TIDES Institute

Across the nation, STEM faculty and administrators are confronting a rapidly shifting higher education landscape. Federal funding cuts have disrupted important ongoing research; strained fiscal, physical, and human resources; and challenged institutions to find new ways to sustain momentum. Yet even in this moment, one truth remains: This Ain’t Over. The work of transforming undergraduate STEM education must not pause—and the AAC&U TIDES Institute is here to help campus leaders move forward with clarity, strategy, and resolve.

What Is the TIDES Institute?

The AAC&U TIDES Institute is a four-day intensive program designed to build the capacity of STEM faculty and administrators (individuals and/or teams) to navigate the complexities of institutional change. Through expert-led sessions, reflective practices, and personalized institutional coaching, participants engage in root cause analyses of institutional drivers of change—policies, quantitative and qualitative data, longstanding traditions, and deeply held beliefs and attitudes. Participants will leave this institute with actionable strategies to strengthen pedagogy, improve departmental environment, and drive systemic change—even during this period of financial uncertainty. Time at this institute will blend intensive learning with hands-on application. Participants will

• learn from organizational change experts through thought-provoking presentations;
• engage in reflective practice to uncover blind spots and new possibilities for action;
• participate in experiential learning activities that generate ideation and foster creativity; and
• work with institution coaches, colleagues, and peers to identify actionable levers of institutional change that can be mobilized with existing resources.

Why Now?

In times of contraction, our instinct may be to scale back. But transformation rarely emerges from retreat. The TIDES Institute is built on the belief that STEM reform must continue—creatively, strategically, and collaboratively. This experience offers participants not only the tools to navigate the present moment, but the inspiration and confidence to do so with purpose.

Federal funding constraints may have changed the landscape, but they do not define the future of undergraduate STEM education. Only we do. At TIDES.

Who Should Attend

This institute is ideal for

• faculty from STEM and non-STEM disciplines;
• STEM education researchers;
• senior and mid-level administrators charged with implementing campus change initiatives;
• institutions experiencing programmatic or funding disruptions;
• prior TIDES Institute participants seeking to expand their capacity for driving institutional change even further.

Whether you have participated in a TIDES Institute before or not, this professional development experience offers the structure, expertise, and support to help you and your colleagues move from fatigued to energized, and from uncertainty to action!

What Participants Gain

During the TIDES Institute, participants—whether attending as teams or individuals—can expect

• an expert-guided, intensive review of the literature that conceptualizes and explains organizational change theories and interrogates basic assumptions about what works in STEM, how it works, for whom, and under what conditions it works best;
• institutional assessment and review;
• deep immersion into self-reflection through mindfulness practice;
• structured discourse that examines and illuminates the ways in which the culture of STEM can be transformed;
• one-on-one and small-group institutional coaching to identify and explore blind spots, design appropriate strategies for eliminating them, and establish systems of accountability needed to continuously manage them; and
• access to a community of peers equally committed to advancing undergraduate STEM reform despite external pressures.

Beyond the Institute

By joining the TIDES Institute, participants become part of a national network of reformers and change agents dedicated to transforming undergraduate STEM education. Don’t miss your chance to deepen your professional skills and help your campus leave a lasting impact on the future of STEM higher education.