Challenges in higher education often require prompt individual and collective effort towards their resolution. And while working as a team is a mantra almost universally understood, it can demand that one or more individuals go above and beyond the call of duty. These acts of excellence, while valued, often go undocumented in the traditional framework […]
Resources | faculty
The Value of a Support Group for Aspiring Administrators
We have long heard of the value of involvement of support groups to talk with survivors of disease, those experiencing challenges due to a family situation or substance addiction, and those for new people to an area or field. In higher education, new faculty support groups exist for mentoring them on how to manage their […]
Invest Strategically in Faculty Leaders to Achieve Institutional Global Learning Goals
Global learning through off-campus study is strategically important across many different types of institutions, but plans for achieving global learning outcomes often focus on facilities, infrastructure, and students, without explicitly aligning those strategic goals with faculty development programming or recognizing the impact of those goals on faculty members’ professional and personal well-being (Baker, Lunsford, & […]
Roundtable Reflections on Engaging and Mentoring New Faculty toward Success in the 21st Century
The opportunity to serve as a mentor to faculty is one of the elements of my work as a full-time academic administrator that sustains me. My trajectory within the academy, as well as in my life, has been deeply influenced by the wisdom of both traditional and peer mentors. The chance to share the lessons […]
You CAN Go Home Again
The title of Thomas Wolfe’s 1940 novel You Can’t Go Home Again has served as a warning to family members planning a reunion and to alumni venturing back to campus. People and places change, and our imperfect memories often romanticize the past. When we return to what once was a familiar setting, we may feel […]
Effective Orientation for New Faculty Members: A New Approach at Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University (AAMU)
At colleges and universities across the country, orientation programs for new faculty members are typically one-time events that possess certain common elements. First, speakers from across the university welcome new faculty and give them information about the units they represent (for example, the library, office of information technology, faculty senate, or office of academic advising). […]
The Evaluation of Teaching and Learning: Faculty Evaluation in the Age of Assessment
The westernmost institution in the University of North Carolina system, Western Carolina University (WCU) was founded in 1889 and is a regional comprehensive institution of approximately 11,000 students. For full-time faculty members, the Annual Faculty Evaluation (AFE) includes an assessment of teaching, scholarship, and service. This essay focuses on the current process at WCU for […]
This is What Inclusion Should Look Like: Supporting Colleagues for Success and Professional Advancement
Consider the following scenarios, some of which you may have experienced: 1) During a faculty meeting, a colleague shares an idea but it is ignored and participants move on to another topic. Later in the meeting, someone else restates or expresses a similar idea and, this time, further discussion ensues. As the meeting concludes, the […]
Kent Crookston’s Working with Problem Faculty: A 6-Step Guide for Department Chairs (2012)
With a title likely to incite faculty either to indignation or to write a corresponding volume entitled, “Working with Problem Administrators,” or both, a department chair, especially one who still considers herself or himself as faculty, might readily pass on the reading of Crookston’s work. That would be unfortunate. Between the covers of this ill-named […]