Thriving Faculty Initiative

The long-term success of �鶹��ƵAPK depends upon the interplay of a talented, dynamic, and diverse faculty and the ability of the university to deliver high quality academic programs built on student engagement. Our ability to provide an education distinguished in its ability to prepare transformative leaders for service to the world will be rooted in our faculty’s ability to foster transformative relationships with our students.

Purpose

A task force of elected faculty from across the university was brought together to assess how we support, retain, and evaluate our faculty in order to build a dynamic, thriving faculty. Their charge included addressing the following:

Identify the conditions that enable faculty to thrive.
Identify the conditions that hinder the ability of faculty to thrive.
Align development opportunities, resources, and policies needed for faculty to flourish with the mission and values of �鶹��ƵAPK.
Review Marian’s process for rewarding and recognizing faculty performance (e.g. annual review, promotion, tenure, contracts, etc.) to ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and transparent.
Guide the implementation of our new faculty activity reporting and workflow system, Digital Measures, which will be used to capture and share our faculty members’ efforts in teaching, research, and service.

Outcome

The task force made several recommendations in the following four specific areas 1) Documenting and defining the work of faculty; 2) Mentoring faculty through their work; 3) Recognition and rewarding of work of faculty and 4) Assessing the work of faculty. This resulted in the creation of the Development Model for a Thriving Faculty (click to expand).

Developmental Model

The heart of the Development Model for a Thriving Faculty is the belief that each and every faculty member brings unique passions, gifts, and talents to �鶹��ƵAPK. Alignment of these with the strategic direction and work of the university should allow each individual faculty member and the university, as a whole, to thrive.

When faculty focus on the work they are most interested and passionate they are able to enthusiastically do their very best work for our students and the organization. While all faculty will have teaching, service, and scholarship expectations to fulfill, there is latitude in the assignment and recognition of their work. This will allow those who excel at advising to spend more time with their students. Those who enjoy administrative and service projects can use their talents to assist the university plan and manage processes and policies. Research and scholarly activities can be more focused and see more results by those who flourish in the labs, archives, and community.

The foundation of this model will be a switch from the current work load of classes to faculty load units (FLUs) which are primarily based on generated credit hours. Instead of having faculty work a 4 / 4 teaching load and receiving a course release for administrative or research activities, full-time faculty will now be expected to carry 450 to 550 faclty load units an academic year. An overview of Faculty Load Units is available on the Policies and Procedures page.

This model also allows much of the “hidden” work faculty do to be documented, recognized, and rewarded.

The College of Arts and Sciences is piloting this model in 2022-2023 and will it be reviewed and modified as we learn more.

The purpose of the Professional Development Plan (PDP) is to document the professional needs and career plans of the individual faculty member. This plan should clearly communicate the career aspirations of the faculty member in the areas of teaching, service, and scholarship, as well as the immediate professional goals for the academic year.

The Professional Development Plan is updated annually in Faculty Success (formally Digital Measures) and used by the Office of the Provost and the schools and colleges to assist in the planning and allocation of development resources.

The PDP and the faculty member’s accomplishment of the indicated objectives for the current year will be part of the annual review process and periodic reviews for promotion, tenure, and contracts. As such, they will be made available to the Promotion and Tenure committee, Deans, and the Office of the Provost.

This is accomplished through the use of Faculty Success (formally Digital Measures) using the process outlined here: Professional Development Plan Procedure.

The goals of the annual faculty evaluation process are:

To enhance university wide actualization of its Mission and produce cohesive efforts within and across departments and schools to achieve the University’s stated purpose of providing an excellent education to every student.
To review the faculty member's annual objectives and measure progress since the last review.
To encourage the faculty member's personal and professional growth.
To acknowledge noteworthy performance.
To assist in the determination of compensation, suitability for promotion or the determination of continued employment.

This is accomplished through the use of Faculty Success (formally Digital Measures) using the process outlined here: Annual Faculty Evaluation Instructions.

Part of the Development Model for a Thriving Faculty includes a post-tenure review process. This process is meant to engage the tenured faculty member in ways that are meaningful to them and the university.

This process is still being developed and will be available for discussion and input at the beginning of the Fall 2022 term. The basic premise will be that tenured faculty will engage in discussions with their dean and the Office of the Provost to map out where they would like to invest their time and efforts over the next six year cycle. In turn, the university will work with the faculty member to determine what resources can be assigned to support the faculty member’s work. This is meant to continue to develop and engage the faculty member is work that is meaningful to them and helps the university achieve its strategic goals.

A key component of the Development Model for a Thriving Faculty is recognizing and rewarding the work of the faculty. This will happen through how we manage the faculty member’s employment agreement, the provision of leadership development and training, and acknowledging exemplary work through teaching, scholarship, and service awards.

The Office of the Provost will be working with the Personnel Policies Committee to establish:

Multi-year agreement for non-tenure track faculty based on their performance
A process for faculty to request to change their tenure status (e.g. from non-tenure track to tenure track and vice versa)
Allowing a flexible period of time to apply for tenure

A variety of leadership development and managerial training opportunities are also being developed. These include:

The Provost Leadership Academy – where a small cohort of faculty interested in academic leadership will learn from each other and experts
The Program Leadership Program – where those who are chairs, directors, and deans will develop the skills needed to effectively lead an academic program
The Provost Leadership Fellow – this program will allow one or two faculty to attend an extensive external leadership development program

Finally, we are working to establish a variety of awards to recognize the exemplary teaching, service, and scholarship our faculty continually provide.

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