Agreement 5

Under Agreement 5 (April 2016–March 2018), UW–Madison continued working with SHSS and NU faculty and expanded its work with student services and administrative support units across NU.

SHSS Faculty Development, Collaboration and Exchanges: With the goal of advancing research, teaching, and international collaboration for and with NU SHSS faculty, faculty at both institutions engaged through

• Mentoring—six UW–Madison faculty served as mentors for SHSS junior faculty in Academic Year (AY) 2016–17 and AY2017–18.
• Faculty mobility—selected SHSS junior faculty made month-long visits to UW–Madison during the summer and week-long visits during the academic year.
• Conference organization—UW–Madison and SHSS faculty co-organized a scholarly conference at NU in 2017.

Additionally, one UW–Madison faculty and advanced graduate student respectively taught a summer school at SHSS in 2016 and 2017 and UW–Madison helped facilitate the hiring of external reviewers for SHSS MA thesis and admissions committees.

Strategic Planning and Evaluation in SHSS: A UW team assessed SHSS school-wide policies and practices in administrative, research, and teaching areas in AY2017–18 to better understand the strengths and challenges of the school and its programs. UW also coordinated the individual reviews of five SHSS majors and master’s programs, focusing on teaching and student learning, faculty development and research, and department structure and program governance. Additionally, UW also provided consultation in the development of programs and courses for visiting international students in SHSS’s Summer School in Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Support of Kazakh Language Teaching and Learning: To assess the progress that SHSS’s Kazakh Language, Literature, and Culture (KLLC) department had made over the past several years and to help align instructional and learning expectations with other SHSS departments, UW–Madison conducted an external program review. The program review was intended to serve as a supporting guide to transforming KLLC into a comprehensive SHSS department with regional expertise and excellence in faculty research, learning outcomes, and outreach. Throughout 2016 and 2017, UW experts also consulted on assessment techniques within KLLC courses and placement testing and conducted workshops at NU on instructional technology and faculty teaching/research development.

English Language Instruction and Learning: The UW team continued its ongoing consulting toward the further development of undergraduate and graduate writing and speaking courses, the NU Writing Center, and Writing Across the Curriculum programming.

Educational Innovation: UW–Madison faculty and staff collaborated with NU faculty to encourage the utilization of various teaching practices to continue improving the student learning experience at NU. As part of this consultation, multimedia toolkits were produced and intensive seminars on educational innovation were conducted.

Library Development: UW General Library System staff continued consultation on the development of NU Library services such as cataloging, information literacy, and creation of the NU repository. The annual NU Library conference continued to be a venue for UW to share best practices in librarianship, and in AY2016–17, two NU Library staff members enrolled in online classes for professional development opportunities in UW–Madison School of Library and Information Science.

Career and Academic Advising: Advising staff from UW provided advice, recommendations on best practices, and specialized training workshops to staff in NU’s Career and Advising Center and to School-based academic advisors. In Fall 2017, UW advising staff traveled to NU to gather information that resulted in a comprehensive evaluation of the advising system—both academic and career advising.

NU Alumni Association: With the goal of enhancing its operations and developing a strong NU alumni network, a UW team evaluated NU’s new Alumni Association and its alumni programs in Fall 2016 and co-created various recommendations and action points with NU colleagues.

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing: Through two evaluative site visits to NU and ongoing consultation from Summer 2016 through Spring 2018, experts from UW University Health Services and Division of Student Life provided technical assistance to NU professional staff in the enhancement of student mental health and wellbeing programs and services.

NU Office of the Registrar: Continuing the work it started in 2011 of strengthening NU registrar services, UW–Madison Office of the Registrar (UW OR) staff traveled to NU in 2016 to evaluate procedures and recommend improvements in the NU Office of the Registrar (NU OR). Following that trip, NU OR staff visited UW OR to observe and consult on best practices.