Work Group Updates
Welcoming and Inclusive Environment – Liz Tovar
Contact Charlie Taylor (charlie-taylor@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Task force to evaluate next steps for DEI: Following recommendations from the Iowa Board of Regents, the university will launch a task force to review and evaluate the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and all campus-related diversity and inclusion efforts. The task force will provide recommendations to the president and provost by March 2024, and they will share the plans with the board in April.
Patient Care – Karen Butler
Contact Karen Butler (karen-butler@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Construction of UI Health Care North Liberty campus continues: The new, 60-acre North Liberty academic medical campus has hit the halfway point of construction. The campus, which is on track to open in 2025, will increase access and convenience of health care services for Iowans.
UIHC recognized with quality achievement award for stroke care: The UI Hospitals & Clinics ongoing commitment to increasing the quality of care for its patients is reflected in the quality achievement award it received in August from the American Heart Association. The UI Comprehensive Stroke Center was also honored by the American Heart Association for meeting specific criteria for reducing the time from a patient arriving at the hospital to when clot-busting drugs are given.
UI Health Care ranked as a top employer: Forbes ranked UI Hospitals & Clinics as Iowa's #1 health care employer and #2 employer overall in their 2023 America’s Best Employers by State list.
Holistic Well-Being – Laura McLeran
Contact Mara Cheney (mara-cheney@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Health and Well-Being Fair: The 2023 Health and Well-Being Fair brought together 44 units and community partners from across campus and UI Health Care to encourage University of Iowa faculty and staff to prioritize health and well-being in all aspects of their lives. An estimated 1,000 employees visited throughout the day to connect with well-being programs and resources, with 97% of attendees saying they will apply something they learned at the event to their personal well-being. Visit the SharePoint site to learn more about activities at the fair and hear what participants had to say about the event.
Evaluating and sharing data: To provide metrics related to the holistic well-being and success goal of the UI strategic plan, all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students were invited to take the National College Health Assessment this past spring. Staff in the Division of Student Life have used the assessment results to create nearly 30 reports on various well-being topics and demographic groups. For the first time this year, all students were asked to self-report their college, allowing for college-level data reporting. Division of Student Life staff have been meeting with several college administrators and other stakeholders to engage in conversations about the data and generate ideas and plans to improve the mental health and well-being of UI students.
Faculty Success – Lois Geist
Contact Kim Carter (kimberly-j-carter@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Facilitating collaborative interactions: The Faculty Success work group consists of four main subgroups for the faculty lifecycle – recruitment, retention, development, and recognition. These subgroups came together last month to share the work they are doing, identify the intersections, and evaluate influences. For example, the development subgroup completed a survey to tenured associate professors that will help inform development and mentoring efforts to increase retention of that cohort.
Collaborating on SoTL: The Faculty Success and Excellence in Teaching and Learning/Student Success work groups are collaborating on enhancing support, incentives, and structures that facilitate teaching excellence and encourage participation in SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning).
Guggenheim Awardee Panel and Networking Session: The External Awards and Recognition Office, which includes members of the faculty recognition subgroup, collaborated with the Office of the Vice President for Research and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to host a panel and networking session for faculty interested in learning about the Guggenheim Fellowship and other prestigious awards in the humanities. The event, which took place on Nov. 10, featured valuable insights from panelists Melissa Febos, Donika Kelly, and Christopher Merrill, as well as lively discussion between the around 30 attendees.
Excellence in Teaching and Learning/Student Success – Tanya Uden-Holman and Amanda Thein
Contact Mirra Anson (mirra-anson@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
First Year Experience (FYE) Tactic Group: This group convened in early November to examine current FYE learning opportunities and make recommendations for alignment of existing programs and strategies to address gaps. The group is also charged to create a "roadmap" for first year students to use during their transition to UI to better assist them in planning their experiences. The tactic seeks to address previous student feedback about duplicative experiences across multiple FYE programs and ultimately lay a foundation for comprehensive experiences for sophomore year and beyond. The group is comprised of representation from the Office of the Provost, Center for Inclusive Academic Excellence, Academic Advising Center, Office of Admissions, Residence Education, Office of the Vice President for Student Life, Academic Support and Retention, Orientation Services, and University College leadership.
New student feedback system to assess teaching effectiveness: A new student feedback system will be developed over the Spring 2024 semester as part of the Teaching Effectiveness Task Force's efforts to create a multidimensional framework for the assessment of teaching. While the system will replace the current ACE system, the questions for students will not change, thus reflecting the positive work of the previous ACE Task Force. The new student feedback system will be situated directly within ICON, provide support for mid-term feedback and end of session feedback, allow for real-time response rates, address unique data analysis needs for various audiences, and more. The system is being developed in partnership between the Teaching Effectiveness Task Force and Information Technology Services - Administrative Information Systems.
Envisioning Our Educator Workforce for Optimized Undergraduate Instruction: This Association of American Universities sponsored event will be held Dec. 3-4 in Overland Park, KS. A collective of academic leaders from University of Kansas, University of Missouri, and University of Iowa will discuss the unique responsibilities and challenges at research universities to advance both faculty and student success. Attendees will structure co-inquiry and action-planning to shape the culture in department/school/university contexts to achieve instructional missions with undergraduates. Sessions will examine how we hire, value, coach, retain, and reward the variety of roles in the instructional ecosystem. Fourteen academic leaders from the multiple University of Iowa colleges and the Office of Provost will be attending.
Employee Success – Cheryl Reardon
Contact Cheryl Reardon (cheryl-reardon@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Pilot program to create student pathways to university employment: Talent acquisition is working toward launching a pilot Student Pathways Program for third- and fourth-year UI students. The program provides student interns hands-on experience in their respective departments, fostering skill development and an understanding of university and department culture. Successful interns may secure permanent positions within their university departments, creating a streamlined path from intern to employee. Initial pilot groups include Human Resources: HR Associate, Pharmacy: Associate Chemist, and Research: Research Support.
Enhancing employee development through coaching: Team coaching, offered through University HR’s Organizational Effectiveness (OE), is well underway. OE’s expert facilitators have already worked with four teams and a pair of leaders, with eight more teams currently starting or in discussions for coaching engagements. Team coaching equips UI leadership teams with improved problem-solving skills, better alignment with shared goals, and enhanced teamwork.
Data Infrastructure – Don Szeszycki
Contact Kris Yows (kristina-yows@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Data communities: Matt Anson convened two new (or renewed) data communities this month, the UI Data Providers group and the Institutional Data Users Group (IDUG).
- The UI Data Providers group, which met for the first time on Nov. 7, brings together data providers from across campus. This community will facilitate collaboration among individuals who have both technical expertise and familiarity with institutional data and who frequently serve as "point persons" for data users in their units.
- The Institutional Data Users Group (IDUG) met on Nov. 14, reactivating a group that existed prior to COVID. The group aims to share information about data resources, data literacy, and innovative ways to use data with interested data users from across campus.
Data stewards: Also in November, members of the Data Infrastructure work group will hold the first of an ongoing series of meetings with data stewards. The initial focus of discussion will be data governance, and how stewards envision their roles and responsibilities within the developing data governance framework.
Communication – executive summary: The Data Infrastructure work group has developed a one-page executive summary of its efforts to date, to aid in communication with various stakeholders.
Communications – Pete Matthes
Contact Kyle Hughes (kyle-hughes@uiowa.edu) with questions or comments.
Writing for the Public Good P3 project update: Since receiving P3 funding in July, the Writing for the Public Good initiative has already accomplished many of the six-month benchmarks it established at the outset of the project. This includes sharing the program with faculty across campus, hosting professional development opportunities, and placing five-to-six stories (nine were published as of Oct. 31) in The Conversation. Visit the SharePoint site for some key metrics highlighting the project’s progress.
