We think both programs are relatively valuable, but are less aligned with our current vision (of providing value through helping EA university group organizers run better groups) than some of our alternatives.
We have made this (difficult!) decision so that we can instead focus on:
Increasing capacity on the team (currently under 3 FTE), including by recruiting a strategy lead for our pilot university work (and building out that work more generally)
This decision does not rule out running UGOR or our internship in the future. In fact, we are exploring whether we should run UGOR over (northern hemisphere) summer break, allowing more groups to better prepare for their academic year. We piloted such a retreat as part of our pilot university programming this summer, and that worked well.
We aim to continue to transparently share updates such as this one! We are also always open to feedback (including anonymously), especially if you have specific suggestions on what things we should deprioritize to create space for UGOR or the summer internship.
We just wanted to transparently share that CEA’s University Groups Team is not running two of our historical programs over the next few months:
A University Group Organizer Retreat (UGOR), which was usually run over (northern hemisphere) winter break
Our summer internship, usually run from May—September
We think both programs are relatively valuable, but are less aligned with our current vision (of providing value through helping EA university group organizers run better groups) than some of our alternatives.
We have made this (difficult!) decision so that we can instead focus on:
Running our Organizer Support Program, a three-week to semester-long mentorship program
Increasing capacity on the team (currently under 3 FTE), including by recruiting a strategy lead for our pilot university work (and building out that work more generally)
Further building out our grantmaking capacity
Potentially piloting new scalable programming
(And more)
This decision does not rule out running UGOR or our internship in the future. In fact, we are exploring whether we should run UGOR over (northern hemisphere) summer break, allowing more groups to better prepare for their academic year. We piloted such a retreat as part of our pilot university programming this summer, and that worked well.
We aim to continue to transparently share updates such as this one! We are also always open to feedback (including anonymously), especially if you have specific suggestions on what things we should deprioritize to create space for UGOR or the summer internship.