The UNLV College of Education seeks proposals from individuals or teams to consult with the College, as it responds proactively to shifts in higher education, including those shifts due to the COVID pandemic and ongoing equity considerations. The selected individual or team will be expected to explore informal and formal College and departmental policies and practices, identify strengths and opportunities, and recommend adaptations as needed, particularly as they relate to infrastructure, communication, decision-making. The College of Education is committed to faculty and staff recruitment, retention, and support, faculty and staff governance, research infrastructure and support, curriculum infrastructure and support, student engagement and success, and; community engagement and impact as the principal areas for the consultant or team to address.
Scope of Work
The selected individual or team will work with members of the College of Education, including academic and administrative faculty, classified staff, and students, to address the following goals related to the aforementioned College components:
- Identify shared values among multiple stakeholders within the College;
- Identify COE strengths in its formal and/or informal policies and practices;
- Identify COE barriers in its formal and/or informal policies and practices;
- Identify COE opportunities in its formal and/or informal policies and practices;
- Recommend concrete changes and change processes as relevant to its infrastructure, policies, and/or practices, with a range of no-cost, low-cost, and higher-cost recommendations for implementation;
- Develop a working list of shared priorities and goals to inform strategic planning.
The work is to be completed between November 1, 2020, and February 15, 2021. No later than February 28, 2021, the selected individual or team should provide a comprehensive report that addresses the above bulleted items, a description of their data collection and data analytic processes, and a list of resources integrated in the process itself and for future reading, and these should align with what is proposed and/or reflect agreed upon modifications. The written report should be submitted to the College of Education Dean’s Advisory Council, the College of Education Interim Dean, and the UNLV Executive Vice President and Provost.
The selected candidate or team will be expected to communicate directly virtually with College and department stakeholders (e.g., individual, small group, surveys). They will also be provided multiple data sources as an initial analysis, not limited to the following:
- Aggregate reports from student, administrative faculty, classified staff, and academic faculty August-October 2020 listening sessions on equity and antiracist topics
- Reports from faculty listening sessions from previous years on College climate and culture; and
- UNLV, College of Education, and departmental bylaws.
Submission and Selection Process
- The proposal is limited to 5 single-space pages and should address a plan of action and timeline, as well as a detailed budget. Due to the COVID pandemic, travel costs cannot be included in the proposal.
- Proposed and actual budget should not exceed $35,000.
- Proposals and a vita for each individual involved should be submitted to Ms. Shaina McNeely (Shaina.mcneely@unlv.edu) no later than October 12, 2020. A confirmation email will be sent when the proposal is received, and then reviewed and dispositioned.
- The intended timeline for proposals to be dispositioned is no later than October 26, 2020.
- The selection committee are members of the Dean’s Advisory Council (Drs. Kyle Higgins [Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education], Wendy Hoskins [Counseling, School Psychology, and Human Services], Stefani Relles [Educational Psychology and Higher Education], Jeff Shih [Teaching and Learning], Kenny Varner [Faculty Chair]), who will review the proposals received based on the criteria outlined below, and provide input to the Interim Dean, Dr. Danica Hays.
- Proposals will be evaluated using the following criteria:
- Expertise of the proposer/team to complete the work
- Capacity of the proposer/team to complete the work within the stated time frame
- Creativity of the proposal, with the use of flexible and diverse evaluation approaches
- Potential outcomes for the work relative to the proposed budget (i.e., demonstrated value in light of budget constraints)
- Willingness of the proposer to present and answer questions about the report to the College faculty and staff at the March 2021 faculty meeting.
Any questions regarding the submission process can be sent to Dr. Jeff Shih (Dean’s Advisory Council Chair; jshih@unlv.nevada.edu) or Dr. Danica Hays (Interim Dean; Danica.hays@unlv.edu).