Priorities:University of Notre Dame Student Priorities

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Overview

The first cohort of University Innovation Fellows from Notre Dame are completing the program at an opportune time shortly after the University announced a long-term plan to expand to the West Coast and Silicon Valley. Current Dean of the College of Science, Dr. Gregory Crawford, will be leading this initiative, which includes increasing California resident enrollment at Notre Dame, providing additional opportunities for internships and co-ops with start-ups in Silicon Valley, and enhancing Notre Dame's innovation culture to name a few. The following ideas reflect campus needs as identified through student, faculty, and administrator interviews and surveys. 

Council for Academic Leadership & Innovation (CALI)

The Council for Academic Leadership & Innovation (CALI) is a collaborative effort among students and faculty from all four Colleges at the University of Notre Dame. The council will represent departments and major clubs & organizations with students and dedicated faculty members. Representatives will work at the departmental, college, and university levels to encourage the wealth of acamedic opportunities on campus. CALI's long-term mission is to promote a campus culture of innovation as Notre Dame prepares to expand to the West Coast and Silicon Valley. In the short term, goals include creating a platform for communicaton, making the new Entrepreneurship Minor accessible to students from all colleges, and breaking down barriers to an interdisciplinary education. In accord with these goals, CALI will be housed in the Office of the Provost so as not to favor any one college over the others. If the acronym "CALI" brought to mind a culture of innovation and forward thinking, then you already have a sense of the purpose of this leadership structure.

Problem Addressed

Surveys of students and meetings with dozens of faculty and administrators throughout the UIF training made two things very clear to us: (1) We have many opportunities and resources dedicated to I&E, and (2) Few students and faculty outside the College of Business know about them or have access to them. CALI addresses the bigger picture of a "status-quo" campus culture beginning with improved communication and collaboration. At the end of the day, all students should have access to I&E resources. By housing CALI in the Office of the Provost, we will simultaneously promote collaboration and break down the barriers we have identified.

Implementation

CALI will be strategically implemented so as to include all appropriate representation and allow for input from all Colleges. To encourage active participation by students and faculty alike, meetings will be arranged with the Deans of all four colleges to receive nominations for students and faculty. Students must be able to provide the day-to-day enthusiasm and work ethic, and faculty must promote collaboration and offer the continuity that can lack when students enter the council and then graduate 1-2 years later. This 20-25 person council will construct by-laws and a mission statement as a unified group before beginning projects. Small steps will be taken to promote the collaborative effort such as to involve equal numbers of students from each college and to meet at neutral locations that do not imply control by one college or another.

Future Direction

The UIF surveys indicated that only about 10% of students on campus are "very enthusiatic" about I&E as compared to 50% who would prefer to pursue traditional internships (Wall Street, Corporate Finance, Research, etc...) and 40% who are open to I&E opportunities but also plan to follow a traditional path. In conjunction with Notre Dame's expansion to the West Coast, the long-term goal of CALI is to increase student interest in I&E. Though CALI must first establish a sustainable leadership model, efforts will be made in three primary areas over the next three years:

1. Communication among colleges and organizations 
2. Collaboration to provide students with tangibles such as an Entrepreneurship Minor available to all Colleges and internships and co-ops with start-ups
3. Curriculum and cost structure changes to promote interdisciplinary education for all students 

Entrepreneurship Minor

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We would like to work with other students and our administration to expand the current Entrepreneurship Minor to be accessible to students of each College: Business, Science, Arts and Letters, and Engineering. This minor will offer classes in entrepreneurship, innovation, and design thinking. It will also create infrastructure to disseminate information regarding entrepeneurship/innovative activities, clubs and programs. Participation in the minor will make candidates for internships or jobs more attractive with the development of skills in creative and design thinking.

Problem Addressed

Entrepreneurial and innovative thinking are not unique to a business education and as such resources to develop these skills should not be limited to business students. Currently on campus, we have a deficiency of non-business entrepreneurial courses/activities in combination with little to no availability for non-business students to take a business course. This results in students being pushed away or shut out of developing skills important to many career paths. Further, for those students that wish to pursue these entrepreneurial activities, it would have to be on an extracurricular basis. As busy as students are with their own courseload and often College-specific extracurricular activities, it is hard to find time and effort to participate in entrepreneurial activities. Allowing students to earn a minor will provide greater incentive to put in the extra time to develop the skills.

Implementation

In order to implement this idea, we must overcome the barriers of revenue and communication. First, revenue is tied to each business student in a business class while there is none tied to a non-business student. And second, there are high walls erected between each College, preventing communication and collaboration. In order to solve both of these issues, we propose housing the Entrepreneurship Minor under the umbrella of the Provost's Office. The current Dean of the College of Science, Dr. Gregory Crawford, is in a transition to becoming an Associate Provost with an interest in Entrepreneurship tied to Silicon Valley. Using this connection, we hope to work with Dean Crawford to prevent the minor from being housed under one of the four Colleges. By doing this, revenue will not be tied down and there will be a central form of communication. To further ensure continued conversation, we also hope to enact a formalized leadership structure that encompasses students and faculty among each College. This idea is addressed above. In terms of creating the body of the Entrepreneurship Minor, we hope to utilize what has already been established and if needed, add other courses or workshops that have a greater focus on non-business subjects. This will allow the minor to truly be open to all disciplines.

Future Direction

Before implementing this big idea, we need to make sure that the supporting structures are already in place. To do this, we will work closely with Dean Crawford and the deans of the other Colleges in order to develop a leadership framework. With this framework in place, we can work with the current Entrepreneurship Minor's administration to expand it to cover all four colleges. Then, we will work with our peers and faculty to integrate this minor into other Colleges by shaping current courses or programs to fit into entrepreneurial/innovative thinking. Finally and if needed, we will develop new courses and programs that may address entrepreneurship or innovation from a different lens that may appeal more to the students and faculty of each College.

miNDspace

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We will transform or create a series of innovation spaces across campus, uniquely catering to students from all Colleges and Departments. The “mission” of these spaces will be promoted through a miNDspace board(s), on which will be posted a new real-world problem every month. Students will be able to come, think, and post their creative solutions. At the end of every month, we will compile all of the postings to a website so all of campus can be inspired by the brilliance of their peers.

Problem Addressed

This initiative seeks to inspire an overall culture of innovation on campus, promote unity and collaboration between Colleges, and address the lack of innovation spaces open to and utilized by students of all majors.

Implementation

After deciding on the most effective locations and gathering feedback on exactly what resources students of each discipline need and want, we will seek to implement this program by focusing on the following goals:

1. Introduce all students to the concept of an “innovation space” and how it is relevant to them
2. At least one commonly utilized innovation space per College or discipline
3. Inspired new ideas and conversations between students about real-world problems

Future Direction

With the beginning of this endeavor, our main hope is to have more students exposed to and comfortable with the idea of innovation as it applies to their own ambitions. More concrete future goals we have for the first year include: Repeated successful miNDspace board postings, a monitored increase in student utilization of at least 1 innovation space, and initial positive feedback about miNDspace initiative as a whole.

Over the next several years, we hope to see this project contribute to the emergence of an innovation culture at Notre Dame, with more progressive creative thinking expected from students in all fields. Within three years, we hope that the student body will embrace the miNDspace board postings and grow to appreciate the challenge of design thinking and problem solving that these posts present. Finally, we hope that common use of several innovation spaces will be integrated into the daily lives and work of students here.

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