Learning Pillar Feedback Form

The Learning Pillar Town Hall Meeting - Feedback Form

Instructions for completing the feedback form:

Please prioritize the Goals below by putting the numbers 1 (most important) to 4 (least important) in the box beside each of the four goals.
Please prioritize all of the Strategies as a group by allocating up to 10 stars to the Strategies of highest priority—you may use more than one star per Strategy for emphasis.
Please include any additional feedback concerning Goals and Strategies in the spaces provided

Learning Goal I

Superior Students

No goal is more important to the College of Science than recruiting and retaining the most diverse, accomplished, and competitive undergraduate and graduate students.

Maintain an expanded professional recruiting effort within the College of Science, responsible for evaluating and implementing "best practices" for attracting diverse and accomplished undergraduate and graduate students, with increased involvement of faculty, staff, and students in the College.

Increase the number of competitively-priced scholarships and fellowships for attracting the best students to the College of Science, and expand efforts to obtain external support for these.

Dedicate resources for providing better first-and second-year experiences for science majors, with introductory courses specifically for majors, more appealing content, and outstanding teachers, to keep these students on-track towards a degree in Science.

Establish policies for monitoring retention in undergraduate courses and for improving retention, including increased personal attention through enhanced mentoring, early undergraduate research opportunities, and other proven strategies.

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Learning Goal II

Science Literacy

All courses taught within the College of Science should provide the best and most up-to-date content to meet the needs of all of our students from across the University, incorporating the best research-based advances in science education practices.

Re-evaluate, redesign, and rejuvenate the service courses, because this is where the College of Science has the greatest impact on the largest number of students. Utilize the best research-based science education techniques and technologies, such as group-centered interactive Recitation,s smaller class sizes, and self-guided online tutorials.

Design new courses, such as a "Greatest Issues" course focusing on Science & Society, which will attract students from across the University.

Reward excellence in teaching service courses, to attract the best teachers in the College to this critical area.

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Learning Goal III

Interdisciplinary Freedom

Rather than being constrained by traditional departmental boundaries from the last century, students in the College of Science should have the freedom to seamlessly combine disciplines within Science and other areas of the University into a single degree, to be prepared for the genuinely interdisciplinary challenges facing society today.

Create a strengthened interdisciplinary degree program, separate from the individual departments but with strong faculty input and control, to make it a prestigious undergraduate degree path with a solid, scholarly foundation.

Create specific degree plans between pairs of departments that provide a single plan for students wishing to combine two areas of science into a one undergraduate degree, without requiring dual majors or a major-minor combination.

Develop more graduate and undergraduate courses within the College of Science with explicitly interdisciplinary content.

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Learning Goal IV

Global Impact

College of Science graduates need to understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of the international community of scientists and leaders they will be joining in finding the science-based solutions to society's challenges.

Significantly expand opportunities and support for semester-long study abroad by science undergraduates, making it a standard option in departmental plans of study that is readily achievable within a four-year program.

Provide opportunities and support for graduate students to participate in international exchanges involving conferences and research, in cooperation with the International Programs Office, Discovery Park, and other parts of the University.

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