Our Guiding Purpose: We are guided by the academic success of all students. Ultimately, the measures of our success are improvements in students’ persistence, achievement, and graduation rates—particularly students who are the first in their families to go to college and those from groups historically under‐served in higher education. 

Dear colleagues and friends,

What is the role of higher education as the United States slides towards authoritarianism?

I've been sitting with this question lately. It has become so hard to stay focused on our work as educators when evidence keeps mounting: there is a well-orchestrated project underway to defund and discredit higher education. The constant and unrelenting pace of new tactics in this realm is designed to keep us backfooted - constantly responding to the next fire that needs to be put out instead of taking time to think critically and expansively about this moment. At least that's true for me. I haven't, until now, given myself the permission to ponder why? What is it about higher education that makes our sector the focus of attack?

I keep returning to something Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent Citations Needed podcast: "As higher ed goes right now, so goes our democracy." Our campuses are not peripheral to this moment—they are central to it. They are places where people learn to think structurally, to see systems of power, to imagine alternatives. Which is precisely why they're under attack. Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce in 2020 report confirms this: higher education serves as 'a bulwark against the threat of authoritarianism' because it promotes habits—independent thought, respect for diversity, critical assessment of evidence—that are antithetical to the unquestioning acceptance of authority.

But here's what gives me hope: colleges and universities are built for the work of helping individuals analyze their worlds and wrestle with the ideas of democracy and authoritarianism. This might be why so many justice-oriented social movements - from Civil Rights marches to Palestine solidarity encampments - have been associated with campuses. Our tools for resistance - teach-ins, seminars, and panels - are second nature.

Our upcoming workshops are part of this tradition. In the coming months, we'll explore a project expanding access to education in carceral settings, strategies for resisting generative AI and leveraging it towards equity work, and an invitation to nurture learning and connection when fear threatens to overwhelm us. Each of these sessions asks: How do we use our positions to build the world we want to see?

I want to hear from you. What projects are you connected to that are part of this resistance? What organizing are you seeing on your campus or in your community? Send me your examples at metzkerj@evergreen.edu.

In solidarity,
JuliA Metzker, Director
Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education

The work of the Washington Center is only possible through the vibrant community of higher education professionals who collaborate with and support our team in many ways. When we all work together, we can make a difference for student success. If you'd like to learn more about opportunities to contribute, we'd love to hear from you! 

The Washington Center Collaborative is a space for higher education faculty, scholars, practitioners, and administrators to come together and discuss emergent issues of importance to our collective work educating and supporting students. The Collaborative consists of free virtual workshops, a newsletter, and a slack space.

Wednesday, March 18

1-2:30 PM ET | 10-11:30 AM PT

Presenters will include Directors from the Evergreen Prison Education Program, Sustainability in Prisons Project, and special guests | The Evergreen State College

The Evergreen Liberation Education Network is based at The Evergreen State College with a mission to expand access to an Evergreen education and to provide holistic support services for currently incarcerated and legally liberated people. This workshop will focus on two organizations in the network, the Evergreen Prison Education Program and the Sustainability in Prisons Project. Both organizations support the delivery of credit-bearing college education for incarcerated scholars. Presenters will provide a brief overview of their respective programs, select highlights, and learning and teaching models co-created with participants in carceral settings. The workshop will include group discussion on lessons learned, successes, and challenges that come with offering higher education in prison.

Monday, April 20

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by Kyle Pittman | The Evergreen State College

While 'artificial intelligence' (AI) has been around for some time in various forms, recent developments around generative AI have caused a surge of public interest in its capabilities and many industries and fields have been enticed to leverage the various AI tools to offset workload and increase productivity. Education in particular has been hit hard with the inception of generative AI tools that seem to hinder the learning process rather than support it. This workshop will explore the impacts of AI on learning and provide sensible ways to address and resist its use in the classroom.

Friday, May 29

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by Jeremy Winn | Gray's Harbor College

Generative AI may be a cloud over higher education, but there are silver linings. In this interactive session, Jeremy Winn shows how generative AI can help us build stronger mental models, deepen our understanding of equity work, and take practical steps toward more equitable institutions. Participants will explore a topic of their own using AI and leave with actionable strategies they can apply immediately.

Wednesday, June 24

2 - 3:30 pm ET | 11 am - 12:30 pm PT

Facilitated by emareena danielles and ambar martinez

It is hard to learn or teach when we are afraid, and we are living in fearful times. When students look to us for assurance, what truths can we offer? What assurances or comfort can we offer ourselves, or to each other?

There is no one answer, and perhaps that is the most important truth – that each gathering of people has an opportunity to create a generous, miraculous truth that only can be created by them. As educators, it is our gift and our privilege to guide and nurture that exploration, even more so during these uncertain times. The Pause calls us first to recognize and feel in our bodies the present moment, next to orient ourselves to its history, context and circumstances, to then integrate what we feel, observe, and receive, move into imagining potential outcomes, and finally to practice the learning as what moves us toward the outcomes we choose.

Join us for a lightly facilitated conversation about seeking the miracles in uncertainty, nurturing the small, mundane moments that that bring us closer, and remind us to fall in love with learning about each other again.