CLAS Strategic Plan

2020-2025

As the largest and most academically diverse college at the University of Connecticut, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) is fundamental to the success of the University and its students, faculty, staff, and other constituents. The College provides critical ideas, infrastructure, and employment for the State of Connecticut, and its impacts have global significance.

The College embarked on a strategic planning process during the 2019-2020 academic year, which resulted in this document. It is intended to articulate what we are here to do, the values that guide our work, what we intend to become by 2025, and the path we will take to reach that vision.

Overview and Background

Four committees, comprising more than 80 CLAS faculty, staff, and students from across our units (acknowledged below), worked sequentially from September 2019 to April 2020 to generate the information and ideas represented here. A group of alumni and advisors from other areas of the University also contributed at the points where each committee completed its work. The Dean’s office synthesized their reports and posted a draft for comment on the CLAS website, before completing this text. At each step, information was gathered broadly with the goal of obtaining diverse input to be used in an inclusive process.

This strategic plan identifies a shared College mission, vision, and values; offers benchmarking data; articulates specific objectives and strategies; and provides some metrics for defining success. It embraces the broad priorities of UConn, including these highlighted by UConn President Tom Katsouleas in 2019:

  • Promoting a top-quality liberal arts education
  • Advancing scholarship and increasing our research enterprise
  • Aligning our efforts with the economic needs of the State of Connecticut

The plan represents a dynamic entity, a roadmap of guiding principles with the flexibility to adapt to the changing environment in which we work and respond to opportunities as they arise.

Importantly, in the year of this plan’s creation, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. It reached Connecticut in spring 2020 and changed dramatically the way the University taught classes, engaged in research, and carried out business. As of this writing, the long-term academic and financial implications are unknown. Development of a flexible guide that can adapt to situations we cannot control, including both negative outcomes and positive opportunities, has become even more critical than we could have imagined. Incredibly dedicated individuals worked through the crisis to complete this plan on schedule, and their legacy is the impact this work will have during years following this unprecedented time.

In some cases, the strategic planning process served to highlight items that were already in progress, either within CLAS or external to our College within the University, because the work was in early stages or had not been adequately communicated. Communications and promotion of these opportunities should be as much a priority as establishing new initiatives.

In other cases, the planning process identified areas for desired improvement over which CLAS has little to no control, such as the library’s ability to provide access to materials critical to support research and teaching, classroom space concerns, University research oversight, and support for fundraising and alumni relations activities. In these cases, and for all other areas related to university-level policies and practices, our approach to move these priorities forward is to form strong internal and external partnerships and to advocate for the College and its interests. Selected examples are included below.

An important component of implementing this plan will be the creation of a Strategic Plan Advisory Committee to advise the Dean. Members will include undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, and faculty across a range of disciplines. The committee can aid in assessing progress toward our goals, recommend course corrections, and identify new opportunities consistent with the plan.

Our Vision

The vision of the College should serve as a beacon for conduct and decision-making surrounding areas not specifically addressed in this document. All College efforts should serve our mission and should be in line with our shared values. The Visioning Committee surveyed all CLAS faculty and staff for their ideas and incorporated the values of the University and the State to synthesize and articulate the College’s vision, mission, and values.

Vision

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will be UConn’s recognized and supported hub of learning and research, where an engaged, innovative liberal arts and sciences community facilitates student success, crosses boundaries of study, and reflects the diversity of our state and our world.

Mission

The UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences transforms lives. Through critical research and inquiry, creative education and mentorship, and ethical social engagement, we generate the foundational, collaborative environment that empowers all members of the UConn community to discover their agency and do meaningful work in the world.

Values

Community

We create inclusive spaces for disparate views. We actively seek individual and group relationships that support achievement at UConn, in the State of Connecticut, and across the world.

Creativity

We pursue new ways of thinking, innovative approaches to problems, and imaginative forms of expression, and we acknowledge that mistakes, past and present, are opportunities for growth.

Dedication

We value a deep commitment to our work. Dedication leads to excellence in the pursuit of inquiry and knowledge.

Diversity

We engage differences of thought, experience, perspective, culture, and field.

Empowerment

We cultivate personal agency and the ability to act with ethical and thoughtful conviction.

Integrity

We embrace our responsibility to each other and the world through the promotion of equity, environmental stewardship, social justice, accessible space, and opportunity.

Foundational Data

To create relevant, impactful, and achievable goals, the College benchmarked its programs to determine the gap between its state in 2019-2020 and the vision for 2025. This section highlights background data and the analysis by the Data Collection Committee of quantitative and qualitative data obtained from existing sources, including UConn’s Offices of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Institutional Equity, and the Vice President for Research, and the UConn Foundation; as well as from surveys distributed to the College’s approximately 30 department heads and directors, 800 faculty, 250 staff, and 10,700 undergraduate students, and a selection of the College’s approximately 1,700 graduate students.

Background Data

College Statistics: 2019-2020 Academic Year

(sources are internal CLAS data unless otherwise noted)

  • 25 academic departments; 13 centers, institutes, and programs; 7 service and outreach units
  • 51% of UConn faculty
  • 10,708 undergraduate majors; 46% of UConn
  • 54% of undergraduates are female; 39% are members of underrepresented groups
  • 67% of UConn credit hours at the Storrs campus are taught by CLAS faculty
  • 1,705 graduate students – 26% of UConn
  • 52 undergraduate majors, 65 undergraduate minors, 53 graduate programs
  • 748 scholarships and fellowships awarded by CLAS and its departments in FY19 (source: UConn Foundation)
  • 110,000 alumni (source: UConn Foundation)
  • $10.2M received by the UConn Foundation to support the College (FY19; source: UConn Foundation)
  • $59M in external research funding awarded (in FY19, most recent complete year available; source: Office of the Vice President for Research [OVPR])

Employee demographics

(for 2019-20 academic year; source: Human Resources)
 

Tenure System Faculty

Ethnicity Female Male Total Percent
American Indian 1 1 2 0.3%
Asian 25 45 70 11.9%
Black 6 9 15 2.5%
Hispanic 9 14 23 3.9%
Not Specified 23 27 50 8.5%
White 165 256 421 71.5%
Multiracial 4 4 8 1.4%
Total 233 356 589
Percent 40% 60%

 

Non-Tenure System Faculty

Ethnicity Female Male Total Percent
Asian 10 8 18 8.7%
Black 1 3 4 1.9%
Hispanic 1 1 2 1.0%
Not Specified 33 41 74 35.9%
White 67 41 108 52.4%
Total 112 94 206
Percent 54% 46%

 

Staff

Ethnicity Female Male Undeclared Total Percent
Asian 2 3 5 2.1%
Black 3 1 4 1.7%
Hispanic 3 3 6 2.5%
Not Specified 46 10 1 57 23.9%
Pacific 1 1 0.4%
White 117 48 165 69.3%
Total 172 65 1 238
Percent 72.3% 27.3% 0.4%

 

*Definitions: Non-Tenure-System Faculty: Faculty-in-Residence, Research Faculty, Visiting Faculty, Clinical Faculty, Lecturers, Instructors; Tenure-System Faculty: Professors, Department Heads, Deans; Staff: Academic Assistants, Research Assistants and Technicians, Professional Staff, Administrative Assistants. All tenure- and non-tenure system faculty are inclusive of assistant, associate, and full professor levels.

Data and Analysis from the Strategic Planning Process

The following ideas highlight key ways in which CLAS can optimize building on strengths and take advantage of opportunities. In moving forward in these areas, some weaknesses should be addressed, which are noted below. Many more aspects were noted (both favorable and representing challenges) by the Data Collection Committee. The material described here represents what is most relevant to the ideas developed through the remainder of the strategic planning process.


Strengths and Opportunities

Student Engagement

CLAS surveys revealed that students and faculty have a transformational learning mindset. For both groups, success included applying classroom learning to “real world” experiences. Students especially noted the importance of transferable skills that directly apply to future career goals and reported that their success was about learning and retaining information and new knowledge.

Our faculty offer a range of opportunities for interactive learning experiences, such as research and independent study. One-third of the students who responded to our survey said they have worked independently with a faculty member. Further, 14% of those who had not yet had the opportunity responded that they plan to engage in this way. Students responding to the survey overwhelmingly reported wanting to engage more in research and scholarship projects, but often didn’t know how to connect with faculty. By creating more opportunities for these types of connections, student experiences and research could be enhanced.

Interdisciplinarity

Our work is highly interdisciplinary, and faculty secure funding for their scholarship. Nearly half of those who responded to the faculty survey report that they always or frequently collaborate with researchers in other departments, and 80% report doing so at least occasionally. More than 1 in 5 awards in CLAS are in collaboration with faculty from other schools/colleges (source: OVPR, 2015-2019). Among UConn schools and colleges, CLAS is second only to the School of Medicine in annual number of proposals submitted and research expenditures. According to the OVPR, CLAS awards received between FY16 and FY19 increased by more than 20%. CLAS average proposal success rates are also higher than University averages for the majority of sponsors. Our faculty apply for fellowships to support their scholarship; 40% of those responding to our survey did so within the last year.

The College is therefore poised to become a hub for interdisciplinary scholarship at UConn that spans research and teaching. By facilitating work across CLAS and working more closely with other colleges, schools, and centers and institutes, we can build bridges that will significantly advance our work. Faculty and department heads identified several areas that could be the focus of interdisciplinary research and education initiatives (see Academic Themes, below).

We also have opportunities for facilitating team teaching in novel ways that could foster communication, collaboration, and learning. CLAS is leading the university in online and hybrid teaching and development. From fall 2015 to spring 2020, CLAS offered more than 1,600 online and nearly 500 hybrid courses (source: Registrar’s Office). This wealth of experience provides a strong base from which to build across teaching modalities.

Impact

According to our surveys, CLAS faculty see their scholarly activities as having significant impact on economic and social factors, as well as influencing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Connecticut, New England, and the nation. Strengths within departments and opportunities unique to the regional campuses can be leveraged.

CLAS undergraduates make contributions to the state, region, and beyond. Of the Class of 2019 undergraduate alumni, 88% were employed, in graduate school, or engaged in service six months post-graduation (source: Center for Career Development). They primarily work within the state and region. We are also poised to increase contributions to the Connecticut workforce. Programs that connect CLAS students to careers are desired by our students and would be beneficial in both supporting our students’ career aspirations and retaining talent in the state.

Climate

CLAS students, faculty, and staff are on the whole glad to be at UConn. Results from our surveys showed 85% of staff, 85% of students, and 75% of faculty are happy at UConn, and 90% of students, 88% of faculty, and 81% of staff report feeling safe in their office buildings and classrooms.


Areas for Improvement

Balancing and integrating across our missions of teaching and research can present challenges. Differences in teaching across and within departments have the potential to negatively impact morale and overall research productivity. Over half (61%) of CLAS departments have 2+2 teaching load for tenure-track faculty, and many departments heads singled out heavy teaching as a barrier preventing faculty members from writing grants. Departments should develop strategic plans for advancing both our teaching and research missions – 62% of department head survey respondents reported having an active strategic plan.

Research and scholarship productivity and funding levels also vary across the College. Among the faculty survey respondents, about half report no research support this year. When examining the number and amount of external awards by faculty rank within the tenure-track, a lower than expected percentage of awards are observed among associate professors.

Staff, faculty, and department heads reported concerns about the lack of staffing and support in grants management. Most faculty survey respondents (57%) perceived that UConn has weaker grant-related support than other research institutions; only 3% indicated that UConn has better support.

Our student survey revealed that 12% of respondents lack adequate resources to sustain themselves and meet their basic needs. In fact, 28% of the students who said they would consider leaving UConn gave as a reason the cost of tuition and their lack of financial resources. Student survey responses reveal that some students are not able to pursue independent research, internships, and study abroad opportunities because of the financial burden.

A diverse group of faculty and staff is essential to excellence across our missions; retention is as important as recruitment. The most cited reasons for faculty survey respondents considering leaving UConn were: lack of internal resources (39%), competing offers from other institutions (38%), feeling their scholarship isn’t valued (30%), a lack of an intellectual community of collaborators (25%), lack of opportunities to do interdisciplinary work (15%), academic bullying (13%), being excluded from decision-making because of title (9%), and inadequate income (9%). Some faculty respondents also reported feeling that their achievements were assumed to be due to affirmative action (6%), and/or that their contributions are undervalued because of their gender (17%), race (6%), or ethnicity (6%).

Some staff survey respondents (36%) felt as though their work wasn’t valued, and 37% reported that they are excluded from decision-making processes as a result of their position or title. Additionally, 19% felt as if their contributions were minimized due to their gender, and 6% reported being excluded, discriminated against, or marginalized because of their gender.

Between 8% and 13% of student survey respondents reported feeling their contributions are dismissed because of their race or ethnicity; that people seem to presume they are successful because of affirmative action; or that their contributions are devalued because of their gender.

A range of factors related to philanthropic giving was identified. One is the small number of staff dedicated to CLAS development and alumni relations. The UConn Foundation is a separate entity from the University, which limits our ability to influence processes. However, the working relationship between the College and these professionals is positive and productive. We would benefit from capitalizing on the mutual desire to increase alumni and donor engagement at the department level. Department heads surveyed express a desire to get more involved with alumni engagement, and CLAS UConn Foundation staff are eager to partner with the College.

Academic Themes

As the arts and sciences college at a land-grant, flagship state Research I university, CLAS’s mission is firmly rooted in disciplinary scholarship that defines a liberal arts education and research program. To that end, the College is structured so core disciplines can flourish within departments. They not only serve as the foundations for basic inquiry, but also as pillars supporting interdisciplinary scholarship.

The following areas of interdisciplinary scholarship were identified by the Planning Committee as the most promising areas in which to build on existing strengths across the humanities and social, life, and physical sciences, with clear connections to other colleges and schools across the University. They will guide priorities for growth and investment at the College level and serve as inspirations for our community to generate novel ideas and approaches that span the College’s strategic goals below.

The Earth and Its Future

Sustainable Systems, Global Resources, and World Cultures

Big Data: Science, Policy, and Ethics

Inequalities, Social Justice, Truth, and Belief

Health, Disease, and Well-Being

Brain, Mind, Language, and Logic

Goals and Potential Outcomes

The CLAS Planning and Implementation committees established four overarching goals, along with tactics and metrics to identify success, for achieving the College’s vision. Their work has been merged and consolidated to provide transparent direction and clear examples of the types of approaches to be taken. These goals are meant to serve as a framework that can shift with time and changes in circumstances. The order of items does not indicate relative priority.

A number of the objectives and strategies intersect, which should create a substantial impact. Beyond these specific connections, a range of factors are broadly relevant across our goals, including appreciation of the diverse people and places that are the greatest assets of our institution. These include the unique aspects of each of our campuses and the students they serve, as well as our faculty and staff across appointment types and career stages. Graduate students are critical to both the teaching and research missions, as well as what we offer to the State of Connecticut and beyond.

While not specific to any of the articulated goals, it is also critically important to all that we do that our rewards are aligned with our values and priorities. In concert with our units and their constituents, we will strive to use various mechanisms to that end, including the faculty promotion and tenure process, evaluations for faculty and staff merit-based salary increases, College-level awards, and publicly highlighting the efforts that make us proud.

Goal 1: Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Build and continually support an academic environment and workplace where diverse faculty, staff, and students feel valued and thrive.

Objectives


Recruitment

Develop a comprehensive plan to attract more diverse individuals (e.g., with regard to ability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status) for all positions.

  • Ensure diverse search committee membership across multiple dimensions for all CLAS hires.
  • Provide support for units to be aware of and utilize best practices during interviews, candidate selection, and negotiations.
  • Develop a systematic process to accommodate partner hiring that includes best practices and innovative approaches.
  • Create a pipeline program for predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars for faculty positions at UConn upon completion of their programs.
  • Work with graduate program directors within units and the graduate school to increase the diversity of applicants.

Retention

Develop policies and practices that improve retention of all faculty and staff.

  • Value scholars with diverse perspectives and lived experiences who can contribute to the production of knowledge in all disciplines.
  • Create and implement a transparent plan to identify and mitigate existing issues in salary compression and inversion.
  • Promote an environment of social and professional support for faculty by strengthening our centers, institutes, and programs, as well as developing their support for the academic work of underrepresented faculty.
  • Gather information on why faculty and staff leave UConn by conducting exit interviews with those who are willing to provide feedback and use the ideas to enact change where feasible.
  • Promote regular collection of College workplace perception information and use the data to enact change.

Mentorship and Professional Development

Provide training and mentorship programs for CLAS employees, including tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, and staff.

  • Develop an evidence-based set of best practices and support mechanisms to facilitate mentoring of faculty at the College and unit levels. These efforts should occur across all aspects of the faculty career, including mentorship of graduate students.
  • Establish and support an onboarding program for new faculty, including mentorship, peer connections, and work-life balance.
  • Facilitate the development of leaders at various levels within the College.
  • Acknowledge mentors for their service through opportunities to apply for professional development funds.
  • Develop and pilot a mentoring program for College staff.
  • Develop a training course offered to staff who meet routinely as a cohort to engage in professional skill development.

Amplifying Voices

Seek out new ways to give College constituents greater influence over the conditions of their work and/or education.

  • Work toward providing units increased flexibility in the use of resources to better advance the mission of our College.
  • Establish a set of advisory committees for the College to offer ideas and recommendations to the Dean on a range of topics, including but not limited to diversity, equity, and inclusion; research; staff support and development; and student experiences.
  • Encourage all faculty, staff, and students to participate in creating an inclusive environment by developing opportunities and programs that provide for meaningful interaction and understanding of diversity.

Progress Report for Academic Years 2020-2022 (Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022)

We are at our best when our work is integrated across our goals. To make this report a useful and indexable document, the text is divided into sections, but many of the articulated goals and strategies overlap and complement one another.

For each of the four major College goals, we summarize the objectives set out in the original Strategic Plan and report progress on specific strategies (indicated with bold text) during July 2020-June 2022 (Fiscal Years 2021-2022; FY21 and FY22). In some cases, initiatives were added as we progressed through the year, which are also reported on below.


Recruitment

Develop a comprehensive plan to attract more diverse individuals (e.g., with regard to ability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status) for all positions.

Recruitment of a diverse workforce is a critical step to ensuring a broad community of equity and inclusion. In the last two years, our Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Kate Capshaw, worked with every tenure system faculty search committee to ensure diverse membership, as well as examine the advertisements for invitational language, advise committees on recruitment efforts, and consult on ways to keep DEI in the foreground through the interview and selection process.

Kate assessed each candidate pool by working with the UConn Human Resources Department (HR) to examine the demographics, and she asked for further advertising and recruitment until the pools were diverse and representational of the field. Kate then evaluated all “long lists” of potential candidates for initial interviews and “short lists” for prospective in-depth interviews (virtual visits due to the pandemic). She advised committees and unit leaders throughout faculty searches on best practices for interviews and candidate selection. The Associate Deans oversaw individual units and the Dean worked with department heads on negotiations to provide attractive and equitable startup packages.

In 2021-22, Kate increased her oversight of searches for positions outside of the tenure track to increase the diversity of the applicant pools. Beginning in fall 2022, this work is transitioning to the other Associate Deans for the units they oversee.

Recognizing that to attract the best new faculty it is often important to provide employment for their partner, CLAS aggressively pursues partner hires. These receive partial funding from the Office of the Provost. For faculty searches conducted during the 2020-21 academic year, the College facilitated four partner accommodations; three were provided for faculty hired in searches during the 2021-22 academic year. We continue to budget for some partner hires each year, which are used both for partners of new faculty and to facilitate retention of existing CLAS faculty (see section below on Retention).

In spring 2021, the College instituted changes in staff searches to help recruit wide-ranging candidate pools. Every staff advertisement now contains a preferred qualification that allows search committees to consider the candidates’ ability to support and work with diverse student, administrative, and faculty populations. Candidates are considered for their “commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in an educational setting.” The interview process also now involves a standard question that allows candidates to discuss their perspective on DEI as a core value to the College.

In concert with the Provost’s Office, in 2020-21 the College conducted a cluster search for faculty pursuing antiracism scholarship. In addition to advancing areas of research where the College has particular strengths in line with our academic themes, this initiative increased the diversity of faculty members across several departments (see Goal 2, Hiring Initiatives).

We also pursued cluster hires for some tenure system faculty in the 2019-20 academic year, while this Strategic Plan was being developed, and therefore include the data in the numbers presented below.

To assess effectiveness of our efforts to increase the diversity of CLAS faculty and staff, we quantified the ethnicity of individuals hired during each fiscal year. The numbers include individuals hired both during searches, as well as any that joined our faculty through partner accommodations.

Tenure-Track Faculty. From FY20 to FY22, new tenure-track faculty hires were more diverse in terms of race and ethnicity than in our baseline year of FY19 (academic year 2018-19; Fig. 1). Specifically, in FY19, 71% of the existing 617 tenure system faculty identified as white, and in FY20-FY22, more than half of the faculty hired were non-white. The proportion of women hired has also been consistently greater than in the faculty as a whole (53% in FY20, 76% in FY21, and 43% in FY22 compared to 39% in FY19).

Non-Tenure-Track Faculty. It is very difficult to assess change in the demographics of faculty outside of the tenure system, because a large number have not identified ethnicity in some years. For example, in FY19, 74 of the 206 individuals (36%) employed in these roles did not identify an ethnicity, and in FY22, 7 of the 30 (23%) did not. However, in all cases, a majority of the individuals are white: 52% of the faculty outside of the tenure system in FY19 identified as white, as did most of the hires in subsequent years – 79% in FY20, 88% in FY21, and 57% in FY22.

Staff. A similar issue exists with determining changes in the demographics of CLAS staff, with 24% of the existing employees in FY19 not identifying an ethnicity. The information is more complete in FY20, with 83% of the new hires identifying as white, 6% as Hispanic, and 11% not providing the information. Hires in FY21 were 70% white, 20% Hispanic, 5% Asian/Asian American, and 5% unknown. In FY22, new hires were 72% white, 8% Black, 8% Hispanic, 6% Asian/Asian American, 2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and 4% unspecified. Thus, the diversity of our hires is increasing over time.
 
A graph of Tenure-Track Faculty Demographics for faculty hired between 2018 and 2022. More information in the tenure-track faculty section.

Figure 1. Demographics of tenure-track hires from searches during the three academic years from 2019-20 through 2021-22 (FY20-22), with the demographics of the full CLAS tenure-track faculty body in the 2018-19 academic year (FY19) at the bottom for comparison.

 

We had intended to collect data on the demographics of applicants for faculty in the tenure and non-tenure systems as well as for staff. We continue to work with HR to try to collect sufficient data to assess change in a meaningful way.

The College also initiated the new CLAS Research and Teaching Scholars program in 2021-2022. This initiative is designed to build a stronger culture of engaging postdoctoral scholars in research at UConn, with additional goals of generally enhancing the diversity of the professoriate while advancing research within our units. To accommodate differences across our disciplines in terms of the benefit of teaching experiences for the individuals, CLAS provides 75% of the cost if the individual teaches one course per year and 50% if the individual does not teach. In the past year, we offered seven of these Assistant Research Professor positions based on a call for proposals, with two years of funding possible. The Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Economics, Human Development and Family Sciences, Marine Sciences, Physics, Physiology and Neurobiology, and Psychological Sciences participated. Going forward, we plan to offer five additional positions each year.

A range of initiatives have been undertaken in efforts to increase the diversity of graduate students.

After a pilot in 2021, the College fully launched the CLAS Strategic Priority Graduate Assistantships program in spring 2022 to attract outstanding, diverse Ph.D. students. Based on nominations from departments, we plan to fund 10 new graduate students each year who demonstrate significant academic achievement, research experience, and a commitment to enhance a diverse and inclusive community in higher education. The demographics of the 10 students admitted during the 2021-22 academic year and joining us in fall 2022 are as follows: Black/African American: 2 students, 20%; Asian: 3 students, 30%; Native/White: 1 student, 10%; Hispanic: 2 students, 20%; White: 2 students, 20%; Female: 7; Male: 3. With 80% non-white students in the program, and all stellar scholars, we are excited by the potential of the program. The students are in departments across the Humanities (English, History, Philosophy), Social Sciences (Anthropology, Political Science), and Life and Physical Sciences (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Marine Sciences).

During the 2021-22 academic year, a group of faculty and graduate students across eight CLAS units received funding through the College Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative to conduct research and create a report, “Building a CLAS BIPoC Graduate Recruitment/Retention Knowledge Base.” The document contained a wealth of information and suggestions, which the College discussed with unit leaders in October 2022. During the 2022-23 academic year, we will begin to implement some of the ideas.

Our units are making strides with various “bridge” programs, meant to support the movement of underrepresented undergraduates into graduate school. In 2021-22, the Department of Marine Sciences successfully applied to the American Geophysical Union Bridge Program, which seeks to increase diversity in the geosciences and related fields by providing students from historically marginalized populations with a support network before, during and after graduate school. As part of that initiative, faculty pledged 5% of their indirect cost (IDC) funds, annually, as matching funds. The Department of Earth Sciences also applied for this funding, although they were not successful. The College supported departmental initiatives related to these programs at the level of $8,000 and $6,003, respectively, from the CLAS Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion funding initiative this year.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology also participated in the UConn Bridge+ program, aimed at providing a two-week intensive immersion to prepare incoming graduate students from under-represented groups for success in graduate school. This initiative was funded by the UConn President’s Office and by CLAS with $3,750 through its Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion funding initiative.

In 2021-22 we worked further toward connections and exchanges with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). During her Leadership Fellowship (see description of the Leadership Fellows program near the end of this section) in spring and summer 2022, Associate Professor-in-Residence and Director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Sherry Zane made connections with an HBCU and a Tribal College and will continue to develop the relationships with the goal of creating exchanges of students and scholars. In partnership with the Office of the Provost, the College hired Chris Newell, a citizen of the Passamaquoddy tribe and tribal community member-in-residence for the CLAS Native American and Indigenous Studies initiative, to teach and create partnerships between the College and Native American communities.

As of this writing (Oct. 14, 2022), data on graduate students newly enrolling in CLAS during the 2022-23 academic year have yet to be finalized by the Graduate School. However, some patterns can be seen. Across CLAS master’s programs, the percentages of applicants who are Black increased steadily, and the increase was greater for Latinx applicants (Table 1). White applicants were variable over this period, and international applicants declined substantially between the first two years. Changes in enrollments over this period did not fully match these patterns, but we are encouraged by the applicant data, and the modest increases in the percentage of Black and Latinx students enrolled.
 
Table 1. Changes in applicants and enrollments in CLAS master’s programs

Applicants for 2020-21* Applicants for 2021-22* Applicants for 2022-23* Enrollment in 2020-21 Enrollment in 2021-22 Enrollment in 2022-23
Black 2.8% 3.6% 3.9% 6.6% 4.7% 7.1%
Latinx 6.9% 7.1% 10.8% 12.9% 10.1% 14.7%
White 33.0% 48.4% 43.1% 46.0% 56.0% 48.4%
International 50.4% 32.4% 35.1% 15.3% 13.0% 19.0%

*Includes applications submitted at any time for enrollment during this academic year. In CLAS, applications are commonly submitted during the prior year (e.g., during the 2019-20 academic year for starting a program in fall 2020); 2022-23 data are estimates.

 
Across CLAS doctoral programs, the percentage of Black applicants also increased, albeit modestly. The percentage of Black student enrollment was greater in fall 2022 than either of the previous two years. However, as can be seen in Table 2, the patterns are complex.
 
Table 2. Changes in applicants and enrollments in CLAS doctoral programs

Applicants for 2020-21* Applicants for 2021-22* Applicants for 2022-23* Enrollment in 2020-21 Enrollment in 2021-22 Enrollment in 2022-23
Black 2.1% 2.6% 2.7% 2.3% 1.3% 3.5%
Latinx 5.4% 6.8% 6.2% 4.7% 6.9% 4.0%
White 40.9% 40.4% 39.6% 52.3% 39.1% 47.5%
International 45.0% 40.8% 42.0% 34.6% 41.6% 36.4%

*Includes applications submitted at any time for enrollment during this academic year. In CLAS, applications are commonly submitted during the prior year (e.g., during the 2019-20 academic year for starting a program in fall 2020); 2022-23 data are estimates.

 
Graduate student admissions and enrollments were certainly affected by the pandemic and immigration policies. In addition, we are just beginning in fall 2022 to implement some of the recommendations of the BIPoC graduate student report (see above description of the “Building a CLAS BIPoC Graduate Recruitment/Retention Knowledge Base” document). It will be most productive to consider trends after more time has elapsed.


Retention

Develop policies and practices that improve retention of all faculty and staff.

We worked in the past two years to value scholars with diverse perspectives and lived experiences by elevating their stories and work. Articles produced by our Communications Office include announcements of new faculty the College hired through cluster searches (see details in Goal 2). Many articles by our Communications Office elevated research themes in the strategic plan, including antiracism work, health disparities research, and climate science in 2020-2021, and new faculty, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and renowned faculty member Dexter Gabriel (in UConn Magazine) in 2021-2022.

In 2021, the College funded four projects totaling $34,100 following a call for Anti-Racist Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Workplace Climate. In 2022, the College funded 11 projects totaling $85,453 through a funding initiative titled Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. See the section above on Recruitment for examples of projects. A full list of resources provided through CLAS internal funding initiatives, as well as planned calls for proposals, is provided on our website.

In 2020-2021 we also revised and expanded our Annual CLAS Faculty and Staff Awards so that they reward College employees for work conducted across the goals of this plan, further emphasizing leadership, service, DEI initiatives, and notably, a new series of endowed awards for mentoring by faculty. Over the two years, we recognized 18 faculty and staff with these awards.

To create a more transparent and fair process to identify and mitigate existing issues in faculty salary compression and inversion, in 2019 we developed a tool to make salary data relative to years of experience readily available within our office and to CLAS unit leaders. Using these data in concert with the process outlined for the Provost Fund in the university’s collective bargaining agreement with the AAUP, in the summers of both 2021 and 2022, we worked with department heads to begin systematically making equity salary adjustments for faculty in both the tenure and non-tenure tracks. In raises that took effect in August 2021, the University invested $100,881 for equity increases for CLAS faculty; CLAS invested $193,973. In raises that took effect in August 2022, the University invested $287,000, and CLAS invested $458,000 (numbers include both salary and fringe).

We promoted an environment of social and professional support for faculty by strengthening our Centers, Institutes, and Programs. Beginning in Summer 2020, we facilitated collaborative conversations among these non-departmentally organized units in CLAS focusing on race, gender, and ethnicity. To assist this faculty-driven effort, CLAS convened and resourced a working group in May 2021, consisting of the Directors of the Africana Studies Institute (ASI), the American Studies Program, the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (AAASI), El Instituto, and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program, with facilitators Professor Sandy Grande of Political Science and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative (NAIS), and Jane Gordon of Political Science, American Studies, El Instituto, and WGSS. The group worked during the 2021-2022 academic year to build consensus around a new entity that could house these vital units. In May 2022, the units voted to join together to form a School under CLAS. During fall 2022, the directors of the Institutes and Programs will finalize documents to present for levels of institutional approval, including the Board of Trustees, to establish the School. Importantly, the School will offer a structural body that will facilitate collaborations and community for faculty of color and will advance our efforts to support and retain them at the University.

The College also actively negotiated packages to increase retention of faculty. We did not wait for faculty to receive an outside offer before working on accommodations. Depending on what was most important to the individual, these included salary increases, hiring partners (two in FY2021 and three in FY2022), and research funding. In the 2020-21 academic year our offers were sufficient to retain 8 of 9 individuals (89%). In 2021-2022, we retained 12 of 15 individuals. Although this proportion (80%) was less than the prior year, we did retain three faculty of color and 10 women, including 2 women in STEM fields. Our success rate in these two years was similar to FY20 (17 of 20 successful retentions; 85%), and far better than FY19 (3 of 5; 60%).


Mentorship and Professional Development

Provide training and mentorship programs for CLAS employees, including tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty and staff.

We began to develop an evidence-based set of best practices and support mechanisms to facilitate mentoring of faculty. In academic year 2020-2021, we developed and implemented a series of five mentoring workshops for early-career faculty, including one specifically for assistant professors-in-residence. The inaugural session, on the topic of the importance of mentoring, attracted 82 participants, and the remaining four sessions attracted 50-56 registrants. We also hosted a specific session for in-residence and clinical faculty to talk with the Dean about their concerns; 62 faculty attended this session. Responses to an end-of-year evaluation suggest that the sessions were appreciated by the attendees, with 22 percent of respondents reporting that they were extremely satisfied with the offering and 48 percent somewhat satisfied. Over three-quarters of the respondents replied that they would like CLAS to continue offering mentoring programming.

Building on what we learned during the 2020-21 sessions and in conversations with faculty and unit leaders across the College, the CLAS Leadership Fellows (see below), Associate Deans, and Dean developed a Faculty Success Program in summer 2022, to address faculty mentoring and professional development at various levels. This program, which launched in fall 2022, includes four areas. Individual Mentoring facilitates cross-unit dyadic mentoring by matching enthusiastic mentors with expertise in particular topics with mentees who have identified particular goals. Faculty in any career stage and appointment type can request a match from the College. Group Mentoring connects junior faculty across CLAS units to create a greater sense of community among colleagues and exchange information to facilitate success. Cohorts of faculty will engage in a series of conversations on topics of interest, hosted by experienced CLAS faculty members over the academic year.  Career Progression workshops include four sessions designed to help faculty understand factors and strategies that will facilitate success to advance to the next career stage. The goal is to address broader issues of how to have productive, rewarding experiences, recognizing that responsibilities differ across appointment types and career stages. Finally, Teaching and Research Conversations are opportunities to discuss particular areas of interest across the College.

With the Leadership Fellows (see below), the Associate Deans and Dean worked in spring and summer 2022 to establish and support an onboarding program for new faculty. Efforts included creating a CLAS New Faculty Handbook (available by login to CLAS employees), which guides new faculty through the organization of the University, various policies and procedures, and teaching, research, and service resources at their disposal on campus. We also hosted the College’s first-ever New Faculty Orientation, and a New Faculty Reception event in fall 2022. Both events helped acclimate new faculty to the College and the University, and helped them make social connections with peers.

We also worked to facilitate the development of leaders at various levels within the College. In 2020-2021, we updated and expanded the CLAS Department Heads’ Manual (originally introduced by Dean Jeremy Teitelbaum in 2013) to provide new information on UConn and CLAS policies, as well as the responsibilities of department heads and best practices for accomplishing the work. The Dean’s Office also offered a series of workshops for CLAS unit leaders during the 2020-21 academic year, including department heads, and center, institute, and program directors. We encouraged these individuals to invite emerging leaders within their units. The sessions included: an overview of the CLAS budget and financial strategies; time management and running efficient meetings; rewarding, valuing, and retaining faculty; working with support staff; and difficult conversations.

During the 2021-22 academic year, the College introduced a new program, the CLAS Leadership Fellows, to provide mid-career faculty with exposure to academic administration and leadership. In addition to receiving mentoring from the Dean and Associate Deans, these fellows worked with Dean’s Office in spring and summer 2022 on projects to benefit faculty and students in the College. One example is a comprehensive program centered around peer mentoring to help students transition from a regional campus to Storrs. Research projects by several of the Leadership Fellows are described in more detail throughout this document.

Toward developing a mentoring program for College staff, the Shared Services center in 2021-2022 began to offer a series of cohort groups for junior, mid-level, and senior administrative staff in the College to address shared issues and trade best practices, as well as a set of groups focusing on specific topics. In fall 2022, a program to match pairs of mentors and mentees from different units across the College was formalized and expanded. Details about these programs can be found on the CLAS Shared Services website. The Office of Communications also hosts periodic workshops and discussions for staff in departments and units whose duties include communications work.

A group of eight staff across the College, led by Human Development and Family Sciences Educational Program Administrator Cynthia Stewart, developed and led a one-day professional development workshop for CLAS staff on June 15, 2022. Attendees included 48 staff members, not including invited speakers, from across the College who attended sessions on travel, purchasing, accounts payable, digital marketing, graduate programs, diversity, equity, and inclusion, organization, and managing up.


Amplifying Voices

Seek out new ways to give College constituents greater influence over the conditions of their work and/or education.

Beginning in 2020-2021 we worked toward providing units increased flexibility in the use of resources to better advance the mission of our College. Decisions on course releases provided to faculty were transferred from the College to the unit level with the goal of empowering unit leaders with the ability to use this resource to advance research. Two new systems were also put into place to ensure student success and equity in workload. First, Assistant Dean Mansour Ndiaye worked with CLAS units to articulate the schedule of courses that would be offered in a predictable pattern. Second, a reporting system was created to capture the releases afforded to faculty and their intended purpose.

In fall 2020, advisory committees were established to offer ideas and recommendations to the College on a range of topics, including faculty research; graduate student affairs; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Associate Deans hosted the meetings of the committees within their portfolios. The CLAS Student Leadership Board was reconfigured as ambassadors to the College, and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs Lyn Tribble established a Student Advisory group.

Toward creating an inclusive environment by developing opportunities for meaningful interaction and understanding of diversity, during the 2020-21 academic year we created a set of suggestions for units to develop Community Norms. The Dean’s Office Senior Staff followed the process, which led to thoughtful conversations about diversity and inclusivity in the workplace and a document to guide our professional interactions. In addition to encouraging our departments and other units to engage in the process, we offered to share the Dean’s Office document as a model. Each fall, we review the Dean’s Office document in a senior staff meeting and update it as appropriate.

Goal 2: Innovative Scholarship

Promote interdisciplinary research by building on a foundation of core disciplines and engaging novel intersections to address major challenges to knowledge, well-being, and our world.

Objectives


Synergistic Activities and Internal Research Support

Create opportunities to stimulate convergence among disciplines and foster collaborative relationships that spur innovative thinking and advance scholarship in priority areas.

  • Support College-level symposia to facilitate conversations among scholars from multiple CLAS departments or new collaborations among scholars within a discipline.
  • Fund small grants to pilot collaborative work among different areas of the College and facilitate novel, interdisciplinary studies that generate external funding proposals.
  • Create a competitive mechanism for newly-recruited scholars from fields in which summer salary is difficult to obtain and/or typically not part of startup packages to apply for these resources.
  • Develop creative funding models, in partnership with departments, to provide postdoctoral training opportunities.
  • Create ways to facilitate public-private research partnerships.
  • Encourage departments to develop strategic plans for enhancing research and fostering equitable workloads that facilitate accomplishing our mission across the profile of our faculty.

Hiring Initiatives

Pursue hiring into targeted clusters to increase the College’s interdisciplinary capacity in the thematic areas identified, while also maintaining our strengths in high-level basic research and education. These clusters might be within a department, across units within CLAS, or span colleges and schools.


External Funding Support and Infrastructure

Increase support for faculty in funding applications and publication activity through mentorship and training (see Mentorship and Professional Development section above), especially in fields where underexplored external funding opportunities exist.

  • Formalize a grant-writing mentorship program for junior faculty to increase success in securing research funding. Identify and incentivize faculty mentors based on a proven track record of obtaining grants and fellowships, basic familiarity with the research topic, and a predisposition to help others.
  • Evaluate and determine ways to increase support for grant proposal preparation, submission, and post-award support, both by determining appropriate steps within CLAS and by advocating for greater support through the OVPR.
  • Encourage departments to adjust teaching loads to allow for intensive grant and fellowship application writing or externally supported research activities.
  • Consider ways to strengthen the research infrastructure to increase our ability to respond to major federally funded research initiatives and requests for proposals.

Fundraising

Work with UConn Foundation colleagues to secure funding across CLAS with emphases on research areas in the academic themes identified above, and to retain existing donors to the College.

  • Raise funds to support endowed professorships.
  • Develop new funds for scholarships and fellowships for graduate students.
  • Secure resources for additional, lower-cost initiatives related to recruiting the most competitive graduate students and sustaining research missions within units (i.e., top-off money in recruitment packages, summer grants, additional travel grants).

Progress Report for Academic Years 2020-2022 (Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022)

We are at our best when our work is integrated across our goals. To make this report a useful and indexable document, the text is divided into sections, but many of the articulated goals and strategies overlap and complement one another.

For each of the four major College goals, we summarize the objectives set out in the original Strategic Plan and report progress on specific strategies (indicated with bold text) during July 2020-June 2022 (Fiscal Years 2021-2022; FY21 and FY22). In some cases, initiatives were added as we progressed through the year, which are also reported on below.


Synergistic Activities and Internal Research Support

Create opportunities to stimulate convergence among disciplines and foster collaborative relationships that spur innovative thinking and advance scholarship in priority areas.

In 2020-2021, the College hosted two symposia, which we called Research Conversations, among scholars in areas for which we conducted cluster searches in the 2019-2020 academic year: Health Disparities and Native American and Indigenous Studies. More than 40 faculty and students attended the Health Disparities event in February 2021, which introduced our cluster of three new faculty in this field. With the leadership of political science professor Sandy Grande, and involving faculty from our cluster hire in Indigenous studies and faculty who identify as Native or Indigenous, the April 2021 workshop drew 60 faculty, staff, and students. Attendees expressed enthusiasm about the College’s orientation towards a more just engagement with the historical and contemporary implications of colonization.

Also in 2020-21, we offered a series of Research Enhancement Workshops to provide specific training for faculty in applying for National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant Program (NIH R01) funding, writing a book proposal, developing interdisciplinary collaborations, and continuing research during COVID.

In fall 2021, the College offered the following Research Enhancement Workshops:

  • Funding Opportunity Searching for Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities, with Internal Funding Programs and Limited Submissions Coordinator Matt Mroz from the Office of the Vice President for Research.
  • Using the UConn LINCUS database, with Associate Professor Daniel Schwartz from the Center for Open Research Resources & Equipment (COR²E).
  • Writing an NSF Broader Impacts Statement, with Associate Professor of Communication Jocelyn Steincke, Professor Chris Fielding from Earth Sciences, and Professor Lyle Scruggs from Political Science.
  • How to Work with Industry, with Professor Steven Suib from Chemistry.

In spring 2022, Research Conversations brought together faculty from different disciplines to discuss intersections of their work around a particular interdisciplinary topic. The topics were:

  • Afterlives of Violence, moderated by Professor of English and Director of American Studies Chris Vials, Associate Professor-in-Residence and Director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Sherry Zane, and Professor of History and Director of Asian and Asian American Studies Jason Chang. This panel highlighted the transdisciplinary ways in which scholars engage the gendered, racialized, and political economic dimensions of violence.
  • Sustainable Community Food Systems, moderated by Professor-in-Residence of Geography Andy Jolly-Ballantine and Assistant Professor of Geography Peter Chen. This panel highlighted the science of food production, sustainability, and nutrition; the social dynamics of community, food access, and food justice; and political and economic forces that drive the community food system.

For the 2022-23 academic year, the research workshops/conversations have been reconfigured in coordination with College teaching conversations. Details are available on our Faculty Success page.

In 2020-2021, the College invested $216,403 in supporting small grants to pilot collaborative work across departments and units, based on calls for proposals. Resources were designed to stimulate externally-funded research in three of the six academic themes: Big Data: Science, Policy, and Ethics; Inequalities, Social Justice, Truth, and Belief; and Health, Disease, and Well-Being. We also provided $21,430 to faculty for advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) to provide a mechanism for supporting faculty both in and outside of the tenure system. Also in 2020-21, we invested $34,100 for faculty and staff on research, pedagogy, and programming that advances work against racial injustice. See the description of these projects above in Goal 1, Amplifying Voices.

In 2021-2022, the College invested $539,084 in Research in Academic Themes under the remaining three themes: Brain, Mind, and Logic; The Earth and its Future; and Sustainable Systems, Global Resources and World Cultures. A comprehensive list of our internal funding opportunities is posted on the college website.

The College created a competitive summer salary mechanism for scholars from fields in which it is difficult to obtain or typically not part of startup packages to apply for these resources. In summer 2021, we funded 11 proposals that supported 13 faculty for a total of $264,631. In summer 2022, we funded 35 proposals to support more than 45 faculty for $728,381.

To develop creative funding models for post-doctoral training, in partnership with the departments and units the College initiated the new CLAS Research and Teaching Scholars program in 2021-2022 (see full description in Goal 1; Recruitment).

The Associate Deans also began working with departments and non-departmentally organized units within CLAS to encourage development of strategic plans for enhancing research and fostering equitable workloads. This effort was facilitated through meetings of the humanities, social sciences, and life & physical sciences divisions, and in other conversations.


Hiring Initiatives

Pursue hiring into targeted clusters to increase the College’s interdisciplinary capacity in the thematic areas identified, while also maintaining our strengths in high-level basic research and education. These clusters might be within a department, across units within CLAS, or across colleges and schools.

We are particularly proud of our cluster hires in antiracism and environment and human interactions which were launched in 2020-2021 to advance our research and teaching in the critical areas of social justice and climate change, respectively. The Environment and Human Interactions cluster brought a total of seven tenure-track faculty to UConn, five of which joined the College in the Departments of Anthropology, Chemistry, Political Science, Public Policy, and Sociology in August 2021 and two later joined the Departments of Marine Sciences (January 2022) and Geography (August 2022). The faculty study how human activities are impacting a range of Earth systems, and how changes to the Earth itself are impacting humans. The Antiracism cluster brought eight faculty in departments across the humanities and social sciences, all jointly appointed with a CLAS institute or program focusing on race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. From searches framed through the concept of “Catalyzing Antiracist and Decolonial Futures and Racial Justice,” the faculty joined the Departments of English; Political Science; Philosophy; Journalism; Literatures, Cultures, and Languages; History; and Communication. Their scholarship focuses on centralizing Black, Latinx, Asian and Asian American, and Indigenous voices in the humanities and social sciences and on building transdisciplinary research.


External Funding Support and Infrastructure

Increase support for faculty in funding applications and publication activity through mentorship and training (see Mentorship and Professional Development section above), especially in fields where underexplored external funding opportunities exist.

As part of his Leadership Fellow project in 2022, Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology Anastasios Tzingounis developed a grant writing mentorship program, called “Proposal Enhanced External Review (PEER)” to support CLAS faculty submitting (and re-submitting) grants to external funding agencies. The program will allow faculty, prior to a grant submission deadline, to get insight about their proposed research by a panel of three to five experienced faculty members or external experts, based on the funding agency’s review criteria. This program will be piloted in the 2022-2023 academic year.

To evaluate and determine ways to increase support for grant proposals, in spring 2021 the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, Ofer Harel, met with the Corporate and Foundation Relations team at the UConn Foundation to increase opportunities to facilitate funding from corporations and private foundations. These were mostly mutual fact-finding meetings designed to lay the groundwork for future partnerships. The team also began in that semester to regularly forward information on funding opportunities that are shared with our units.

The College has worked with units over the last two years toward increasing equity in teaching loads for faculty both in and outside of the tenure system and encouraged them to complete or update governance documents on faculty workload. We have also provided flexibility to units to offer course releases in service of advancing research (see details of working with departments on flexible teaching in Goal 1, Amplifying Voices).

To strengthen research infrastructure, we issued calls for proposals for equipment funding, particularly large pieces that will facilitate collaborative research. The College contributed more than $1.2M to this initiative in 2021, distributed across 10 groups of faculty. Departments provided additional resources ($291K in total), as did the Office of Vice President for Research in one case ($200K). As of this writing (Oct. 14, 2022), we have an open call for Shared Equipment funding; proposals are due this month.

We are proud of the funding success of our faculty in the past two years (see Table 3). Particularly impressive is the 11% increase in research expenditures in FY22 compared to the two previous years, which indicates increased activity across funded projects. The decline in the amount of funding awarded warrants investigation. As the number of successful proposals increased slightly each year, we need to learn why on average the dollars received per proposal has declined.
 
Table 3. External funding to college faculty

Fiscal Year 2020 Fiscal Year 2021 Fiscal Year 2022
Research Expenditures $50,297,558 $50,270,025 $56,721,243
Proposals Submitted (Count) 437 475 460
Proposals Submitted (Amount) $235,770,158 $268,811,605 $269,557,529
Proposals Awarded (Count) 162 163 164
Proposals Awarded (Amount) $60,527,072 $58,075,962 $51,187,592

Data are from the Office of the Vice President for Research. Proposals represent only those that CLAS faculty members submitted as PI.

 

In addition to the funds received through external contracts and grants that are processed by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), in FY22 our faculty received more than $300K in fellowships to support research. This value is a significant underestimate because it does not include funds paid directly to faculty members, as is the case with the four Fulbright fellowships that were awarded to our faculty in the past year. In addition, it is likely that the College does not know about all of the awards made directly to individual faculty members as we rely on the departments to report these details. We are working to improve the collection of data on fellowships so that in future years we can more accurately report the full extent of the external funding our faculty obtain for their scholarship.


Fundraising

Work with UConn Foundation colleagues to secure funding across CLAS with emphases on research areas in the academic themes identified above, and on retaining existing donors to the College.

In 2020-2021, more than $8.6M was raised through the UConn Foundation, which included support for research ($2,097,692); endowed faculty positions ($2,026,827); and students ($2,984,806), including support for graduate students ($448,004). These funds were raised from 1,916 donors, an increase of nearly 700 over FY20.

The year 2021-2022 was a challenging year for fundraising in the College, in part due to vacancies across all three of our development officer positions. The College raised a total of $6,353,809, which includes $1,436,440 for research, and $2,608,023 for students, including $758,482 for graduate students. These funds were raised from 1,601 donors, a decrease of 315 from the previous year.

Goal 3: Teaching, Learning, and Student Success

Enhance through experiential learning, mentorship, and innovative pedagogy the College’s opportunities for undergraduate education.

Objectives


Course Development

Provide new opportunities for engaged learning in cutting-edge areas.

  • Provide more flexibility and incentives for faculty to develop new courses or redesign existing courses that enhance opportunities for active student engagement, as teaching capacity is available.
  • Fund an internal grant competition to create or redesign interdisciplinary undergraduate general education courses, prioritizing the thematic areas identified within this strategic plan.
  • Incentivize teaching professional development for graduate students by creating or sponsoring workshops and providing support for the graduate students that participate in them.

Student Support and Engagement

Create multifaceted opportunities for students and reduce barriers to participation in undergraduate research, internships, study abroad, and service learning.

  • Work with the UConn Foundation to secure scholarships for undergraduate students.
  • Encourage units to develop new ways of facilitating faculty-student interactions outside of the classroom, including those that advance faculty collaboration across interdisciplinary areas.
  • Work with departments to increase opportunities for students to engage in course-based research experiences.
  • Support the development of scalable course-based undergraduate research experiences targeting first- and second-year students, and transition them from these courses into independent faculty-led research projects.
  • Recruit and support peer mentors for undergraduate students.
  • Create ways to better connect CLAS students with campus resources on experiential learning opportunities, including learning communities and career services.

Progress Report for Academic Years 2020-2022 (Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022)

We are at our best when our work is integrated across our goals. To make this report a useful and indexable document, the text is divided into sections, but many of the articulated goals and strategies overlap and complement one another.

For each of the four major College goals, we summarize the objectives set out in the original Strategic Plan and report progress on specific strategies (indicated with bold text) during July 2020-June 2022 (Fiscal Years 2021-2022; FY21 and FY22). In some cases, initiatives were added as we progressed through the year, which are also reported on below.


Course Development

Provide new opportunities for engaged learning in cutting-edge areas.

Although because of COVID-19 2020-2021 was not a productive year to create or redesign courses, 2021-2022 saw the development of many new and innovative courses. Examples include:

First-year Writing. First-year Writing, housed in the Department of English, has continued to refine its innovative multi-media approach to college writing, involving more tenure-track faculty in curricular development. We were pleased to partner with the Provost’s office to fund an increased number of Assistant and Associate Professors-in-Residence (APiRs) in First-Year Writing at the Stamford campus this year, which will provide more stability in this critical program.

Chemistry curricular redesign. Faculty in the Department of Chemistry have continued implementation of a UConn Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)-funded initiative for the redesign of the organic chemistry sequence. The goals are to increase performance of students, make the large classes feel small, and ensure uniform standards of teaching organic chemistry across the department. Professor Amy Howell, Lecturer Anwar Beshir, Associate Professor-in-Residence Fatma Selampinar, and Assistant Professor-in-Residence Clyde Cady of the Department of Chemistry have been working with Student Support Services towards developing a model for increasing student success, as measured by lower rates of low grades, failures, and withdrawals.

Critical Languages: Korean and Japanese. Through the work of Department Head Jennifer Terni, Literature, Cultures, and Languages received a $350K STARTALK grant from the National Security Agency, building upon a grant awarded the prior year. These funds have allowed the department to pilot intensive programs in Korean and Japanese languages. The STARTALK program is designed to increase the number of highly effective critical-language teachers in the U.S.; to multiply the number of highly effective materials and curricula available to teachers and students; and, ultimately, to increase the number of students engaged in the serious study of critical languages.

Digital Public History. The Department of History received a National Endowment for the Humanities curricular development grant to work with the Department of Digital Media and Design in the School of Fine Arts to refine their proposed joint minor in Digital Public History. The program will help humanities majors develop their skills in technology and digital media, such as web design and animation, to prepare for future roles in the workplace and to apply their research to publicly engaged work. The principal investigator (PI) is Associate Professor of Digital Media and Design Tom Scheinfeldt, and co-PIs are Department Head and Professor of Digital Media and Design Heather Elliott-Famularo, Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Design Clarissa Ceglio, Assistant Professor of History and Asian and Asian American Studies Hana Maruyama, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies Fiona Vernal, and Department Head and Professor of History Mark Healey.

Programs with Engineering. In partnership with the School of Engineering and the Human Rights Institute, CLAS launched a new undergraduate program for human rights and sustainability. The program combines courses in history, anthropology, English, political science, human rights and other CLAS disciplines with engineering courses. Another cross-college collaboration is the new Bachelor of Science in Multidisciplinary Engineering with a specialization in physics. The degree will replace the existing engineering-physics degree.

The CLAS Courses and Curriculum Committee approved 53 new classes in 2021-2022, and 49 of them fit within one or more of the six academic themes outlined in the College’s strategic plan.

In spring 2022, Leadership Fellow Associate Professor-in-Residence Diego Valente of the Department of Physics, and Associate Dean Lyn Tribble organized a series of workshops titled Teaching Conversations, covering topics such as curricular reform, the role of the Dean of Students, and services provided to faculty and students by the Center for Students with Disabilities. These discussions fed into a call for proposals for Teaching Enhancement grants to advance student success in undergraduate courses. The goals for this summer 2022 funding mechanism included implementing innovations in existing courses in areas such as new forms of assessment, new approaches to increasing student engagement and participation in the classroom, and updates to course design. They had more than 50 applications from Storrs and all four regional campuses. In response, we increased the budget so that 16 projects were funded across all campuses.

In 2022, CLAS introduced a program to allow its faculty and staff to develop resources to improve accessibility in the College around teaching and climate, in one of four areas: pedagogy, structures, culture, and graduate affairs. A cohort of fellows will work on individual projects and meet as a group once per month with one or more associate deans. Three fellows were selected for the 2022-2023 year: Professor of Psychological Sciences Holly Fitch, Associate Professor-in-Residence of Political Science Kim Bergendahl, and Assistant Professor-in-Residence of Physics Erin Scanlon. Support for the projects and the program comes from a graduate assistant for accessibility, Joshua Hinostrosa, a student in El Instituto. The fellows will work through the academic year and present their findings or outcomes to the Dean in spring 2023.


Student Support and Engagement

Create multifaceted opportunities for students and reduce barriers to participation in undergraduate research, internships, study abroad, and service learning.

We continued our ongoing efforts of working with the UConn Foundation to secure scholarships for undergraduate students. Our UConn Foundation partners were successful in obtaining a $1,350,000 bequest for the Martin Horn Scholarship in Communication in 2020-2021. In 2021-22, the first two students received the new Nom and Boulieng Vorsane Scholarship, which provides $1000 for work in an Advanced Curriculum Pedagogy lab to address the need for greater teacher preparation in Asian American and Pacific Islander studies. As noted in Goal 2, Fundraising, $2,984,806 was raised for student support in 2020-2021 ($2,536,802 for undergraduates) and $2,608,023 ($1,849,541 for undergraduates) was raised in 2021-2022.

In 2020, then-Director of Alumni Relations, Elyssa Kelly, created a new program for CLAS undergraduate women, the CLAS Women’s Leadership Collective. This program couples a learning experience with group mentorship from UConn alumnae. In its first year, nearly 70 students and alumni were grouped into 16 “mentorship circles” focused on career communities. They met virtually 5-6 times throughout the course of the academic year. More than 50 students and alumnae participated in 2021-22. Mentorship circles focused on careers in social justice, counseling, law, international relations, policy, and others. The participants met virtually 4-5 times during the academic year and held two virtual programs that included all participants. A closing brunch in April 2022 was the first in-person event for this initiative.policy, and others. The participants met virtually 4-5 times during the academic year and held two virtual programs that included all participants. A closing brunch in April 2022 was the first in-person event for this initiative.

In summer 2022, CLAS funded the TIP Innovation Fellows Program, which pairs undergraduate and graduate students with startup companies in UConn’s Technology Incubation Program (TIP) for mentored research experiences at $10,000. We published a UConn Today story about Claire Lee ’24 (CLAS), a political science and ecology and evolutionary biology major, and her TIP experience working with alumni Sahil Laul ’19 (CLAS) and Sameer Laul ’15 (CLAS) at their Stamford company, Social Labs.

Through the work of Leadership Fellow Associate Professor-in-Residence Michael Finiguerra, we began the UConn FIRST program, a mentoring experience for mentee students at regional campuses and mentor students who have transferred from a regional to Storrs. More than 100 students participated in the program, which was piloted in 2021-2022. During the spring 2022 semester, the cohort of peer mentors met with their mentees in small-group sessions. Their marquis event was a day-long field trip to Storrs, where students got to know one another, attended a class in their major, ate in dining halls, and toured campus with their mentors. Finiguerra will expand the successful program in 2022-2023.

We began tracking in earnest the work our students are doing in experiential learning, including internships, practicums, and other out-of-classroom experiences. In 2020-2021, 233 students registered for CLAS internship courses, 117 enrolled in CLAS practicum courses, and 386 registered to work on research with faculty members for credit. Another 871 undergraduate students enrolled in independent study courses, despite the largely virtual format. In addition, faculty across the CLAS departments reported more than 100 research projects in collaboration with students not associated with course credit.

During the 2021-22 academic year, 170 students enrolled in a practicum course and 195 students took a field study course. A total of 235 students took an internship course for credit, and departments reported another 50 who did internships without requesting course credit. Independent study course enrollments totaled 816, senior thesis research course enrollments totaled 372, and students taking other types of course credit to conduct research with a professor totaled 830. In addition to those who registered for course credit, departments reported another 244 students doing non-course credit research with faculty. CLAS departments estimated that at least 1,670 undergraduate students participated experiential learning not associated with the types of opportunities described above, often within formal courses. Examples of these student experiences include an anthropology student who helped create a database of archeofaunal information from Neolithic sites in southwest Asia, an Earth sciences student who analyzed core sediment from the Farmington River, four marine sciences students who travelled to Hawaii with the faculty member to do field work, and four sociology students who used their research skills to analyze gun buy-back programs, among many others.

Goal 4: Broader Impacts, Service, and Visibility

Support existing and new initiatives that impact the welfare of Connecticut and highlight the advantages that we provide.

Objectives


Facilitate Community Engagement

Expand and incentivize engagement with Connecticut communities, and increase the visibility of what CLAS does with and for citizens of the state.

  • Advance community-based research and education; provide opportunities to both facilitate research in this area and increase opportunities for undergraduate active engagement.
  • Develop procedures for reporting and recognizing the work of CLAS faculty, staff, and students, and their community partners across the state, as they address public issues in Connecticut.
  • Partner with University Communications to develop and offer trainings to departments and faculty in public communication and engaged scholarship.

Engage Government and Nonprofits

Engage with state and local agencies and nonprofit organizations to promote meaningful evidence-based policy and enhance opportunities for funded research.

  • Provide support for applied research and other activities with state and local government agencies and nonprofit organizations.
  • Develop an engaged scholarship program to provide seed funding to fuel faculty and graduate student research, internship partnerships, and projects with local and state agencies and nonprofit organizations.
  • Seek ways to enhance employment opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students by aligning curricula with the needs of the state.

Leverage Alumni Networks

Work with UConn Foundation colleagues to develop and strengthen CLAS alumni networks and engage alumni and corporate and state leaders as donors, mentors, and teachers for CLAS programs.

  • Host an annual alumni networking conference, with talks by alumni and faculty members.
  • Engage alumni in guest lecturing and classroom visits.
  • Facilitate mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students by alumni.
  • Recognize alumni contributions to the University, their communities, and society through the establishment of alumni awards and sharing of information online and through social media.
  • Strengthen connections with alumni that may help to identify potential internship sites and experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students.

Progress Report for Academic Years 2020-2022 (Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022)

We are at our best when our work is integrated across our goals. To make this report a useful and indexable document, the text is divided into sections, but many of the articulated goals and strategies overlap and complement one another.

For each of the four major College goals, we summarize the objectives set out in the original Strategic Plan and report progress on specific strategies (indicated with bold text) during July 2020-June 2022 (Fiscal Years 2021-2022; FY21 and FY22). In some cases, initiatives were added as we progressed through the year, which are also reported on below.


Facilitate Community Engagement

Expand and incentivize engagement with Connecticut communities, and increase the visibility of what CLAS does with and for citizens of the state.

One way to measure the efficacy of our internal work to increase outreach of the College is positive media attention recognizing faculty, student, and College contributions. In 2020-2021, according to a media coverage database compiled annually by University Communications, at least 180 articles featuring CLAS faculty and alumni were published in the news media. In 2021-2022, at least 165 state, national, and international news articles featured faculty from the College. Of these, 36 (21%) were science faculty, 46 (28%) were humanities faculty, and 80 (49%) were social sciences faculty. Given that together, humanities and social sciences faculty make up about half of the College, the humanities and social sciences contribute an outsized role to the University’s reputation in the news media. Of the 165 articles featuring UConn faculty, 46 (28%) were published in Connecticut news sources.

In January 2022, and in collaboration with University Communications, our College Communications office hosted a media and social media training to facilitate public communication by faculty. More than 20 faculty attended the training, which focused primarily on framing research as a story that news reporters want to hear, and representing yourself as a public intellectual on Twitter. Feedback surveys were positive and recommended that a similar training be held annually for new faculty.

In 2020-2021 we began developing procedures for reporting and recognizing the work of CLAS faculty, staff, and students, and their community partners across the state, as they address public issues in Connecticut. In many cases our departments collected data on outreach and community engagement for the first time, signaling a step forward for valuing this kind of work in the College. The following year, we adjusted the role of one of our Associate Deans to focus more on community engagement. Professor of Sociology Bandana Purkayastha joined us in fall 2022 and oversees the Social Sciences, Regional Campuses, and Community Engagement. She is beginning to develop plans for collecting additional data and advancing our efforts in this area.


Engage Government and Nonprofits

Engage with state and local agencies and nonprofit organizations to promote meaningful, evidence-based policy and enhance opportunities for funded research.

Faculty reported giving 234 presentations to the Connecticut community in 2020-2021. These presentations included 116 to interested civic groups, such as local historical societies, antiracism collectives, Rotary Clubs, and events hosted by local public libraries. Faculty gave 71 presentations to non-profit organizations and 29 schools. Fourteen presentations were made to local governments and state agencies, and four presentations were made to the Connecticut state legislature: one to the legislature’s Committee on Higher Education and three to the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors Equity and Opportunity. In 2021-2022, departments provided information indicating faculty participation in over 314 points of engagement at a similar range of venues, including community colleges, a retirement community, public service agencies, museums, and K-12 schools.

CLAS Institute and Program faculty participated in dozens of public presentations across the two academic years. Examples include in-person and virtual programs hosted by the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. In 2020-21, El Instituto partnered with Judaic Studies, transforming the annual Luis Eyzaguirre Lecture into a two-day symposium on the noted Guatemalan-American and Jewish Diasporic fiction writer and memoirist, Eduardo Halfon, reaching a large international audience through its online delivery. In 2021-2022, Marine Sciences faculty spoke on climate change issues on several occasions to the staff of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and staff in the School of Public Policy’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy shared their expertise in meetings with the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, the Connect Law Enforcement and Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board, and the Juvenile Justice Policy Oversite Council, among others.


Leverage Alumni and Donor Networks

Work with UConn Foundation colleagues to develop and strengthen CLAS alumni networks and engage alumni and corporate and state leaders as donors, mentors, and teachers for CLAS programs.

More than 70 alumni served as speakers or presenters in CLAS virtual events in 2020-2021, and 93 served in 2021-2022. These service roles include panel discussions, classroom visits, and guest speaking roles. The topics ranged from cognitive science to women in the pandemic to branding, marketing and product management. The Women’s Leadership Collective also had two successful years (see Goal 3, Student Support and Engagement).

In 2020-2021, the UConn Foundation surpassed its $8.5M fundraising goal for CLAS with support in total of $8,633,258 from alumni donors, friends, corporations, private foundations, and others. The amount was down from the previous year ($10,050,301). However, we saw an increase in the number of individuals, with 1,916 contributors. This jump of nearly 700 new donors indicated a significant increase in alumni engagement. In 2021-2022, $6,353,809 total was raised from 1,601 donors. These numbers are disappointing and reflect, at least in part, vacancies in one of our two alumni relations positions and all three of our development positions through much of the year.

Conclusions

The ideas represented here constitute a roadmap for the College to achieve its vision over the next five years and articulate the values by which we operate. Guided by this Strategic Plan, our CLAS community will strive to:

  • Increase the diversity of faculty, staff, and graduate students, and be sure there is a supportive, inclusive culture so that all individuals can thrive.
  • Enhance interdisciplinary scholarship and education by building on a foundation of core disciplines and facilitating novel intersections.
  • Augment student success by advancing engaged and experiential learning for undergraduates across all disciplines.
  • Connect our work in the classroom and our research to the greater good of Connecticut and beyond.

We in the College adopt this strategic plan as a framework to scaffold ideas in the coming years. It will be a living document that will guide our work, and will evolve in the context of our successes and failures and the world around us.

At the heart of this work is the College’s passionate commitment to the values of a liberal arts and sciences education, encompassing the diversity of disciplines, and their transformative value to the lives of students and scholars alike.

Participants

 
The four strategic planning working committees included faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the College.

Visioning Committee

Chair: Katharine Capshaw, Professor of English

Dean’s Office Liaisons: Christine Buckley, Director of Communications

Members

Mohamad Alkadry

Debanuj Dasgupta

Holly Fitch

Yasaman Homayouni

Alessanda Introvigne

Brendan Kane

Steven Kim

Kerry Marsh

Joseph McAlhany

Mark McConnel

Nancy McMahon

Gustavo Nanclares

Shayla Nunnally

Mark Peczuh

Stephen Stifano

Data Collection Committee

Chair: Amy Gorin, Professor of Psychological Sciences and Director of InCHIP

Dean’s Office Liaison: Edith Barrett, Associate Dean

Members

Jorge Agüero

Leighton Core

Amanda Denes

Jennifer Dineen

Lisa Eaton

Debarchana Ghosh

Ofer Harel

Michael Hren

Alexander Jackson

Eleanor Ouimet

Heather Parker

Andrew Puckett

Aaron Rosman

Daniel Schwartz

Anji Seth

Lynne Tirrell

Mark Urban

Penny Vlahos

Ryan Watson

Xiaodong Yan

Yashan Zhang

Planning Committee

Chair: Samuel Martinez, Professor of Anthropology and Director of El Instituto

Dean’s Office Liaisons: Cathy Schlund-Vials, Associate Dean; Lisa Park Boush, Associate Dean

Members

César Abadía-Barrero  

Leelakrishna Channa  

Amanda Crawford  

Megan Delaney  

Allison Goldsnider  

Fumiko Hoeft  

Eva Lefkowitz  

David McArdle  

Alexus McLeod  

Bandana Purkayastha  

Lionel Shapiro  

Cindy Stewart  

Jennifer Terni  

Anastasios Tzingounis  

Eduardo Urios-Aparisi  

Anna Ziering  

Margaret Rubega  

Implementation Committee

Chair: Jon Gajewski, Associate Professor and Head of Linguistics

Dean’s Office Liaison: Andy Moiseff, Associate Dean

Members

Deborah Bolnick  

Thomas Bontly  

Eric Brunner  

Shardé Davis  

Miranda Davis  

Niloy Dutta  

Victoria Ford Smith  

Sirrah Galligan  

Jose Gascon  

Jane Gordon  

Julie Granger  

Ken Lachlan  

Kane Lynch (ex officio)  

Vicki Magley  

Mansour Ndiaye (ex officio)  

Jeffrey Ogbar  

Rebecca Puhl  

John Redden  

Natalia Smirnova  

Damin Wu  

Advisory Committee

Alan Bennett '69 (CLAS), CLAS Dean's Advisory Board, UConn Foundation Board of Directors

Indrajeet Chaubey, Dean, College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources

Deborah Chyun, Dean, School of Nursing

Kent Holsinger, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School

Kazem Kazerounian, Dean, School of Engineering

Radenka Maric, Vice President for Research

Scott Roberts, President, UConn Foundation

Annemarie Seifert, Director, Avery Point Campus