Provost's Post

WCU’s Knauer Art Gallery Presents Reflections of New Sweden January 20 – February 22

Exhibition Explores Swedish and Finnish Culture along the Delaware River: Opening Reception on Thursday, January 22

From January 20 through February 22, West Chester University will present Reflections of New Sweden: Swedish and Finnish Culture along the Delaware, a special exhibition celebrating nearly four centuries of cultural heritage and community building along the Delaware River. The exhibition is FREE and open to the public in the Knauer Art Gallery at West Chester University, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, 817 S. High Street, West Chester. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact the Department of Art + Design at 610.436.2872 or email artinfo@wcupa.edu. An artist talk and opening reception will take place on Thursday, January 22, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Knauer Gallery and the Ware Recital Hall.

Reflections of New Sweden traces the story of the Swedish and Finnish settlers who arrived along the Delaware River in 1638 as part of the Swedish Empire’s colony known as New Sweden. Established to develop forts and trading posts during the height of the beaver trade, New Sweden became the first permanent settlement in Pennsylvania. Between 1638 and 1655, twelve expeditions arrived, and by the time William Penn landed in 1682, the region was home to Dutch, Swedes, Finns, and Algonquian (Lenape) peoples living along the river’s banks.

The exhibition features five thematic sections: The Journey to a New World; Early Forts and Settlements; Churches and Communities; Uncovering the Past; and Celebrating Today. Together, these sections highlight both the historical foundations and the living cultural traditions that continue to shape the Delaware Valley.

Curator and West Chester University Professor Juliet Wunsch emphasizes the contemporary relevance of the exhibition.

“This exhibit explores an often overlooked thread in America's tapestry.  It introduces the experience of settlement, community building, and lasting impact on national identity, inviting attendees to engage in community beyond the exhibit walls.  It is a fun and educational journey for all ages," says Wunsch.

(Courtesy of WCU Communications & Marketing)

WCU Hosts Spring Job & Internship Fair February 25

The Job & Internship Fair is coming up on Wednesday, February 25th from 12pm-4pm in the Student Rec Center.  Faculty who are interested in turning their encouragement of students attending into a meaningful assignment tied to learning outcomes are invited to access the Career Fair Preparation assignment under the Career Event Prep and Reflection section (click button below).  Together, let's make sure students are prepared to engage in a productive professional experience!

CAREER DEVELOPMENT GRAB-AND-GO

West Chester University Receives 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification 

West Chester University has been selected to receive the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a national designation that recognizes institutions for their commitment to community engagement and partnerships.

The 2026 classification was announced by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which jointly administer the elective designation. In this cycle, 237 colleges and universities nationwide earned the classification following a comprehensive self-study and review process.

The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification is the nation’s leading framework for assessing and recognizing community engagement in higher education. Institutions must document how community engagement is embedded across teaching, research and service, and how those efforts are mutually beneficial to both the University and its community partners.

WCU’s application was submitted in April 2025 and represented more than a year of coordinated work across campus.

“This designation belongs to the entire West Chester University community,” said Dr. Rita Patel Eng, senior director of the Center for Community Engagement and Social Impact (CCESI). “I am incredibly thankful for the faculty, staff, and community partners who took the time to share their work, their data, and their stories. This application touched nearly every area of the University, and it would not have been possible without the collective commitment to community engagement that defines WCU.”  

Patel Eng served as lead for the application and worked closely with a University committee that met regularly from November 2023 through April 2025 to collect, draft, and refine the submission materials. Other WCU committee members included: 

• Dr. Sara Hinkle, Assistant Vice President, Student
• Dr. Julie Dietrich, Executive Director for External Relations, Office of External Relations
• Helen Hammerschmidt, Associate Vice President for Communications, Operations, and Strategy, Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost
• Dr. Elizabeth Munz, Professor, Department of Communication and Media
•  Dr. Tina Chiarelli-Helminiak, Professor, Graduate Social Work Department and Faculty Associate for CCESI.

Since WCU’s previous reclassification process in 2019, the University has expanded its academic and curricular commitment to community engagement. Twenty-three academic departments have added Community Engaged Learning (CEL) courses to their catalogs, which increased the percentage of departments with CEL offerings by 44 percent. 

The Carnegie Foundation noted that institutions receiving the 2026 classification exemplify higher education’s role in fostering civic engagement, building usable knowledge, and creating real-world learning experiences for students.

(Courtesy of WCU Communications & Marketing)

WCU’s Center for STEM Inclusion Secures Record-Setting $10.26 Million Grant From U.S. Department of Education

Dr. Brandon Mitchell, professor of physics and engineering who helped establish and currently leads West Chester University’s Center for STEM Inclusion, is pictured working with high school students in a recent workshop held on campus to introduce the youth to career fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

West Chester University’s (WCU) Center for STEM Inclusion has been awarded a $10.26-million federal GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) grant from the U.S. Department of Education, launching a transformative seven-year initiative to support 1,833 sixth- and seventh-grade students through their journeys to college completion. The grant is the largest secured in West Chester University’s history. In collaboration with its lead collaborator, the Young Men and Women in Charge (YMWIC) Foundation, Inc., along with the Coatesville, Chester, and William Penn School Districts, the project will provide comprehensive support beginning with current middle school students and continuing through their first year of college.
 
“This grant represents a significant investment in the future of our students and our communities,” says Dr. Brandon Mitchell, professor of physics and engineering who helped establish and currently leads the University’s Center for STEM Inclusion. “We are committed to creating pathways to higher education success for every student we serve. Working with our partners, we will provide the guidance, resources, and support these students need to realize their full potential.”

By engaging students early in their academic careers and maintaining support throughout their educational journeys, the project aims to create lasting change in college access and completion rates through four primary goals:
 
·      Strengthening Academic Achievement: Enhancing academic performance and college readiness from middle school through high school graduation and college enrollment
·      Boosting Graduation Rates: Increasing both high school and postsecondary completion rates among participating students
·      Expanding Knowledge: Improving student and family understanding of college options, preparation requirements, and financial aid opportunities
·      Building Essential Skills: Developing the competencies, mindsets, and behaviors students need to thrive in college environments
 
The program establishes measurable objectives designed to drive student success, including improved attendance rates, accelerated mathematics achievement with more students completing Algebra I by ninth grade, higher academic performance across all subjects, and enhanced grade-to-grade progression. In addition, students and families will gain critical knowledge about navigating the college application and enrollment process.
 
The project draws strength from a robust network of community partners, including the DaVinci Center, Deloitte, Bentley Systems, the Justamere Foundation, and additional organizations committed to student success.
 
“I am deeply proud of the dedication shown to our Commonwealth’s students by our Center for STEM Inclusion and all of our community partners,” said West Chester University President Dr. Laurie Bernotsky. “Through our Center for STEM Inclusion’s partnership with the YMWIC Foundation and the Coatesville, Chester, and William Penn School Districts, we’re working together to build pathways that transform potential into achievement. This seven-year journey is about ensuring that each sixth and seventh grader we serve today becomes a college graduate tomorrow. We are grateful that the Department of Education recognizes this commitment.”

(Courtesy of WCU Department of Communications & Marketing)

Digital Accessibility: What you need to know

West Chester University is working together to meet new federal accessibility requirements by April 24, 2026, ensuring that all web content, mobile apps, and digital materials align with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. The Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance is leading a Web Accessibility Task Force (WATF) made up of staff from TLC, OEA, Web, and IS&T. Starting in Fall 2025, the task force began offering training and resources to help the campus community make digital content more inclusive and accessible. These resources can be found on the Website and Digital Accessibility resource page.  Click the button below.

 As Golden Rams, we must all work together to make sure nobody is left out. One Herd, All Access.

This is a campus-wide initiative, and everyone who creates digital content plays an important role. Simple steps like using accessible templates, adding alt text to images, and ensuring video captions are accurate can have a big impact.  

We’re all in this together! Stay tuned for more updates and ways to get involved as we move forward with this important work. 

WEBSITE AND DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY RESOURCES

West Chester University Celebrates Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Week-Long Campus Commemoration Events

The commemoration began Wednesday, Jan. 21, with a student-centered kickoff event designed to engage student leaders and aspiring leaders.  On Thursday, Jan. 22, WCU's Division for Access, Compliance, and Engagement and the Center for Community Engagement and Social Impact hosted the annual MLK Day of Service, featuring a toy cleaning and inspection project for toys from the St. Agnes Day Room.  The Society of WCU hosted its Annual MLK Awards Ceremony and Reception on Friday, January 23 in Sykes Ballroom. The ceremony recognized recipients of the Drum Major for Justice, Larry Dowdy Community Service, and Outstanding Student Organization Service awards. The commemoration continued with Movie Monday on January 26, encouraging the campus community to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy through a curated list of films highlighting themes of equality, justice, and resilience.  The commemoration concluded on Tuesday, Jan. 27, with a virtual closing keynote address by Hill Harper, an award-winning actor, four-time New York Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, and nationally recognized youth advocate whose work spans film, television, public service, and social justice. 

(Courtesy of WCU Communications & Marketing)

FULL LIST OF MLK AWARDS

WCU Students Partner with Local Nonprofits to Address Food Insecurity Through Experiential Learning Course

During the Fall 2025 semester, West Chester University students took on the challenge of partnering with local food access nonprofits by creating communication deliverables designed to boost outreach, donations, and volunteer engagement. More than 50 students were enrolled in two sections of COM 333: Organizational Teams and Networks, taught by Assistant Professor Dr. Laura Brown in the Department of Communication and Media.

 Against the backdrop of the April 2025 cancellation of a $250,000 food order to the Chester County Food Bank, disruptions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and a government shutdown, the course provided students with a timely, real-world lens through which to examine the role of community networks in supporting food-insecure families and individuals.

"Working in teams, students created communication deliverables for local nonprofits," said Brown.  

“Students gained professional experience working with real clients, assessing their needs, clearly communicating their skill set as a team, and keeping their commitments to their clients. They learned the importance of follow-up and of multi-channel communication; and that sometimes a phone call is much more effective than an email,” she adds. 

Partner organizations included Berwyn United Methodist Food Pantry, The Care Center Foundation, Lord’s Pantry of Downingtown, Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels of Chester County, Paoli Presbyterian Food Cupboard, Phoenixville Area Community Services, St. Agnes Dorothy Day Center, and Wayne Cares. Student deliverables ranged from short-form videos for social media and flyers posted across campus to solicit volunteers, to digital Canvas announcements promoting nonprofit events and large hand-painted posters used for community outreach.

Meals on Wheels of Chester County recently featured the students and their work in its organizational newsletter, highlighting the collaboration and thanking students for their role in organizing a Dine & Donate event at PJ Whelihan’s in West Chester.

This Spring, Brown teaches COM 214: Relational Communication & MDC 250: Intercultural Communication.

(Courtesy of WCU Communications & Marketing)

Empowering Futures Through Inclusion: The D-CAP Internship Program at Fitness Factory WC

Watch 6ABC Coverage of D-Cap's Fitness Factory Internship Program

2026 RECAP Conference Calls for Proposals Due February 6

Save the date for West Chester University’s RECAP 2026 Conference on Thursday, May 14, 2026. CALL FOR PROPOSALS (due Friday, February 6, 2026)

This year’s theme, Designing the Possible: Inclusive, Insight‑Driven, Immersive invites higher education professionals to share concrete practices that ensure belonging by design, leverage learning data responsibly, and thoughtfully engaging with immersive and AI-enhanced experiences through structured, evidence-based approaches.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RECAP 2026

TLC Professional Development Spring Programs

The Teaching & Learning Center is pleased to invite you to participate in a variety of professional development opportunities this semester. These programs are designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and reflection across our faculty community.

Please consider registering for any of the following initiatives.  To learn more and register for any of these opportunities, visit TLC's Professional Learning Communities webpage or click the button below.

• CELT Book Club: Engage in thoughtful discussions inspired by Joy-Centered Pedagogy in Higher Education: Uplifting Teaching and Learning for All. 
• Teaching Triangles: Participate in peer observation and reflection program to enhance your teaching practice. 
• Teaching Circle - Generative AI: Focus on integrating (or not integrating) generative artificial intelligence into our instructional practices.
• Teaching Circle - Active Reading and Social Annotation with Hypothesis: Explore and implement Hypothesis, a social annotation tool
• Teaching Circle - Creating Accessible Course Materials: Apply practical strategies for reviewing, remediating, and creating accessible digital content
• Teaching Circle - Classroom Conversations: Delve into how to structure, facilitate, and assess classroom conversations to spark student engagement
• Faculty Learning Community - Alternative Grading: Promotes and shares experiences and details of alternative grading possibilities 
• Faculty Learning Community - Academic Freedom: Discuss strategies and actions to take to better understand, nourish, and promote academic freedom

professional LEARNING COMMUNITIES 

Allyship in Recovery: Becoming Recovery-Informed

Trainings are being offered this spring for faculty, staff, and students in how to support students in recovery and what it means to be a recovery-informed ally.  To register, visit Wellness Promotion's RamConnect page or click on the button below.

Register for Recovery-Informed Training

How to Submit Your Event to Online Campus Calendar

The WCU Calendar is populated by events submitted in 25Live, WCU's room reservation and calendaring program. Faculty/Staff may submit events to the calendar by selecting "WCU Featured Events Calendar" in the "Resources" section of the 25Live Event Form.

WCU Event Calendar How to Submit your event to wcu calendar

TLC Resources for Faculty 

As a new resource to prepare a course for a new semester, the Teaching & Learning Center has developed a Course Set-Up Checklist that includes many useful links.

Course Set-Up Checklist 

AI continues to revolutionize teaching and learning. In recognition of the myriad ways that faculty may utilize AI in their courses, there is no university-wide policy on AI use in coursework. Instead, faculty should clearly articulate their own policies on AI use in their syllabi. Depending on your discipline, it may be worth specifying acceptable uses of AI on an assignment-by-assignment basis, so as to make sure students are clear on when and how they can use AI, it at all. 
The Teaching & Learning Center has a robust set of resources to assist in this area including example syllabus statements that reflect a variety of different perspectives and positions.

Artificial Intelligence Resource Page

The Academic Calendar is available on the Registrar's website.  The Spring 2026 Final Exam schedule is available at this link: Spring Final Exam Schedule .

Academic Calendar

FREE Campus Shuttle Transportation Available to Faculty, Staff, & Students

WCU Shuttles are free to WCU students, faculty, and staff and are a quick and easy way to travel around campus, West Chester Borough, or to the Exton Train Station.

An accessible bus containing a wheelchair lift is available for students and employees with permanent or temporary mobility issues. Details on how to access this service is available on the Accessible Transportation webpage.

On Campus Shuttles:
The University provides shuttle service between North and South Campus during the fall and spring semesters as well as limited service during the winter and summer sessions. The Gold Route runs daily from 7:15 a.m. - 2:15 a.m. on weekdays and from 10:00 a.m. - 2:15 a.m.  on weekends (during fall and spring semesters).  For more information on shuttle schedules, click the button below.

**Students using the shuttle service should be advised that it is impossible to provide timely transportation between North and South Campus within the standard 10-minute class break. Therefore, students should plan and develop class schedules that allow time to be transported between the two locations through the use of open class periods.**

Campus Shuttle Information

New! WCU Training Directory Launches

The WCU Training Directory serves as a centralized “storefront” for training opportunities across the university.  Users can search for trainings by name or keyword, or filter offerings by department to quickly find opportunities that meet their needs. While the directory brings these trainings together in one convenient location, it does not host the trainings themselves. Selecting a training title will direct users to the hosting department’s webpage, where the training is managed and delivered.

Trainings featured in the directory are designed to benefit a broad audience of faculty and staff and are not department-specific.

WCU Training Directory

Professional Headshots Available via Iris Photo Booth at Twardowski Career Development Center

Students, Faculty, and Staff now have access to the Iris Booth, a free professional photo booth located in the Career Development Center (Lawrence 225). Students, Faculty, and Staff can stop by anytime Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 4pm to get a photo taken, no appointment needed.

FAST Schedule & Offerings

Check out what IS&T has on tap for the semester! The Faculty and Staff Training (FAST) unit supports WCU faculty and staff in becoming proficient in various applications, in addition to providing best practices in trending platforms (e.g., OneDrive, D2L, RamCloud). Courses are designed to accommodate all levels of learning and allow users to build on acquired skills. Click below for the full schedule or take self-paced options.

FAST Schedule

FREE LinkedIn Learning Content Available to WCU Faculty, Staff and Students

LinkedIn Learning with Lynda.com content is an industry leader in online training, with a digital library of over 180,000 videos, covering a wide range of technical, business, software, and creative topics. West Chester University faculty, staff and currently enrolled students have unlimited access.

Access LinkedIn Learning

Sykes Student Union Launches 2026-2027 Advance Reservation Process

Sykes Student Union is eagerly planning the 2026-2027 Advance Reservation process. Advance Reservation is the process that Sykes Union and Student Activities implemented in 2022 to assist student organizations and university departments reserving space within Sykes Student Union for future events. The form will open on Monday, February 16, 2026, at 8:00 am – Friday, February 20, 2026, at 4:30 pm. To prepare, we invite you to review ⁠the FAQs on our website and note the tentative timeline below.  

This year, we're offering Drop-in Consultation Hours with our Assistant Directors! Speak with a member of the Sykes Student Union staff for personalized, one-on-one support in preparing your Advance Reservation form. 

• Monday, February 16 from 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM in Club 1871, SECC  
• Monday, February 16 from 5:00 PM- 7:00 PM in CSI, Sykes Student Union
• Wednesday, February 18 from 1:00 PM- 3:00 PM in CSI, Sykes Student Union 

The start of a new semester brings a fresh opportunity to support your exciting events and programs in Sykes Student Union and The Commons. We look forward to doing that together with you!