By Amy Martin, assistant dean, Student Success Strategy
Every month this year we will be highlighting the organizational meetings and strategies for advancing our goals of the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy. This month we highlight the work of a longstanding group of over 130 campus leaders who work with Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Mark Largent and Assistant Provost of Undergraduate Student Success Renata Opoczynski to coordinate college, unit, and department activities across the five opportunity areas for undergraduate student success.
Their work includes:
- recognizing successful efforts in each area of success
- sharing searches for positions in their units/departments and introducing new hires with the campus community
- sharing out key updates from other student success working groups
- bringing initiatives, policies, practices, and/or problems to the group for consultation
This year we have incorporated and will be building on the concept of organizational growth mindset as we set the norms, functions and content of the group. During our research for undergraduate students’ educational success, we read about student and faculty growth mindsets for student learning by Carol Dweck. Subsequently, we discovered the work of Dr. Mary C. Murphy, a Latina from San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Murphy is an endowed professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University studying motivation, performance, and intergroup relations by examining over 200 organizational contexts and settings. She conducted over a decade of research about what she has termed “cultures of growth” compared to “cultures of genius” and has published over 100 articles, receiving the 2019 Presidential early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2019. She posits that “Cultures of growth harness the tension between where individuals and the organizational are versus where they want to be, and they use it to fuel collaborative efforts forward toward their goal” (Murphy, 2024, pg. 33).
As part of the meetings this year, we will be highlighting work done nationally for undergraduate student success that aligns with Murphy’s conception of growth mindset. The agenda also includes updates for this campus community about work being done in existing groups such as the Campus Student Success Group, University Advising Leads, Enrollment and Admissions groups, Student Success Advisory Committee and/or as a part of other campus initiatives. Monthly recognition of student success efforts will occur in this meeting and culminate in an annual award ceremony to highlight the innovative work of individuals and teams across the campus. Finally, this is a place to connect as a community, to help recruit excellence and diverse leaders to MSU, welcome new team members, and discuss challenges that we face as a community.
References
Murphy, M. C. (2024). Cultures of growth: how the new science of mindset can transform individuals, teams, and organizations. First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. New York, Simon & Schuster.
