The CAC charged the CCTF with four tasks, which were addressed over nine weeks.
Charge One
Reach out to each CAL unit’s advisory council to foster conversations about how best to support units in building healthy relationships and a culture of care; this includes assessing the needs, concerns, and issues in the unit.
A survey was sent to Chairs and Directors who would in turn share with their Advisory Committee members if applicable. While some data was collected, the few responses received hinted at possible over saturation as the survey followed the much more extensive “Know More” university-wide survey. The CCTF (if reconvened in the fall) should create more intentional ways of collecting data from each unit. The motivation for collecting the work that each unit is doing to create a culture of care is clear– we want to see what our colleagues are doing to identify gaps where assistance is needed, gather inspiration, reduce redundancies, and perhaps expand great ideas to college-wide programming. The CCTF understands the need for such data collection and recommends using the “Know More “ survey results, as well as CAL specific data gathering to move forward in an informed manner.
Charge Two
Reach out to each CAL unit’s chair or director to foster a conversation about current dynamics in the unit and how best to support units in building healthy relationships and a culture of care.
The CCTF then addressed the second charge by talking with several chairs to pilot a unit-based fellows program that will encourage faculty to articulate specific values and investments that work in their programs. An area for future consideration is to continue participating in existing CAL efforts to think through rewards and review structures.
Charge Three
Gather existing materials around current approaches, practices, and policies for addressing conditions of conflict.
The CCTF created a collection of resources currently at MSU. The importance of these resources cannot be underestimated but access and visibility should be heightened. The CCTF recommends this set of resources be publicized on the CAL and departmental websites.
Charge Four
Produce a report and set of recommendations for CAC to consider in moving forward.
In the past nine weeks since the CCTF has convened, much headway has been made in examining a culture of care at CAL, but we also recognize there is much more work left to do.The remainder of the report includes a variety of recommendations and suggestions for what could be done moving forward.
We believe that the CCTF should continue next year to help establish processes and address the following recommendations. The collaborative strength in having a variety of points of view was energizing and educational for all involved, so if the CAC chooses to move in this direction,the demographics of the CCTF should reflect the CAL community and include members from across the unit.