Thread by @lesliemb

New #BoiseState pres @MarleneTromp spoke this morning to the College of Arts & Sciences faculty. It was hard not to shout AMEN! or raise praise hands during her remarks. So much of what she said resonated with my experience and observations.

@MarleneTromp spoke of the importance of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences to the immediate work of the university—educating our students—but also addressed how, for example, historians and sociologists are essential to research in engineering & science.

Pres. Tromp also spoke of how those of us who understand culture need to bring our perspectives to challenges like cybersecurity because our divergent thinking is key to understanding cybercrime. I'd add climate change, gun violence, and mass migration to that list.

She reminded those of us in the humanities that we especially need to do a better job of explaining to students how our ways of thinking are applicable and necessary to the world and—if we can articulate them to employers—sought-after.

I majored in English, earned an M.A. in writing poetry, and then went on to finish an M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural studies. I have worked in arts marketing, print journalism, educational publishing, academic technology, university development, informal science ed, and more.

I have taught in departments of literature, writing, education, biotech/genomics, technocultural studies, American studies, museum studies, and history. I now work in faculty development and am tenured in history. This is what you can do with an English major.

Aside from those couple of lit classes, I have never taught or held a full-time job in any field in which I have formal training. I know I'm not alone in this zig-zagging and re-imagining of my role and calling. (Please share your own stories as well!)

@MarleneTromp also briefly addressed her shifting perspective as she moved into administrative roles at various universities. This has been my experience as well, even as director of a small academic support unit.

Working with faculty and students from across the university, as well as with professional staff in other support units, has opened my eyes to the important student-support work of people in positions that too many faculty dismiss as "administrative bloat."

I also have come to understand #BoiseState students better. I read peer-reviewed literature on higher ed pedagogy and student life. Yet I know most of those in the disciplines have not—and thus are not yet applying evidence-based instructional practices for these students.

We need to stop teaching as if we're in front of a classroom at an idyllic, elite liberal arts college circa 1990. Today's students at #BoiseState are different. None of my fellow students at Grinnell had defused IEDs in Afghanistan. None lived in their cars. None had 5 kids.

We need to be sure our students—all our students—see themselves in our curricula, that we're universally designing our courses for them, that we're planning for them when we craft learning outcomes, activities, assignments, and assessments.

This means we're planning for students like the fabulous @Walton_Emily, who came to us from Declo, Idaho, as well as for our veterans, for students with disabilities, and for the handful of students who come to us from my own ethnically diverse high school, Long Beach Poly.

But we also need to articulate to the legislature and others how this diversity brings us strength, and how these students need programs and services that cater to the contexts whence they emerge and their distinctive needs. #idleg

@MarleneTromp used the example of how the University of Wyoming doesn't need a Wyoming Students Club because most of the students are from Wyoming, and they can easily find their people and get the resources they need—because the university was designed with their needs in mind.

It's students who are traditionally marginalized—first-gen, veterans, students of color, LGBT students, etc.—who need the support and understanding provided through affinity groups and targeted services.

Those of us in traditional disciplines amplify our impact when we work interdisciplinarily. Similarly, students from diverse backgrounds amplify the learning in the classroom, and we need to teach in ways that make clear we value all their perspectives and local knowledge.

When I teach 100-level courses, I joke "I'm that liberal Californian professor your parents warned you about." Students laugh nervously. Then I explain I'm not here to "indoctrinate" them, but that my life experiences shape my lens on the world, and I speak through that filter.

I share then that my parents were union members, that 1/4 to 1/3 of the neighbors on my childhood block were gay men, that my high school was 20% white, that I wrote the obituary page in my high school yearbook. I ask how many students share these experiences. Usually none do.

Then I ask them what experiences they have had that I likely have not. They have a very long list: They have trained fighter pilots. They have ranched. They have recommends for the LDS temple. They have four kids and are lesbian activists who fight for reproductive rights.

We talk about their own lenses and how those might shape how they understand the U.S. past that we'll be studying in the course. And we talk about how we'll all be looking at the same set of artifacts and documents, but individually will come to different conclusions about them.

I point out that meaningful historical revelations—and even the truth—likely lie not with any one of us, but in the confluence of our perspectives and experiences. Research shows diverse business teams perform better across several metrics. The same is true in the classroom.

It's true in the larger university as well. Diversity is our strength. We need to be better about articulating clearly and insistently why inclusive ways of teaching, programs, and hiring are essential to the survival not only of Idaho's cities and rural areas, but of the planet.

This is the work of the university, of #BoiseState. As @MarleneTromp said in her convocation speech yesterday, "If universities aren't meant to be bringers of light, who is?" Fiat lux, friends. Fiat lux.