Weekly Update - January 10, 2022
Happy New Year, Umoja!
I hope that your holiday season was safe and refreshing.
Last week, we kicked off the year with an awesome Winter Coordinators Retreat. The 1Umoja team worked intentionally to craft an agenda with relevant content that will aid you in your planning, programming, and teaching. If you have not already, please take some time to give us some feedback about your experience. We are eager to improve all our events with your needs and feedback at heart.
This month, I will be sharing more about our plans for 2022 and beyond. Our team is growing, with more innovative professionals who will help us to build upon the work that our founders set out to accomplish at the inception of Umoja. We are seeking to build a more inclusive 1Umoja. Be on the lookout for invitations coming your way on ways to participate in the RFA selection process, event planning, and data projects. We are excited about the horizons and will continue to call on your voices and the voices of our students to advance our mission.
Later this month, we will launch our second Umoja University Book Club choice. Our team selected Chris Emdin’s “Ratchedemic: Reimagining Academic Success.” We will provide you with programming and teaching resources to bring our book selection alive for your students and communities. As we shared at the Winter Coordinators Retreat, we hope you will use the resources for Spring, Summer, and Fall teaching and learning. Be on the lookout for more information in the coming weeks.
I have shared with you that we are planning our first Umoja Faculty Institute. This institute will do a deeper dive into student academic, cultural and professional development and will be open to the larger higher education community. That event was previously scheduled for January 13-14, 2022. However, we have decided to reschedule this event for June 13-14, 2022. Because we believe this event will be most impactful as an in-person event, we wanted to make sure that the timing allowed for maximum participation from our constituents. We will re-open registration in February and provide key details about the event for you to share with your campuses.
Finally, may we give thanks for the lives of bell hooks and Sidney Poitier who are now ancestors. They are citizens of our greatest royalty. The gifts, wisdom, and knowledge that they provided through academics, arts, and entertainment will last many lifetimes.
As I often share with you, I am very honored to work with and for each of you. You bring so much of yourself to your work and students are positively impacted as a result. Thank you for your dedication. Please take care of yourself and stay safe.
