Rekindling Faculty’s Passion

Dearest faculty,

I don’t know about you, but the first 2-3 weeks have been… weird. There, I said it. I am on campus, I enjoy the FDEV office space and team dynamic, I am energized by the colleagues I see, and yet, most of my meetings are still in Zoom, so I feel I am living in a limbo between limited in-person interactions and the ever-present virtual world. 

In doing some reading in preparation for this Tuesday Tip, I came across an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Great Disillusionment (Ellis, 2021). The author presents a fairly grim look at academia, from the perspective of both faculty and staff, and she explores how, while “employees’ dedication to higher education’s mission has fueled colleges for many years […], the pandemic has caused many people to renegotiate this dynamic.” More specifically, Ellis shares how “the graciousness, the compassion, the ‘we do it for the students, we do it for the work’ — that’s gone.”

This year I would like to commit, as Faculty Development Director, to rekindle some of that graciousness, compassion, and passion and to focus on faculty’s needs more closely. Let me be clear, though: my commitment does not involve glorifying practices that justify working overtime and prioritizing work over health and wellness. I am not looking for faculty to embrace compassion at the expense of their well-being. I want to commit to rekindling faculty’s passion by offering resources, programs, and events that can help faculty thrive in all areas of their professional growth.

Last year, FDEV was inevitably very “reactive” to the pandemic, the switch to online instruction, and the need for supplemental training in digital pedagogy and academic technologies. For this, we have received very good feedback and we are grateful that our efforts could respond to and serve your needs. But looking at the low number of applications for FDEV programs in Fall 2021, I started wondering if we are truly responding to your current needs. This is certainly not a criticism towards the low number of applications we are receiving: on the contrary, I see this is a clear call for the Director of Faculty Development to stop for a minute, listen to “her” faculty, and re-think what faculty truly need to thrive. 

For this reason, we had a long and important conversation last Friday with the FDEV Advisory Board to discuss how, whether we are reacting to the pandemic, climate change, the wildfires, or social and racial injustice, the burnout is palpable, and we are now constantly in “survival mode.” 

Good job, Sherlock, you might think: did you really need an Advisory Board meeting for that??
Well, no, I did not need an Advisory Board meeting to know faculty are burned out. I needed that conversation to discuss how to better respond to and address the exhaustion I feel so present, though.

In this spirit, we have extended the deadline for the open calls of all FDEV Fall 2021 programs, and we have designed THIS SURVEY to collect feedback so that we can plan the rest of the year with your needs in mind. 

I hope that you will be willing to take a few minutes out of your day to fill out this survey, knowing that the Advisory Board and I will read your feedback carefully and we will use it to guide our efforts. 

Faculty, you are my priority, now and always, and I am here to support you in every way I can.

FDEV Programs for Spring 2021

The Office of Faculty Development is excited to share with you the call for applications for all Spring 2021 programs. The Faculty Development Advisory Board was instrumental in helping me understand and address faculty’s needs, and we hope that these offerings will provide support for your teaching and your professional growth and achievement.

The offerings include both Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs), tied to specific meeting dates and times, and other programs designed to allow for more flexibility in participation.

Please refer to the calls for application below:

Closing the Equity Gaps Faculty Learning Community

Digital Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community

Faculty Writing Community

Quality Learning and Teaching Workshops

All calls for applications will close on Monday, December 7th, at 5:00 p.m. You can find a list of all open calls in our FDEV Programs page.

We also want to announce that the deadline for applications for the Go Virtual Intersession has been extended to December 2nd.

We encourage you to attend it, if you did not have a chance to attend the Go Virtual institute in the summer.

We look forward to receiving your applications and being able to offer you continued support!

Help Out with Future FDEV Programming!

The Office of Faculty Development offers a broad range of professional development opportunities to faculty based on input from the FDEV Advisory Board. We are inviting input from you on how we can best serve your needs as a faculty member. Please take this brief survey by this Sunday, 3/1 to inform FDEV of new training programs you may be interested in as well as the format and timing that works best for you.

Additionally, this survey invites you to express your interest in leading an FDEV program. FDEV Leads are compensated with either a course release, taxable income, or professional development funds. Payment depends on the duration of the training and the preparation required.

The FDEV advisory board will review the survey results and may invite interested faculty to a meeting to discuss possible new FDEV programs.

Thank-you for your input!

-Josh