As a recognized leader in developing impactful curriculum and programs for its students and faculty, California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) served as the ideal host for the 2018 HIPs in the States conference on Feb. 22-24, an informal collective of college and university educators dedicated to defining, tracking, and assessing high-impact practices (HIPs) at public institutions.
The HIPs conference brought together nearly 200 educators who share the idea that “engagement matters” when it comes to “learning, persistence, and equity.”
CSUDH has a long history of leading the development of HIPs programs and supporting the expansion of learning communities in such areas as service learning, undergraduate research, supplemental instruction, and peer mentoring.
“This group of people represent public colleges and universities from all over the country; campuses that have had some of the biggest challenges applying the research regarding how high-impact practices benefit all students, especially those who are traditionally underserved,” said Ken O’Donnell, interim vice provost at CSUDH who served as a host for the conference. “We are the institutions that are access oriented and affordable. HIPs programs aren’t cheap to deliver, but we have a moral imperative to close our equity gaps, to deliver on our mission, and figure out how to do this.”
The luncheon included welcoming remarks from CSUDH President Willie J. Hagan, and a keynote address delivered by Andrew Ceperley, who directs the Silicon Valley Program at Claremont McKenna College.
The luncheon was followed by the educators spending the three-day conference in the Loker Student Union attending and/or participating in workshops, a plenary panel focused on “HIPs in their Next Decade,” which included CSUDH’s Vice President for Student Affairs William Franklin, and a variety of breakout sessions.
The breakout sessions featured such topics as “Bringing High-Impact Practices Out of the Silo and Into Alignment,” “Career Readiness through a Comprehensive Internship,” and “Strategies to Encourage Faculty to Adopt High-Impact Practices.” The latter was attended by Anne Arendt, interim associate dean at Utah Valley University.
“I’m getting a lot of ideas here about what people are doing at their universities. Learning about what is working and was is not–with data to back it–has also been very informative. It will be great to share that information back on my campus,” said Arendt. “Just the energy I feel from these people doing some of these high-impact practices, and the momentum and enthusiasm that we are creating will make a significant impact on our work.”
