For most students, the syllabus is the front door to your course. While outlining course content and academic expectations, your syllabus also reveals assumptions, attitudes, values, and beliefs that shape your teaching. As students enter through this front door, how do we assure they all feel welcome? And how can we best emphasize their path to success?

In this session, we will introduce Germanna’s Syllabus Review Guide, designed by faculty for faculty. Adapted from “Equity-Minded Inquiry Series-Syllabus Review,” by the Center for Urban Education (CUE), this tool prompts instructors to reflect on language and teaching practices that effectively reach all students. Participants will learn how Germanna developed this tool to apply to all disciplines and explore how it can improve the student experience.

The syllabus review tool prompts faculty members to consider changes to tone and instructional content, while maintaining discipline integrity and clear communication. 

The participants will:

1. Gain access to the PDF-based tool to review their own syllabi.
2. Explore examples of welcoming and unwelcoming syllabus language.
3. Reflect on equitable syllabus practices:
4. Does your syllabus welcome students and create a classroom culture in which they feel safe and respected?
5. Does your syllabus create a partnership in which faculty and students work together to ensure success?
6. Does your syllabus validate students’ ability to be successful? 
7. Does your syllabus represent a range of diversity in assignments, readings, and other materials when appropriate?
8. Does your syllabus demystify college, department, and course policies and practices?

When: 1 p.m. on Tuesday, October 8

Presenters:

Mirela Fetea, Ph.D., Professor of Physics and Senate Vice-President at Germanna; Julia Hamel, Biology Faculty and Science Department Co-Chair; and Cory MacLauchlin, Assistant Professor of English, English Department Chair, and Faculty Senate President at Germanna.

Register Here: https://vccs.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckdOChqjwrHNyxNwwAyZBfOVDxCctt1oN_