Faculty Affairs Newsletter
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Mid-Career Faculty Development Opportunity
CAFE is excited to announce a mid-career faculty development opportunity. This program will provide participants with the resources to develop a strategic plan for advancing their academic careers.
CAFE has developed a series of 4 workshops for full-time mid-career faculty to be conducted via Zoom, culminating in a plan to reach your future career goal(s). The program will kick off with a workshop in January and will walk through articulating your career goal(s). The subsequent 3 workshops will cover understanding the path to your goal(s), reflecting on your career path so far, and writing a feasible plan to reach your career goal(s). Workshops will take place during the months of January, February, March and April, with specific dates to be determined.
There is limited space for participation, so if you are interested in this opportunity, please click on the link below to take a brief survey. The survey will take approximately 5-10 minutes and will help CAFE understand the needs of those interested. The call for participation will be open until December 1, 2022.
If you have additional questions, please contact Lorie Holt at holtla@umkc.edu.
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Spring 2023 CAFE Conference
Friday, January 13th, 2023, Kauffman Conference Center
Please take this opportunity to collaborate with interested colleagues in a conference hosted by the UMKC Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence. Offering a session at the CAFE 2023 Spring Conference provides an opportunity to build your professional network amongst colleagues and friends. Presenting a content-rich session individually or as part of a team is a wonderful way to share knowledge, experiences, and engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The conference's community-generated program will showcase future directions, best practices, success in research endeavors, stories of successful collaborations, lessons learned, and solutions to community-wide issues. We welcome your submission!
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CAFE Conference will feature local documentary
While the full program is still a work in progress, we do know that we will be screening the documentary film, Class of COVID-19, produced by Donna M. Davis, Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Foundation in the School of Education, Social Work and Psychological Sciences.
Join the CAFE team and your colleagues for the screening and discussion of this award winning documentary!
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Make Your Voice Heard: Faculty Survey to Launch in February
Over the years UMKC has participated in the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey. Our most recent participation was in 2017. Much has changed at UMKC since that time, and it only seems appropriate that we gather information about faculty perceptions regarding faculty workplace experiences to help inform us about programs and practices that support faculty at UMKC. Be on the lookout for more information soon!
Call for COACHE Steering Committee Members
The purpose of COACHE is to improve the academic workplace for faculty like you and others in your department, division, and the institution as a whole. Implementation of any initiative will often fail without faculty engagement and input. Faculty input can make all the difference in garnering strong and representative feedback as well as developing and implementing policies based on the outcomes of that feedback. The Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) is seeking a diverse group of faculty that will work collaboratively to make the right inferences from the COACHE survey data collected and provide input into future policy development. You can contribute your perspective about things like tenure and promotion policies, shared governance, and the support faculty receive to be effective teachers and scholars.
COACHE team members can expect to devote five to ten hours of their time each month to activities associated with the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey and that commitment will last anywhere from 1 to 2 years. If you are interested in being a part of the UMKC COACHE team, please fill out the Qualtrics survey by December 1st.
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Faculty Writing Initiative
Looking for dedicated time and space to write this semester? Apply by December 16 to take part in the Faculty Writing Initiative.
Now entering its sixth semester, the FWI offers faculty-structured writing time to make progress on writing projects. Each session begins with goal setting and ends with progress check-ins. Discussions about writing strategies bring structure and a sense of community to the solitary work of writing.
Feel free of writing guilt going into the weekend. Gain a sense of camaraderie by writing in a group environment. The FWI helps faculty build writing time consistently into their schedules. The FWI group encourages each other in building a writing practice, instead of reading and responding to writing.
Interested? Complete an online application here by December 16, 2022. The FWI will select faculty to ensure that the initiative serves writers from all disciplines and across all ranks in the university.
If you have any questions, please email Dr. Byrd (antoniobyrd@umkc.edu) or Dr. Greer (greerj@umkc.edu).
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Peer Observee Application
The Peer Observation Pilot Program
The UMKC pilot Peer Observation Program will be carried out in the spring 2023 semester. This program is designed to promote teaching development through creation of a collaborative partnership between the faculty member being observed (the Observee) and a trained Observer.
The Role of the Observee
We are seeking 10-20 faculty who would like to have one of their classes observed by a colleague. This classroom observation will occur between the dates of Feb. 13 and April 10, 2023. This Peer Observation Program is developmentally focused (instead of evaluative) and is designed to be reflective in nature. By working closely with a trained Observer, the Observee maintains ownership over their own professional development. Observees can either choose to identify a specific area of focus for the observation or ask for a more generalized observation.
Why should you apply to be Observed?
There are many benefits to regular engagement and discussion with peers about teaching such as exchange of ideas, development of knowledge and skills, getting guidance on specific areas in need of development, etc.
Peer observation can provide an additional input about your teaching in addition to the regular end-of-the-semester course evaluations completed by students.
Application deadline: January 17, 2023
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UMKC pilots a new end-of-semester evaluation system
Three of UMKC's schools (the School of Education, Social Work and Psychological Sciences, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Science and Engineering) will pilot a new end of semester evaluation system tentatively called QEval.
QEval offers full Canvas integration, an automated reminder system to help improve student response rates, and expanded reporting options, including dashboard data visualizations for instructors, department chairs and Deans that provide analysis and comparison capabilities. Faculty are able to download evaluation data.
In spring 2023, QEval will be rolled out to the rest of the UMKC campus. At this point, it is anticipated that schools will be able to customize their evaluations by adding questions specific to their unit or programs.
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Accepting Nominations for
UM System Faculty Awards
The UM System Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to share information regarding this year’s system-level faculty awards. Please visit our website for more information.
Curators’ Distinguished Professorships
Nominations due to the Office of the Provost by March 1, 2023
The University of Missouri Board of Curators requests nominations for Curators’ Distinguished Professors and Distinguished Teaching Professors. These five-year academic appointments are reserved for outstanding scholars with established national or international recognition for research and teaching excellence. These are the most prestigious faculty awards bestowed by the Board of Curators. The distinction includes a $15,000 annual stipend.
Any active, full-time faculty member may be nominated. The nomination can be made by any faculty member or administrator.
C. Brice Ratchford Memorial Fellowship
Nominations due to the Office of the Provost by December 1, 2022
Nominations due to the UM System Office of Engagement by December 16, 2022
The University of Missouri System Office of Engagement requests nominations for the C. Brice Ratchford Memorial Fellowship. This award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates commitment, dedication, and effectiveness in advancing the land-grant mission through extension, international education, and agricultural economics programs. The C. Brice Ratchford Fellowship is awarded by the UM System President once annually. The recipient will receive a $4,000 award.
Any active or emeritus faculty member associated with one of the four UM universities may be nominated for this award. The nomination can be made by any member of the university community.
Questions? Contact UMAcademicAffairs@UMSystem.edu
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