New Tenure-Track Faculty Orientation
Caption: New Faculty Orientation at the Ferman Presentation Room听
New Tenure-Track Faculty Survey Helps Introduce 快活林性息 Faculty Hires to Students and Fellow Faculty听
Director of Faculty Development, Whitney Scott, shares the process of new faculty orientation听
When a new tenure-track faculty member comes to 快活林性息, they don鈥檛 just step onto campus and start teaching. There鈥檚 a historical process that, according to Director of Faculty Development Whitney Scott, includes a four-day orientation two weeks before the semester begins (August 13 to 16, 2024), a survey that includes questions about their terminal degree, research interests, and unique teaching methods, and a digital flip book available to 快活林性息 students and staff. 听听
And with 42 new tenure-track faculty starting at 快活林性息 for the 2024-2025 school year, you can imagine the process was complex, and preparation for the orientation intense. 听 听
鈥淚t鈥檚 our biggest event of the year,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淎nd it is so important.听
鈥淭he top-of-mind objective for us鈥攁nd what so many institutions actually do ineffectively鈥攊s to prioritize information critical for them the first few weeks at 快活林性息. We are trying to prepare them so that they can go into their first week with a sense of readiness, but not feeling overwhelmed,鈥� Scott explains. 鈥淲e realized that a 鈥榝ire hose鈥� approach to information is not productive.鈥澨�
Scott remembers a professor who told her that during their first week of classes, a student asked for help with campus resources, and the student was 鈥渋n a state of distress,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he professor said that because of the tours at new faculty orientation, they were able to not only tell the student exactly where to go, they could describe what would happen when they got there.鈥澨�
The objectives of the orientation also include providing clarity about the campus鈥� efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and finally, focusing on the wellness and confidence of new faculty. 鈥淏ecause, after all, they鈥檙e not sleeping, they鈥檙e not eating, they don鈥檛 know where things are,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淲e make an effort to affirm the multiple identities of our community. We talk about gender and race and ethnicity throughout the whole event so people can find their communities. For instance, if you have children, who are the other parents in the room? If you have caretaking responsibilities, who might be a source of information and support around that?鈥� 听
A Virtual Flip Book听
Another time-intensive job is the annual 鈥測earbook鈥� Scott, her staff and students produce. 鈥淲hen I first started here, 22 years ago, we created a yearbook with photos and profiles of all the new staff,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淚 look at a copy of the 2013-2014 issue and these people are department heads now!鈥� 听
It used to be a physical book, but starting with the pandemic, when the orientation had to be on Zoom, staff pivoted to a digital version of the yearbook. 鈥淚t鈥檚 now kind of a digital flip book that we use information from the surveys to populate,鈥� Scott continues, 鈥淭hen on the final day of the orientation we put it up on the screen.鈥� 听
Making the Most of Orientation听
One standout new faculty member from this year鈥檚 orientation is Seven Bailey, from the Music Department, who was deeply involved in making connections with his colleagues, 鈥渕eeting every single human at the resource tables, and really infusing himself into the community,鈥� says Scott. 鈥淭hen, when September came around, he got involved with an event called 鈥楾he State of Hip Hop, Past, Present, Future鈥� within weeks of joining 快活林性息.听
Then, there are the stories of Bianca Villalobos and Juventino Hernandez, who were both hired in the Psychology Department and then after they were hired, revealed to the reviewers that they are a married couple. And Nancy Perez, Associate Professor Department of Central American and Transborder Studies who got both her undergrad and masters鈥� degrees at 快活林性息, where she participated in the student activism during her time on campus, and who came back to us as a professor. 听
What鈥檚 evident is that the recently made changes to the hiring process, and the efforts to reflect the diversity of 快活林性息 students in its faculty, is creating a faculty primed for success, and that leads to student success as well. 听
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