The toolkit was created through SEP by the higher education research and advocacy groups the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU), and the College Transition Collaborative (CTC), said Samantha Levine, associate director at USU and APLU.
“The SEP aims to not locate the problem within students but instead to seek changes in the learning environment that’s around them by equipping faculty with strategies to convey their beliefs in their students’ potential and to foster a sense of belonging,” said Levine, who developed the toolkit with university partners.
Social psychology research spanning more than a decade has revealed that when students feel welcomed and set up to thrive in a class, they attain better academic outcomes. Levine noted this is especially critical for historically underrepresented students, such as first-generation, Black, Latinx, and Pell grant recipient students.
“The syllabus is a cornerstone to set the tone on the first day of class,” she added. “Changes can be small like saying to students, ‘Here’s my contact info, I encourage you to get in touch with me.’ Or ‘Here’s how to access a textbook that might be expensive.’ It’s so important for students to know that instructors see them as human beings with complex lives.”
Another example could be shifting the phrase “office hours” to “drop-in hours," then stating that students are welcome to stop by for help. That can make office hours more approachable, normalize struggle in a class, and take away the so-called hidden curriculum in which students are often expected to know what office hours are.
Faculty at several public research universities as well as other higher education institutions piloted and refined the toolkit through SEP. At a virtual event on Thursday, faculty from three of the universities that took part shared their experiences with the project.
