Section 3: Comprehensive Standards
3.7.3 The institution provides evidence of ongoing professional development of faculty as teachers, scholars, and practitioners.
Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance
Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
Christopher Newport University is in compliance with this comprehensive standard. The criteria for retention, promotion, and tenure include teaching, professional development, and service. The institution provides evidence of ongoing professional development of faculty through several annual procedures and practices:
According to the University Handbook, each probationary and tenured faculty member prepares an annual activities report for the preceding academic year highlighting activities for the three major areas of evaluation--teaching, professional development and service. The report provides guidance for the peer group and the chair to areas the member considers of primary importance, provides the starting point for the evaluation at the departmental level for those members being evaluated that year, and provides information from each member for the departmental Annual Report. Guidelines for preparation of the Annual Activities Report are provided by the Faculty Review Committee, subject to the approval of the Provost.
As articulated in the University Handbook, professional development involves participation in professional societies, including presentations; formal and informal interaction with university peers in professional matters; participation in short courses and additional course work in professionally related areas; completion of additional degrees; research in progress and publications; and attainment of honors and awards. Furthermore, faculty are expected to contribute to the fund of knowledge in the appropriate discipline, including scholarly publications in the refereed literature of the faculty member's discipline as well as exhibitions and performances subject to critical and scholarly review. Professional development receives special emphasis in evaluations of graduate faculty.
Documentation related to professional development includes preprints or reprints of scholarly publications, papers presented at academic meetings, copies of manuscripts in progress, or other evidence of scholarly activity (e.g., jury reports on exhibitions or performances); copies of transcripts, certificates, or diplomas; copies of research proposals and awards of research grants; reports of referees or reviewers; and summaries of citations of the faculty member's scholarly work.
Institutional support for faculty development comes through a number of sources:
In the Luter School of Business, the EVAL-6, specifically the self-evaluation component, serves as the basis for each faculty member’s five-year professional development plan, which addresses goals in the areas of teaching, intellectual contributions, and service. The resources necessary to achieve these goals are included in the plan. The department chair meets with each faculty member to review the plan for its consistency with the needs of the program as well as the standards for retention, promotion, and tenure as appropriate. The dean reviews the plans to determine allocation of resources such as travel funds, discretionary funds, and released time. The professional development plan is also used as a benchmark in the evaluation process.
Faculty members regularly attend conferences to present papers. The Luter School also sponsors in-house brown-bags devoted to professional development. Topics include both teaching issues and scholarship. Other university faculty and staff members are invited to present; for example, IT staff have discussed the University website and student life representatives addressed issues such as the honor code. This past January, prior to the opening of the semester, the Luter School hosted a representative from the Center for Academic Integrity. Student Life staff members in addition to the entire Luter School faculty attended. The all-day workshop discussed the mindset of high school students regarding academic dishonesty, intervention strategies to encourage academic honesty, and identification and use of websites to review student work.
The Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) periodically offers additional on-campus and off-campus development opportunities. In 2005, the dean’s office sent three faculty members to the Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University of Ohio. In the following spring two faculty members attended the Lilly Conference East at Towson University in Maryland. Each year the dean’s office sponsors The Faculty Conference on Teaching, Learning, Research, and Scholarship, at which faculty present to their colleagues the results of professional development. In the past three years, faculty research and development has been increasingly allied with undergraduate research, evidence of which is confirmed in increasing number of faculty sponsored student research presented at the annual CNU Paideia Conference each spring.
In academic years 2004, 2005, 2006, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences spent $311,303.46 and an additional $83,850 on adjunct salaries in order to support reduced load grants. In the summers of 2004, 2005 and 2006 the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences awarded stipends totaling $144,022. Sixty-nine CLAS faculty have received these awards.
The University’s Faculty Development Grant Program, administered through the Faculty Senate, exists to improve instructional effectiveness and promote professional development. Year-long grants are funded for professional development, instructional development or to offset expenses incurred in preparing doctoral dissertations.
The Faculty Senate handles the initial review of the faculty development grant applications and passes recommendations to the Provost each semester. Grant applications, the final report form, and the Faculty Senate’s grant evaluation form may be found on the Provost’s website. Descriptions of development categories and the grant application procedure are located in the University Handbook, Section XI.3.b.6), Instructional Faculty Personnel Regulations.
In 2005-06, the Faculty Senate recommended to the Provost that a budget request be submitted to the Budget Advisory Committee to increase faculty development grant funding $30,000, to $60,000 for 2006-07.
Faculty Development Grant Funding 1997-98 to 2005-06:
Amount Funded |
Number of Grants |
Average Grant |
|
1997-98 |
$ 11,718 |
10 |
$ 1,172 |
1998-99 |
$ 20,722 |
20 |
$ 1,036 |
1999-00 |
$ 40,869 |
31 |
$ 1,318 |
2000-01 |
$ 50,182 |
37 |
$ 1,356 |
2001-02 |
$ - |
0 |
$ - |
2002-03 |
$ - |
0 |
$ - |
2003-04 |
$ 21,759 |
13 |
$ 1,674 |
2004-05 |
$ 35,268 |
15 |
$ 2,351 |
2005-06 |
$ 27,008 |
16 |
$ 1,688 |
Due to State budget reductions, funding for faculty development grant program was re-allocated to other priorities in 2001-02 and 2002-03. |
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Support Documentation:
University Handbook 06-07, Section XI.3.b.6)
University Faculty Development Program Forms:
Faculty Development Grant Application
Faculty Development Grant Senate Evaluation Form
Faculty Development Grant Final Report
Summer Stipend Application
Sabbatical Application
Copy of Provost Website: Faculty Development Information
EVAL-4 Departmental Standards and Procedures for Faculty Evaluations
EVAL-6 Professional Activities Report
EVAL-6 Faculty Examples:
Dr. Riedl
Dr. Rowley
EVAL-AR Annual Review
School of Business Faculty Development
2004, 2005, 2006 Dean’s Office Grants Funding for Grants
EVAL4 Example: History
Dean’s Grant Application Instructions
CLAS Dean’s Office Grants Log
CLAS Dean’s Office Grant Reports:
Dr. Zang
Dr. Underwood
Dr. Martin
Additional Live Web Resources:
None