Tag: Faculty

  • Reimagining Education: A Future of Equity, Innovation, and Collaboration – Faculty Focus

    Reimagining Education: A Future of Equity, Innovation, and Collaboration – Faculty Focus

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  • Reimagining Education: A Future of Equity, Innovation, and Collaboration – Faculty Focus

    Reimagining Education: A Future of Equity, Innovation, and Collaboration – Faculty Focus

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  • Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus

    Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus



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  • Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus

    Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus



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  • George Mason faculty urge leaders to reject Trump deals risking ‘institutional autonomy’

    George Mason faculty urge leaders to reject Trump deals risking ‘institutional autonomy’

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    Dive Brief:

    • George Mason University’s faculty senate on Wednesday urged the public Virginia institution’s leadership to rebuke any deal with the Trump administration that would undermine its independence.
    • In a newly passed resolution, the senate said recent federal deals struck by other colleges have set a precedent in which “administrative convenience takes precedence over the faculty’s constitutional and professional responsibility.” The resolution urged George Mason’s board and president to reject any similar settlement with the Trump administration to end federal investigations into the university. 
    • George Mason leaders must also decline the administration’s separate higher education compact, it said, as that proposal seeks to “blur the constitutional distinction between voluntary funding conditions and compelled oversight.”

    Dive Insight:

    Under President Donald Trump, the departments of Education and Justice have opened at least four investigations into George Mason since this summer, targeting the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion work.

    George Mason’s faculty senate warned the governing board Wednesday against cutting a deal with the DOJ that puts the university under “continuing federal supervision.” And any settlement must involve “transparent deliberation and meaningful faculty consultation,” as required by George Mason’s shared governance policies, the senate said.

    Faculty cited the University of Virginia’s recent deal with the federal government as one that did not meet these standards. 

    The state flagship in October agreed, in part, to adhere to the DOJ’s guidance against DEI efforts and to make quarterly oversight reports for three years. In exchange, the federal government suspended and will eventually end five DOJ investigations into UVA and continued to give the university access to research funding.

    The resolution from George Mason’s faculty senate said UVA had “negotiated in secrecy, without faculty consultation” and imposed “years of federal monitoring and mandatory reporting that chill free inquiry, constrain legitimate academic debate, and erode shared governance.”

    Just six weeks after the Education Department announced a probe into George Mason, it formally accused the university of illegally using race and other protected characteristics when making hiring and promotion decisions. As in other federal investigations into George Mason, the department singled out the university’s president, Gregory Washington, who has been an ardent supporter of diversity initiatives during his five-year tenure.

    The agency gave the university 10 days to meet a list of demands to resolve the investigation. Among other requirements, one condition would have compelled Washington to publicly apologize. The president instead firmly rebuked the Education Department’s findings, with his lawyer calling them “a legal fiction.”

    In contrast, George Mason’s governing board said that it would seek to negotiate with the Trump administration to resolve the allegations. The board also said Washington’s attorney would be involved in talks with the Education Department.

    The faculty senate resolution pushed George Mason’s leaders to not accept Trump’s proposed higher education compact or any agreement that “conditions federal funding on the surrender of institutional autonomy or faculty governance.”

    Through the compact, the Trump administration seeks to have colleges voluntarily agree with its policy agenda in exchange for research funding incentives rather than its playbook of seeking compliance through unprecedented punitive actions.

    But the faculty senate argued in their resolution that the compact’s “promise of ‘excellence’ masks a fundamental shift of authority from university faculty and governing boards to federal agencies.”

    Further complicating matters, George Mason’s board currently has just six voting members — down from the usual 16 — meaning it doesn’t have a quorum. Since June, the governing bodies of George Mason and two other Virginia public colleges have been in a state of political flux due to a fight between a Democrat-controlled state Senate committee and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin over his university board selections.

    The committee rejected many of Youngkin’s selections, and despite his efforts to install them anyway, court decisions have blocked them from serving.

    The faculty senate on Wednesday said that the board should not negotiate or sign off on any substantial agreement “affecting curriculum development, research priorities, faculty governance, or the allocation of university resources” without members who are “properly appointed and duly confirmed” by the Virginia General Assembly.

    Virginia’s governor-elect, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, last month raised similar concerns over potential actions taken by UVA’s board, which has 12 of its intended 17 members. 

    George Mason’s board — and the board’s leader — have come under scrutiny from faculty and lawmakers.

    In July, the George Mason chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted no-confidence in the board and urged it to defend Washington.

    And the leaders of Virginia’s state senate accused Charles Stimson, head of George Mason’s board, of a conflict of interest in September and called for him to resign if he did not recuse himself from discussions related to the federal investigations. 

    Stimson is a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank the AAUP found to be among those behind the wave of state-level anti-DEI legislation. The foundation also created Project 2025, a wide-ranging conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term whose policies the president has embraced after distancing himself from the handbook as a candidate.

    Stimson, whose term runs through June 2027, rejected calls to either recuse himself or step down.

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  • Make Faculty Writing Support Easier to Find (opinion)

    Make Faculty Writing Support Easier to Find (opinion)

    Faculty writing has never been more crucial. In an era of heightened competition for grants, promotion pressures and demands for public engagement, writing is the vehicle through which faculty share their expertise, secure funding and advance their careers. Research shows that successful academic writers aren’t necessarily better writers—they’re better-supported writers. They have systems, communities and resources that support their productivity and help sustain engagement with writing as their needs change across their roles, responsibilities and careers.

    Faculty writers are seeking support for their writing. Where do they go when they need it? Many are unsure.

    Support for faculty writing on campus is often decentralized or may vary from year to year, making it difficult to find or accessible only to those with the advantage of an informed mentor. Support for faculty writing might be offered in any number of campus locations: centers for teaching and learning, provosts’ offices, offices for faculty advancement, writing centers or academic support centers, research centers for grant writing, graduate student support centers, or individual departments. Writing support may be outsourced through institutional memberships to organizations such as the NCFDD or the Textbook and Academic Authors Association, which offers webinars, writing programs and templates for downloading.

    Department chairs and campus administrators may want to support faculty writers but aren’t sure where to begin. Or if there is a problem, it’s considered an individual faculty problem and not one that calls for a campus response.

    Perhaps there’s an underlying assumption that faculty should already know how to write and shouldn’t need support to meet basic job expectations, like publishing a certain number of articles before tenure. Establishing a faculty writing space or central resource hub might be seen as suggesting they need remedial help—much like the stigma writing centers face as places where “bad” students are sent.

    Yet today’s faculty are expected to write across more genres than ever before: grant proposals, peer-reviewed articles, public-facing pieces, social media content and policy briefs. Each involves different skills and audiences. The faculty member who can craft a compelling journal article may struggle with a foundation proposal or an op-ed. Writing support isn’t remedial—it’s strategic professional development.

    The current moment also presents unique challenges. Post-pandemic isolation has disrupted the informal networks that previously supported faculty writing. Budget constraints mean fewer resources for individual faculty development, making shared writing support more essential. New faculty arrive on campus without the professional development resources or mentor networks that previous generations took for granted, while midcareer faculty face mounting pressure to produce more with less support.

    We can do better in our support of faculty writers. If you want to help, here are ways to do better, or to get started.

    • Gather resources. Even though writing support might be available, it may not be widely known, or up-to-date, and it may be dispersed across many different units or offices on campus. Create a centralized web page gathering information for all campus resources for faculty writing. The entity that hosts the site will be different for each campus. For some, it’s the provost’s office. For others, it’s a writing or teaching center. List the resources—where faculty can go for support—and help faculty navigate the resources by providing descriptions (not just links), categories (i.e., “find a writing group”) and contact information. Collaborate with faculty to curate a list of recommended books, podcasts and writing spaces they have found helpful.
    • Make faculty writing visible. What if faculty writing support were as central to campus as student writing support? A teaching center could include a workshop on writing about teaching; the provost’s office or campus research center could offer workshops on developing institutional review board protocols. Consider reserving dedicated spaces for faculty to gather and write (such as a faculty writing room) or schedule specific writing times/days in a university writing center or campus coffee shop. Give them a name (Writing Wednesdays, Motivating Mondays). Writers can plan for these meet-ups and write in the company of others, in public rather than isolated in individual offices.
    • Organize a virtual workshop watch session and follow-up discussions. Gather faculty for a workshop watch session. After the workshop, help participants continue to discuss what they learned and how they’ll apply it through group check-ins or follow-up meetings. Try NCFDD’s core curriculum webinar “Every Semester Needs a Plan,” The Professor Is In’s “Art of Productivity,” or join a London Writers’ Salon Writers’ Hour, and talk about everyone’s work after the writing session.
    • Identify a faculty cohort to support for a year. Supporting all faculty writers with diluted support is often ineffective. Instead, focus on associate professors one year, new faculty writers the next and clinical faculty writers the next. Help them connect and be resources for each other throughout the year through writing retreats and writing groups. Build a campus writing community one cohort at a time.
    • Collaborate with campus partners. Combine campus resources to support writers. Could the library offer a meeting space? Two departments co-convene a writing group? Campus units could take turns hosting a daylong writing space once a month, helping writers learn about different spaces and writers across campus.
    • Start a writing support library. This can be virtual or in a central location on campus. Partner with the library to keep track of which books are in circulation or in high demand. Consider developing a workshop or writing group around in-demand books.
    • Ask faculty what they need and listen and respond. If we don’t ask faculty what they need, we won’t know. What some faculty need now may be different than what they needed last fall.
    • Support connectors. Every campus has them—the person or department that is a go-to for troubleshooting faculty questions and connecting them to writing resources. Amplify their reach, and support the faculty relationships and networks they’ve already established. Support the person or people who will curate that library, update the resource list, collaborate with campus partners and serve as a faculty writer point of contact.

    What’s next? Start by mapping what already exists on your campus. Create one central hub where faculty can find all writing-related resources. Make faculty writing as visible and supported as student writing. It’s OK to start small: Try one of these strategies we’ve shared and notice what happens. And remember—supporting faculty writers isn’t about fixing deficiencies. It’s about recognizing that writing is central to faculty success and deserves the same institutional attention we give to other essential job functions. Faculty are an invaluable resource in our campus ecosystems. Let’s lower the barrier to them finding the support they need to write well. When they thrive, so do our institutions.

    Jennifer Ahern-Dodson is an associate professor of the practice in writing studies at Duke University, where she directs the Faculty Write Program.

    Christine Tulley is a professor of English at the University of Findlay and president of Defend, Publish & Lead, a faculty development organization.

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  • Hearing Your Student Evaluations Differently? – Faculty Focus

    Hearing Your Student Evaluations Differently? – Faculty Focus

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  • The Final Stretch: Designing a Meaningful Course Ending – Faculty Focus

    The Final Stretch: Designing a Meaningful Course Ending – Faculty Focus

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  • The Final Stretch: Designing a Meaningful Course Ending – Faculty Focus

    The Final Stretch: Designing a Meaningful Course Ending – Faculty Focus

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  • Duke Asked Some Faculty to Avoid Talking to Media

    Duke Asked Some Faculty to Avoid Talking to Media

    Duke is facing a $108 million federal funding freeze and multiple federal investigations. 

    Duke University file photo

    As Duke University navigates a $108 million federal research funding freeze and multiple investigations by the Trump administration, administrators want faculty to avoid talking to the media about institutional operations, The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper reported Monday.

    According to an August email obtained by The Chronicle, Jenny Edmonds, associate dean of communications and marketing at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, encouraged faculty to “continue to engage with the media to disseminate [their] research as [they] have always done,” while also cautioning that “media attention to institutions of higher education and discussions about institutional responses to policy changes have become more prominent than ever.”

    “In this moment in particular, questions about Duke and current events are being answered by Frank Tramble and his team,” Edmonds wrote. “If you are contacted by the media about overarching issues confronting the University, please forward the requests to [Sanford’s Senior Public Relations Manager Matt LoJacono] and me.”

    Although it wasn’t a universitywide directive, The Chronicle obtained emails that show some other departments also gave their faculty similar instructions to route media requests through the university’s central communications channels.

    At an Academic Council meeting in October, Duke’s president, Vincent Price, and council chair, Mark Anthony Neal, commended faculty members for not speaking to a New York Times reporter; the reporter had visited the campus while working on a story about the Trump administration targeting Duke’s diversity, equity and inclusion program.

    “It was pretty amazing that [the reporter] actually got no commentary from Duke officials and Duke faculty,” Neal continued. “Even if it wasn’t overtly communicated to the community, the community understood the stakes of that mode of inquiry.”

    At that meeting Price also called Trump’s higher education compact—which would allegedly give universities preferential funding in exchange for making sweeping institutional policy changes— “highly problematic,” according to The Chronicle. Despite public pressure, Duke hasn’t officially rejected the terms of the compact.

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