Where do you fit in the TCU community? How do you interact with people who are different from you? Do you value and respect someone, even if you disagree with them? How can we fully appreciate who we are if we don’t consider other people’s experiences?
These questions and more prompted TCU to focus our Quality Enhancement Plan, part of our requirements for reaccreditation, on “Finding Ourselves in Community.”
“Finding Ourselves in Community” is not a single, additional course that students must take. It is a five-year plan beginning in 2023 to embed learning outcomes into courses across all majors and minors, especially Core Curriculum courses, to help our students better understand themselves and others, to foster a more inclusive community at TCU.
“It is a university’s mission to sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry, to help our students grow and learn more about themselves and how they relate to others,” said Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs. “These skills – to be curious, courageous, empathetic and continually open to new ideas – go beyond the college classroom to embrace all phases of our lives. Employers repeatedly tell us that they value someone who can relate well to people who are different from them. We want to make these skills available to all students across TCU.”
Students won’t be the only ones learning. Faculty will be provided with professional development to help them modify existing courses or create new ones that embed the concepts of “Finding Ourselves in Community.” The workshops will help faculty learn skills to encourage and achieve respectful dialogue and discussion in their classroom, exploring various perspectives.
The first professional development workshop will be held in Spring 2023 and every semester thereafter. Applications for the first 20 full-time faculty members are now open at provost.tcu.edu/sacscoc/qep Participation is acknowledged with a $2,000 stipend.
What is a Quality Enhancement Plan? It is a five-year plan required for reaccreditation by the Southern Association for Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to improve specific student learning outcomes. The plan includes committing resources to initiate “Finding Ourselves in Community,” assessing it annually, adjusting as needed, and presenting the plan’s outcomes at the end of five years.
The SACSCOC on-site review team will be on campus in March to evaluate TCU’s status and meet with faculty, staff and students to discuss the Quality Enhancement Plan.
We encourage you to find out more at provost.tcu.edu/sacscoc/qep.