2021 Cottrell Scholar Conference the Largest Yet
More than 150 participants logging in from around the globe made the virtual 2021 Cottrell Scholar Conference on July 7-9, 2021, the largest gathering in the program’s 27-year history.
With the theme of “Reimagining Higher Education,” the conference offered networking, presentations and discussions on the changes needed to increase equity in post-pandemic science education. Ideas generated through those discussions may lead to Cottrell Scholar Collaborative projects in areas of national impact.
“Being a Cottrell Scholar means much more than an award,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “It’s an opportunity to join an inclusive community of people who share your values in research, teaching and mentoring.”
"At RCSA, we think it’s essential for faculty in the sciences from research universities, comprehensive universities, and primarily undergraduate institutions to think collaboratively and collectively,” Linzer said. “The connections made among you help guide students to good mentors, to good graduate programs, to good postdoc opportunities, and back into faculty positions.”
The conference began with its first and most important goal -- welcoming the 2021 class of 25 new Cottrell Scholars, as well as two new Cottrell Fulbright Scholars, into the full community of approximately 500 Cottrell Scholars. Multiple networking events and mixers were included throughout the gathering to help build stronger ties among the group of teacher-scholars who support and encourage each other throughout their careers.
“This is where a lot of good ideas and good friendships start,” said Senior Program Director Silvia Ronco.
Keynote speaker
Sean Decatur, CS 1996 and president of Kenyon College, set the tone for conference discussions with his keynote presentation, “Building More Equitable Colleges and Universities in the Aftermath of COVID.”
He said economic and social challenges laid bare by the pandemic, as well as the national reckoning around race following the George Floyd murder, have generated momentum to press institutions for change, presenting challenges and opportunities for those who work in academia.
Addressing the “economic inequality that is baked into many of our institutions,” Decatur said the challenge that concerns him most is that the rising cost of college has outpaced the rise in income, especially for the lowest-income families. This has caused a crisis in who can afford college, and a huge disparity among the institutions students from different economic backgrounds can access.
“This matters because the investment in a college degree pays off financially over the long term,” he said. “And the more selective institutions, which tend to have the highest graduation rates and invest the most resources toward student success, are the ones that have the highest proportion of wealthy students.”
Decatur offered multiple ways to counter racial and gender inequities on campus, and to remove the barriers that result in persistent underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields.
He urged institutions to invest more in building pipelines of students, faculty and staff, and to take a critical look at campus and departmental culture.
“It's not enough to just bring folks to campus,” he said. “Are they welcome and being invited to participate in the life of the community?”
Along with more inclusive pedagogical practices that provide opportunities for students to engage and learn from a variety of modalities, he urged tenure and promotion policies that make it clear that building diversity and equity is an essential and visible part of everyone’s job, not “something extra that takes away from the work that is most important.”
He said the work gets harder as institutions become more diverse and real change affects more people. He said to expect a backlash.
“We're in a hyper-political moment where any work to create more equity on our campuses is going to be seen through a political lens,” Decatur said. “We have to make it clear that diversity, equity and inclusion is not part of some partisan agenda, but part of a larger, important effort to make sure the full talent of our nation is able to participate in the enterprise of building knowledge.”
Facilitated Breakouts
Decatur’s keynote presentation was followed by facilitated breakout sessions on topics related to the conference theme. Those discussions included: imagining more inclusive, cutting-edge institutions; strategies for fighting current inequities; pedagogical changes needed in foundational courses; new ways to assess student learning; and tenure and promotion policies to support a more equitable academia.
After the breakouts, groups presented the big ideas that emerged from each of their discussions, encouraging like-minded individuals to talk more with each other and think about collaborative projects they might work on together. RCSA will fund up to four of these team proposals.
Cottrell Plus Awards
The conference also featured presentations by recipients of Cottrell Plus awards, and updates on Cottrell Scholar Collaborative projects funded following last year’s conference.
CS 2014 Cindy Regal gave a talk on the project made possible by her 2020 FRED Award: “Phononic Crystal Suspensions for Precision Mechanical Sensing.”
CS 2009 and 2021 IMPACT Award recipient Penny Beuning detailed her work to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through effective mentoring and development of students, trainees and junior faculty.
CS 2002 and 2021 STAR Award winner Hanadi Sleiman spoke about her research group’s use of DNA to build nanostructures for applications in biology and materials science, and CS 2007 and 2021 STAR Award winner Tim Clark showed the impact of engaging high school students, undergraduates and postdoctoral research associates together in real organoboron chemistry research.
Cottrell Scholar Collaboratives
Three awardees also gave updates on ongoing 2020 Cottrell Scholar Collaborative Award team projects.
CS 2017 Shane Ardo heads a group creating a new STEM pipeline model that grows undergraduate research at minority-serving institutions via collaboration, personnel exchange, and online training. CS 2019 Katherine Mirica reported on her international team’s efforts to create an inexpensive, accessible phone and web application to help students visualize atoms, molecules, and materials using augmented and virtual reality. CS 2009 Rory Waterman’s team, representing a variety of institutions and disciplines, is working to collect and share best practices to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As the conference concluded, several groups of Cottrell Scholars were coalescing around new team projects to propose.
