What does Academic Strategy & Affairs do?
Welcome to Academic Strategy & Affairs, where we’re dedicated to enhancing student and faculty success through innovative programs and services and collaborative efforts across the University.
Academic Strategy & Affairs’ main responsibilities include:
- Overseeing Enrollment Management and modernizing processes in admissions, financial aid, registration, transcription, and visa processing.
- Providing centralized support for effective teaching practices and learning technologies that support classroom-based and online instruction.
- Guiding strategic efforts on behalf of the UW – provost priority initiatives, UW involvement in regional and national bodies, and University accreditation.
This work includes promoting collaboration with colleagues across the University to catalyze and organize efforts. In addition, ASA contributes to advancement efforts that support student access and success.
Teaching, Learning and Technology
Three units in ASA ignite teaching excellence across modalities on all three campuses with resources, training, tools, support, and improvement initiatives. From state-of-the-art classroom technologies to evidence-based pedagogy, we’re shaping the future of education.
These three units are
Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL): responsible for creating programs and resources that promote teaching excellence among faculty, post-docs, graduate students and staff in instructional roles.
Academic Technologies: responsible for the design and integration of classroom technologies, providing support for instructional technologies, and managing event venues.
Strategic Initiatives: responsible for supporting provost- and vice provost-level UW-wide initiatives focused on improving instructional quality and access.
- Advanced the provost’s Future of Teaching & Learning (FOTL) initiative to update the UW’s definition of teaching excellence.
- Launched Teaching@UW, a single online resource for instructors on all three campuses to support learner-centered and reflective teaching practices. The tri-campus team that developed the site was nominated for a Distinguished Staff Award for their collaboration.
- Improved classroom technology and accessibility in over 120 general assignment classrooms, reduced wait times for accessible classroom furniture from two weeks to same day and preemptively deployed ADA furniture as aligned with the Diversity Blueprint.
Strategic Efforts & Initiatives
As stewards of progress, ASA champions student access, instructional quality, and curricular innovations. Three units collaborate across diverse groups to direct a portfolio of initiatives and special projects on behalf of the provost and president, establishing partnerships and developing teams.
Types of initiatives ASA leads or plays a central role in:
- Student access, student success, and student experience-related efforts
- Instructional quality and instructional support-related efforts
- Curricular and academic innovations or evolutions-related efforts
- Faculty governance led work regarding policy or guidelines-related efforts
- Academic technology-related efforts to ensure tools meet academic needs
- Continuous improvements and modernization of operations and services
Three units in ASA support strategic efforts
Strategic Initiatives: responsible for managing and supporting provost- and vice provost-led initiatives and efforts, ensuring results and promoting change.
Accreditation: responsible for ensuring the UW is successfully recognized for its performance, integrity and quality by regional accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).
ASA Information Services: responsible for developing and implementing IT services and workflows to create efficiency and modernize business processes.
- Established and led a working group to address the challenges of aligning capacity in academic programs with student demand, launched in response to provost prioritization of an issue raised by the FOTL Access working group.
- Worked with colleagues in Student Life to launch the Disability Resource for Students faculty advisory council.
- Organized a successful site visit by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), UW’s regional accrediting body.
- Improved information technology services available to ASA and partner units Health Sciences Services, Environmental Health & Safety, Hall Health, and the Office of Planning and Budgeting.