Expand the Menu of Minors

Background and Proposal

We frequently tell prospective and new students that one of Mills' virtues is that you can do so many different things here academically. And they can -- in addition to established majors and minors there are any number of curricular combinations a student can put together and we even allow a student to create her own major if she is particularly enterprising.

Suggestion: promote the proliferation of minors.  We should consider adding a wide range of interesting multiple discipline minors that package intellectually valuable sets of courses in extremely attractive manner.

Logic Model

Students who are looking at colleges often begin their search by typing the names of majors and minors into a search engine.  The portfolio we present plays a role in whether we initially catch a prospect's eye at all, and the interestingness of the portfolio of majors and minors affects whether we sustain her attention long enough to have a chance to say what Mills is all about.

Practically cost-free.  A minor is really just a way to help a student create a subsidiary coherent academic experience outside of her major.  In general minors cost very little to administer and distract very little from other pedagogical activities.

Benefits? In truth, minoring in X or Y probably does not significantly enhance many alumnae career trajectories, but minors figure prominently in how undergraduates think about their education (and how they talk about it with their parents -- often minoring in X is what allows them to major in Y).

Commentary.  This might be seen as mere "packaging" and so it is, at one level.  But packaging matters.  We are talking about getting explicit about some of the exciting things you can do at Mills, naming them, telling students about them in explicit terms rather than just waiting for students to stumble on the packages.  But it's not mere packaging as it involves us as teachers really thinking through clusters of courses across different programs that CAN be built into a coherent supplement to a student's major.  Surely we would agree that there are more minors out there than simply those that are majors-lite.

How to Do It.  Set a goal of, say, getting ten to fifteen minors on the books for early fall 2013 so that they'd be a part of the information mix potential members of the entering class of 2014 would see.  Get volunteer group of 6 to 10 faculty who are interested in this idea.  Buy them lunch a few times.  Use rapid prototyping to develop three or four pilots.  Fine tune and publicize.  Work with EPS to develop a streamlined approach.  Look around for most interesting minors at other institutions; any we should imitate.  Etc. until we get to a dozen or so.

Encourage faculty to build on MOOCs

Background

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and their ilk are capturing attention across the higher education landscape this year.  While it may be unwise for Mills to jump on the bandwagon, we should explore the ways in which this and related new technologies could be exploited here.

Proposal

Consider giving partial teaching credit to a professor who takes a MOOC along with her students, providing supplemental material and discussions as needed.  In computer science, for example, we are not able to offer many electives, both due to a shortage of FTE and due to the specialization of current faculty.   One can imagine that it might be more advantageous for students if a faculty member offered two or more MOOC-based electives in place of a single traditionally delivered elective.  The students would get more choices and faculty would broaden their teaching repertoire and expand their knowledge of new subfields.

Make "Internationalization" a Pillar of the Mills Approach to Higher Education

We should consider the potential benefits of making "Global Education" a core component of a Mills' undergraduate (and graduate?) education and what it would take to make this a reality.

Context

Colleges and universities across the country have in recent years worked to expand their enrollments of foreign students.  Several have coupled these efforts with curricular and campus-wide initiatives and centers.  Mills lags behind on all counts -- fewer foreign students enrolled, less support for study-abroad, fewer programs focused on global issues, no foreign language requirement.

Proposal

Globalize curriculum through requirements (gen ed, foreign language), new majors, new courses, priority faculty hiring.  Expand financial aid support for study abroad, create a global studies coordination center (see also Highlight and Cultivate Graduate Fellowship Success), create a languages and cultures or global affairs living learning communities, recruit more foreign students.

Outcomes

A curriculum that better prepares students for the 21st century.  Increased enrollments due to foreign students coming to Mills and domestic students finding Mills a more attractive alternative than it has been.

 Full Proposal below or via REMOVED

"Coop" Programs

What if we took the idea of community involvement and experiential learning to the next level and developed the equivalent of a "coop" program outside the realm of the engineering sciences where it is most typical?  It could be a way to grapple head on with the controversies around internships and free labor, over commitment to volunteer work during semester at a cost to academic studies, paying for school, etc.  There could be a degree built around something like a semester on semester off with, say, half credit for the semester off (it would be in an internship/coop placement) so that the total time to degree remained attractive.  Partner organizations might find it attractive enough to be willing to go beyond the unpaid "afterschool" intern approach since they'd be getting a full time worker.  If there were a critical mass of participants we could field a guidance/reflection/etc. seminar or some such that would allow the interns the benefit of an academic coach/advisor, etc.  There could be networking opportunities among the organizations that accepted our coop interns -- Mills as bridging social capital.

The general framework could be developed in a manner that permitted it to be adapted for use in technical fields as well as non-technical fields.  Our switching to semester hours could loosen up the structure in a manner that yielded some of the scheduling flexibility that might be needed to make this work.

Alumnae a la Carte Course Enrollment

Proposal

Allow local alumnae to enroll on space available basis in any Mills course for a nominal fee.

Background

A significant number of graduates settle in (or hail from) the Greater Bay area.  "Taking a class" is a frequent "pastime" for many working adults and a not uncommon activity for those who are making a career move (for example, going into something that is unrelated to whatever they majored in at Mills).  Almost all alumnae seem to have very fond memories of the classes they took here.

How It Would Work

After current students register for courses we use an algorithm to determine the space available in various classes and then post these online and notify alumnae in the greater Bay Area.  We do a little research to determine a good price-point (could even be an MBA project).  Say it comes out at $1500.  We would have to develop an low cost billing system so we don't have to spend too much on what would, at first, be a low volume operation.

This might already be possible but we suspect the current price point is prohibitive.  We should price it to be competitive with other options recognizing that we are more or less selling the empty seats on the plane (not entirely since instructors do have to grade the work, etc.).

Benefits

Taking a course at Mills is certainly a way to tighten up the relationship with an alumna.  Current students benefit from networking.  Each alumna who takes a course becomes even more of a walking ambassador for the college.

Challenges

Need to work out the credit/transcript mechanics.  Check out any problems of limiting it to Mills alumnae.  It does add to the parking burden and to be successful there'd probably have to be some sort of reserved spot arrangement because these students would likely not tolerate the long search for a space at mid-day.

Resources for Student Participation in Faculty-led Research

This proposal recommends that we strengthen support for undergraduate research at Mills. It specifically highlights one area where we currently have little institutional support: Resources for student participation in faculty-led research.

Importance of Undergraduate Research: The benefits of undergraduate research are numerous. Undergraduate research fosters an active participation in the pursuit of knowledge. It deepens students’ understanding of a discipline, allows them to develop skills central to that discipline, and promotes creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking.

It fosters close mentoring relationships between faculty and students, and allows for opportunities to build self-esteem and leadership skills, develop professionalism, work as a collaborative team with others, and clarify career goals. Studies have shown that introducing students to undergraduate research early on and for an extended period of time aids in the retention and performance of undergraduate students, increases the likelihood that students will pursue careers in these areas, and may especially benefit underrerepresented minorities in the sciences.

Today, it is increasingly common for graduate and professional programs to require incoming students to have some undergraduate research experience outside of the classroom, and many fields increasingly expect research experience with a faculty member or in an established research setting.
Involvement in faculty-led research has many special benefits. Students gain experience working in real laboratories and professional settings, and thus they have an opportunity to develop more advanced skills in their discipline. A faculty member may spend many weeks and even many months training and supervising a student, and because most of our programs are strictly undergraduate, our students are in a unique opportunity to play a central role in faculty-led research compared to those at large research institutions (where graduate students take on these roles). With advanced training and supervision, undergraduate students at Mills often gain experience and accomplish skills that are at the graduate level, and such projects are more likely to yield opportunities for publishing and presenting research at professional conferences. This is a definite advantage for undergraduate students at Mills and is one of the qualities that makes us unique.
Faculty-led projects are often larger and students may come together across disciplines and majors to work collaboratively and gain perspectives from these other disciplines. Students are likely to be at different academic levels, and, thus serve as role models with each other. This is not only educational, but can build a sense of community for students. Because faculty-led projects are extensive and usually have a longer duration than student projects, they allow for a longer protracted research experience for students. Work on faculty-led projects fosters independent work as well as teamwork, and can still provide opportunities for students to develop smaller independent projects. For example, in some cases, students may have opportunities to attach independent projects to the larger project. In other instances, students may be able to take on a portion of the faculty-led project and develop this as an independent project.

Faculty also benefit from undergraduate involvement in their research and in some disciplines, student involvement may even be essential, as in the sciences, where a research team is necessary to complete a research project. Faculty also benefit from student ideas, creativity, and energy in their research. Thus, providing resources for student participation in faculty-led research not only benefits students, but also benefits faculty. It is a win-win situation.

Current Status: Currently, we have inadequate support for faculty-led research at Mills. The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) helps support small undergraduate research projects (and even these funds are limited). The Faculty Development fund is terribly insufficient and in many instances, award amounts are too little to support student participation, especially when the cost of the research project itself takes up (or exceeds) the funds awarded. Much faculty research takes place in the summer when faculty have more time to devote to research and projects and labs can operate on a regular or full-time basis. Many students must financially support themselves in the summer or need to move home to locations outside the Bay Area for living support. We have very limited summer research support at Mills, and a summer research program that would involve student stipends and summer housing would allow more students to be able to take advantage of research opportunities and ensure continuity (i.e., less disruptive turnover) of student involvement in faculty-led research. Such a program would also be more equitable for students, since it is often the more financially disadvantaged students who must to choose a paid job over a research experience in order to support themselves.

To support faculty-led research, we also need more support for the infrastructure of existing labs and equipment, computers, and research supplies, and physical space dedicated that is dedicated to this. Mentoring students in faculty-led research requires a very large time commitment and is often the equivalent of teaching an additional course, so support for faculty is important and essential. I believe that much of this mentoring takes place on Fridays and may reflect a greater amount of curricular activity on Fridays at Mills than is actually apparent on the books.

Strengthening the Undergraduate Curriculum and Infrastructure in Biopsychology

Background: Biopsychology is an interdisciplinary major (traditionally a subfield of Psychology) that examines interactions between biology, behavior, mental processes, environment, and health. It reflects the ever-increasing interdisciplinary nature of science and incorporates rapid developments in areas such as behavioral genetics, psychoneuroimmunology, neuroendocrinology, and neuroscience. To date, about 60 colleges and universities in the U.S. offer undergraduate programs in biopsychology and the number of programs is expected to grow.

At Mills, Biopsychology was formally approved as an undergraduate major in 2003 (prior to this, it served as a college major). There has been a steady increase in the number of majors in Biopsychology, and a doubling in the last two years, from 8 to 16 majors. We expect this major to continue to attract more students in the future, not only because of rapid advances in the neurosciences, but also because of upcoming changes in medical school curriculums, which will place more emphasis on understanding behavioral and sociocultural determinants of health and health outcomes. These changes are designed to prepare physicians to serve a more diverse population and develop a clear understanding of the impact of behavior on health. Medical school entrance requirements will change to include coursework in psychology and statistics, and starting in 2015, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will include a new social and behavioral sciences section, Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior. We predict that the new emphasis on psychosocial factors and health is likely to make Biopsychology an increasingly attractive undergraduate major for many students interested in a career in medicine.

The Biopsychology major at Mills offers several courses that are relevant to this curricular and paradigmatic shift, including Fundamentals of Psychology, Physiological Psychology, Neurobiology, Health Psychology, Stress and Disease, Psychopathology, Social Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, and Research Methods. Additionally, the BS degree in Biopsychology fulfills pre-med requirements. Faculty research on psychobiologic mechanisms of disease activity and mental disorders in autoimmune disease, hormone and immune alterations associated with anxiety disorders, and molecular mechanisms of learning in the model organism C. elegans are also relevant to the future emphasis of psychosocial factors in medicine and participation in this research attracts many students who wish to enter medical school.

Concerns: At Mills, the Biopsychology major is run jointly by the Psychology and Biology Departments. As such, it truly reflects the interdisciplinary nature of this major and is a unique feature of our program. However, this structure also poses significant difficulties for the major, which does not have its own budget. Budgets in the ‘parent’ departments, which have diminished in recent years, are struggling to cover the expenses of their primary programs, and are thus, unable to support the financial needs of Biopsychology. As one example, the Psychology Department is unable to support the equipment maintenance of it’s psychophysiolgocial laboratory, the Laboratory of Psychology and Health, which serves students in Biopsychology as well as Psychology. This is a precarious situation: A single repair for the – 80 degree C freezer (which stores hormone and immune samples that can be lost if thawed) can cost an average of $1,500. Annual maintenance and repair policies are similarly too expensive for the Psychology Department to absorb. Additional support would also provide balance in the major so that summer support would be available for majors working in labs from both departments.

With the increased number of Biopsychology majors, now is also an ideal time to build momentum for activities that would strengthen student cohesion in the major. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, our majors do not have courses that are designed solely for them, or are even populated mostly by them. Social activities, lecture series, and journal clubs are activities that students in the major have expressed interest in and we believe would develop greater cohesion and learning opportunities among the majors. Support for the Biopsychology major would also allow us to expand existing courses to include a laboratory component, e.g., in the course Stress and Disease.

Strategic Planning Suggestion: With an increased emphasis on psychosocial influences in health and medicine in medical school curriculums and new MCAT section to reflect this, Biopsychology may become recognized as one of the ideal undergraduate majors for students planning careers in medicine, along with other majors in the natural sciences. Mills already has an excellent reputation and track record for preparing students to enter the health fields. We offer one of the most long-standing and nationally acclaimed post-bac pre-med training programs in Northern California and an excellent nursing program in partnership with Samuel Merritt University.

We could market Mills as a premier institution for preparing students to enter medicine and other health fields at both the undergraduate and post-bac levels.

Strategic planning may be used to help to build support for Biopsychology as well as other programs and majors in the natural sciences. The timing of this strategy may never be better, as a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has predicted a major shortage of primary care doctors in the U.S. Mills is geographically located in a hotbed of world-class medical centers and training programs, and faculty in Biopsychology and other majors in the Natural Sciences have collaborations with programs at UCSF (Psychology and Medicine, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine), Children’s Hospital of Oakland, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis, to name a few). We are also surrounded by clinics and other health settings providing care for underserved populations and thus are in a good position align our programs with opportunities to learn about the relationships between social stratification and access to resources and health, and effect positive change.