When Pedro Arce became chair of the department of chemical engineering at Tennessee Technological University in 2003, enrollments were down, the curriculum and teaching methods were outdated, and employer demand for the department’s graduates was not very strong. Arce recognized the department’s potential as well as the cultural issues that impeded innovation and has been able to lead the department’s transformation.

From “Rename and Remain” to “Reframe and Regain”: Reimagining Campus Inclusiveness
In my last article, I highlighted the crucial strategies of “person-first” and “targeted universalism” amid the wave of anti-DEI legislation in higher education. Initially, many of us embraced a “rename