Question 20: Projected Professional Development Activities
Faculty members at the University of Northern Iowa are afforded a number of opportunities that keep them engaged, active, and vital in their teaching, research/creative activity and service. Although this document will describe activities mostly held in the 2013-2014 academic year, the kinds of things listed are yearly activities.
Some of the opportunities include Professional Development Assignments (PDAs), summer research fellowships, and support for travel to professional development conferences or other faculty development opportunities. During the 2013-14 academic year, 15 faculty received professional development assignments for a semester or academic year to pursue scholarly and creative projects. In addition,under the terms of the Master Agreement, 32 faculty received summer research fellowships for either four or eight weeks.
In the summer of 2013, 24 pre-tenure faculty received summer fellowships (funded by the provost’s office, the president’s office, and the Graduate College) to support research or creative work. These faculty presented a public poster session in October 2013 to display the results of their efforts. For the summer of 2014, 22 faculty will receive awards, and there will be a poster session once again in the Fall of 2014.
In the Fall of 2013, the Provost’s office sponsored both a new faculty orientation program and a fall faculty workshop for all faculty. The new faculty orientation program is a one and a half day program which supports new faculty as they begin their work at UNI. The program provides information on working with students, the library, eLearning Tools, and faculty governance. Importantly, the orientation is a partnership with other offices, such as Human Resource Services and the President’s Office. Social events are included so that new faculty have a chance to network with each other and more experienced colleagues, department heads, deans and institutional officials. The fall faculty workshop hosted renowned expert on student assessment, Dr. Peter Seldin, who presented “Evaluating Teaching Effectively: What Works, What Doesn’t Work and Why.”
As a result of the re-establishment of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, highly-respected faculty member, Dr. Susan Hill, was selected to be Director of the Center. In addition, an appropriate space in the Rod Library was re-purposed to accommodate the CETL. Many new teaching enhancement opportunities became available to faculty. During the 2013-2014 academic year, 561 faculty have attended one or more of 34 faculty development events that have been sponsored by the CETL. Presenters for these events have come from both off campus and on campus. Topics have included use of new technology in the classroom, reflection as a learning strategy for service learning and community engagement activities, the use of comics in the classroom, and improvisation as a teaching technique, among others. The significant interest in the CETL and its events demonstrates the need for this initiative.
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) holds a Campus Connexus each year. This event helps faculty network and make meaningful scholarly connections with other faculty from across campus. ORSP also hosts a biennial Symposium on Research and Creative Activity. The goals of the Symposium are to foster dialogue on current topics related to scholarship in higher education and to showcase current research, scholarship and creative activity by UNI faculty.
Internal funding supported faculty and staff’s large and small seed grant proposals. Faculty from all disciplines applied for funds 1) to support scholarship and research/creative activities, 2) to support interdisciplinary work, 3) to encourage student research and creative collaborations and 4) to promote scholarship leading to commercial products. Several offices provided funding for these internal awards including: Office of the President; Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost; National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR); and the Skilled Worker and Job Creation Fund.
Since 2010, the University has been an affiliate of the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), which provides a “train-the-trainer” model for diversity initiatives and prejudice reduction. Working with leaders from Student Affairs and Administration and Finance, three faculty members serving as Diversity Fellows manage a campus-wide program aimed at inclusiveness. Over 25 faculty members have received training to allow them to conduct training on campus. Workshops associated with NCBI and sponsored by the Provost’s office are held monthly with the goal of having more and more campus community members participate in activities that foster inclusion and understanding.
In addition to the many opportunities for faculty that involve their on-campus work, significant funding for faculty development travel was provided through departments, colleges and the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost. This travel funding allowed faculty to present at professional conferences or to attend meetings that would support and inform their teaching and scholarly activity.