CTL Event
What brings you joy in your work? As a new academic year begins, how do you plan to maintain your work/life balance? What is one small thing you do each week to care for your well-being?
These questions are more important than ever as faculty face increasing demands and the risk of burnout. We invite you to join us for a practical and energizing online session: You Deserve Joy! Strategies to Avoid Burnout and Enhance Well-Being led by Alice Teall, Senior Director of Wellness at Kenyon College September 10th at Noon (EDT).
In this session, we will explore the cognitive and physiological roots of burnout and well-being, and learn evidence-based strategies to restore meaning, strengthen resilience, and enhance joy in your professional life. Practices such as gratitude, goal reflection, and connection-building will be shared as simple tools to support your personal and professional flourishing.
Dr. Alice Teall is the senior director of wellness at Kenyon, where she oversees the Health Services, Counseling Services and Health Promotion teams at the Cox Health and Counseling Center. Passionate about fostering a thriving campus community, Teall leads innovative wellness initiatives, supports services that empower students, and promotes strategies to enhance the well-being of students, faculty and staff.
Register HERE for this virtual event on Wednesday, September 10th at Noon (EDT). A link will be emailed one day prior. The session will be recorded.
We look forward to seeing you and beginning the year with a renewed commitment to joy and well-being.
Teaching and Learning
Speed Checks (Matt Reed, Inside Higher Ed, August 21, 2025): When to interrupt a student heading down a path to failure.
AI Can Facilitate Mastery Learning in Higher Education (Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2025): What if higher education moved beyond rigid calendars and assembly-line teaching to AI-powered, mastery-based learning where every student truly understands the material before moving forward?
4 Ways to Adjust Your Prose Style for a Public Audience (James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 19, 2025): What kind of teacher do you want to be for your nonexpert readers?
To Get Students Reading, Let Them Pick the Texts (Beckie Supiano, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14, 2025): Suggestions from Mary Isbell, author of the freely downloadable text, Searching for Wonder: Teaching Literature with Student-Selected Texts.
Beyond the Tool: Why True AI Literacy Is About Critical Thinking, Not Prompting (Michael G. Wagner, The Augmented Educator, August 12, 2025): How to cultivate a critical, cultural, and human-centered approach to AI in the classroom.
First Day of Class
6 Ideas to Perk Up Your First Day of Class (Kristi Rudenga, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 5, 2024): How to start the semester in ways that will pay off for the rest of the course.
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class (James Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education): An oldie but goodie advice guide.
Higher Ed and the Trump Administration
More Barriers on the Horizon for International Students (Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2025): Advocates worry the Trump administration is planning to end a long-standing policy that allows international students to stay in the U.S. until their studies are complete.
The Troubling Lines That Columbia Is Drawing (Eyal Press, New Yorker, August 18, 2025): By adopting an overly broad and controversial definition of antisemitism, the university is putting both academic freedom and its Jewish students at risk.
Federal Judge Declares Education Department’s Attempt to Bar Diversity Programs Unlawful (Juan Perez Jr and Rebecca Carballo, Politico, August 14, 2025): The Trump administration is permitted to have its policy positions, the judge wrote, but “it must do so within the procedural bounds Congress has outlined. And it may not do so at the expense of constitutional rights.”
‘Just Disappeared’ (Camila Gomez, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14, 2025): Trump’s immigration crackdown is imperiling college access for undocumented students.
White House Uses Back Door to Axe Approved Funds for Exchange Programs (Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14, 2025): The “irregular” process cancels spending for global-education programs already greenlit by Congress.
Extra Credit Reading
The Test-Optional Conundrum (Greta Hsu and Amanda J. Sharkey, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 20, 2025): For many colleges, the policy shift was merely symbolic.
Education Department Ends Federal Work-Study Jobs that Support Voting (Susan Carpenter, Spectrum News, August 19, 2025): College and university students will no longer be able to hold jobs that help with voting as part of Federal Work-Study program.
Our Graduates’ Successes: What the Data Tells Us About the Value of Women’s and Gender Studies Degrees (Carrie N. Baker, Michele Tracy Berger, Christa Craven, and Jane Hobson, Ms. Magazine, August 18, 2025): The authors, including Christa Craven of the College of Wooster, describe the value of critical interdisciplinary programs. They are offering a related webinar on August 22, 1:00-2:30 PM Eastern, which is free and open to the public. Click here to register; Zoom link will be sent upon registration.
Faculty Are Not the Enemy (Graham Wright and Leonard Saxe, Inside Higher Ed, August 18, 2025): Research suggests the fight against antisemitism would be better served by treating faculty as allies, not antagonists.
College Students Have Already Changed Forever (Ian Bogost, Atlantic, August 17, 2025): Members of the class of 2026 have had access to AI since they were freshmen. Almost all of them are using it to do their work.
The Strange History of University Autonomy – and Why We Need It More Than Ever (Adam Sitze, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 15, 2025): Academic freedom from the Middle Ages to apartheid South Africa to now.
‘Integral to What it Means to Be an American’: College Students on Free Expression (PEN America, August 11, 2025): Interviews with 11 undergraduate students from universities around the country.
Events Around GLCA – All are welcome!
“Contemporary Attacks on Academic Freedom: Historical and Comparative Perspectives,” a talk by Eve Darian-Smith, Global and International Studies professor from UC Irvine, sponsored by the College of Wooster, September 3, 7:30 PM (Eastern) in person (Gault Recital Hall) or live-stream. This is the first in a series of three events as part of Wooster’s Democracy and Academic Freedom Forum.
Have a short article or some news related to teaching and learning at your institution that you’d like to share with colleagues? Send your contribution along to us. Also, please email Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected]) if you have colleagues who would like to receive this weekly report.
Steven Volk ([email protected]), Editor
GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning
Co-Directors:
Lew Ludwig ([email protected]) Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected])