Posted: April 4, 2022
Lehigh's acceptance into the third cohort of the NSF INCLUDES funded APLU Aspire Alliance IChange network provides an evidence-based change management framework and national community of practice to continue designing and implementing transformative policies, practices, and programs which support hiring and retaining a diverse and excellent faculty and equipping our faculty to educate diverse students.
Through a guidebook and monthly meetings across the national network, Lehigh completed the Year 1 (2020-2021) Narrative Policy and Practice Audit in order to reflect on what strategies we do well and what opportunities we have missed at department, college and institutional levels. In Year 2 (2021-2022), Action Planning began with consultations designed to center the input and priorities of marginalized faculty, and by these sense-making and brainstorming sessions, a set of recommended categories of actions and specific tactics or strategies emerged. The IChange Year 2 Action Planning Team considered the priority and feasibility of these actions and tactics. As Year 2 winds down, the IChange Year 2 Action Planning Team is embarking on the next round of sense-making consultations, and it is critical that input of marginalized faculty be at the core of fine-tuning priorities and designing the implementation strategies. By leveraging multilayered feedback, considering some tactics may have different stewardship and accountability or sources of resistance and support, IChange creates paths to a combination of capacity building, gap filling, adaptive practices, new activities, or expanded activities which help make progress on the campus-level goals for faculty diversity and success.
