Dear AU community,

Learning and continued improvement are hallmarks of the AU community. They take place in the classroom, across our campus, and throughout our engagement in Washington, DC, and the broader world. We learn in our work as educators, regularly evaluating and enhancing our curriculum based on implementing classes over time and hearing input from our community. One of the ways we are addressing the challenges and pain of last fall that remain with us today is using our learning mission to support our community, expand understanding among our students about different perspectives, use dialogue to explore difficult issues, and promote inclusion and sense of belonging. This work takes numerous forms and today, we want to share updates in one specific learning area, as we make improvements to the first year AUx2 course now and in future.

Updating AUx2 Curriculum─Through engaging with our community and reviewing curricula and class content, we identified areas in AUx2 that needed refinement, including how the course addresses antisemitism and some of the shortcomings in that space. To enhance understanding of the root causes and impacts of different forms of hate, we updated the spring 2024 AUx2 curricular arc to include content and learning objectives about the relationships between racism, discrimination and oppression, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate, and other forms of hate and bigotry. These changes will explicitly provide a more comprehensive examination of societal animosity through multiple lenses.

AUx2 Student Options for Spring 2024─For fall 2024 and beyond, we are working on long-term strategies to ensure that our students are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind necessary to be effective changemakers in a diverse, changing world. While we finalize these revisions, spring 2024 students may opt to delay AUx2 to a future semester or request a course substitution through the academic petition system. Students wishing to use one of these options should contact their advisor as soon as possible.

PERIL Training and Programming─In addition to the AUx2 curricular enhancements, we are working with our experts from the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) for both targeted and broader learning engagements. PERIL will support students, faculty, and AUx2 peer facilitators to a) provide resources and training on facilitating class discussions in contentious times and b) host campus-wide student programming on antisemitism, Islamophobia, and hate-fueled violence, focused on creating resilient, inclusive campus cultures and communities. Information about the campus programming will be shared when dates and details are finalized.

The PERIL higher education training team will develop these programs building on their highly successful BRICK toolkit. PERIL used the toolkit in training for more than 100 college and university presidents. They will also establish a supportive space to facilitate ongoing learning and collaboration for the AUx2 instructors and peer facilitators during the semester. The PERIL team will also collect data from this work to evaluate its effectiveness and inform future curricula developments.

AUx2, and all our educational offerings, are intended to provide thorough learning opportunities based on the latest and best knowledge, present our students with new concepts and ideas that expand their understanding, and welcome their perspectives and experiences. The updates to AUx2 will further this critical goal.

Sincerely,

Sylvia M. Burwell
President

Vicky Wilkins
Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer