Academic year 2020-2021 was my first as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Grand Valley, where I landed at an unpredictable time for higher education and in the midst of a strategic planning cycle.  Even under normal circumstances this would have been a year of deep learning about CLAS, GVSU, Grand Rapids and West Michigan, and this year certainly brought leadership challenges and opportunities. In the context of the pandemic I’ve engaged in mostly virtual learning about these communities I’ve joined (take-out meals and drives to the lake notwithstanding), and I have been awed by the warm welcome I’ve received from everyone I’ve met in online and socially distanced spaces.

A great deal was asked of the faculty and staff this year, and they rose to the challenge. Carrying an increased workload, they delivered our signature education remotely and provided our students with engaging experiences and ongoing support.  For many, this required putting important scholarly activities, sabbaticals, and on-site community engagement on hold.  

Many of our annual events went forward virtually.  Advisors and tutors supported thousands of students.  The CLAS Faculty Research Colloquium offered a welcome chance for faculty to connect and hear about one another's ongoing projects.  The CLAS Teaching Roundtables featured faculty-led discussions on teaching and learning in virtual environments.  We fine-tuned our professional development series for newer faculty and unit heads.  Several of our faculty and staff were featured in online events for GVSU alumni.  Our arts programs proved that the show will go on in virtual galleries, through live streaming, and by performing socially distanced outdoors. 

During the winter semester, five hundred CLAS faculty and staff met group by group for a total of 80 hours of facilitated virtual meetings to think as a college about our future.  The medium was in part the messageꟷhigher ed is evolving quickly, and we cannot wait to begin designing our responses to those changes.  We face these challenges ready for action, unmuted, cameras on.

The daily work of the college continued. With renewed commitment to equity and inclusion, we piloted a redesigned search process and increased the training of search committees for the six tenure-line faculty searches we conducted this year. We addressed budget challenges by forming a CLAS Budget Committee to harness the creativity of faculty and staff.  We celebrated the release of several faculty books; made strides in the production of open educational resources for our students; and saw faculty,  staff, and students recognized with awards and fellowships.  Faculty were awarded $3.7M in external grants to fund their research, which often included student collaborators.

My lasting impressions of the year will include feelings of gratitude toward our engaged faculty governance committees, my resourceful staff, and the unsung heroes who chair our units.  Leaders all.

In this report we can only offer a few examples of our creativity and resilience to illustrate the heartfelt commitment that CLAS faculty and staff have to the students in our large and diverse college.  We hope these stories suggest to you what I have been learning all year—CLAS embodies a relationship-rich liberal education that is inspiring, relevant, and purposeful. That contributes to social innovation and has social impact.  That lifts up our students and keeps us all going, and thriving, every single day.

 

Jennifer Drake

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences