Fall 2026 Students as Partners - Call for Faculty Participants
*NEW* For AY 26/27, the Center for Teaching & Learning is pleased to continue AND expand our Students as Partners program!
Our first expansion efforts are offering this program as a one-year opportunity! Over the past three years, we’ve structured this program as a one-semester opportunity. However, we’ve found that many of our participants have extended their partnerships through a one-year cycle. This change is mostly due to our student partners, who wanted to continue meeting with their partners and to see their perspectives being implemented.
In Fall 2026, faculty and undergraduate student partners will attend a seminar and engage with topics related to student-faculty partnerships, such as power dynamics, creating and contributing toward an inclusive partnership, navigating differences, and building empathy.
In Spring 2027, partners will work interdependently on a student-centered project. Examples of past projects can be found on the Students as Partners Portfolio webpage. We will be accepting up to six faculty members for the AY 26/27 cohort.
The call for faculty participation is open through August 17, 2026.
*New* Community Engaged, Experiential Learning Focus
The second expansion is a collaboration between the Office of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) and the CTL to support educators who are interested in creating community-engaged, experiential courses. This collaboration incorporates the complementary approaches of Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the Students as Partners (SAP) framework.
In fall 2026, faculty and student partners will attend a seminar and engage with topics related to student, faculty, and community partnerships, such as community-based, experiential learning, learning communities, and learning about and interacting with diverse cultures and practices.
In spring 2027, partners will work collaboratively on a student-centered project. The call for faculty participation is open through August 17, 2026.
What is Students as Partners?
Students as Partners is a collaborative pedagogical approach that pairs faculty and students to improve teaching and learning. Bovill, Cook-Sather and Felten define student-faculty partnership as a “reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not necessarily in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision-making, implementation, investigation, or analysis” (2014, p. 6-7).
In spring 2024, CTL (formerly ASSETT) launched its inaugural Students as Partners Pilot Program with four faculty members and four undergraduate students. Since then, the program has supported over 20 faculty and staff members and 15 undergraduate students. Through this two-semester partnership, pairs worked together to incorporate the student perspective into a course, assignment, or project design. Each pair determined how frequently they meet and what the expectations are for each meeting.
What is Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning?
Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) is a pedagogical approach with a “social change orientation, working to redistribute power, and developing authentic relationships”1. CETL values co-design through relationships of trust and reciprocity, equity-oriented partnerships, the valuation and inclusion of all partners’ knowledge and experience, and critical reflection to connect experience to learning. This approach involves high impact practices (HIPS) of collaborative projects, community-based learning, learning communities and learning about and interacting with diverse cultures and practices.
Program Compensation
All faculty participants receive a professional development non-cash stipend that can be used to support their projects, enhance their teaching practices, purchase academic technology, attend conferences, or compensate undergraduate students to provide their perspectives. Student partners will be compensated through the Students as Partners/CETL programs.
Program Commitment
During the fall semester, participants are expected to attend six meetings throughout the semester. During the spring session, partners will be expected to meet regularly, negotiate schedules, navigate conflicts, norms, and shared responsibility. Each individual will also commit to working independently on projects, such as contributing to project goals, doing research and reading as necessary, and preparing for partnership meetings.
Program Goals
The goals of this program are to:
- Improve teaching and learning through a shared partnership.
- Challenge deeply held beliefs about the traditional roles of teachers and learners.
- Provide spaces for equity-seeking and community-minded individuals to improve teaching and learning.
Interested faculty should be reassured that engaging students as partners does not cede power to students or invite them to tell them what they are doing wrong. Rather, it is a dialogic process where faculty (who are subject matter experts) and students (who are experts at being learners) work together interdependently, bringing their strengths to create a student-centric product.
No one partnership is the same, as the nature of each project differs from its objectives and outcomes. The Students as Partners framework encourages each project to have its own personality, objectives, and outcomes, with the goal of the final product being more student-focused.
Who Should Apply?
Ideal candidates have a desire to create an inclusive and equitable educational experience for their students, increase engagement in their classrooms, and engage with a diverse community of scholars. We also seek candidates who are interested in and committed to excellence in teaching and learning. If this is you (or who you want to be), we encourage you to apply here!
How to Apply?
To apply, complete the online application by August 17, 2026. Further details and instructions will be provided soon.
Questions about the Students as Partners program, the Community Engaged Partner Program, or the application process may be directed to Jacie Moriyama, CTL's Student Initiatives Program Manager.