UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls

Initiatives

Strategic Plan Initiatives: 2019-2020

  • Reimagining Liberal Arts Education at UWRF - The goal is to provide a variety of public forums for conversations related to the role and function of the liberal arts in creating an innovative 21st-Century curriculum at UWRF. Funding for this initiative will provide faculty, staff, students, community and business leaders, alumni, and other stakeholders multiple opportunities to participate in expert-led presentations, panel discussions, and reading series, focused on our identity and goals as a liberal arts university. Through these conversations, we will consider ways to reimagine and enhance liberal arts learning opportunities at UWRF.
  • Launching an Ed.D. in Montessori - UWRF's First Doctorate Program - Launching the Montessori Ed.D. program in the summer of 2020 is an effort that has been under development since 2016. Strategic Initiative funding received in 2017 supported the retreat that enabled Montessorians and others from throughout the country to plan the doctorate curriculum and begin course development.  This SI proposal is the logical next step to complete the development and actually launch the Ed.D. Program which we believe will be as successful as the graduate Montessori TEP whose launch was assured by a 2013 significant grant and which was returned to the University by way of overhead within 2 years.
  • Interdisciplinary Clinic Pilot - The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD), in collaboration with SOWK and SPSY, is proposing a program to expand services provided to clients and families in the University Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic to include 1) a pediatric sensory/motor space to accommodate the developmental needs of the clients in the clinic 2) social work consultation for health literacy and available programming and 3) school psychology consultation for screening children who attend the clinic. 
  • Open Textbook Network Membership to Encourage and Promote Open Educational Resources - To promote the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) on campus we would like to join the Open Textbook Network. The Open Textbook Network is based at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities and is a leader in the creation, promotion, and the use of OER for classroom instruction. Membership includes an on-campus training of the faculty in the use and creation of OER and other resources to help with the adoption and use of OER for classroom instruction.  Membership in the Open Textbook Network will allow UW-River Falls to access support from peer faculty and instructors on the implementation and use of OER.
  • Internationalizing Undergraduate Education by Integrating Study Abroad into the Curriculum - This initiative aims to align study abroad options with each university degree plan. We will help departments identify study abroad opportunities (courses, internships, research, field experiences) that improve students' content knowledge, cross-cultural learning, and professional skills building while maintaining timely progress toward graduation.  The result will be careful curricular articulation and reduced faculty workload through collaborative web-based major advising pages with enhanced ownership for global learning and comprehensive internationalization campus wide.  
  • Sustainability Internships to Support the Office of Sustainability in Facilitating a Sustainability Educator's program - This initiative creates three student internship opportunities for the 2019-20 academic year. Student interns will learn about and will work to improve all aspects of campus sustainability including environmental, social and economic issues.  Students will present in classes, conduct sustainabiity tours, provide programming to students in the residence halls, and will plan and facilitate campus wide sustainability events such as a campus sustainability day, film showings, speakers, etc.
  • Year of Strategic Initiative - The Year Of...initiative provides funding to bring scholars, educators, and cultural events to the university to promote student, faculty and community engagement in a culture and country external to the United States of America.