ARC2022: Equity & Excellence in Action

Mark your calendar and register for ARC2022: Equity & Excellence in Action in San Francisco April 20-22. We’ll gather for the first time since 2019 to recommit and reinforce our core values – equity and excellence – and to focus on action and improvement. Plenary sessions, a variety of concurrent presentations from WSCUC membership and people throughout the higher education community, and a slate of special interest groups will all take place.

ARC2022’s opening plenary will educate and inspire. Celebrating WSCUC: Together Again will open with ‘State of the Community’ with Commission Chair Phillip Doolittle and WSCUC President Jamienne Studley. The highlight will be the keynote session with Atlantic staff writer Dr. Clint Smith, whose The New York Times Book Review “Top 10 of 2021” book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view. Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Smith’s landmark work of reflection and insight offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.

At our second plenary session, “We Are All Data People Now,” Amelia Parnell, vice president for research and policy at NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, will share her insights on how data helps improve decision-making. She is the author of You Are a Data Person: Strategies for Using Analytics on Campus and the subject of a recent episode of Inside Higher Ed’s “The Key” podcast. Amelia’s research and thinking will spark conversation that will contribute to our exploration of innovative ideas, new models, and transformative practices that are creating effective action and tangible results for students and institutions.

Our third and final plenary session is “Leading from Every Seat.” Every person in higher education has the opportunity and responsibility to advance excellence and equity. A panel of effective leaders in very different roles will share questions, insights, mindsets, strategies, and alliances that can help you lead constructive change, whatever your job description – and perhaps confront some myths and barriers that stand in the way. Speakers from CSU Los Angeles, Pomona College, the CSU Student Association, and UMass Global will join President Studley for this conversation.

Leadership Academy

WSCUC will soon announce the next phase of the Leadership Academy, which for many years and eleven cohorts has provided development for higher education professionals under the Assessment Leadership Academy banner. The in-depth exploration of ideas and practice and the signature learning opportunities of the Academy will continue, and we will draw on the knowledge and experience both within and beyond our community and expand the curriculum centered on equity issues, the use of evidence and data, and the continuing evolution of educational effectiveness – all of which are integral to contemporary leadership in higher education.

Peer Reviewer Training

Educational Programs has also begun a new process for familiarizing peer reviewers with their work. The new focus is on succinct, targeted, and valuable strategies for peer reviewers, both new and experienced. We will continue building a robust process of assisting reviewers in conducting their work.

March 2022 Newsletter

• WSCUC Standards and Handbook Review Process
• Launch of Graduate Only KID and Peer Benchmarking on WSCUC Website
• Commission Policy Changes and Opportunity to Comment on Proposed Changes