April 1, 2021

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

The following is being sent on behalf of Linda Adler-Kassner & Leesa Beck
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Dear Faculty,
 
We invite proposals for *new* Discovery@UCSB Second Year & Senior Transfer Discovery Seminars for Summer Session B! These Seminars are intended for faculty to forge connections with students and create spaces where students can create connections with each other. 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. 

Seminars can be 1 or 2 units (depending on whether they are taught individually or in teams). Faculty will receive the standard Summer compensation for teaching a Summer Discovery Seminar (equivalent to 2.13% of their annual salary for 1-unit courses).  Instructors who are ineligible for additional pay in Summer may opt to receive research or professional development funds instead.

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.

 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.
  • Enrollment in seminars taught by two faculty members will be 30 students.

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.

Seminars are to be offered in Session B, and may be taught either in-person or remotely, though we particularly encourage proposals for in-person seminars (public health guidelines permitting)

Please submit your proposal by: Friday, April 23rd

To propose a Second Year or Senior Transfer Discovery@UCSB Seminar for Summer Session B, please go to: https://forms.gle/77CUVkZyyaYvyarB9

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