NIU Today

Becky’s incredible collaboration with the School of Art resulted in an incredible experience for the Barb City STEAM Team students and created beautiful inspiration pieces that have dramatically improved the appearance of Swen Parson Hall.

“We meet the students where they are, to help them get to where they need to be. We are passionate about supporting our students and want to provide opportunities for them to grow and succeed.”

Ryan Shepard

Ryan Shepherd is director of first-year composition at NIU, a course taken by most students as ENGL 103 during fall semester of their first year and ENGL 203 during the spring semester. The student-centered approach to this course is reflected in many ways, including teaching students the importance of self-reflection.

“In ENGL 103, the students write narratives and do research. Then, we ask them to step back and reflect carefully on why they did the things that they did,” said Shepherd. “Reflection is about 50% of their grade. We want them to become their own best teachers, so when they leave the class, they can recognize new writing situations and make the same kind of thoughtful decisions as they respond to them.”

Lizzy Goberville is an English major at NIU – a decision that was influenced by taking this course.

“My ENGL 103 class was a very positive experience. I had originally come to NIU for biology, but I really loved writing papers,” said Goberville. “The narrative paper where you get to write about yourself and learn about creative writing made me realize, ‘I should be doing English as my major.’ So, that class actually led me switch my major.”

The first semester course also is offered as ENGL 103P, which incorporates curriculum geared toward students in the CHANCE Program and students who come in with a GPA lower than 3.0.

“We often see the biggest progress in ENGL 103P. Students who come into those classes may have been previously told they’re bad writers – and unfairly so,” said Shepherd. “Many of the students may just be inexperienced writers, and we have the opportunity in our 103P classes to really build up that confidence, which goes a long way.”

Caitlin Gamble and Ashley Palmer are co-coordinators of Writers’ Workshop at NIU, which supports ENGL 103P students. Writers’ Workshop offers individualized sessions where students can focus on the writing skills they want to learn. In addition, this student resource fosters collaboration and sharing of ideas.

“We have diverse opinions and diverse writers, and we provide students the opportunity to share their ideas together. It is fun to see them grow more confident in sharing their writing and seeing that all these different kinds of writing are valuable,” said Gamble. “We want to give them a place on campus where they can feel comfortable practicing and sharing their writing.”

ENGL 103P students often have their writing published in Contemporary Voices, a text utilized for instruction in the course. Furthermore, these students often pay it forward by helping other students, after they complete this course.

“A lot of our previous students come back to work as student writers in the Writers’ Workshop, and we enjoy seeing them grow into a part of the NIU community,” said Gamble.

Goberville has worked in the Writers’ Workshop since fall 2022, after completing ENGL 103.

“It is great to work with students who really care about their grades and want to improve themselves,” said Goberville. “I’ve been able to help students with how to start an essay or brainstorm a topic, and it has been nice to help them learn these skills.”

Moving to a zero-cost textbook format for ENGL 103, designing classrooms with laptop carts and computer access for all students, and creating an open-source repository are some of the ways the Department of English works to support students.

“We have been collecting and curating open-source materials for our faculty to use. These are materials with creative, common licensing so we can modify, edit and redistribute them,” said Eric Hoffman, assistant director of first-year composition. “The new repository we are using for open access materials essentially is the same engine that Wikipedia uses, and we hope to leverage this environment and use it to help publish student essays in natively electronic spaces.”

“First-year composition is such an important part of our department and mission,” said Scott Balcerzak, Department of English chair. “These courses support first-year students as they transition into college, respecting the students and where they came from and helping them empower themselves. This program promotes public facing scholarship and public facing writing in a university, which is so key to building students’ confidence.”

Robust instructor training, professional development and continual evaluation are important behind-the-scenes components of the success of this program.

Eric Hoffman

“Several times a week, we talk about questions and concerns, we talk about pedagogy. It is important to provide a high level of support to our instructors,” said Hoffman. “Also, we do programmatic assessment every semester. We trace our data and look to see that our students’ writing is improving.”

In addition, the department utilizes Navigate to identify students who may need additional support, as part of their ongoing efforts to best serve first-year composition students.

“Our faculty are trained to not wait until Navigate asks them if something is going on, but to use it proactively,” said Hoffman. “We try to use all available resources, including the counseling center and student advisors, to help not just students in our classes, but identify where issues might be impacting students in other areas.”

Making sure all students are represented and served is a top priority for the department and this program.

“We try to integrate linguistic justice practices into our writing classes, especially when it comes to grading policies, to make sure we aren’t docking people that may be using different varieties of English,” said Shepherd. “We try to look more mindfully at the ways people are communicating ideas, instead of trying to use specific varieties of English that might not be common to all of our students.”

“First-year composition has been a leader in diversity, equity and inclusion within the classroom. This is always something that is central, with NIU being a first-generation student serving university,” said Balcerzak. “The leadership of the department has turned to this team to help with those discussions and think about this for other classes as well.”

First-year composition students also can participate in the annual Showcase of Student Writing. Leading up to this annual event, students work in teams to identify and research issues or opportunities in local communities. During the event, students present their research findings to an audience including other students, faculty, deans and local community members.

“The mayors of DeKalb and Sycamore have attended the event, because it’s such a good kind of exploration of local issues and topics,” said Hoffman. “You cannot substitute the kind of energy you get in that environment, and it is great to see the light switch moment when the students recognize their research really matters to the community.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion is not just a phrase at Northern Illinois University – it is integral to our culture.

As part of a continual effort to increase faculty diversity, so students of all backgrounds will see representations of themselves in their classrooms, departments and throughout their university experience, NIU will host the Preparing Future Faculty of Color Conference Feb. 23-24 at Holmes Student Center. The annual event brings graduate students of color representing 17 universities in Illinois and other states to NIU’s campus, to learn about the professoriate as an impactful career and how to prepare for it.

Workshop sessions will include how to develop oneself into a scholar, the process of networking, preparing for the interview and job talk, managing teaching, research and service, negotiating the politics of race, gender and sexuality in the academy, and other topics. The conference also provides an opportunity for chairs and deans to network with graduate students seeking employment.

“A quality college education should center on achieving and maintaining inclusive excellence – how well a university values and engages the rich diversity of human existence shown through its faculty, staff, administrators, curriculum and all that encompasses its community,” said Janice Hamlet, associate vice provost for Faculty Mentoring and Diversity at NIU and conference founder. “To create and maintain inclusive excellence, we must have an environment presenting the diverse backgrounds that make up the world we live in, and the students we admit to the university.”

This year’s theme is: “Representation Still Matters! Creating Pipelines and Pathways in Promoting Faculty Diversity and Championing Social Justice in Higher Education.” Conference activities begin at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23. Contact Janice Hamlet at jhamlet@niu.edu or 815-753- 6346 for more information.

NIU is committed to recruiting and supporting employees who represent diverse communities and identities in our society. Furthermore, NIU is committed to addressing systemic inequities and fostering a more inclusive campus culture.

Terri went above and beyond to decorate and create a special menu to celebrate the Lunar New Year at Neptune Dining during lunch on February 8.

She helped create a culturally responsive, inclusive space for community building and celebrating Asia’s vast, diverse culture as a part of our collective American culture. Thanks to Terri and Neptune’s partnership, colleagues reconnected face-to-face after ten years at NIU together. People ate, laughed, lingered, and didn’t want to leave. And the Chinese five-spice chocolate cake was heavenly delicious!

Thank you, Terri, for providing Asian faculty, staff, and students with a sense of community and belonging at NIU!

Gayle is always such a joy to work with. She has helped us understand the Federal Work Study system which has allowed us to create multiple student employee opportunities. She is very patient and thorough in her answers to our questions. We are very thankful for Gayle!

Laurie has always been helpful when interacting with visitors and co-workers; however, yesterday I heard Laurie talking with a gentleman who was in lobby and he happened to have some mobility issues. She offered to assist in many ways throughout their conversation, and when he was satisfied with what she had been able to provide, she asked if she could help carry whatever material he had with him out to his car. That was really going above and beyond! Thanks, Laurie!

Collen Larson, Victoria Spejcher, Yudishtir Sheth, and Diego Del Carmen are part of the Technology Support Desk at Northern Illinois University. Their primary responsibility is to assist employees with IT issues, such as software problems, hardware malfunctions, and network connectivity issues.

Collen Larsen: Collen goes above and beyond by not only addressing the immediate technical issues but also providing additional resources and training materials to help employees better understand and troubleshoot common problems on their own.

Victoria Spejcher: Victoria demonstrates exceptional customer service by always maintaining a positive attitude and going the extra mile to ensure that every employee’s issue is resolved to their satisfaction.

Yudishtir Sheth: Yudishtir recognizes that many employees struggle with adapting to new technology platforms and software updates. Yudishtir’s proactive approach helps to improve overall tech literacy among employees, reducing the number of support tickets and increasing productivity.

Diego Del Carmen: Diego specializes in troubleshooting complex network issues. He goes above and beyond by conducting thorough root cause analyses to identify underlying problems and prevent future occurrences.

Together, Collen, Victoria, Yudishtir, and Diego form a highly effective and customer-focused technology support team. Their dedication to providing exceptional service and their willingness to go above and beyond contribute to a positive work environment and increased productivity throughout the organization.

The Office of Faculty Affairs welcomes Dave DeThorne to Northern Illinois University as the new director of Academic and Labor Relations.

Dave DeThorne

Prior to this role, DeThorne served as director of Academic Labor Relations at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He brings a total of 13 years of experience with labor relations to this position at NIU.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dave to the Huskie family,” said Bárbara González, vice provost for Faculty Affairs. “Dave’s prior experience will serve him well here at NIU, and we look forward to working with him and continuing our ongoing efforts to provide support to faculty members.”

The Academic Employee and Labor Relations office supports faculty success at NIU. The office conducts negotiations of collective bargaining agreements with faculty unions representing tenure/tenure-track and instructors’ bargaining units.

Additional responsibilities include administering agreements, conducting labor-management meetings, fostering effective relationships with union representatives and processing grievances.

Collaboration and making sure all parties are informed on labor matters are priorities for DeThorne. Serving as assistant state’s attorney in Champaign County, Illinois earlier in his career gave him valuable experience in this area, prior to his time in higher education.

“That was a workplace with many bargaining units, which became one of my areas of responsibility. I was intrigued by it and enjoyed it,” said DeThorne. “I love working in a university environment because there are so many brilliant people, and I look forward to meeting and working with the faculty here at NIU.”

Working for NIU is a homecoming of sorts for DeThorne. After completing a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, DeThorne enrolled in NIU’s College of Law and graduated with a juris doctor in 1997.

“I have fond memories of my time at NIU. I preferred law school over my undergraduate experience and give credit to NIU for that. The faculty were approachable, and I really liked my time here. It was a good fit for me, and I am glad to be back,” said DeThorne.

Furthermore, many of DeThorne’s family members live in the Chicagoland area, including his son and father-in-law, and DeThorne is looking forward to being closer to them.

DeThorne began his role as NIU’s director of Academic and Labor Relations Monday, Feb. 12.

Congratulations to Jason Rhode, associate vice provost for Teaching, Learning, and Digital Education at NIU, on being named to the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Board of Directors!

Jason Rhode

OLC is a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Rhode joins three others on this esteemed panel and, as part of this appointment, will play a key role in shaping the future direction of the organization to help advance the field of online education.

“I’m excited to be joining the OLC Board of Directors and the unique opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction of an organization that has such a profound impact on shaping the future of online education,” said Rhode. “The OLC has long been a beacon of innovation and excellence in the field of online education, and I am honored to contribute to its mission of advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences.”

Rhode has more than 20 years of leadership experience in higher ed online education and faculty development. He oversees NIU’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning and university-wide digital learning.

Under Rhode’s leadership, online learning has grown at NIU and the university is positioning itself to be a leader in online education.

Rhode is a champion for academic excellence and student-centric, equity-minded approaches. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions, including being named a Fellow of the Online Learning Consortium in 2023. For that designation, Rhode was honored for “Visionary Leadership and Dedication to Mentoring Future Leaders in the Field.”

“We are very grateful to have Jason’s expertise and leadership here at Northern Illinois University,” said Laurie-Elish Piper, NIU interim executive vice president and provost. “Jason’s dedication to innovation in how we serve our students benefits both our university community and beyond, and we congratulate him on achieving this honor.”

Rhode joins the OLC board for a three-year term.

‘Huskie culture truly centers and serves students’

President Lisa C. Freeman and Jada Samuels

The Jada Juice served during last week’s unique State of the University address wasn’t just a treat.

An entrepreneurial concept conceived by management student Jada Samuels at the age of 17, the award-winning natural smoothies symbolized much of what NIU values as an institution.

Entrepreneurship. Innovation. Inclusivity. Cultural diversity. Scholarship. Creativity. Student success. Philanthropy. Collaboration.

Samuels’ dream started with a determination to address food insecurity issues in minority communities. With the support of the College of Business’ De La Vega Innovation Lab, as well as the NIU Office of Innovation in the Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships, she won first place overall and audience favorite at DePaul University’s Pitch Madness event.

Samuels took home $7,000 to invest in her business.

“She’s that much closer to her dream of having a food truck and multiple storefronts,” NIU President Lisa Freeman told the crowd during the Feb. 8 event.

Along with the many success stories like Samuels’ that need to be told, President Freeman spoke about our community’s shared vision, the university’s 2024 goals and challenges faced. The State of the University was held in a conversation format and featured an exchange between President Freeman and Faculty Senate President Ben Creed.

President Lisa C. Freeman and Faculty Senate Pesident Ben Creed.

Asked to look back on the last five years, Freeman commented, “We’ve accomplished a lot together. We’ve been able to do this I think because we’ve been intentional about highlighting the intersection between various aspects of our mission and about being bold and making sure we tell the stories about the amazing things we have going on.

“At the same time, we all know it’s not just about telling our story better, but also about having a better story to tell and we’ve been working to do that.”

Unwavering commitment to equality and inclusion

President Freeman reflected back to 2018 when she took part in an open forum as part of the process for consideration as NIU’s 13^th president.

“I really focused that day on the things that should never change and the things we needed to change,” she said.

What hasn’t and shouldn’t change is NIU’s unwavering commitment to affordability and equality—matching talent with opportunity—as well as the university’s identity as an inclusive, engaged, student-centered public research university, she said.

Huskies across campus have strived together to become a university that’s attractive and welcoming to students, faculty and staff from all walks of life, knowing that diversity has enriched the intellectual community and inspired innovation.

Those efforts are reflected in positive feedback from members of the university community, as well as these national recognitions:

• NIU’s Libraries earned the 2024 Library Excellence in Access and Diversity (LEAD) Awardfrom Insight Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education.
• For the third consecutive year, the university received the 2023 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity
• Setting the bar for LGBTQ-inclusive polices, programs and practices nationwide, Campus Pride named NIU to its 2023 Best of the Best LGBTQ-friendly Colleges and Universities List. After earning 5 out of 5 stars on the Campus Pride Index in 2022, NIU also was named to Campus Pride’s 2022 Best of the Best Colleges and Universities for LGBTQ+ students.

President Freeman made it clear that work in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging will continue at NIU.

She pointed to NIU’s inaugural Real Talk Conference: Bridging Race, Identity, and Community this past October as an event that wowed her, not only for its turnout of about at least 600 Huskies, but also for its content. The event was hosted by NIU’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center as a collaboration between the divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

“The focus of the conference was very much on deep listening, on constructive dialogue and on fostering empathy and resilience,” she said.  “It is the diversity of our students, coupled with freedom of expression, that will really build the leaders that can talk across differences. Not scream at each other, but talk with each other…I think we all know the world needs more of that. And I’m proud of that.”

Building Huskie identity and pride

University leaders continually strive to better support and empower students, faculty and staff and to ensure NIU remains relevant in an ever-changing world, President Freeman said.

“That requires change,” she said, “and change is hard. And change takes time. We’re on a journey that isn’t complete, but I think we’re trying to do change right in the sense that we’re trying to be data-informed. We’re trying to be responsive and inclusive of stakeholder feedback. We’re not irrationally reacting to external and internal pressures. We’re not irrationally clinging to the ways we’ve always done things, and we’re getting better and trying harder not to let risk aversion thwart the opportunity to be innovative.”

Highlighting university goals, President Freeman spoke of the value of transdisciplinary scholarship and artistry; the importance of shared leadership to advance a Huskie culture that truly centers and serves students; the need to build Huskie identity and pride; and opportunities to create pathways for meaningful faculty and staff engagement.

She reflected on progress made in the last five years in the areas of alumni involvement and community partnerships.

Strengthened relationships between NIU and DeKalb have made the community more vibrant and attractive to students, parents, visitors and potential residents, she said.

The new Annie Glidden Road underpass mural marking the entrance to Huskie nation and the new Victor E. Huskie statue unveiled last September during Homecoming in downtown DeKalb stand as the latest examples of the ongoing collaboration between NIU and community leaders.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last five years, the way the university is living out its mission, vision and values,” she said.

Drawing and retaining talented students

Guided by Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan 2.0, NIU has remained laser focused on retention and student success. The plan has helped produce positive results in student reenrollment under a shared equity leadership (SEL) structure that leverages input from faculty, staff, undergraduates and graduate students to advance equity-minded SEM goals that center on the needs of NIU students.

One of the strategies included in NIU’s SEM Plan 2.0 focuses on reenrolling former NIU students who stopped out before receiving their degree. To advance this goal, NIU has partnered with ReUp Education, an organization that specializes in supporting such students from re-enrollment to graduation. The partnership began in late fall, and, this spring, the university welcomed back 25 new students eager to complete an NIU credential.

Along with collaboration, positive changes in recruitment, admissions and financial aid practices have been informed by data, President Freeman emphasized. A prime example is the 2021 implementation of test-free admissions and merit aid based on NIU’s data that show a student’s high school GPA is a better indicator of future academic success than performance on a standardized ACT or SAT test.

“I think overall I’m really most proud of the holistic approach that we’ve taken to strategic enrollment planning and the way we’ve been very thoughtful and deliberate about the roles all of us play in making sure that we recruit talented students and that we help them succeed to, through and beyond the university,” President Freeman said.

Freeman was asked about NIU’s efforts to be a Hispanic-Service Institution, because Latinx students now represent 25% of NIU’s full-time equivalent undergraduate population. This places the university on a trajectory to be fully designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, providing opportunities for more resources and funding.

President Freeman emphasized that NIU is committed to intentionally serving and not merely enrolling Hispanic/Latinx students. She made it clear that embracing the designation is consistent with the university’s commitment to champion the success of all students from all backgrounds.

“It helps us recommit to all the things that we care deeply about, understanding who our students are, understanding how to meet them where they are, understanding that it is our job and our privilege and our joy to help them succeed.”

Among numerous other points of pride spanning across campus and beyond, she also mentioned the following:

• NIU’s planned $23 million Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability. NICCS will be a world-class research facility focusing on water resources, environmental change and food systems, while also promoting science-based policies and practices for communities.
• Project FLEX, a Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education initiative providing positive interventions with youth who are in secure custody of the state. In January, the project secured a five-year, $2.55 million grant from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to continue and expand its work.
• The Transdisciplinary Research Incubator for STEM Education, or T-RISE. Supported with an initial investment of $300,000 by the university, the new research initiative is designed to advance and promote collaborative research across disciplines that educate and study learning in the STEM fields.

Facing the headwinds

Turning to challenges faced by NIU and higher education institutions across the country, President Freeman said today’s challenges are similar to those faced five years ago, despite the fact that they seem more difficult.

“Everything seems harder,” she said. “It seems harder because of the pandemic and its lasting social and economic impacts. It seems harder because the world has gotten so much more polarized.”

She encouraged all Huskies to do their part, to work together to strengthen the community. And all should feel empowered to bring good ideas forward, she said.

Even the little informal things make a difference—speaking with pride about being a Huskie, referring students interested in coming to NIU, volunteering at recruitment events.

Some challenges—finding ways to become more efficient, to reduce barriers, to generate revenue and to reduce costs—are harder than others, President Freeman said, but they are not insurmountable. The university community has the ingenuity to tackle and solve such problems.

“When I look at the challenges we’re facing, they’re real,” she said. “I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses, but maybe the glass is half full…

“I have great faith in the Huskie community.”

When asked about specific challenges, President Freeman said the university must stay up to date with advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence, or AI.

“When we are faced with something that arrives quickly like artificial intelligence we don’t have a lot of time to think about all the ways that we can prepare our students to use it, make sure that our faculty and staff have the opportunity to use it while also looking at the ethical issues that come along with something like that,” Freeman said.

She worries the university may not be nimble enough or change fast enough to keep pace with technology, as well as with the changing nature and needs of incoming students.

Freeman commented that NIU also must minimize barriers for nontraditional students, including transfer students—“the biggest emphasis coming out of the governor’s office”—and a growing group of working adults who left higher education without a degree and are now looking to upskill.

“In some ways they are very much aligned with the students we’ve always served because the structures aren’t there. They have been overlooked,” she said.

“But they’re not the 18-year-olds that we’ve been built to serve,” she said. “We’re going to have to adapt to really meet their needs. I know we have people really interested in doing that and talking about that, but we have to get it right because when they start coming, we’ll have one chance to serve them well and be identified as an institution that does this well.”

Above all, President Freeman said, to withstand the headwinds and realize the opportunities embedded in our challenges, NIU must remain committed to excellence and opportunity, and to being an innovative, inclusive community.

“We’re Huskies,” she said. “That’s what we do.”

When you hear the words “gen ed courses” what comes to mind? Innovative, collaborative and engaging may not always be the first responses, but those are adjectives used to describe the general education offerings from NIU’s Department of Mathematical Sciences.

This begins with the department’s dedication to providing students with useful course content and continues with offering support and guidance, along the way.

“We have focused on student success in general education courses like Math, English and Communication and we’re doing all kinds of innovative things in that space, from eight-week classes to grade forgiveness and some unique things we’re developing,” said Bob Brinkmann, dean of NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “We have seen a real turnaround in success numbers in that space, largely because of significant investment in transforming how we manage and teach the courses. We are trying to get the fear away from math and let students know we’re here for them every step of the way.”

The department has been at the forefront of curricular development, addressing the changing needs of NIU’s students with the recent introductions of MATH 103 (Elements of Mathematical Reasoning) and MATH 105 (College Algebra with Review). These courses provide a student-centered, activity-based learning environment that utilizes small group activities and technology as a tool for problem-solving and exploration. The course coordinators conduct ongoing assessment activities to ensure consistency across course sections and emphasize active learning strategies in the classroom. To help bridge the transition gap between high school and college, grade forgiveness has proven to be a useful step for students who may be struggling.

“This was used in MATH 211 during Summer 2023. After students have taken an exam, if they are unhappy with their performance, they are offered an opportunity to retest the same material the following week,” said Andrew Ledoan, department chair. “It turns out many students improve their study skills and familiarize themselves with college-style exams this way. The upshot is that students develop the basic academic self-confidence that will help sustain them throughout their study at NIU.”

Ledoan recently visited a dozen classrooms and found math instructors going the extra mile to provide a positive experience for students enrolled in their classes.

“To observe the instructors working hard in the classrooms and connecting and engaging with students truly was an enlightening experience,” said Ledoan. “I am so proud to work alongside our instructors, who are so dedicated to helping students embrace challenges and assist with practice and study strategies.”

Ledoan noticed one instructor utilizing participation slips as an added form of communication between her and the students. In this class, students can fill out the slips to inform the instructor of what they need, and the instructor can make adjustments accordingly.

“When I sat at the back of the classrooms, I observed incredible patience and kindness from the instructors,” said Ledoan. “I felt an exciting zest and anticipation among the students for their future, and I would like the campus to know the department has excellent and caring teachers. While math is very useful as a subject, it can be a fun subject to learn, too.”

Kevin Palencia Infante is the calculus coordinator for the department. As part of this role, Palencia Infante observes grade distribution for each exam to see if there are students receiving a D or F grade. From there, he works with Ledoan in reaching out to the respective instructors to see how to best help those students for their subsequent exams.

One technique Palencia Infante uses for his classes is the addition of a small group and problem-solving session to the lecture sessions, as part of the course cadence.

“We are making progressive changes in the instruction of calculus to address retention issues and high DFUW rates. We are implementing student-centered practices like small group work, and open educational resources for our textbook and online homework to remove financial barriers among our student population,” said Palencia Infante. “More importantly, we would like to foster a sense of belonging in our classrooms. To promote equitable teaching practices, we need to know our student population.”

“This small group work promotes active learning and is so crucial to students’ development,” said Ledoan. “The instructors engage with the small groups and make sure each student is included in a group. Each group takes responsibility for the learning of its members.”

Palencia Infante has collaborated with others to create a research center for teaching and learning of calculus, which helps faculty make informed curriculum decisions and furthermore, optimizes the success of students.

“The objective is to investigate student and faculty perspectives about the teaching and learning of calculus to develop a curriculum where all voices are heard,” said Palencia Infante. “I enjoy my job because it gives me the opportunity to guide students through the learning process and dispel myths such as, ‘I am not a math person.’”

Math students also have access to the Mathematics Assistance Center (MAC) in the Founders Memorial Library. The MAC offers free tutoring, with no appointment needed. Students learn test-taking and study strategies in a relaxed setting to increase confidence in their abilities to learn new concepts.

The results of the department’s efforts have been significant:

• MATH 103 success rates improved by 14% from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023.
• MATH 105 success rates improved by 10% from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.
• MATH 110 success rates improved by 11% from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.
• MATH 155 success rates improved by 4% from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.
• MATH 211 success rates improved by 16% from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.
• MATH 229 success rates improved by 26% from Spring 2022 to Spring 2023.

“We have seen math grades improve across the board, thanks to the efforts of the talented instructional faculty in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. They have all stepped up and been a part of this in one way or another,” said Brinkmann. “These improved scores also reflect students opening themselves up to learning and exploring more in partnership with our wonderful faculty and peer teachers. It has been a joy to see this transformation over the last few years.”

Brinkmann adds, “There’s a real sense of the significance of math’s role in the general education of our university and in the future of the way we think about not just mathematics, but data and data science and the variety of ways we manage information and numbers in our modern society. This is a math department in the middle of transformation and on the verge of exciting things happening in the future.”