Community Sessions
In the Spring of 2022, the community was invited to learn more about the progress being made on the Lead with Purpose strategic plan initiatives for Year-1 Implementation. A series of three community sessions were held where Implementation Team members provided highlights of activities, followed by an open Q&A discussion.
If you were unable to join us live for all three sessions, we invite you to view the recorded sessions. In each session you will hear directly from the co-Leads as they describe the progress made in their specific focus area over the course of Year-1. Below are links to the Spring 2022 Community Sessions:
Our Inclusive Community (Community Session – April 6, 2022)
The Sustainable Inclusive Excellence team provided an overview of the SIE website that contains the divisional Inclusive Excellence plans, and tracks progress made towards attaining their goals. The Inclusive Culture team shared their plans for driving more explicit engagement with WPI’s mission and values to advance our campus culture. They also discuss plans to launch a Staff Council with a defined mission and charter.
Student Well-Being, Access, and Affordability (Community Session – April 20, 2022)
The Access and Affordability team spoke about plans to slow the pace of students’ cost increases, as well as implementing a pilot program for Pell-eligible students to help reduce some barriers to belonging. The Student Well-Being team shared exciting news about the new Center for Well-Being that is being established and the physical construction that is underway on campus. In addition, you’ll hear about an increase of resources and programming to support the overall initiative. You’ll also hear from the Student Experience team who has been focused on delving into an assessment process of the BIPOC student experience at WPI to better understand different aspects of their journey from orientation to systems and projects, as well as extracurricular and Graduate students.
Purpose-Driven Education and Research (Community Session – April 27, 2022)
The Undergraduate Outcomes team shared work they’ve done to assess the current use of online and tech-enabled learning options in existing curriculum and assessing delivery of current foundational skills in the undergraduate curriculum. They also spoke about continued efforts to incorporate the value creation mindset into curricular and co-curricular activities. The Demand-driven Programs team provided a look into a draft framework they developed for academic program evaluation and implementation for new graduate programs; and discussed work they’ve done on stackable credentials pilots and future plans. On the workforce development front, they’ve developed a strategy for pipeline development opportunities. The Purpose-driven Research team has been busy working on several projects, including creating the Office of Research Integrity and Compliance (ORIC), creating Service Centers, growing funding opportunities (Moonshots, Appropriations for 2023, partnerships, seed grants), building a campus-wide instrumentation database for shared facilities, and much more!