University as a Design Problem is a course that challenges students to rethink the University as an institution, while posing the questions “What Makes Change Hard?” and “What Makes Change Possible?”
This course is a central feature of my LDT experience as I took the class in Spring 2021 and was a member of the teaching team Spring 2022. As a student, I investigated the challenges faced by teaching and learning centers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, while asking “What does transformational change in higher education look like within Teaching and Learning Centers?” To research this topic, I interviewed stakeholders at one large and one medium research institution and compared their experiences throughout the pandemic.Building upon my experiences as a student, I served as a Graduate Assistant (GA) on the teaching team the following semester. I worked with the teaching team to iterate on the course, building up to the creation of a co-created student website that included snippets from in-class interviews and analyses. This website is one of my proudest accomplishments and the final product can be seen here.
