Summer 2025 Higher Ed Conversation Group
Open to Academic Administrators, Faculty, Lecturers, Staff & Students
The Faculty Development Center and the Office of Campus & Community Writing would like to invite EMU administrators, faculty, lecturers, staff, and students to join us for lunch-time conversation this summer, every other Wednesday at noon, starting May 28.
Higher education is at a crossroads right now and facing many challenges. We have ourselves been in conversation with many of you and with colleagues at other institutions, and we thought it might be valuable to come together in a somewhat more organized manner to define and engage in dialogue about both some of the challenges we face as well as some of the opportunities this crossroad affords us.
Some of us have also read a piece “Finding Purpose and Reawakening Joy: An Open Letter to Exhausted Colleagues" by Kate McCarthy and Ellie Ertle from Chico State University, that we found interesting, and we could certainly start our dialogue with that piece.
We might also start with the question, “How do we tell the story of higher education at this time?” and perhaps even with a focus on ourselves and EMU. There are currently many political challenges and forces we face, along with technological (e.g., Generative AI) and societal ones (the distrust and questioning of the value of higher ed). There is a lot we can talk about that can help us think through our own positions on these challenges, how we might engage in conversation about them with others, and how we might advocate, even more and better, for the importance and value of what we do. We welcome your thoughts in shaping these conversations - we aim to convene, not determine the conversation!
We hope you’ll consider joining us! Please complete this form to express your interest in attending -- and we understand that you may not be able to attend all of our meetings.
Benefits to Participating
- Engage in discussion about important issues facing higher education today;
- Think about your own positionality with regard to these issues, and how you want to approach your work going forward;
- Build a supportive community to help navigate these challenging times in higher ed.
Meeting Information and Topics
All meetings will be held from 12 - 1 PM in 109B Halle and Zoom on the following dates:
- May 28
- June 11: Attack on DEI/Viewpoint Diversity/Academic Freedom
- June 25: Guiding and Building Relationships of Trust/Supporting Each Other/Feelings of Belonging/Finding Time to Pause and Reflect
- July 9: Narratives about the Value and Impact of Higher Education
- July 23: New Identity and Vision for EMU
- August 6: Synthesis, Actions, Next Steps