Improving The Student Experience

Improving+The++Student+Experience

Annie Xu '22

The school also plans to improve the hiring process to attract a larger pool of diverse applicants, as well as support additional professional development programs for faculty. There are plans to create summer fellowship opportunities designed to draw faculty from underrepresented backgrounds to the community. Plans to increase diversity in faculty will be achieved by widening the scope of their current recruitment efforts and providing all faculty and staff with professional development emphasizing diversity and inclusion.
Additionally, visiting teachers and lecturers will bring broad connections to a wide variety of cultures and perspectives over the next decade.
The Strategic Priority “Access and Affordability: Increasing Our Financial Aid Endowment” stipulates that the school aims to increase the percentage of students on financial aid from 33% to 51% by 2028. Providing non-tuition aid, such as textbooks and travel programs, is also a priority, and the school plans to expand this budget within the next decade.
Furthermore, The school strives to enhance community engagement by renovating certain buildings and spaces such as, the Dining Hall, Walker Auditorium, and Buehler, Coy, Memorial, and Tinker dorms to “create a safe, comfortable, and nurturing environment” for students and faculty.
The Priorities support integrating technology into the curriculum. The EFX lab opened in 2017, and the Priorities called for endowing a director for the Lab. Mr. Paul Oberto, instructor in science, was made director in 2018. The Science Deapartment is working to increase the number of high-level STEM courses and use the natural environment around campus in more course offerings. These commitments at work can be seen in the summer program that debuted last year, which utilized Fairfield Farm to facilitate learning about biology and agroecology.
Tune in to The Community Chat with the Trustees livestream with Trustee Co-Presidents Robert Gould ’77 and Elizabeth Hines ’93 on February 27 to learn more about the school’s Strategic Priorities.