Special Edition | September 2026 |
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- Welcome Back from Alex Mershon, LTC Student Intern
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Welcome New Faculty
- Commons Updates and Events
- Self-enroll in Summer Institute Canvas sites
- Fall Dates & Events
- Student Resources
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Our welcome back message for the 2026-27 academic year comes from Alex Mershon, our next Learning and Teaching Student Partner Intern. We hope you all get a chance to work with Alex this year!
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It feels like yesterday that summer quarter was starting, and then I blinked, and here we are already in the middle of September. I always feel like Fall is a return, but this year it feels more like a continuation of work that started long before this calendar year began.
My summer was shaped by a different kind of learning: projects, some types of homework, but also a deeper engagement with the systems that shape how we teach, govern, and imagine new things at Evergreen. Though my internship has been short so far, it’s opened an entirely different horizon for me about our institution’s possibilities. I spent much of the summer collecting and recording across a broad set of topics, but the work kept circling the same idea: Evergreen is not just a college - it’s a living archive and a laboratory.
I kept seeing that theme repeatedly across every single institute that I attended. In sessions like Evergreen’s Usable Past, Storying What We Do, Sankofa in Tacoma, and Oral History as Program Text, I saw how narratives, memory, and community history function as part of our curriculum. Evergreen learns from the stories it holds, the ones it revisits, and the ones it is still brave enough to tell. It also actively learns from those who are brave enough to share their stories. Being in those rooms made it clear that our past isn’t something meant to live in a glass box for preservation; it is something we collectively work with to shape who we choose to be.
Some institutes focused on attention, vulnerability, and the conditions that make learning possible despite. I saw variations of the same question: how do we design environments that can hold students’ risk, curiosity, and complexity? There was a practice of belonging being demonstrated here through intentionality, listening, and structuring - enabling us to access not just an environment of learning, but a reclamation of relationality.
Justice showed up, as did responsibility, threading through these institutes and others as well. I learned where Evergreen and its incredible faculty position themselves as participants in broader struggles for climate justice, migration justice, and community self‑determination. This is where, to me, so much texture develops and is nurtured, because there’s space held within our walls not only for some of us to be students, but also citizens of overlapping worlds. Watching Evergreen find ways to pick up obligations to those worlds was powerful. The Undocumented Student Task Force, Community Partners as Educators, Global Citizenship in Turbulent Times, and Teaching for a More Just Future institutes come to mind foremost when I speak on this.
I am stepping into this Fall differently, both in my understanding of myself and of our college. I see this place differently now - more than a place to study, I see a place actively learning how to be more just, attentive, and accountable to the community it serves. My internship offered a front‑row seat to that process, and it also came with an invitation to participate in an ongoing story.
That’s part of why I’m excited to contribute to the LTC podcast later this year. So much of what I encountered this summer - the archive work, the attention work, the justice work, the governance questions - feels like it belongs in conversation, not just in notes or reports. The podcast feels like a natural extension of the summer’s through‑line: a way to keep tracing how Evergreen learns, remembers, experiments, and imagines. It’s another space where we can hold stories, ask harder questions, and think together about the futures we’re building.
As we begin the quarter, I hope we all find ways to stay in that kind of inquiry - the kind that connects our past to our present, our classrooms to our communities, and our learning to the responsibilities we carry. I’m grateful to be here for another year of that work, and grateful to be learning alongside all of you.
In Community,
Alex Mershon, Learning and Teaching Partner Intern
Learning and Teaching Commons
Meet the Staff!
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Welcome back to our returning faculty, and a special welcome to our cohort of new faculty!
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What's New at the Commons? |
Instructional Resource Planning Guide for Faculty |
Check out the instructional resource planning guide, developed by LTC Director JuliA Metzker in collaboration with other offices and staff across Evergreen. The guide includes a checklist of considerations for planning your program with some detailed worksheets to help you think through the logistics of specific activities included in your courses or programs.
The checklist and guide include:
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- Course materials and texts
- Field trips
- Instructional area support (library, media, visual arts, and sciences)
- Tutoring and academic support
- Materials, program budget, and student workers
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We've also included contact information and tips for successful planning.
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Plan to attend the Faculty Instructional Resource Meeting |
Friday, September 18 | 10 am - noon | Purce Hall 4 |
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Community of Practice: Low-Tech Teaching |
Join Rachel Hastings and other colleagues in a bi-weekly community of practice on Thursdays from 4-5 pm in SEM II E3123. This group is for faculty and staff who are curious about how to cultivate human-centered learning within our classrooms and other pedagogical spaces. Learn more and sign up →
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Evergreen Faculty Supporting Inclusion Zine |
Now Available to Download! |
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| As we start the new year, we will be serving a diverse student body with specific needs in order to be successful.
The Evergreen Faculty Supporting Inclusion Zine, developed by Jess Yusko, LTC Student Partner 2026, is a quick-reference guide packed with fun illustrations and valuable ideas from our own faculty.
Visit the LTC website to access the full-text document or to download the pdf.
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Did you miss an Evergreen Summer Institute you wanted to attend? |
Self-enroll in their canvas courses to engage with online materials from the institute!
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There are many opportunities for faculty to share your achievements, and we want to encourage you to contribute to the wealth of knowledge in our Evergreen community. Learn more about how to share your work with our community.
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Updated guidelines from the Undocumented Student Task Force (USTF) for 2026-27
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09-16 & 17 | Academic Retreat
09-18 | Faculty Instructional Resource Meeting
09-25 | ILCs & INTs deadline*
09-22 | PaCE Faculty Retreat
09-28 | Fall classes begin
09-30 | Curriculum Planning (1-5pm)
10-02 | Submit attendance reports
10-07 | Block Party on Red Square
10-07 | 1st PaCE & Faculty Meetings
10-09 | Syllabus & Community Agreements Due
10-12 | Submit textbook orders
10-18 | Faculty Foundation & Sponsored Research proposals due
11-30 | Summer Institute proposals due
12-02 | Academic Fair
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* The deadline for submitting approvals for Fall 2025 Independent Learning Contracts (ILCs) or Internship Contracts (INTs) is Friday, September 26, 2025. While it is possible to register contracts beyond that date, additional paperwork would be required to complete late ILC/INT registrations.
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Eight Essential Principles in Practice: Human Centered Learning in the Age of AI
Joni Gutierrez, Ronald Lethcoe
Sept 22 | 11 am - 12:30 pm
[REGISTER]
Do Less Harm: Minimizing Harmful Aspects of Grading to Center Student Learning
Dan Melzer, Jaime O'Connor
Oct. 27 | 10:00 - 11: 30 AM
[REGISTER]
Locating Innovation in Higher Education
Noah Coburn, Ryan Derby-Talbot
Nov 9 | 9 - 10:30 am
[REGISTER]
Looking Backward, Planning Forward: Reflection Strategies to Enhance Your Teaching
Lauren Barbeau
Dec. 2 | 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
[REGISTER]
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These individuals and offices are eager to support students. Keep this list handy when advising students or reach out to schedule a visit to your program or course.
The Greener Hub connects students in touch with the people, offices, and services they need.
Academic Support
Access Services for Students with Disabilities works with admitted Evergreen students to ensure equal access to academic programs and services.
Academic and Career Advising helps students navigate their educational journey, from choosing programs to planning for graduation and career development.
The Daniel J. Evans Library provides access to information in multiple formats, instruction in the use of available resources, research support, and serves as a repository of unique titles and collections.
Media Services provides comprehensive media support for the Evergreen community, offering a range of technical resources and expertise.
TRIO Student Success provides holistic support services for students who are limited income, first-generation, and/or those with disabilities, empowering them to persist and graduate at higher rates..
The Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning Center (QuaSR) promotes retention and equitable outcomes for students across identities and abilities in science and mathematics through peer tutoring and support.
Student Rights & Responsibilities addresses behaviors that violate the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities, including academic dishonesty, disruptive behavior, harassment, and discrimination.
The Writing Center supports writers of diverse abilities and identities through peer-to-peer collaboration at any stage of the writing process.
Community & Wellness Support
The Basic Needs Center helps students access resources for food, housing, transportation, childcare, and financial assistance.
BLISS (BIPOC & LGBTQ+ Intersectional Support Services) provides holistic support services to foster an environment where everyone can be their authentic self, centering BIPOC, trans, queer, undocumented and DACAmented students.
The CARE Team works with students who need additional support by providing resources, partnership, and navigation of systems to assist in student belonging and success.
The Social Justice Center (SJC) is a place to learn, connect, and grow, working toward the co-creation of a community where each person experiences a sense of belonging, purpose, and interconnectedness. The Social Justice center hosts an annual equity symposium in Spring and provides small grants through the equity fund.
Student Wellness Services (SWS) provides basic medical and mental health care services to currently enrolled students through in-person and telehealth visits. tudents can access services through Health eConnect, a secure online portal found under the "Students" section of MyEvergreen.
The Title IX Office addresses reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. All Evergreen employees are designated mandatory reporters. Report incidents of sexual misconduct using this form.
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