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Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to provide an update about ������’s general education reform, Mobility Mindset Initiative, and academic programming focused on artificial intelligence.  Each of these areas demonstrates our commitment to being a forward-focused institution.

The general education reform process, also known as “(Re)imagining the Future of General Education Together,” is off to a great start.  Members of the general education reform executive team -- Megan Corbett, Martha Daas, Ph.D., Amy Johnson, Ph.D., Tatyana Lobova, Ph.D., Jenn Sloggie, and Josh Wallach, Ph.D. – have created a student-focused framework that is inclusive, transparent, evidence-based, and driven by faculty.  To date, the team has visited colleges and departments across campus to discuss the effort and received feedback from more than one hundred faculty and staff who volunteered to be part of general education reading groups or serve on future committees.  An introductory general education forum was attended by more than forty faculty and staff and two additional forums are planned.  In addition, six reading groups have already begun to dive into the general education literature to learn more about the scholarly landscape surrounding the subject matter.  After these reading groups have completed their work, the steering and operational committees will move to the next stage of the reform process.  Faculty from all of our colleges will be invited to serve on those committees.  You can learn more about the general education reform efforts here.  Please mark your calendar for the next two general education forums.

Our Mobility Mindset Initiative is equally ambitious and will help to define our institution in the years to come.  President Brian O. Hemphill introduced the concept of the “Mobility Mindset” in visits to the colleges over the past several weeks.  Drawing attention to the way that new highways changed lives after they were introduced several decades ago, the Mobility Mindset encourages us to make changes so that students can more easily navigate the pathways leading to a higher education degree. Central to the mindset is the development and implementation of accelerated programs and innovative certificates and micro-credentials.  A handful programs (e.g., human services, leadership, the MBA, the RN to BSN, and the training specialist major) have already begun to offer accelerated programs and several others (applied kinesiology, cybersecurity, data science and analytics, engineering technology, special education, sport management, and others) are working towards placing undergraduate and graduate programs into eight-week formats for Fall 2025.  Additional accelerated programs are under consideration.  The plan is not to create new programs, or change our expectations or learning outcomes, but to offer programs and credentials in ways that are responsive to student demand.

Regarding artificial intelligence, several weeks ago we solicited applications for our inaugural cohort of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Teaching Fellows.  Congratulations to the ten faculty selected as AI Teaching Fellows: Md Morshed Alam (School of Cybersecurity), Ryan Baltrip (Department of Marketing), Joel Bock (Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies), Rafael Diaz (Department of Engineering Management & Systems Engineering), Jennifer Kidd (Department of Teaching & Learning), Tian Luo (Department of STEM Education & Professional Studies), Eva Maddox (School of Exercise Science), Santosh Kumar Nukavarapu, (Department of Computer Science), Xinyue Ren (Department of STEM Education & Professional Studies, and Will Truran (Department of Art).  The faculty will work together in a community of practice to expand AI coursework and academic programming in high demand areas including health care, cyber defense, education, AI literacy, and supply chain operations. 

In addition to the teaching fellows, plans are underway to hire faculty with artificial intelligence expertise in areas across all our colleges.  I have been incredibly impressed with the willingness of chairs and deans from different areas to work together on search proposals.  More will be shared as those plans become finalized.

Many other activities are underway and in different stages of progress.  A general faculty meeting has been scheduled for October 29 at 12:30 in 1106 Education so that we can come together, share all that is going on, and discuss together our future as a forward-focused institution.