Faculty Development Initiatives
Opportunities
The university supports untenured and/or junior faculty through a variety of programs. Programs and support include applying for grants for the improvement of teaching; information on paper presentations; attending conferences; and assisting in the application process for research scholarships and grants.
Mentoring
To assist and support new faculty members in the Department, there is a mentoring system that links a new faculty member with a senior/tenured faculty member from the Department, or depending on the new faculty member’s field, it could be a senior faculty member outside the Department. This mentor assists the new faculty member in understanding the mission, requirements, and standards of teaching, research, and service excellence of the Department and the University.
ACE Fellows Program
Acquaints mid career faculty with the issues and challenges of higher education administration and provides an opportunity for them to assess their interests and talents in a career shift to administration. The University encourages selected faculty to apply for participation in this national program and contributes full salary and benefits for individuals who are selected.
Center for Teaching Excellence
Offers instructional development support, networking opportunities for professional dialogues on effective learning and innovation in teaching, and encourages collaborative activities emphasizing the scholarship of teaching and research on learning. Faculty will be provided videotaping and instructional consultation services.
Colleague to Colleague Teaching Enhancement Program (Teaching Fellows, Teaching is a Shared Experience, Campus Dialogs)
Provides an opportunity for faculty from diverse disciplines to share ideas and classroom techniques through campus dialogs. Interested colleagues and new faculty are provided consultation on effective teaching strategies through an informal mentoring process and classroom observations.
Faculty Travel and International Travel Funds
Supports the presentation of papers at professional meetings and conferences.
General Research Fund
Provides research support on a competitive basis to individual faculty and groups of investigators.
Hall Center for the Humanities Programs
Promotes excellence in scholarship through research and creative fellowships, travel support for research and scholarly consultation in the humanities, funding for collaborative projects designed to have a sustained impact on teaching in the humanities, assistance with grant preparation, interdisciplinary study in the humanities through lecture series, forums, research discussion groups, and mini classes and seminars.
IntraUniversity Professorships
Provides mid career faculty an opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of an academic specialty, to broaden or achieve greater depth in a defined field of study, or to achieve competence in a new area of scholarly endeavor by spending a semester's residence in another academic department.
Library Instructional Program
Integrating Library Research into Instruction: Assists faculty in integrating library research skills and services into instruction through providing assistance with assignment design and workshops for faculty on teaching students to do library research.
National Fulbright Scholar Program
Provides an opportunity for faculty to teach or conduct research under the auspices of the Fulbright Scholar Program. To encourage participation, the University provides up to one semester's salary to individual's receiving grants under this program. This incentive supplements the basic stipend provided by the Fulbright Program.
New Faculty General Research Fund
Assist new tenure-track faculty in initiating research and developing grant applications to sustain research programs through a mentoring and peer review process.
Perspectives on Promotion and Tenure
A discussion with senior faculty, administrators, and members of the University Committee on Promotion and Tenure of institutional expectations, strategies for developing an academic career leading toward tenure, and the promotion and tenure process.
Progress toward Tenure Review
Provides formative and summative feedback regarding progress toward tenure.
Research Intensive Semesters (RIS)
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers all junior faculty members in good standing a reduced teaching responsibility at some point during the faculty member’s pre-tenure employment. Faculty members will be released from classroom teaching duties for up to two courses, depending upon the relevant departmental teaching expectations, and will be expected to concentrate on research intensive activities. Faculty members are eligible for a research intensive semester assignment up to and including the spring semester before their publication dossiers are sent out to external reviewers in June, with the latest possible RIS assignment typically being the second semester of the fifth year. Faculty members in good standing who have stopped their tenure clock remain eligible for a RIS assignment.
Sabbatical Leave
Provides opportunities for faculty development and enhancement activities.
Administrative Fellows Program
Acquaints mid career faculty with the issues and challenges of higher education administration so they may better understand the university and provides an opportunity for them to assess their interests and talents in university administrative matters.