TerrapinSTRONG Annual Report 2022-23

Colleges and schools continued to experiment with and enhance their TerrapinSTRONG initiatives for new undergraduate students. Most of these opportunities take place during orientation (AGNR, ARHU, JOUR) at scheduled welcome events (ARCH, ARHU, CMNS, ENGR, SPHL) and/or in UNIV100-equivalent courses (AGNR, ARHU, BSOS, CMNS, ENGR).

Highlights include:

• Advising conversations: During the College of Arts & Humanities orientation, every student receives an engagement worksheet to continue their TerrapinSTRONG journey. Review of this worksheet is embedded in every mid-semester advising appointment as a guide for intentional, continued diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging (DEIJB) conversations.

• LEADing the way: The School of Engineering, as the birthplace of the initiative, has had the most time to hone their TerrapinSTRONG programming. In Fall 2022, ClarkLEAD had almost 100% attendance and maxed out their physical space. The program incorporates faculty and returning students to build a strong sense of connection and identity with the school.

• Connecting across: Letters & Sciences has the unique challenge of creating a sense of belonging for students who will ultimately move to another academic unit. As a result, they have developed partnerships with other academic units to include undeclared students in the TerrapinSTRONG initiatives of their future college. This allows students to feel connected to their eventual academic homes, at the same time that Letters & Sciences is helping them feel connected to the university at large.

• Alternate paths: The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences students participate in TerrapinSTRONG activities in UNIV100. However, many of their first-year students are in living-learning programs and not in these courses with the rest of the BSOS students. They offer academic workshops to reach these students and are still experimenting with the most successful structure. Transfer students are also missing out on these opportunities. To make sure transfer students are not left behind, they have developed a course for incoming transfer students that incorporates the values of TerrapinSTRONG in a curriculum of identity and career exploration.

Graduate students were a focus area for the TerrapinSTRONG office this year. Graduate students across the institution have expressed feelings of exclusion and a lack of support and connection in recent years. Many do not know the resources available to them or ways to navigate challenges they may face. Simultaneously, graduate students were the least likely group to complete the TerrapinSTRONG onboarding course, which offers many resources and could provide an initial sense of connection for graduate students. These concerns opened conversation about ways we can better onboard graduate students.

For many years, an ELMS-Canvas orientation has been the only consistent onboarding all graduate students receive. The quality of their onboarding experience is otherwise entirely up to the individual program. Also, students enrolled in very small programs have less opportunity to develop a wider support network than those in larger programs.

In an effort to communicate how much we value our graduate students and how much support is available to them, TerrapinSTRONG has partnered with Graduate Student Life to plan a New Graduate Student Welcome event that will take place in person on August 24, 2023. We are working with the Graduate School, Teaching & Learning Transformation Center (TLTC), and the Graduate Student Government (GSG) in an effort to make this a collaborative university-wide effort. The event will include workshops about topics of interest to graduate students, such as mental health, career planning and networking, as well as a resource fair. It will culminate in an official welcome from university and GSG leadership.

TerrapinSTRONG saw more exciting possibilities when graduate student organizations joined the Design for Belonging workshops to consider their role in the onboarding of new students. Student group representatives developed their own initiatives to contribute to a sense of belonging in their departments.

All colleges and schools should have TerrapinSTRONG onboarding initiatives for their graduate students for Fall 2023. Of those units with graduate student initiatives this past year, highlights include:

• All students together: The College of Architecture, Preservation & Planning holds a welcome for all graduate and undergraduate students together, which includes a welcome from the Dean and a design challenge in small groups.

• Values alignment: The Merrill College of Journalism holds an annual mixer for all graduate students and has incorporated a TerrapinSTRONG values activity. This event allows new students to meet current students and build connections through meaningful conversation.

• Share your identity: School of Public Health graduate students participate in TerrapinSTRONG activities during their orientation program. They participate in a personal identity exploration activity and then a story-share activity to deepen empathy and connection with others.

Many units engaged in climate & culture assessments, built committees, conducted searches, and engaged in strategic planning in the 2022-23 academic year. These efforts are providing excellent data to use as they continue to build out TerrapinSTRONG and DEIJB initiatives for their employees. As a result, some have already begun programming around well-being or built feedback mechanisms to help staff feel heard and understood. Others are still in the planning stages.

TerrapinSTRONG initiatives that did take place for employees this year largely consisted of opportunities for ongoing connection, mentorship, and check-in. Highlights include:

• 60-day check-ins: The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences implemented a 60-day check-in survey for every new employee that goes directly to central administrative staff. This allows them to tweak onboarding processes and conduct follow-up with new employees who are struggling to transition and integrate into the community.
• Welcome information: The Division of Information Technology provides a welcome packet of valuable information to every new employee and prioritizes an opportunity for each new employee to have individual time with the VP a few weeks after their start date. The University Libraries house onboarding information in a shared drive for new employees and host a semesterly meet & greet for new employees.
• Full-year support: The College of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation's TerrapinSTRONG representative meets regularly with new faculty throughout their entire first year on the job to provide support and mentorship.
• TerrapinSTRONG Symposium: The Office of Faculty Affairs and University Human Resources are planning the first annual TerrapinSTRONG symposium, tentatively set for November 1, 2023. The goals of the symposium are to share expertise across campus and to bridge the gap between research and practice in DEIJB. This year's theme will be belonging, focusing on the academic work of faculty, the initiatives staff are currently implementing, and opportunities to enhance both.
• Starting with values: The Division of Student Affairs has overhauled their new employee orientation to focus more on new employee experience and less on sharing basic resources and information. They hope to empower new employees by discussing topics such as a growth mindset, community, values alignment, and involvement. The new full-day orientation will be followed by six to eight workshops across the fall semester, keeping new employees connected and supported.
• Language & reflection: The Merrill College of Journalism starts with a TerrapinSTRONG online orientation. Faculty are asked to reflect on inclusive classrooms. Each semester, they provide an inclusive language workshop which is built from the values of TerrapinSTRONG.

TerrapinSTRONG representatives worked together on employee initiatives this year. We have held roundtables across the year to focus specifically on employee onboarding. We have developed common definitions, shared existing resources, and developed a checklist and Google sheet onboarding timeline template for units to use as they build more intentional onboarding programs. We are also beginning roundtable conversations among those units with a substantial number of remote employees, whether due to telework, travel, or satellite location. As we continue to identify new ways to engage new employees and help them feel connected, it is vital we give attention to these groups that often get left behind.

TerrapinSTRONG and University Human Resources are partnering for a major revamp of the New Employee Orientation (NEO). With the upcoming rollout of Workday, we have the exciting opportunity to change the way we welcome new employees. They will have access to Workday Learning and will have the opportunity to explore some of the topics currently covered in NEO before they even arrive, allowing more time for engagement.

The current NEO program has two different day one programs, an in-person version for members of the bargaining unit, and a Zoom version for everyone else. Our proposal would integrate these two different programs, bringing all new employees together in person for the first day of NEO. The proposed curriculum weaves the TerrapinSTRONG content into NEO, allowing all new employees the opportunity to engage in discussion and activities in person around the concepts captured in TerrapinSTRONG. It also promotes a broader sense of belonging and representation by promoting connection across functions and units, rather than separating based on collective bargaining. We also anticipate this change will bring a greater sense of welcome and belonging than the current structure for a number of reasons. The new NEO will:

• Demonstrate the importance of TerrapinSTRONG and increase the completion rate for new employees.

• Focus more heavily on welcome and connection.

• Provide opportunities for employees from all functional roles and areas of campus to engage with each other as peers.

• Give a more collegial, cohort feel to new employees by bringing them together physically.

• Increase opportunities for discussion and active engagement.

• Create space for new follow-up opportunities (currently NEO Day 1 and NEO Day 2, both virtual).

• Eliminate the need for separate in-person TerrapinSTRONG sessions for employees without computer workstations.

The plan is to transition the NEO program to its new format in January 2024 to accommodate for the delayed release of the Workday system, pending final approval from UHR leadership.

First three questions asked pre- and post-completion of TerrapinSTRONG. All averages increased from pre- to post-test.

• Less than 2% of undergraduates had a net negative change in response. 54% saw net positive change.
• Less than 5% of faculty had a net negative change in response. 60% saw net positive change.
• Less than 4% of graduate students had a net negative change in response. 61% saw net positive change.
• Less than 7% of staff had a net negative change in response. 56% saw net positive change.

This year, we also asked demographic questions to evaluate for any differential impact the course might be having on people from different identity groups. However, no statistically significant differences were found.

Participants were asked what resource shared in TerrapinSTRONG they found most valuable. The number one response for each population is listed below:

At the end of TerrapinSTRONG, participants are asked to select their top choice from each of the action plan categories: Community, Connection, and Inclusion. Below are the most commonly selected options for each community.

To see all action plans with all possible choices, visit the Take Action page on the TerrapinSTRONG website.

Each year, The Counseling Center administers the New Student Census to all new students. The survey asks the following question:

UMD values diversity & inclusion. Please describe concerns, if any, you have about the climate of diversity & inclusion at UMD.

The following open responses pointed to TerrapinSTRONG as a reason they are unconcerned:

• "Based on the Terrapin Strong canvas tutorial, I am pretty confident that UMD will be an inclusive environment for all students regardless of sex, ethnicity, or cultural background."

• "I did the terrapin strong modules and feel pretty confident in the university's commitment to inclusion (i.e., I have no concerns yet)."

• “No concerns, there is so much diversity, I know its a work in progress but I'm proud of Terrapin Strong ideals.”

• “After completing the terrapinSTRONG module, I am confident about UMDs ability to encourage a diverse and inclusive community and environment. I have no concerns in this regard.”

• “I don't have any real concerns about diversity and inclusion, especially after participating in the TerrapinStrong recource.”

• “It seems very inclusive, especially because of the terrapin strong modules everyone is required to complete before orientation.”

• “No concerns. I love the university's efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity, especially through programs like TerrapinSTRONG.”