Cheyney University News September 2, 2016 Cheyney Embraces New Year--New Theme--New Book The new academic year at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania<http://www.cheyney.edu/> brings with it a new theme and a new book for the entire campus community to embrace. This year's theme--TRANSFORMATION: Learn. Change. Grow. ties into this year's common reader--Charles Duhigg's Smarter, Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business. The entire Cheyney campus had the opportunity to vote on a variety of themes and books suggested by the 2016-17 Academic Learning Communities (ALC) team. The team spent many hours planning the University-wide academic success and engagement program in undergraduate studies in an effort to foster a cohesive learning experience for the entire Cheyney University community, improve student learning and retention, and prepare Cheyney students for life after college. Professors and student leaders are collaborating with divisions across the university to coordinate activities around this year's common theme and book. ALC team members, Drs. Jolly Ramakrishnan, Hazel Spears, Ivan Turnipseed, Chris Barnes and Professors Helena Domenic, Marietta Dantonio-Madsen, and Lisa Schoenberg, even spent a week in July at the 18th Annual National Summer Institute on Learning Communities held at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in an effort to expand and improve upon last year's inaugural common theme/common reader learning communities event. "I learned about the key elements of effective campus collaboration through communication," shared Dantonio-Madsen, Chair of Cheyney's Department of Fine Arts, Design and Liberal Studies. "I also learned that faculty must be aware of how students and others hear us. Placing emphasis on the learner's culture enables the educator a bridge to better communication." Dr. Spears, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Cheyney, called the summer workshop incredibly enlightening. "We learned many things, including how much ground we can cover when we work together, and how we can work more cohesively with Student Affairs and the administration to advance the Learning Communities mission of student engagement and retention. We also learned a number of techniques to create interdisciplinary assignments which involve content from several disciplines, not just one. This mirrors real-life, in which we can learn from everything we experience once we understand that all things are interconnected and to look for those connections. We interacted with top-notch professionals in the Learning Communities field who made learning fun and relevant, which is what learning should be, even when it is hard. The faculty who went to Evergreen are now, more than ever, on the same page and better able to share the joy of learning together with our colleagues and our students." Last year's inaugural theme, "Resilience: Still We Rise,"<http://www.cheyney.edu/news/Cheyney-University-Launches-Learning-Communities-Program.cfm> was crystalized in the inaugural common reading, Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.<http://www.cheyney.edu/news/Cheyney-University-Launches-Learning-Communities-Program.cfm> Before freshmen arrived on campus, they had to read the book and complete an initial writing assignment focused on applying the theme and book to their own experiences. Helena Domenic, Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Cheyney, says both she and her students got much from incorporating the theme and book into the classroom. "I assigned students in my Elements of Art class to create a poster about Resilience based on the theme of David and Goliath. This allowed them to share their own stories and feelings visually about the theme. When I created a contest for the best poster and exhibited all of the students' art in an exhibition in the Biddle Hall gallery, we had the very best attended art gallery opening in our history as students came out to see the artwork of their friends and classmates displayed." In addition to basing classroom assignments on the common theme and reader, the University's Arts and Lectures Series, all campus speakers and events for the entire year were based on the theme. "In addition, student cohort groups built camaraderie and developed teamwork by engaging in activities after class such as a game show activity where they incorporated knowledge from the common reader and theme. A number of campus groups collaborated on a poetry open-mic night that allowed students the opportunity to bring the book and theme alive through their original creative writings. Faculty, staff and students gathered on Mondays for casual conversation over coffee, with discussions focusing on the themes in the common reader, David and Goliath," recalls Spears. "This year's common reader offers strategies for living more effectively, such as different ways of goal setting, creating mental maps of one's expectations, and using statistics to make sure one doesn't become one," chuckles Dr. Spears. "Charles Duhigg's book illuminates how poor practices such as "cognitive tunneling" lead us to failure rather than to success. It also helps us become aware of how we often blunder through life, rather than planning ahead and living intentionally. This book is a great tune-up for "getting things done" which captures not only the Cheyney mind-set at this time in our history, but of our nation as well. We hope faculty, staff, and students will learn and practice some of the very useful strategies offered in this well-written book. They will be exposed to them extensively through our new Wednesday common hour course, which has all freshmen and their mentors meet for a common lecture or activity, in conjunction with the First Year Seminar." Also this year, all freshmen will take an ALC weekly course which will dissect the common reader chapter by chapter and, through various activities, they will get hands-on practice with the strategies suggested in the reader under the common theme: Transformation: Learn.Change.Grow. SANDRA M. PHOENIX HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. 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