Learning & teaching project

For my Searle Fellows project, I set out with a focused goal: to restructure the advising office's DEI committee I was leading in order to make it more efficient and effective for Weinberg's student body. What I discovered, however, was that organizational restructuring also required philosophical reevaluation. This surfaces a deeper question: what might an agreed-upon advising approach look like for Weinberg Advising? If no single best approach exists that is simultaneously attentive to regional, social, and cultural differences and capable of bridging racial, gender, and sexuality divides, how do advisers account for that complexity in practice? Do we continue searching for a framework to recommend to Weinberg Advising, or is this an opportunity to develop our own — one built from our specific context, commitments, and student population?

This document defines the mission, goals, and explains the strategic plan of the WCAS USSWG as it transitions from the JEDI Committee to the WCAS Undergraduate Student Success Working Group, in our collective effort to support all students as they pursue their unique academic paths within the college of liberal arts and sciences.  The work of the WSSWG is to support student success through focused support of Weinberg advisors via hiring, professional development, and using available research and data to refine an agreed upon set of best practices that informs the how of our mission.