Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Irvine

Title of entry: UCI Vice Provost Launches DenninInsights Blog to Transform Higher Ed

About this entry: In March 2021, Michael Dennin, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), launched his DenninInsights blog to share his thoughts on post-pandemic teaching, eliminating institutional barriers to student success, and a variety of other topics related to the future of higher education. As a professor and university administrator, Vice Provost Dennin realized he was particularly well-situated to critically evaluate existing university structures (many of which have remained unchanged despite being put into place hundreds of years ago) and challenge higher ed’s continued reliance on them.

Out of all his posts, the ones that discuss grading, course design, and student evaluation are particularly impactful because they call out many of the accepted operational standards that higher ed institutions uphold purely for tradition or efficiency. In this collection of posts, Vice Provost Dennin advocates for students and calls for institutional changes to eliminate unnecessary barriers that place low-income, minority, and/or first-generation students at a disadvantage. While his posts may not magically solve many of the inherent issues with the higher ed system, they provide a crucial starting point for these issues to be acknowledged and discussed by students, faculty, and administrators alike.

Understanding that change is often a long and hard-fought process, Vice Provost Dennin has dedicated DenninInsights to serving as the catalyst for redefining university structures to make them more equitable, inclusive, and representative of life in the 21st century.