Southern Arkansas University Tech (SAU Tech) is pleased to announce the College’s participation in the Institute for Evidence-Based Change’s Caring Campus Faculty Initiative. The IEBC is implementing the initiative on a select number of two-year college campuses across the nation.

The initiative is based on research showing that students who feel “cared” about are more likely to succeed despite the barriers they encounter during their educational journey. Students state that they want faculty who “gets” them. The project is intended to look at effective behaviors and practices by faculty at SAU Tech and then work with the identified faculty to help them peer mentor other faculty to improve their “caring” behaviors and techniques with students.

This effort at SAU Tech comes when the College’s leadership has aligned itself with the concept of “rigor,” not “rigidness,” in delivering instruction to students. Dr. Jason Morrison, SAU Tech’s Chancellor, stated that “This effort is a step in the right direction. Our students come to us as first-generation college students with limited resources and minimal skills to help them navigate college. They succeed only when we make a personal connection with them and strive to meet them where they are in their efforts to obtain a college education. We are looking forward to the results this initiative will bring to student success and retention rates.”

SAU Tech’s Vice Chancellor for Academics and Planning, Dr. Valerie Wilson, and her team are heading up this effort at SAU Tech and have started evaluating faculty practices and identifying those practices and behaviors that result in positive student feedback and success rates. The Caring Campus Faculty Initiative will formally begin with the fall 2022 semester.

The Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping education stakeholders – community colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, employers, and others – use coaching, collaboration, and data to make informed decisions and craft solutions that improve practice and dramatically increase student success. Learn more about IEBC at https://www.iebcnow.org/about-us.