LSAC June eKeynote 2-Hour Summer Special: Cia Verschelden & "The Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty: How Do We Help Students Recover, Today and Post-COVID?"

Two-Hour Summer Special!

Title: The Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty: How Do We Help Students Recover, Today and Post-COVID?

Talk: Over the past several years, I've been writing and speaking about the ways in which poverty, racism, classism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other "differentisms" steal cognitive capacity - bandwidth - from college students (and, most recently, from students in preK-12 schools). One of the most powerful bandwidth stealers is uncertainty, a commodity that has been the only thing that's certain in our lives over the past year and a half. There are things we can to to help students recover bandwidth so they have access to the cognitive capacity they need to learn. How much might bandwidth depletion be at the root of the learning struggles of many of the students you see everyday in your work? We'll discuss how to create learning environments in which students can regain bandwidth, not losing sight of our own bandwidth depletion in these challenging times. 

Bio: Cia Verschelden is Special Projects Advisor for the Integration of Academic and Student Affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She recently retired as Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Malcolm X College - City Colleges of Chicago. She taught for over 25 years at two- and four-year institutions in social work, sociology, women’s studies, nonviolence studies, and first-year seminar. Her administrative posts have included department chair, institutional assessment lead, and vice president of academic and student affairs. Cia has a B.S. in psychology from Kansas State University, an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut, and an Ed.D. from Harvard University. Her book, Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization, was published in 2017 and her new book, Bandwidth Recovery for Schools: Helping Pre-K-12 Students Regain Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Trauma, Racism and Social Marginalization, in 2020.