Lobos Connect: UNM Provost Challenge for Excellence & Equity

THE CHALLENGE TO DELIVER:

  1. an excellent research education that contributes to equity
  2. equity in educational experience that contributes to research excellence.

Provost James Holloway and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Assata Zerai invite you to participate in a challenge focused on strengthening general education at UNM. Entry-level and general education courses often close the door to higher education for structurally disadvantaged students. These courses are meant to serve as portals, but, both nationally and at UNM, they present more barriers to persistence and success for first generation students, low-income students, transfer students, and students of color than for their advantaged peers.

Addressing this challenge comes in the form of two research-based and grant-funded projects designed to provide faculty with specific resources to enrich instruction and improve equity in entry-level courses:

The Student Experience Project (SEP) offers faculty easily implemented tools to support students in the classroom by creating an inclusive environment for resilience and persistence. Research-based SEP tools allow faculty and departments to target inequitable outcomes by improving the classroom climate for student success.

Expanding Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (ECURE) introduces students in STEM general education courses to entry-level undergraduate research experiences, with the goal of providing equitable, engaging and inclusive access to research and investigation. For this purpose, STEM is defined as those disciplines which can be supported by NSF funding (which includes economics, sociology, psychology and anthropology, in addition to engineering and traditional science disciplines).

For more information on the programs, requirements, and participation, please see the full Information about participation or join one of two information sessions on SEP and ECURE available via Zoom. For the links to the sessions listed below, please email Joe Suilmann at (StudentExperienceUNM@unm.edu):

  • January 12, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.
  • January 25, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

Ready to apply? Complete this form by 5:00 p.m., Thursday, February 18, 2021.

A recording and slides from the first presentation are now available.