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The Student Experience

Revamp existing or develop new current student policies, practices, and programs to ensure every student has access to resources and opportunities to help them feel connected, supported, and to thrive.

Return to D&I Strategic Priority Areas

Student Onboarding

Years 1-4

Assess and enhance student policies and programs to ensure the diverse needs of students are met when joining the Thayer community.

  • Outcomes
    • The onboarding process is formalized, streamlined, and more accessible for all graduate and dual-degree students, including online students.
    • Incorporate diversity and inclusion in the onboarding program.
    • Students are aware of benefits, know where to find resources, go for help, and feel at ease asking for help.
    • Support and resources around being a successful graduate student, navigating Thayer, and navigating the Upper Valley.
    • Continued advocacy for students' needs to ensure successful transition to Dartmouth and the Upper Valley, for example, concerning relocation benefits, housing, and transportation.

  • Actions
    • Engage current students in the improvement of the onboarding program, for example, consider developing an orientation program that expands throughout the entire first year and/or additional programming for international students.
    • Evaluate all student orientation materials, checklists, and forms to ensure program requirements are clear and readily accessible.
    • Evaluate and better leverage campus resources to ensure students are well informed and supported, for example, health services, wellness, IDE, Title IX, Guarini, Ovis, and outdoor programs.
    • Review the grad student handbook, processes, and guides for clarity.
    • Improve grad student advising.
    • Improve information and access to information about living and working in the Upper Valley for graduate students.

  • Metrics
    • Students' awareness of available benefits, resources, and support services, measured via survey.
    • Participant feedback and evaluation of experience.

Student Mentorship

Years 2–4

Evaluate, build on and support student mentorship programs to provide consistent access to resources.

  • Outcomes
    • Enhanced student-to-student as well as student-to-faculty connections.
    • Consistent quality of faculty advising and mentoring.
    • A culture of mentoring, coaching, and feedback.

  • Actions
    • Design mentorship training that includes best practices, tools, programmatic resources, and roles and responsibilities to ensure quality mentorship experiences. Consider the needs of Dual Degree Students and remote Master's of Engineering students.
    • Assess and identify needs and resources for different student groups in relation to mentorship (across identity groups, backgrounds, abilities, and degree programs).
    • Evaluate existing mentoring programs and combine, sunset, enhance, or make known to build a formal student mentorship program framework and process. Create mentorship events throughout the year to engage cohorts.
    • Explore different types of mentorship or advocacy, such as student-student, student-faculty, student-staff, and student-alum (eg. Dean's Council Mentorship Program).
    • Provide development support for faculty to build knowledge, experience, and engagement with students who represent a full spectrum of diversity.​
    • Establish a tracking system that includes feedback processes to evaluate mentoring processes and participant experience and identify training needs.

  • Metrics
    • Mentoring program representation by role, race/ethnicity, gender, and other indices, as needed.
    • Participant feedback and evaluation of experience.
    • Retention rates of program participants.

Supporting all Students

Years 2–4

Strengthen and expand existing initiatives to support students from all identity groups, backgrounds, and abilities in pursuing an engineering degree at all levels.

  • Outcomes
    • Increased sense of belonging for students from all identity groups and backgrounds.
    • Online MEng students feel connected to each other and the existing Thayer Community.
    • Improved and more equitable experiences for students of all identities, backgrounds, and abilities.
    • Strong retention rate of incoming undergraduates who express interest in engineering and graduate engineering students at consistent rates across all groups.

  • Actions
    • Develop an engagement and success program for online MEng students.
    • Identify and address barriers to student success.
    • Explore developing an academic support program for graduate students, including a potential bridge program.
    • Identify ways to encourage student engagement with advising, mentoring, and career services throughout the student's journey at Thayer.
    • Develop creative ways of sharing highlights with students (ie. screen in classrooms automatically showing updates and reminders before the start of class. Slack Channel for cohorts, Thayer School Communications, in student housing, IG stories, and social media).
    • Develop alternate pathways into the undergraduate engineering program to reduce barriers based on foundational preparation.
    • Consider a "trial graduate fellowship" that allows students to try on what it is like to be a graduate student.
    • Consider a graduate course on research methodology and writing for scientific publication.
    • Increase awareness of and access to mental health services for students, with an emphasis on graduate and professional students.

  • Metrics
    • Improved rates of satisfaction/engagement year-over-year.
    • Improved retention rate by group year-over-year, moving towards representative rates across the board.
    • Increased retention from introductory courses to upper-level courses.

Graduate Recruitment

Years 2–4

Expand graduate student recruitment practices to identify, attract, and increase participation of students representing a full spectrum of lived experiences, backgrounds, capabilities, cultures, perspectives, and other aspects of identity.

  • Outcomes
    • Diverse representation of graduate students across all identity groups, backgrounds, and abilities.
    • Expanded opportunity and reduced barriers in the application process.
    • Prospective students can see how student well-being, diversity, and inclusion are important parts of our culture.
    • A diverse applicant pool across all program areas.

  • Actions
    • Provide clear guidance around the application process on the website, for example, by providing a sample application package to ensure all students, regardless of background, understand the process.
    • Review and identify ways to highlight diversity and inclusion initiatives and student support resources for prospective students (for example, on the website and during recruitment events).
    • Engage Thayer Academic and Student Affairs to enhance recruitment strategies.
    • Identify opportunities to engage alumni in diversity- and inclusion-related recruitment efforts.
    • Collect and report on recruitment data insights for student recruiting efforts across demographics (ie. race/ethnicity, gender, disability, etc.) and identities (ie. first-generation college students, international students, graduate students, etc.).

  • Metrics
    • Increased diversity of the admissions pool and pipeline.
    • Increased diversity of Thayer’s graduate student community.
    • Improved rates of satisfaction/engagement in Pulse Survey results year-over-year.

Inclusive Teaching & Research

Years 3–4

Establish expectations and equip faculty with tools and best practices to incorporate diversity and inclusive teaching practices in courses and curricula.

  • Outcomes
    • Faculty have increased awareness around student barriers to success.
    • Faculty are supported in incorporating inclusive teaching practices.
    • Feedback on inclusive teaching practices is integrated into teaching evaluations.
    • Evaluation of inclusive teaching efforts is integrated into the review and promotion process
    • Diversity and inclusive practices are integrated into the graduate curriculum.

  • Actions
    • Leveraging DCAL, identify, regularly update, and share (Communications) best practices for inclusive teaching.
    • Leveraging DCAL, train and support faculty and instructional staff in adopting inclusive teaching practices.
    • Review all questions on course evaluations for bias and incorporate inclusive teaching as an additional feedback point.
    • Incorporate assessment of inclusive teaching practices in course approvals and syllabi review.
    • Develop/explore new approaches to integrating diversity in all its forms, inclusion, ethics, and/or social responsibility into the graduate curriculum.
    • Consider mini-grants to faculty to enhance their knowledge of incorporating diversity and inclusion into the coursework and classroom structure to create a more inclusive and welcoming learning environment for all students (ie. diverse case studies, classroom community agreements, evidence of application of inclusive teaching pedagogy and methodology, etc.).
    • Discuss best practices around student attendance policies with faculty to foster inclusive practices for students with disabilities.
    • Develop templates for guidelines, rubrics, and expectations for roles and responsibilities for group projects to share with faculty and instructional staff.

  • Metrics
    • Faculty attendance at diversity and inclusion educational workshops and events.
    • Student feedback in teaching evaluations.
    • Teaching evaluation revamp completed.
    • Student exit surveys.