Spotlight on: Faculty
When considering which of the many deserving faculty members to spotlight this month, I imagined instead the 154 new faculty who are quickly approaching the middle of their first semester with us. The contributions they and their colleagues are making and the exponential impact they have on our students is extraordinary. I want to thank and honor all of them for their commitment to higher education and to share some of the initiatives we have in place to support them:
- an annual raise process for EHRA faculty and non-faculty employees that marks the third year in a row for merit pay increases for faculty
- internal funding for 14 new tenure-track faculty lines
- creation of the new Center for Academic Excellence to strengthen professional development opportunities
- the Chancellor’s Academic Leadership Development Program, initiated last spring, which graduated its inaugural class of nine participants and has a class of 14 more individuals underway in 2016-17
- the imminent creation of an Innovation Scholars Program, which will provide support for faculty and staff engaged in innovation within their discipline. Innovations could be related to teaching, research, service, community engagement, economic development or any combination thereof.