The Center for Integrated Professional Development expects nearly 100 full- and part-time instructors to participate in this year’s New Faculty Orientation, a series of events to prepare faculty to teach Illinois State’s diverse population of student learners. The weeklong slate of workshops, discussions, and social events are organized by the center in partnership with the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Office of Research, and Milner Library.
Starting together
One of the key components of New Faculty Orientation is to bring new instructors together to meet each other and to be immersed from the very start in the University’s vision and values.
The meeting on Monday in the Bone Student Center will kick off with a “Building Your Networks” event. Interim President Aondover Tarhule and Acting Provost Ani Yazedjian will welcome the new faculty. Then, center staff will facilitate an interactive exploration of teaching at Illinois State, sharing resources to help instructors get started with the semester. This will be followed by an introduction to research at Illinois State, facilitated by Dr. Craig McLauchlan, associate vice president for research and graduate studies. The morning concludes with roundtable discussions centered on each participant’s college.
New faculty members are then invited to visit with the deans and the Provost’s Office staff at a buffet lunch. There is also a table fair featuring nearly 40 units from across campus, representing available services for staff, students, and the community. Dr. Tarhule will host a reception for new faculty at the University Residence on Monday night.
Deeper explorations
More sessions will take place later in the week, allowing new faculty to engage in deeper explorations of important topics. This is a relatively recent change. Traditionally, New Faculty Orientation was typically packed into a single, one-day event.
“It was like drinking out of the firehose. There was so much information that was coming at new faculty,” notes Dr. Jennifer Friberg, the director of scholarly teaching for the center.
New faculty experiences were spread out at first in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to meet virtually. Soon, it became clear that the extended format provides several other advantages: Organizers can offer a more diverse selection of topics, instructors can choose topics of interest a la carte, and they can make informed choices about their professional development which better fit in their busy lives.
Sessions this year will include both online and in-person offerings, ranging from “Equity in the College Classroom” to “Getting Started with Your Research” to “Queer Allyship for New Faculty.” Supplemental learning is also provided through a series of online, self-paced modules. In addition, new faculty members are encouraged to attend Faculty Prep Week workshops. These short sessions, open to all instructors, will focus on Canvas, the new learning management system being fully adopted by the University this fall.
Just the beginning
While a strong start is always important, New Faculty Orientation is just the beginning of the journey. Plenty of support is available for new faculty members as they move through the academic year and transition into the early stages of their career. Some of those resources are highlighted in this recent episode of the center’s podcast, Let’s Talk Teaching.
Links to additional support are also available on the center’s New and Early Career Faculty page.
