In Review: Summer Institute on Equity in the Academic Experience

The first annual Summer Institute on Equity in Academic Experience – created in partnership by Georgetown University and the University of Austin in Texas in collaboration with the American Talent Initiative – was held June 24- 26, 2019, during which eighteen colleges and universities came together at Georgetown University to progress their institutional and collective goals around educational equity. Over these three days, teams – composed of people working to implement initiatives to increase successful outcomes for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students at their institutions – focused on their individual projects while also learning from each other and experts in the field. The Institute was founded on the premise that conversations related to institutional transformation, an equity agenda, and academics are too often disconnected on campuses. 

The Institute opened with an “All Institute Session” featuring Catherine “Cappy” Bond Hill, Managing Director at Ithaka S+R, Robert M. Groves, Provost at Georgetown University, and Maurie McInnis, Provost at  The University of Texas at Austin. The panelists provided important framing and insights into two crucial areas of inquiry:

1. What does the equity agenda look like to leadership?
2. How does an institution balance equity with other priorities? 

Problem Sessions gave participants the opportunity to collaborate with the team members from their own institution and participants from other institutions. The term ‘problem’ was used to acknowledge that there are no simple answers or fixes. These sessions served as spaces to foster new ideas, resources, and connections to other campuses. The sessions situated discussion in four interconnected themes that are crucial to consider while defining and advancing an equity agenda.

1. Urgency: Contextualizing a vision for equity on your campus.
2. Case-Making: Defining and measuring equity on your campus.
3. Strategy: Structuring the work for tackling equity on your campus.
4. Culture: Scaling and sustaining the equity agenda on your campus.

Within each of the theme bands, there were sessions running concurrently which explored four pertinent subtopics and considerations. The concurrent nature of the sessions gave teams the choice to split up and work with other participants across different sessions or to remain together and attend one session that felt particularly salient to their institutional goals. As sessions concluded, teams had the opportunity to reconvene to share what they had learned and to build out pieces of their equity strategy. Thus, all participants experienced four sessions across four problem themes, but institutional teams could experience up to sixteen sessions collectively. 

All Institute Sessions gave participants an opportunity to learn from leaders with the American Talent Initiative (ATI).  ATI’s mission is to substantially expand access and opportunity for talented, low- and moderate-income students at the nation’s colleges and universities with the highest graduation rates. As the main Summer Institute sponsor, they provided the necessary insight into crucial aspects of equity and higher education, particularly the current context of higher education, where colleges and universities have a place in the equity conversation, and how to move forward towards equitable experiences in higher education.

While the Summer Institute is designed to be an annual event, it is also meant to foster continuous dialogue throughout the year. To help facilitate this dialogue, a Resource Wiki has been developed to serve as a community of practice. This includes a Core Library that brings together selected research literature, tools for institutional self-analysis, case studies, and design exercises, as well as a set of Resource Kits, organized by the four problem session themes. We hope that you will engage in this community as well so that educational equity work can be informed and moved forward by an extensive, diverse, collaborative community.

Check out additional Summer Institute highlights here!

The 2020 Summer Institute will be hosted by the University of Texas in Austin. Questions? Please reach out to Ulili Emore with the subject line: Summer Institute. See you there!

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Co-authors:

Mark Joy: Senior Research & Programs Associate for The Hub for Equity and Innovation in Higher Education 

Grace Ramstad: Student at Georgetown University and Project Associate for The Hub for Equity and Innovation in Higher Education