May 20, 2021

This message is distributed to Senate-Faculty. (Click here to view description of distribution groups.)

The following is being sent on behalf of Associate Dean, Linda Adler-Kassner
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We are very excited to announce and invite proposals for *new* Discovery@UCSB Second Year & Senior Transfer Discovery Seminars for Fall 2021! These new Discovery seminars are intended for second year full degree (‘sophomores’) and transfer students (transfer seniors) who are “returning” to a campus that they’ve encountered exclusively through remote learning. These new seminars are intended for faculty to forge connections with students and create spaces where students can create connections with each other.

 
We especially encourage proposals that:

  • provide opportunities for students to become oriented to/study the physical surroundings of the campus
  • learn about and practice with strategies for navigating UCSB courses and disciplines
  • include intentional strategies for students to get to know other students to build support networks.


We also encourage proposals that provide opportunity for students to focus on issues associated with and strategies to address our current challenges:

  • the COVID-19 pandemic, structural racism and inequality, unemployment, mental health concerns, environmental degradation, and more, and
  • explicitly invite students to bring their assets – their knowledge, identities, and commitments – to exploration of these pressing issues.


Seminars are 1 or 2 units (depending on whether they are taught individually or in teams). Second Year Seminars can be for students admitted as first years, or for transfer students.

  • Enrollment in seminars taught by a single faculty will be limited to 15 students; faculty will receive $1500 in professional development/research funding.
  • Enrollment in seminars taught by two faculty members will be 30 students; each faculty member will receive $2000 in professional development/research funding.
  • All Seminars will also receive $300 in course funding for supplies or expenses.


As with all Discovery@UCSB seminars, we encourage you to talk with students about how you and others in your discipline bring particular perspectives to bear as you examine issues and create strategies: What kinds of questions you ask, what kind of evidence or data you collect, how you analyze what you do, and how you and others share what you have learned. Building this layer of meta-analysis and meta-learning peels back the curtain on knowledge-making in disciplines and enables students to develop their own strategies for recognizing and navigating among these practices.

Beginning in Fall 2021, all Discovery@UCSB Seminars will be taught in person  (public health guidelines permitting)

To propose a Second Year or Senior Transfer Discovery@UCSB Seminar please go to: https://forms.gle/tyQ3CahG52b3Mtqh6

 

For questions or to brainstorm possibilities, contact Linda Adler-Kassner, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education * ladler@ucsb.edu.