In August, Dr. Erika Beck, CSU Channel Island’s new president, delivered her inaugural convocation speech to the campus. In her address, as she noted the many innovative programs, events, and practices in motion at CI, she stated, “doing things differently is in our DNA” [at CI].  This statement from a university president struck me as provocative, as I imagine it’s not a typical message that faculty hear upon returning for a new semester. Also, the value CI places on innovation is, perhaps, why I was hired at CI and why I love to work there.

Last week, I had an informal email exchange with Laura Gibbs about change in higher education. We were considering how change, in general, occurs slowly; yet, we see variations from institution to institution due to the different ways “change” relates to an organization’s values and history.  Laura, who teaches at Oklahoma University, joked that football is what’s in her institution’s DNA — later to discover that there’s actually a hashtag for that!

As a result, I thought it would be intriguing to reach out and ask those of you who work in higher education to respond to this question, “What’s in your institution’s DNA?”  If you work at more than one institution, feel free to submit more than one response.

Participate below or through this share link: https://answergarden.ch/337104