From Competitive Exclusion to Cooperative Inclusion: Systemic change and HHMI Inclusive Excellence 3.0

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) established the Inclusive Excellence (IE) program to create higher education communities engaged in the continuing process of increasing the inclusion of all students, particularly first-generation students, 2-year transfer students, and students from groups underrepresented in science. Competitive grant proposals were solicited from four-year institutions in 2017 and 2018, from which 24 institutions and 33 institutions, respectively, were selected to form the IE 1.0 and IE 2.0 cohorts.

In January 2020, competitive proposals were again accepted with the intention of developing the IE 3.0 cohort, informed by the successes and struggles of IE 1.0 and 2.0. Proposers were instructed to focus on one of three Challenges:
1) The introductory science experience
2) Meaningful evaluation of effective and inclusive teaching.
3) Effective partnerships between 2- and 4-year institutions.

During the IE 3.0 proposal review period, the COVID-19 shutdown occurred, and racial justice protests spread nationwide, leading HHMI to reevaluate its Inclusive Excellence imperative juxtaposed against an exclusionary model of competitive funding. In response, HHMI invited a group of IE 3.0 applicants to participate in multi-institution learning communities. 104 institutions accepted this offer and were arranged into seven Learning Community Clusters (LCCs), each consisting of 14 to 16 four-year institutions (and partners, as applicable). Each LCC has gone through an 18-month development and planning period and is now embarking on a 6-year grant period, with a budget of $8.7 million dollars awarded to the LCC (rather than to individual institutions).

This workshop will examine the development and planning of each LCC with reflections on their initial information sharing and co-learning, development of organizational structure, leadership and communications, decision-making processes and budget negotiations. We will reflect on commonalities and differences in our developmental processes.