Greetings faculty colleagues,

2024 is here and the Office of Faculty Affairs is excited to kick off the new year! Through our various recognition, development and learning opportunities, we hope you are able to find multiple ways to connect with our office and faculty colleagues from across the university throughout this spring.  Highlighted below are several of our upcoming programs, and stay tuned for more as the semester takes off. 

If you haven't yet nominated a colleague for a University Distinguished Teaching Award, please consider doing so to recognize the innovations in pedagogy, meaningful mentoring of students, and excellence in teaching that our colleagues deliver each semester at KU. We have streamlined the nomination process so that all University Distinguished Teaching Award nomination deadlines have the same submission due date of Monday, February 5, 2024. Please refer to our call for nominations to see a full list of award opportunities. 

If you know a faculty member who is new to your unit this spring semester, please be sure to encourage them to register for Spring 2024 New Faculty Orientation, which takes place on Friday, January 12. During this event, new faculty will have the chance to meet colleagues, hear from administrators and seasoned faculty about teaching and research, and learn firsthand what it means to be a part of the KU academic community. Additionally, we have a full lineup of New Faculty Foundation Series events scheduled for this spring. With topics that include graduate student mentoring, student support, and time management, these in-depth, relevant conversations are designed to help new faculty develop their strengths and connect with the resources available to them here at KU. 

Lastly, we would like to highlight our Spring Faculty Learning Circles (FLC). FLCs are part of our Faculty in Conversation Series and are small group, interactive experiences which foster interpersonal connections and collective wisdom around specific topics. Facilitators provide relevant expertise and knowledge of available resources. Our spring FLC offerings include Supporting International Faculty Connections and Belonging, Associate Professors Preparing for Promotion at Mid-Career, and Establishing a Productive Writing Practice. You may register for any of these three-part series here. 

On behalf of the Office of Faculty Affairs, we look forward to an eventful and productive spring!  

Amy Mendenhall
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs 
Professor, School of Social Welfare 

With your help, we have been busy these past several months collecting verification of academic credentials for all instructors at KU. However, academic credentials are not the only qualification that may be relevant for instruction. The university policy on minimum qualifications allows for qualification via tested experience criteria – but there has not been a university-wide policy regarding these criteria themselves. To address this important policy need, we are working with Academic Affairs and the Policy Office to develop a draft university policy for tested experience. We will soon be reaching out to units for feedback on the draft university policy to determine how it fits with current instructors, their future needs and any unit level policy that may already be in place. 

January 12, 2024
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Kansas Union, Big 12 Room

Our Spring New Faculty Orientation is a full-day event. It serves as an opportunity to hear from campus leaders; learn more about KU’s students; and become acquainted with key units that support teaching and research, provide course design resources, help with grant writing and funding, and foster professional development. Most importantly, Spring New Faculty Orientation will provide you with a chance to connect with each other. 

This event is open to faculty joining KU this spring or to any new faculty who may have missed our fall orientation. More details to come soon on this page and our website!

January 31
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Kansas Union, English Room

In this session, we will discuss best practices for advising and mentoring, and discuss resources available to support graduate students and advisors through the Office of Graduate Studies.

February 13
3 - 4 p.m.
Watson Library, 3 West Event Space

The session will feature librarian-faculty pairings to discuss the projects they have worked on together and we invite you to bring your own ideas and questions to make a librarian connection!

March 7
3 - 4 p.m.
Beren Petroleum Conference Center, Slawson Hall

This session will feature leadership from Student Affairs to talk about the successes and challenges our students are facing, as well as provide information about key resources faculty can use to encourage student engagement and belonging.

The Office of Faculty Affairs is in the process of building out our Faculty in Conversation Series to include Faculty Learning Circles, Writing Circles, and Faculty Book Circles. See below for our current offerings, as well as our website and our monthly newsletter for programming updates.

February 1 from 1 - 2:30 p.m.
April 18 from 1 - 2:30 p.m.
March 28 from 1 - 2:30 p.m

This series focuses on supporting international faculty connections and is facilitated by Dr. Hyesun Cho and Dr. Haiying Long.

February 29 from noon - 1:30 p.m.
March 21 from noon - 1:30 p.m.
April 4 from noon - 1:30 p.m.

This series focuses on Associate Professors preparing for promotion at mid-career and is facilitated by Dr. Megan Greene and Dr. Lisa Wolf-Wendel.

Many faculty and staff members say they recognize the importance of generative AI but haven’t had the time or the opportunity to use it. This hands-on workshop will provide that opportunity. It will focus on the basics of Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and Bard, leading participants through the basics of prompting and exploring potential uses for generative AI in higher education.

This workshop takes place Friday, January 19 at 10 - 11:30 a.m. or 1 - 2:30 p.m. in Watson Library. Register here by January 18. 

Successful meetings require preparation. In this HRM course we’ll discuss actions that both meeting leaders and meeting participants can take to ensure a meeting is an effective use of everyone’s time. The interactive format will cover goals and agendas, processes to achieve meeting objectives, and after-meeting reviews. We’ll also examine strategies for building teamwork and fostering an atmosphere of psychological safety.

Register for this Zoom training which takes place Wednesday, February 28 from 10 a.m. - noon.

In this HRM training, learn tools to prepare for a difficult conversation using a five-step framework from the book, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. Bring with you an idea of a difficult conversation you need to have and during class you can workshop your conversation using the framework as your guide.

Register for this training which takes place Wednesday, March 20 from 9 a.m. - noon in JRP 204, Lawrence campus.

Ready for Spring? We are! And, if writing is on your 2024 goals list, NCFDD can help! 

The NCFDD hosts a 14-day writing challenge each semester, and the Spring 20204 Writing Challenge is set to launch February 26th. What does that entail? By agreeing to participate, you will have access to a community that provides you with support and accountability for daily writing, access to support and engagement from the NCFDD team, and access to NCFDD’s custom WriteNow software. Curious about the details? Registration ends February 16, 2024, with the spring session running February 26-March 10. An active membership with NCFDD is required for participation, so sign up here (it is free through KU’s institutional membership!). While you are on their website, check out their other offerings – such as how to develop a daily writing practice, mastering academic time management, and overcoming academic procrastination – all of which are created to help support your journey to success! 

NIH Writing Workshop

Improve your proposals to the National Institutes of Health by attending KU's NIH Writing Workshop! The workshop consists of seminars (open to all KU researchers) and cohort meetings for 10-15 selected investigators. Learn more and apply by Jan. 22 here.

KU Research Grant Opportunity (KU Research GO)

KU Research GO is a KU Office of Research-funded program dedicated to expanding the university’s research enterprise by supporting work needed to prepare competitive proposals for external funding opportunities with application deadlines in the near future. $250,000 has been set aside for this program for fiscal year 2024. Learn more and apply by Jan. 24 here.

Student Affairs University Awards

The nomination period for student University Awards is open. University Awards recognize students who embody service excellence, dedication, or whose academic achievements remain stellar. Each recipient is recognized during a surprise in-class presentation, and the award recipients’ photos are included in the Commencement Program.

We encourage members of your faculty and staff to nominate a student deserving of a University Award. The student will then be prompted via email to complete an application for the award. Nominate a student by completing this form.

University Distinguished Teaching Awards

The Office of Faculty Affairs announces the call for nominations for the University Distinguished Teachings Awards. Please visit our Awards and Recognition page to learn more about awards and nomination processes. 

Humanities Col(LAB)oratives

Offers faculty in the humanities and humanities-oriented social sciences a three-year long Humanities Col(LAB)orative organized around a central humanistic theme or topic. More: Faculty Funding Information

University Distinguished Professorship

The Provost invites nominations of candidates for two university distinguished professorships. These professorships are unrestricted and may be filled by a distinguished scholar in any field, although special consideration will be given to nominations of faculty from groups, fields, or disciplines that have limited representation among the individuals currently holding named or university distinguished professorships. Departments and schools are encouraged to think broadly and inclusively when considering nominees. A list of the current distinguished professors can be found here. 

Additional information on the nomination process can be found here.

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