ResEdChat Ep 76: Looking Ahead to ICA 2024 with Drs. LaFarin Meriwether & DeAndre Taylor

Dustin Ramsdell:
Welcome back everyone for another wonderful episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast. Every week we are featuring a variety of topics of interest to folks that work in higher education, in and with university housing, residence life, residential education, whatever you might call it. But this is a special episode. We did this last year. We thought we’d bring it back. We are approaching the Institute for the Curricular Approach, coming back again this year in October. We’re recording this a few months in advance just to kind of talk about the planning, what folks can expect, and just hopefully get folks inspired and looking forward to the event coming up here soon, it’s taking place in the greater Chicago area. It’s something to look forward to. But we’ll be talking more about that.
Before we get there, we’ll start as we always do, with each of our guests. We have the pleasure of two guests this episode, which is always cool. So quick introductions, professional backgrounds, LaFarin if you want to start, and then we’ll go to you, DeAndre. Just who you are and how you get to be where you are today.

LaFarin Meriwether:
Fantastic, thank you. So happy to be here. My name is Dr. LaFarin Meriwether, and my day job, I serve as the Associate Director for Residence Life at UNC Greensboro. I’ve been here for a little over five years.
Quick educational background for me, I did my undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky, did my master’s in business from the University of Cincinnati, and my PhD from Florida State University. So I’ve been all over a little bit, but mostly in the Southeast. Southeast is where I call home. And actively involved in association work. I like to give back to the profession that’s given so much to me. So I just recently finished a stint as the treasurer for SEAHO and I currently serve on the ACUHO-I Foundation Board. So, exciting work. And then of course I’m co-director for the Institute for Curricular Approach, so I’m so excited to chat with both of you today.

DeAndre Taylor:
Thank you for having me. I am Dr. DeAndre Taylor. I currently serve as the Director for Housing and Residence Life at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. I’ve been in higher ed for few decades now, and I enjoy everything about it, particularly in housing and residence life. I’m a true Midwesterner. I have spent time in the Midwest and in the west. I did my undergrad at UW La Crosse. I did my grad work at UW Oshkosh. And I spent a great amount of time out in Denver, out in the west. And I have my EDD from the University of Colorado, Denver. As LaFarin, Dr. Meriwether mentioned, I am also a co-chair for ICA, and I also serve as a chair for the Commission for Housing and Residential Life within ACPA.

Dustin Ramsdell:
Amazing. And I guess you’re all bringing different regional perspectives, I guess, from your backgrounds and everything, and certainly just storied careers coming together for this event. Like I said, coming up in October, the Institute for Curricular Approach, been around for a while, happening this year in the greater Chicago area.
We’ll stick with you DeAndre for this one. If you just want to tell us about the upcoming event, just sort of broad strokes, I guess, of what is being planned. I know we’re a few months out as we’re recording this, when it’ll be occurring. But yeah, curious what you can share, just structurally what this event is all about.

DeAndre Taylor:
Absolutely. And I think this is just a pivotal time for higher ed. And so one, again, thank you, Dustin, for having us, but ICA contributes to the change that is ever happening within higher education. And the Institute for the Curricular Approach, in my belief, in my opinion, is a catalyst for the change that we need. And so as we think about our participants, one thing that we’ve been truly thinking about for this ICA happening October 6th through the 9th in Chicago, the greater Chicagoland area, is really truly focusing on our participants. Now, we have not not focused on our participants in years past, but we’re refocusing and we’re re-centering. So within the past few years, we have curricularized the institute, so we have our educational priority, our learning goals, our learning outcomes for the institute, and that has allowed us to reestablish our foundation for ICA. And everything that ICA has stood on for nearly 20 years, we have reinforced that foundation.
And so when participants come here for ICA 24, our hope is that they’re going to feel that, where we’re refocusing on that practitioner-based experiences that our participants look for when they come to ICA. So we’re thinking about what is our approach to having our sessions, how are we making them more engaging, and how of course are we bringing in more diverse voices and perspectives into the institute this year?

Dustin Ramsdell:
Yeah. I mean, just as sort of an observer on what has been built over nearly 20 years, I think the curricular approach, and whether it’s in, I know it’s sort of expanded even just beyond that idea of residential curriculum, sort of just curricular approach for student affairs and everything is that idea of the acceptance of the importance of just this approach and methodology and everything. And at this point trying to find new ways to engage the community and bring in those diverse voices because it’s like, okay, we all understand what this is maybe broadly and why it’s important and those sort of things. So it is an interesting point of maturity, I assume, for the event as a whole and everything. But yeah, I mean, it is just I think an incredible thing to see that this is, the community is able to come together, I guess, to kind of talk shop on this really specific thing, which could feel like, I guess niche.
And it’s like, okay, maybe the odd session here or there at your APAs or NASPA’s or whatever else, but it’s almost like, no, it could stand alone because I think it’s such a rich topic area. And again, now sort of broadening to the entire student affairs world. Yeah, it’s just really good stuff. So I guess just before we move on, I guess much more deeply with the event itself, I’m curious, and we’ll start with you, LaFarin for this one. What inspired you to get involved in this sort of more leadership position in the event to help plan and facilitate it and everything? What inspired you to get involved?

LaFarin Meriwether:
Yeah, I think for me, I think it was just kind of a natural progression. I really believe in what we do in terms of creating intentional learning spaces for our students. And I think for anybody who works in any educational setting in particular in higher education, that’s the commitment that you’re making. You’re creating an environment where our students can be successful and definitely academically, but what does that look like with the co-curricular experience as well? Because folks have lots of questions about what this looks like alongside, especially when using the word curriculum with faculty who are like, what do you mean curriculum? But it’s just the same concept of sequence experiences that develop skills. And so I think for me, getting involved as a faculty member was the first step. I’d been doing it for a while, had been part of the process at my institution and had brought the idea there.
So being involved as a faculty member, I was like, this is awesome. And then the opportunity presented itself to be a part in terms of the leadership, and I thought that was great. We were heading into the next phase. People know about curricular approach. They know that it is effective and all of those things. And so what is the next evolution of the curriculum? So DeAndre talked about curricular rising the curriculum, really looking at what we have done and are we following our own formula. And I’m really happy to say that that’s what we’ve done. We’ve taken the time to also look at what we’ve done, which is a great example to our participants. Even we can look at the work we’ve done to make the changes necessary for folks to get out of the experience, what we intend.
And so to be a part of that shift, I think it came right on time in terms of where we are. And definitely right now, as we are entering different things on our campuses, it’s really important and vital for us to think about the voices that are informing our practice. And so I was excited to be a part of that new voice of the shift.

DeAndre Taylor:
I can’t recall what number, how many years I’ve been on faculty for ICA, but I’ll be transparent. I remember my supervisor introduced the idea to me, and I remember being of the residential curriculum, introducing that idea to me. I remember being in my first at the time, RCI, and saying to myself, what is this? Wait a second. I’m looking in that large room, that large gathering space, and colleagues from around the country are there, and I’m just looking there and I’ll be transparent, a big skeptical. And I said, you know what, Dee? Wait a second one. The institution has spent money for you to go there. So sit back, listen and learn. And I challenged myself to doing that, and I listened with open ears. And as I was listening to the elements of RCI, obviously we changed to ICA, and then the light bulb began to become brighter.
And I said, this makes sense. Because I’ve always said, students don’t come to our institutions to live in our wonderful residence halls. They come to our institutions to get a great education. So that inherently tells me we have to contribute to their academic experience. And the curricular is very important when our students are majoring in their respective majors. But also that co-curricular is also important because we think about the things that our students are learning outside the classroom. So I reflect back on my time in my first RCI and how in that moment, over the course of those few days I was bought into it. I said to myself, this can work. And so from there, I was committed to it because I saw it as a true catalyst for that change for higher education. Now, since then, many things have occurred. Obviously we’ve had some financial crisis in our country, these ideas of return on investment for our education, of course, the pandemic, which really sped up many things that we knew would happen, but the pandemic sped those things up.
And so really thinking about how can the curricular approach contribute to that. And so from there, participating in the ICAs over the years and then challenging myself to become faculty and joining the faculty role in ICA, and then being able to contribute to what ICA does, and with that being approached by some great colleagues in the institute and say, Hey, we want you to think about it. We want you to think about co-chairing. And I thought about it. I said, why not? I can’t tell myself no by not applying for it. And so I did that and I was granted the esteemed privilege and honor to be selected as a co-chair for ICA.

Dustin Ramsdell:
Yeah, I mean, I think great stories all around. I think that being kind of a core takeaway, I mean just generally the power that has for people to further believe in themselves, that is part of my origin story of becoming an RA is somebody just tapped me on the shoulder and that set me on a path of being here today and everything. But yeah, I think it’s even just you both have been committed and engaged and all that, but then even DeAndre with the skeptic turn and true believer story is a very powerful one to help share to others of even that likely no one in the room necessarily may be that at this point, given how much more awareness is built around this curricular approach. Maybe but if not, it could be like you might be dealing with somebody on your campus who is that skeptic.
So even you being able to share that story or contextualize things that way, I think is helpful. But yeah, and it seems like, I guess just with both of your answers, just throw out the questions we’ve had so far, is it really is, I guess, further driven home, the point of why get involved and why get involved now with keeping this going and having it stay relevant and everything is this moment for higher education that the idea that one, I’ve just gotten a lot from it generally, but then the fact that we need this to stay just a relevant experience given a lot of the headwinds that Higher Ed is facing. So with all that to be said, this is just a very broad question, I guess, of just why do you think folks should attend? What is it about this sort of event? And again, it feels like sort of a niche kind of thing that maybe folks might be skeptical for any number of reasons, whatever. What would you tell people about why they should attend this event in particular?

DeAndre Taylor:
Yeah, I think the first thing is it provides a skillset that’s applicable in every aspect of our professional world. When we think about budgets, how do you qualify? And how you quantify your budget as well. You need to assess what’s happening. You need to know what are we going to budget for this area, whether it’s operational, whether it is facilities related, whether it’s student education or resident education, et cetera. But then as we think about departments articulating to their institutions how they’re contributing to the academic pursuits of their students. I think that’s a foundational reason why folks should attend the institute. Because I think about, for example, my institution just came off our re-accreditation process, and when you look at that, it’s basically a dissertation for the institution. I’m summarizing very a novice perspective around the re-accreditation process, but they asked several questions on there ultimately as to how are you contributing to the academic success of your institution?
And every department is involved in that reaccreditation process. And so when I think about ICA, and obviously we have department curriculums, divisional curriculums, but it gives you those foundations. And so ICA gives you the steps on how to create that for yourself. And we’re not saying attend ICA if your university’s going up for re-accreditation, we’re not saying that. What we’re simply saying is it’s going to give you those skills and those tools on how to articulate how your department is contributing to the academic success of the institution. Just because you’re not in the college of et cetera, doesn’t mean that you’re not doing that. And so ICA does that. One thing that we say, we want to help our organizations or the schools that are attending to lead their organizations to support learning for all folks involved, not just our students, of course for our staff and faculty members, but to attend ICA, it’s going to give you those foundational skills.
And if you’re a returning member of ICA, it’s going to reinforce those foundational skills to allow you to remain inquisitive along that learning journey. Because learning is not a destination, it’s a journey. And it goes like this, right? It goes like this, sometimes we’re up, we’re at that peak and we’re there for a few years, few moments, and then we’re relearning something new. And so even if you’re returning to ICA, it’s going to help you remain inquisitive and seek curiosity on how to improve your curriculum. Students are different. And they said that probably 50 years ago students are different, and that’s true, and that’s okay, and that’s going to be forever changing, particularly in higher education. So why should you attend one to give yourself those foundational skills and then to reinforce those foundational skills so that way you can continuously enhance the offerings of your institution?

LaFarin Meriwether:
I would definitely say, and DeAndre brought this up before, we’re in an age where people are trying to understand the value of higher education. And I think this is the strategy that shows that the work that we do contribute. When you’re talking about contributing to the university’s academic mission, this is a part of the retention story. As I think about it in housing and residence life, we talk about the strategies that we use, get us in front of our students, have connections with our students to understand their lived experience, not only in the residence halls, but on campus. So they are telling the story to us of what is keeping them here, where their concerns are, what they need, which helps them persist. And so when I think about ICA, ICA is the strategy to help you retain your students. And sometimes it’s like the simplest way to say it, but it’s the truth, right?
And it allows you to figure out how to tell your story. When DeAndre’s talking about those foundational skills. That’s the one thing for folks in higher education, particularly if you’re on the co-curricular side of it. We don’t do a really good job of telling our story so that people understand the value. We know that students are coming here to get a degree, but the work that we do and throughout our divisions allow students to show up in classrooms with the skills necessary to engage in discourse, to work together on teams, to be able to feel confident with the things that they have learned and be able to share those things in space. And so I think for those who are coming, who some folks are dealing with some state, things that are prohibiting them from being able to do certain things or say certain words or engage in the DEI work and world, and I always tell folks, just because you can’t use the language doesn’t mean you don’t still do the work.
But this is a strategy still in terms of how do you still design learning environments for the students that you have? And that’s the thing. This is what we’re helping you figure out who are our students and how do we design learning for the students that we have that includes all the things. I can run down the demographics of my student population and cannot use the words that people, some places say you can’t, but that doesn’t take away from the work that we’re doing. And I think ICA absolutely gives us the strategy and the tools to do the work that we’re already doing, but just in a better way to share that story.
When we get back to our campuses, the work that we’re doing on our campuses with those who need to know as everybody is dealing with retention and persistence and the attraction to your institutions, all of those things, I think this is a very helpful tool to do that. And I think those who come, they may leave with more questions, but they leave with answers as well in terms of how to do this at their institutions and the impact that it can have.

Dustin Ramsdell:
Yeah, I think definitely compelling reasons. I think that reassurance that attending an event like this that might feel like it’s going to put restraints on what you’re doing, it’s like, no, it might just be really helping you to control the narrative of what we’re doing, why it’s important, the impact it’s having, which I think is just generally a higher ed problem right now is that higher ed is not able to really control the narrative as well as it could or should be doing. And certainly, like you said, it’s like, well, yeah, I mean, if there’s a timeliness around accreditation, this would be super important. But don’t just do it like, well, yeah, we have to do that this year. Then when we don’t have to do it, we’re not going to attend. It’s like no, always attend, even if it’s certainly at this point where it’s like, oh, a lot of people have curricular approaches that they’re using, but it needs to continually evolve and adapt and improve those sort of things.
And that idea that you’re going to keep having new different kinds of students with different preferences or needs or all those sort of things. So I think there’s just a lot of reasons, a lot of good reasons and a lot of reasons that I think are just sort of echoing and resonating across higher education right now. So as we wrap up, maybe there are folks that could use this that are return attendees, but certainly for the folks who are considering it as first timers, I think this will be especially useful, but advice that you would give for folks to get the most out of this event. So as two, I guess, veterans of ICA and the leaders of the charge here, an advice that you would give to folks to get the most out of the event. LaFarin, we’ll start with you

LaFarin Meriwether:
Come with an open mind. DeAndre shared when he first came, he was a skeptic, which is, okay. We have folks who are being sent to ICA and you’re like, why are these people sending me to this event? And it’s okay. But come with an open mind. There’s opportunities for challenge and support to ask all of the questions that you may have, particularly if you’re very new to the ICA curricular approach experience for those who are veterans as well. There’s always more questions to ask and more knowledge and skills because as we’re moving forward, we’ve figured out some new best practices definitely to share. So definitely being open if we send out some information to look over before you come, look over it before you come. It’s a good airplane read or sitting in the airport just to review some things as you get prepared to enter the space. It’s a good time. We got some folks who are very invested and engaged and ready to give an amazing experience to those who are attending.

DeAndre Taylor:
Advice that I would give to new folks and even returning folks coming to ICA is your contributions matter. Dr. Meriwether talked about asking questions being open, but come in knowing that your contributions matter, and there are multiple ways of knowing, and I think that’s important. And what you bring to the institute is only going to cultivate who we are as a profession, who we are as higher education, who we are as folks doing the curricular work. So your contributions matter. Think about it from the perspective of being a gardener, and you want to cultivate your soil, right? It is going to take work, it’s going to take time. And once you get the soil where it is full of nutrients and all those great things, it doesn’t stop there. You have to keep investing into your soil.
And so as you’re coming to ICA, whether you’re new or you’re returning, know that your contributions matter, and what you put into that space is only going to enlight everyone that’s there, because sometimes it’s those smallest ideas, those small, small statements that can reignite a flame in someone else’s mind, maybe even your mind, wow, I never thought about it from that perspective. We may have just been missing that one perspective that you’re going to bring to ICA. So not only come in with an open mind and asking questions, but know that your contributions matter.

Dustin Ramsdell:
Yeah, I mean, I appreciate that because I’m always the guy who asks questions. One in class, I guess love me or hate me, I guess. But also, yeah, for conference sessions and stuff. I usually like. Because I think a lot of people would probably prefer to just like, oh, I’m just going to maybe try to catch them after the session when everybody’s milling in or out or whatever. But I’m the one that’s going to raise my hand or go up to the microphone or whatever and ask that question. It could be that idea. It’s like maybe everybody wants to hear this and hear the response, not just be like, oh, I’m going to go so I can get the answer to my question. And then even, I guess what it makes me think of the contributions, it’s like take that as you will as a piece of advice because it could even just include, be thoughtful in your feedback survey kind of thing.
That is a valuable contribution in addition to anything else of just showing up and engaging and networking and just talking through and processing stuff. All those sort of things matter. So I think really great advice. We’ll have ways to connect with each of you and the event and the description for the episode. So just definitely encourage folks to check it out and share it out and all that good stuff. And then certainly just, if nothing else, just keep the conversation going as always with our guests here. But appreciate you both hanging out and sharing all that you did and wish you all best of luck with the event this year and can’t wait to see what comes out of it.

LaFarin Meriwether:
Thank you.

DeAndre Taylor:
Thank you.