At the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, after a year of transition and change, the College of Education engaged in a number of Community Listening Sessions and Climate Listening sessions with students, faculty, and staff to identify ways to best prioritize and take action on some of the pressing issues impacting our community moving forward. In those far-reaching and complex discussions in which we discussed the work currently under way as well as the day-to-day and the experiential impact of the climate, we identified some recurring themes that will impact every member of the community and will flavor the nature of our activities this year.

• Clarity of expectations in all professional roles, faculty ranks, named positions, and activities (service, research, mentorship).
• Clarity and intentionality around professional transitions (onboarding; off-boarding; role-transitions).
• A culture of value and appreciation for the importance and diversity of work undertaken in each role. A culture of personal value and appreciation for students, faculty, and staff.
• A sense of connectivity, community, and shared mission among the individuals within similar roles and expectations (across the COE) as well as across groups and units.
• Clear communication about operations, changes, updates, and items that impact individuals in their COE roles. Assurances that who needs to know gets to know.

Over the course of 2023-2024 as we focus on these findings, we remain committed to using these themes to inform our ongoing focus areas around reporting structures, our systems of support for both faculty and students, our training and professional development opportunities, our curricular and general resources, opportunities to celebrate diversity, and our accountability.

The detailed action plan we submitted to the University of Oregon in support of this work, is attached here.