. I was a part of the group that investigated the Structured Learning Assistance program at Ferris State and got to be the first facilitator (TA) for a math SLA class, taught by Tish Fackler. Pam Wells and I were the first teachers of math for the Freshman Academy. I was humbled to get a service award from the Office of Multicultural Affairs in 2003.
Faculty
While I had opportunities to work on these issues before, serving on Search multiple times, and Personnel for three years, as well as on an ad hoc committee to discuss/revise the personnel process, my education about bias came through the STRIDE Committee, funded by an NSF grant by Shaily Menon and Kathleen Underwood. Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence, it was a second stage NSF grant, attempting to replicate gains made at the University of Michigan through their STRIDE Committee. For a year we went through a thorough reading program on the evidence for and causes of bias in academia. Then for a year and a half, we designed materials to support search committees in reducing bias, and gave presentations based on those materials. As this was at the beginning of the Office of Inclusion and Equity, the presentations became a natural part of their Inclusion Advocate training. This was an eye-opening experience, and has changed the nature of how I see both recruitment and retention, affecting my work on Search and in the Personnel Taskforce this past summer.
The past two years, I have had the chance to mentor Teresa Ramirez Rosas, our teaching post-doc, with Clark Wells. It has been a fantastic experience and we have had more excellent teaching discussions than I can count. It has felt like a merging of this learning on bias with the learning on instructional coaching that Dave Coffey, Rebecca Walker and I have engaged in for observing student teacher assistants. As I think about my service in the future, this is the direction I would like to follow: support our faculty in having these rich discussions about our common work. As I was drafting the minimalist observation form for the Personnel Process proposal, I was trying to think of a form that would support informal, collegial teaching observations as well as the formal personnel observations.
Outside the College
My most significant service outside the college has been with the School/College of Education. I served two terms on the Personnel Committee and currently serve on PTEAC, and have tried hard to be a contributing member to both. The Personnel Committee work was during a time when Education was making great changes to its process and there were many opportunities to contribute and difficult cases to deliberate because of changing criteria. PTEAC (Professional Teacher Education Advisory Council) is an odd, non-decision-making body that nevertheless creates many opportunities for our department and college to have a voice in the training of teachers.
Though much of it is probably not technically service, because I do get paid for some of the inservices, I do a great deal of my work with schools from the same desire. I want to help. (As a side note, I initially tried offering the inservices for free, but it had a negative effect on teacher participation and engagement.) I admire teachers and value the opportunity to work with them and learn from them. When they call, even if it's just a few days before, like the Kent Intermediate School District this summer, I will go, if at all possible.
It's a privilege, as are the opportunities to serve at the university.