The Center for Faculty Development offers a number of programs and events which may be specifically useful for late-career faculty.
If, as a mid- or late-career faculty member, you become a program director or department chair (and have other faculty reporting to you), then another program that might be useful to you is the Chairs' Community of Practice (CoP).
This informal forum for chairs and directors from across the university is an opportunity to share ideas, expertise, practices and perhaps even challenges. Over a collegial glass of wine, you'll have a rare change to talk to your peer group with the aim of making chairing a more enjoyable experience.
To find out more about the Chairs' CoP meetings scheduled for this year, visit the Chairs' CoP website.
Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition
Facilitated by Jenny Loertscher (Chemistry) and rotating guest facilitators
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jesuit Education (CJE)
Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition (TJT) is a community-driven series aimed at building connections and exchanging ideas related to teaching and learning at a 21st century Jesuit university. All are welcome; faculty in their first few years at Seattle University are especially encouraged to attend.
There will be six hour-long sessions held over the 2021–22 academic year. You are welcome to attend as many sessions as you choose. Those who attend will be given access to the Canvas teaching repository and will be invited to contribute materials as well.
If you have any questions, would like to contribute teaching materials, or have ideas for topics for additional sessions, please contact Jenny Loertscher (loertscher@seattleu.edu).
Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition as Adjunct and Part-time Faculty
Tue, Apr 12 | 12:30–1:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-facilitated by Jenny Loertscher and Jeff Philpott (University Core / Communication)
During this session we will discuss the principles of Ignatian pedagogy and explore the practical teaching resources available to all community members on the Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition (TJT) Canvas site.
We hope that you will both receive pedagogical tools that you can use this quarter, as well as share effective teaching strategies with your colleagues.
All are welcome; VITAL faculty (visiting faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, adjuncts, and lecturers) are especially encouraged to attend.
» Registration is now closed
Celebration and Reflection on Two Years of Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition
Fri, May 6 | 12:30–1:30 | Casey Commons (CASY 530) | Lunch and refreshments provided
Co-facilitated by Jenny Loertscher and Jen Tilghman-Havens (Center for Jesuit Education)
Join us as we gather for our first in-person meeting of Teaching in the Jesuit Tradition (TJT) since this grassroots community started in Fall 2020.
TJT arose from a desire from faculty for greater interdisciplinary conversation around Ignatian Pedagogy. It creates a space for faculty and staff to share ideas and resources for putting Ignatian Pedagogy into action.
Join us for lunch and conversation as we share ideas, challenges, and hopes for supporting student learning using the tools of the Jesuit tradition.
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The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader
Fridays: Apr 22, May 6, and May 27 | 11:00–12:15 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI)
Facilitated by Katherine Raichle
Are you interested in seeking concrete tools and strategies for successfully implementing diversity in your department or program? Edna Chun and Alvin Evans’s The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader: Building Inclusive Learning Environments in Higher Education provides practical, research-based approaches representative of best practices from across the United States to achieve this result.
In this three-session Learning Community, facilitated by Katherine Raichle (Center for Faculty Development), you'll work your way through the chapters of the book so that you are better prepared to lead other faculty in advancing diversity in multiple areas, including tenure and promotion, curricular change, student learning outcomes, departmental climate, and the representation of a diverse faculty and staff.
Over the three sessions, you'll learn how to:
This community is primarily for incoming or established department chairs and program directors, but other faculty members who are interested in promoting an inclusive learning environment would also benefit from this learning community.
The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader is 181 pages long, and reading will be split across the three sessions to be manageable for participants.
The three dates in Spring Quarter are:
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Labor-based contract grading
A collaborative workshop for anti-racist assessment practices
Tue, Apr 19 | 1:30–2:45 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI)
Co-facilitated by Tara Roth (English), Alex Smith (English), and Hannah Tracy (English)
Labor-based contract grading is an anti-racist writing assessment practice grounded in composition and critical race theories. It encourages students to take risks and think critically about language and the assessment of writing: they come to understand writing assessment, in particular, as historically and socially contextualized rather than governed by a single, universal standard. Grading contracts benefit both faculty and students by creating more supportive relationships and removing barriers to student success, as has been shown in recent scholarship.
This workshop will offer collegial space for further critical engagement with the concept and the opportunity to workshop ideas for how you might adapt contract grading for your own classrooms. While it builds on our discussion in February, this session is open to all faculty interested in drafting grading contracts through structured, collaborative support.
We ask that you bring one of the following: a draft of your contract to workshop, materials to start putting together your contract, and/or questions regarding this assessment strategy. We will break off into groups based on preparation level. For a refresher on the background, research, and resources on this topic, please see the collaborative folder we have put together.
» Registration is now closed
Writing Workshop Part 2: for faculty applying to Full Professor in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023
Wed, Apr 20 | 2:15–3:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the SU ADVANCE program and the Center for Faculty Development
Facilitated by Jodi O'Brien (Principal Investigator, ADVANCE grant; Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Development)
This April session is a follow-up to our February workshop and is intended to provide support and opportunities for writing and reflection to faculty aiming to apply for promotion in the next two years under the university’s revised Promotion Guidelines for Full Professor.
As a reminder, faculty seeking promotion in AY 2022-2023 or AY 2023-2024 do not need to produce evidence of a multi-year Holistic Faculty Development Plan (HFDP). Faculty seeking promotion during this period do, however, need to produce evidence of a thoughtful, integrated file.
This workshop is open only to faculty who intend to apply for promotion to full professor in Fall 2022 or Fall 2023.
Please register by April 13. You will then receive the meeting information and Zoom link.
» Registration is now closed
I am...: Professional identities and fostering those of our students
Fri, Apr 22 | 12:30–1:45 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Andrea Verdan (Chemistry)
The formation of professional identity—the relatively stable sense of one’s own self based on the attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences within a professional context—has been recognized as a vital component of socialization into profession. This is particularly important for our students as they transition from higher education to their working lives.
In this workshop, attendees will first reflect on their own professional identities. Following a discussion of these identities, we will then explore practical ways to promote the professional identities of our students in the classroom; that is, what practices and learning activities can we develop that will allow our students to have a greater sense of belonging in their professional communities? We will also discover inclusive and equity-oriented practices for fostering our students’ transition to their future careers.
This workshop would support all faculty interested in fostering the development of professional identities of their students at any course level.
» Registration is now closed
[Illustration: Jasu Hu, with permission. http://www.jasuhuart.com/]
Equitable student access to course materials: Exploring open educational resources for your course
Mon, Apr 25 | 11:00–12:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Open Education Task Force
Co-facilitated by Lydia Bello (Library), Kathryn Bollich-Ziegler (Psychology), and Rochelle Lundy (Library)
As textbook costs rise, university students are increasingly forced to choose between paying for necessities and paying for required course materials. Open educational resources — teaching and learning materials that can be freely accessed and adapted — are an alternative to the traditional textbooks and commercially published course materials that impose significant costs on Seattle University students. Open resources offer an opportunity to lower costs and increase equity without compromising learning outcomes, making them a valuable tool in promoting student success.
This workshop will review the challenges students face in affording course materials, introduce open textbooks and other open educational resources, and discuss how these open materials can begin to address affordability challenges. You will also be invited to review an item in the Open Textbook Library. Completion of a textbook review following the workshop is voluntary and will be compensated with a stipend.
During this workshop, you will:
The workshop is designed for individuals with any level of knowledge of open educational resources, from newcomers to veterans.
» Registration is now closed
Mondays: Apr 25, May 9, and May 23 | 1:00–2:00 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Katherine Raichle
The Center for Faculty Development will be offering an affinity group for faculty parents of school-age children. The purpose of this group is to provide a space to discuss and explore the unique challenges faced by faculty who have children in their care. The challenge of parenting while maintaining a rigorous schedule of teaching, research, and/or service to the university is not new. However, the benefits of finding a community of support around parenting has never been more urgent. We have faced unprecedented demands of caregiving and schooling while balancing the work of our academic lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The return to in-person work for ourselves and in-person school for our children has offered sources of consolation and desolation. Let’s convene and share where we are during this time and find ways to support one another.
The psychological benefits of convening groups of people around common identities and experiences are well known. Research on affinity groups, in particular, has shown that they enhance agency and optimism, while also providing access to beneficial information and support.
At its most basic level, we hope that this group offers a space where you can feel less isolated in your experience. We hope to foster a community of support amongst faculty parents, where they can share experiences, offer suggestions, and explore how to navigate these extremely challenging times.
*Note: if you are interested in this group but cannot make the time scheduled, please email faculty-development@seattleu.edu and let us know. We would like to support all faculty parents during this challenging time and will work with you to find ways to offer support.
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Reconnecting with joy in our teaching
Mon, May 2 | 11:00–12:15 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Facilitated by Erica Martin (School of Theology & Ministry)
Does finding joy in the teaching experience make us better teachers? Numerous studies demonstrate just that! As The Effect of Enjoyment on Learning found, “enjoyment positively influences the didactic process, increases the satisfaction of participants and can positively affect the memorization of information” (Hernik and Jaworska, 2018).
What can we do to maximize enjoyment and mitigate the factors that decrease our delight in teaching? Even before the pandemic, the stresses of faculty life had the ability to suck joy out of the job. Overwork, limited resources, and that endless stack of grading have been compounded by pivots between in-person and online instruction and caring for students whose college experience has been profoundly altered. Faculty voices frequently attest to feeling strain, frustration, and high levels of exhaustion. With our energetic reserves depleted, the joy of teaching can be harder to access.
Could your pleasure in teaching use rekindling? Or do you have a surfeit of joy to share with others? In this workshop, we will explore the role of pleasure in the teaching and learning experience, recognize the elements of teaching that bring each of us the most pleasure, and identify ways we can support ourselves and each other in reconnecting with joy in our teaching practice.
» Registration is now closed
The Personal Intellectual Project: Capturing, focusing, and (re)inventing your scholarly agenda
Tue, May 17 | 11:00–12:30 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-sponsored by the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP)
Facilitated by David Green
Spring is often the time when faculty are preparing their files for promotion or tenure, or are reflecting on their work to date to help clarify their summer projects.
Yet depending on our career stage, our scholarly agenda can pose a variety of challenges. For many newer scholars, it can be hard to step back and identify exactly what we’re doing – and why it matters. For more seasoned researchers, in contrast, we often find our passions have shifted to new topics, or that we need to reinvent ourselves as scholars in somewhat different academic fields than where we began.
Difficulty in describing our research arc can affect our chances of winning grants, of being promoted, or simply of feeling in control of our own scholarship. It can lead us to take on projects that don’t exactly align with our expertise or intellectual curiosity, and to missing out on those that do.
In this session, we’ll provide a space for you to think through your own “Personal Intellectual Project”—the big-picture encapsulation of your different scholarly topics and agendas. For newer scholars, can you sense its form yet? Do you recognize the parameters you want to set to keep it manageable? For more experienced scholars, has your intellectual project evolved since you last considered it? What has changed and what remains the same? What projects might reignite your enthusiasm?
Through a structured process and through interdisciplinary small-group conversation over Zoom, you’ll be better placed to advocate for yourself and your scholarship and will have a clearer vision of viable and enticing scholarly topics for the future.
Be sure to have a copy of your up-to-date CV with you for the session.
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Developing your network as an academic leader
Fri, May 20 | 11:00–12:15 | Zoom link provided upon registration
Co-facilitated by David Green and Colette Hoption
When we assume an academic leadership position, it may be a given that our network of contacts will grow. Alongside the “significant network” (Roxå & Mårtensson, 2009) of trusted colleagues we have turned to for “backstage conversations” (Goffman, 1978) on sensitive topics – an awkward classroom experience, an erratic co-author – we now have a new panoply of key players who can help our programs, departments, and students thrive. Establishing, maintaining, and nurturing those wider relationships may require some proactive planning on our part.
In this session for faculty leaders and leaders-to-be, we invite you to consider your own significant network, and to reflect on how you have consciously or unconsciously shaped it to facilitate your various needs at particular stages in your career. We’ll then explore the kind of network you need now to fulfill your leadership role, which potential network members have changed in the two years of the pandemic, and what kinds of proactive network-building you can engage in to support your program or department, and to achieve your leadership goals.
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Retirement planning
Click here to see a bibliography of resources pertaining to aging and retirement (compiled by Jacquelyn Miller, 2015).