NW-PULSE @ NW BIO 2014 “The Best Laid Plans…” Eastern Washington University R. O’Quinn, M. O’Connell, and L. Matos VISION – Commitment to the rigorous training and compassionate guidance of undergraduate students to help ensure their success in achieving career goals and their growth in the intellectual skills required of a well-educated citizenry. Photos should be at least 300dpi, but not more than 5-12 mgs each. Your poster is set to be enlarged 200% so do not change the page size to fit another poster size. Posters (3’ x 4’) will be printed at WWU or WSU using the same purchase order at the same time. Please email your poster as a PPT file to Joann Otto by April 25. Please contact Joann with questions about poster printing. Please note that this template is provided to simplify your effort to prepare a poster for NWBio. You can change the font size, colors, column widths, add photos, institutional logos, graphics, etc. This template can also be used as a starting point and you can be as creative as you want in your poster. However, we would like to have all of the posters the same size and they will be printed at the same time, at the same print shop in order to easily pay for printing with one purchase order. MAIN GOAL– Raise our colleagues awareness of the Vision and Change agenda, engage them in using the rubrics to evaluate our current curriculum and work collaboratively to develop strategies for curriculum alignment. ACTIONS RESOURCES & ALLIES STRENGTHS We introduced our peers to the Vision and Change agenda. We asked our peers to individually evaluate the Vision and Change rubrics, beginning with the Curriculum Alignment rubric. We curated and presented to our peers the averaged values for their responses as a starting point for a dialogue on areas of our curriculum we can improve upon (Figure 1). We have allies at Spokane Falls Community College with whom we will collaborate to improve curricular alignment both within and between our respective programs as a way to facilitate integration of transfer students from SFCC to EWU. We have a commitment to a maintaining a strong curriculum that aligns with national standards. We have a collaborative, engaged faculty with a willingness to address real deficits in our program. We have a strong team with a diversity of skills and experience. BARRIERS & CHALLENGES Our most formidable barrier was time during our faculty meetings to dedicate to curriculum review. As a department, we were inundated this year with higher priority issues (e.g., tenure/promotions and position searches) that precluded our making substantive gains towards our main goal. REFLECTION The issue of time to address curricular issues is significant. When budgetary constraints result in increased student enrollments without concomitant increases in faculty or staff, the ensuing condition of feeling overworked limits the willingness of faculty to engage beyond their obligation to attend to the most immediate matters at the departmental level. Curricular revisions take a back burner, and this is likely true for other departments. Alternative approaches may be necessary to effect change. SUSTAINABILITY In the waning days of this term, and as a high priority for next year, we will continue to implement our main goal. Figure 1. Average response values (+/- s.d.) for the 11 criteria in the Curriculum Alignment rubric, (n=11). This work was supported in part by NSF EAGER #51588