Dear Colleagues,

I hope everyone is enjoying a summer pace including some time to enjoy the beautiful Michigan nature and time with the important people in your lives.

As shared by President Mantella in an email to the Grand Valley community, we will hold this month an inaugural Juneteenth Celebration on Monday, June 19^th. The celebration will include a lunch and keynote presentation by Dr. Bobby J. Smith II, Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from 12:30-2:00 p.m.  This will be followed by a GVSU Quest panel from 3:00-4:00, both will take place in the L. William Seidman Center, Pew Grand Rapids Campus.

In the next few issues of Laker to Laker I will be sharing updates on several of the projects completed, underway, and planned.

I want to start by recognizing Dr. Paul Plotkowski who has announced that he will retire as the founding Dean of the Padnos College of Engineering and Computing at the end of next academic year (2024). The accomplishments and impact of Dr. Plotkowski have been outstanding. In the last few months, I have held several meetings with faculty and staff from PCEC. The unifying overwhelming message from all these meetings has been the level of support, admiration, and gratitude that everyone in PCEC feels towards Dean Plotkowski and his leadership. In preparation for opening an external dean search, we have scheduled two half-day retreats for the college faculty and staff to emerge a strategic direction for the future and to articulate a future vision that incorporates the Blue Dot project among other things.

I shared in the May 8^th issue of Laker to Laker the developments around the Blue Dot project, and in particular, the creation of a webpage to keep everyone fully informed about prior work and current developments. That page is now live at gvsu.edu/bluedot. The History tab from the landing page holds a repository of the successive documents that reflect the evolution of the project. Under the co-leadership of Ed Aboufadel and Karen Ingle, the team is currently working to articulate a multi-faceted programmatic theme.

In January, I put together a Rapid Response Team to serve as an agile ears-to-the-ground, action-oriented group focused on the retention and success of first year students. This team is part of our multi-faceted approach to be Lakers Ready and to support the retention and success of every student we admit. The team is composed of faculty from the GVSU Social Science Lab including Amanda Buday (Sociology), Rachel Campbell (Sociology), Bradford Dykes (Statistics), and Anna Hammersmith (Sociology); Betty Schaner from Student Academic Services and Advising in the CLAS Dean’s Office; and was led and coordinated by AVP Aaron Lowen. The team analyzed data over recent semesters from multiple sources including grades, Blackboard usage, and CARE and EAB Navigate reports. They further generated their own data by communicating with different groups in one-on-one meetings, focus groups, and pulse surveys. These groups included faculty teaching first-year students, the Counseling Center, the Tutoring Center, the Student Success Network, the Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, and the CLAS DFW working group.

During the semester, the Rapid Response Team initiated several interventions by sharing insight, connecting players, and messaging to students to support them, guide them, and direct them to resources. In addition to these real-time interventions, the team synthesized several recommendations that cover development for faculty teaching first-year students, coordination between different sections, coordinated and expanded communications in support of student success, expanded student support, and curriculum development. We are currently assessing and prioritizing these recommendations for implementation.

Finally, as part of our engagement and partnership with the community, we have concluded several new partnerships and agreements. Three of the most recent ones are detailed in the next section. Congratulations to Dean Soman, Dean Thomas, AVP Hamilton, and Vice Provost Van Dam.

Have a great beginning of June everyone,

Fatma

Memos of Understanding
Aligned with GVSU’s mission of empowering learners and our university’s commitment across all divisions to expand access to higher education through the development of new partnerships, during the 2022-2023 academic year GVSU signed four new memos of understanding (MOUs) with community college partners, including Kellogg Community College, Northwestern Michigan College, Glen Oaks Community College, and Jackson College. We are also in conversation with other community colleges and remain eager to partner with 2-year institutions in a variety of ways. These MOUs establish multiple partnerships/pathways between programs and serve to support students’ transfer to GVSU. We’re also partnering with the West Michigan Center for Arts + Technology to support participating adult learners’ career exploration. And, this year we initiated a direct credit partnership pilot, working with career and technical centers to award qualifying high school students direct credit for approved GVSU courses. We currently have partnerships with the Kent Intermediate School District in Grand Rapids and Northwest Education Services in Traverse City.  We intend to expand this pilot in the coming academic year, which will provide more access and pathways for high school students pursuing higher education.

Grow Your Own Partnerships - College of Education and Community Innovation
The Michigan Department of Education recently released the names of school districts receiving the Future Proud Michigan Educator Grow Your Own (GYO) staff grants. The GYO staff grants provide opportunities for districts to increase the number of teachers in areas of shortage by supporting school employees seeking initial or additional teaching endorsements. Ten of the school districts that applied for funds in partnership with the College of Education and Community Innovation's (CECI) education programs were awarded funding impacting 400+ individuals. In collaboration with their PK-12 partners, CECI will play a significant role in increasing the number of individuals who have access to the profession or ability to enhance or deepen their professional growth. 

District partners for this first award cycle are: Fennville Public Schools, Genesee Intermediate School District, Ionia Public Schools, Ishpeming Public Schools, Kent Intermediate Schools District, Northwest Education Services, Parchment School District, Rockford Public Schools, Van Buren Intermediate Shool District, and Wolverine Community School District.

Congratulations to Bill Ryan, Professor of Music, Theatre and Dance, for his $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts award for the project titled, New Works Inspired by U.S. National Parks. The New Music Ensemble, directed by Bill Ryan, will commission and tour compositions inspired by Crater Lake National Park, Redwood National Park, and Lassen Volcanic National Park. Founded in 2006, the ensemble has commissioned 92 compositions, performed in 30 National Parks, and premiered more than 250 student works.

Blue Dot Website
Following up on Provost Mili's message in the May 8th Lakers Ready, the Office of the Provost has set up an internal webpage about the Blue Dot project. At this time, the page has a brief overview of the project and a history of developments and documents going back several years. Laker this summer, we plan to add more details about the proposed program. Please take a few minutes to learn about this important project.