2026 - 2027 Faculty Learning Communities

Facilitator: Vinita Agarwal

The central premise of the FLC will be to cultivate a campus culture of mental health and well-being. Although several initiatives (e.g., CAFÉ, Mindfulness, Move4Wellness) and structural programs/offices exist (e.g., Counseling Center, which is clinical in nature, positioning mental health through an interventionist frame) across SU, these are disparate initiatives scattered across the campus. The FLC will work to craft a coherent and compelling space recognizing, championing, and facilitating everyday mental health and well-being for all members of SU. It will aim to create synergy among faculty across disciplines and schools with a shared interest in mental health and well-being. Its overall goal will be to ingrain a culture of mental health and well-being in our campus fabric in ways that facilitate flourishing and thriving; prioritizes self- and other-care in everyday contexts as key values for a healthy campus; and supports initiatives across campus life (e.g., meals, walkways, spaces, classrooms, interactions, and so on). This may, down the line, be embedded in structural ways through an "Institute of Campus Mental Health and Well-Being" under which all the campus initiatives are embedded. Following upon this goal, the FLC will explore recognition and championing of mental health and well-being as a key value through recognition on well-regarded platforms (e.g., Princeton’s Mental Health College Honor Roll).

Facilitator: Chrys Egan, Jim Fox, Margarita Treuth

The Department Chairs and School Directors FLC invites leaders across academic units to collaborate throughout the academic year to address program leadership expectations, changes, challenges, and successes. Chairs and directors serve as liaisons between stakeholders (administration, faculty, staff, students, families, alumni, donors, and community members) to manage significant responsibilities (curriculum, schedules, budget, committees, recruitment, retention, assessment, professional development, strategic planning, and more), while providing vision, upholding morale, and resolving issues. This FLC will balance the needs and abilities ranging from incoming chairs/directors to seasoned colleagues, who may be transitioning back to the faculty or seeking additional leadership roles.  The FLC takes a facilitated workshop approach to prepare leaders, transfer institutional knowledge, share best practices, problem-solve issues in real time, and provide a safe, collegial community of program leaders.

Facilitator: Yuki Okubo, Haley Cristea

For the past four years, DJAM has served to connect faculty, staff, and students across campus to promote belonging. We encourage opportunities to foster growth and connection, drawing strength from our personal experiences, values, and world views informed by differences of culture and circumstance. We advocate for equal access, opportunity, and advancement of all students, faculty, and staff. We collaborate with the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, Office of Access and Accommodations, the Instructional Design and Delivery, and other groups to identify barriers and solutions that matter. In the past, we had informal meetings, Flock n’ Squawk campus walks, and other opportunities where we fostered a sense of community and building an inclusive campus community. In AY2026-27, we will be partnering up with the Office of Inclusion, Access, & Belonging in facilitating the “Know Your Rights” campaign to increase understanding of civil rights protection among Salisbury University’s students, faculty, staff, and broader community.

Facilitators: Lisa Marquette, Autumn Romanowski, Tim Werner, Zac Townsend

The EIM FLC brings faculty together who are committed to the physical and mental benefits of movement in one’s daily life. This FLC will be an employee wellness initiative that will include 3 main phases: 1) baseline health and fitness assessment, 2) individualized 12-week activity plan, and 3) outcome evaluation.

1. Baseline Assessment: Participants will undergo a comprehensive health-related fitness testing session to establish one’s current cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, mobility, body composition and anthropometrics, balance, and quality of life.
2. Individualized Activity Plan: Baseline data will be used to prescribe a personalized 12-week fitness program tailored to each participant’s specific needs and goals.
3. Outcome Evaluation: Following the 12-week program, participants will undergo post-testing to quantify improvements in health and fitness and assess the program’s overall effectiveness.

It is also common to face barriers for engaging in daily movement, especially with the busy schedule of most faculty and staff. Therefore, this FLC will hold at least one educational seminar per Department/School to provide information on the physical activity guidelines required to obtain fitness and health benefits, offer solutions to common barriers to being active, and provide education on how to set effective goals to increase the likelihood of reaching them. Thus, this FLC strives to provide an avenue to improve the overall health and wellness of the campus community.  By investing in the health of SU employees, the university fosters a culture of well-being that can lead to improved quality of life, increased work productivity, and enhanced work-life balance.

Facilitators:  Janice Orcutt, Catherine Jackson

Generative AI (GenAI) has rapidly evolved from an emerging technology to a transformative force across teaching and learning, research, and institutional operations. At Salisbury University, questions about its effective, ethical, and appropriate use remain central, including considerations of academic integrity, equitable access, and its role in preparing students for an AI-integrated workforce.

Building on its inaugural work and subsequent year of classroom-focused exploration, the re-envisioned FLC–GenAI expands its scope to address GenAI across higher education contexts. The community will include faculty, staff, and graduate students, reflecting the broad impact of AI technologies across the university ecosystem.

A central component of this year’s work will be the administration of a campus-wide survey examining attitudes, perceptions, and uses of GenAI. As a follow-up to the survey conducted during the FLC’s first year, this effort will provide valuable longitudinal insight into how perspectives and practices have evolved over time. Findings will help identify emerging trends, ongoing concerns, and opportunities for growth, informing both institutional decision-making and targeted support.

In addition to data collection, the FLC will continue to serve as a hub for dialogue, collaboration, and shared learning. Members will explore practical applications of GenAI, highlight innovative uses across disciplines and roles, and contribute to the development of resources and guidance for the campus community. Through partnerships with the AI Task Force, CAFE, and Instructional Design & Delivery (ID&D), the FLC will support alignment between practice, policy, and professional development.

Ultimately, the FLC–GenAI seeks to foster a culture of informed, ethical, and innovative engagement with generative AI, helping Salisbury University navigate this evolving landscape with clarity, inclusivity, and purpose. We will recognize contributions of staff and faculty in this effort through the continuation of the AI Catalyst Award.

Facilitators: Michael McCarty

This FLC is designed for Humanities scholars to meet two to four times each semester to workshop work in progress and discuss our research agendas. Over the years we have built a supportive community that has been instrumental in helping members on top of scholarly projects, despite the challenges. As Elizabeth Tandy Shermer argues, “it always takes an academic village to bring [one’s writing] to life” in a publication. The Humanities Writing Group FLC aims to be one such village.

Facilitators: Ryan Weaver

The Leadership Faculty Learning Community will continue as a cross-disciplinary and cross-divisional community of faculty and staff focused on advancing Salisbury University’s institutional commitment to Carnegie Elective Classification for Leadership for Public Purpose (LPP). Building on the work completed during the Carnegie LPP application process, this FLC will support the next phase of SU’s LPP development: moving from a strong but decentralized ecosystem of leadership learning toward a more intentional, visible, assessable, and sustainable institutional framework. Salisbury University defines leadership for public purpose as the practice of integrity, civic responsibility, and inclusivity to guide meaningful learning and empower ourselves and others to engage in active citizenship for the common good. The LPP self-study confirmed that this work is already deeply embedded across SU’s curriculum, co-curriculum, scholarship, professional activity, and community partnerships. However, the process also revealed a clear need for shared language, formal designation criteria, stronger tracking systems, and more consistent assessment of LPP outcomes. The Leadership FLC at SU will provide a structured, interdisciplinary space for faculty and staff to continue this work collaboratively. Participants will examine leadership theory, civic learning, community-engaged pedagogy, co-curricular leadership development, public scholarship, and assessment practices. The FLC will also support implementation of recommendations from the LPP application, including development of curricular and co-curricular LPP criteria, alignment with SU’s 2026–2031 Strategic Plan, and intentional planning for the proposed Center for Collaborative Leadership & Innovation.

Facilitator: Leslie Swift, Isabel Quintana Wulf

This FLC is designed to be the launching pad for a university-wide peer observation of teaching (POT) program at Salisbury University, following the model presented by Tugman, Stephens, Olsen, and Bundrick in "Creating Effective Peer Observation Faculty Training Through a Community of Practice" (2025). Since different departments have varying teaching observation practices and requirements (or sometimes none), the creation of a POT program will provide a needed institutional resource for uniformed peer observation experiences among faculty and across departments. At the same time, it will create a community of practice that will bring together faculty from various departments to think, learn, and grow in our teaching pedagogy and best practices together. In this way, we will forward SU’s mission of bringing together its various constituencies as to “cultivat[e] and sustai[n] a superior learning community where students, faculty, and staff are viewed as learners, teachers/scholars, and facilitators.”  

We envision the development of the FLC and its ultimate peer observation program in different stages. For 2026-2027, we will use the fall semester to focus on reviewing peer observation of teaching scholarship. We will collectively review different assessment tools, think about rubrics, and consider the pedagogical and evaluative aspects of peer observations. The goal of the first semester is to establish scholarly basis for observation process (ranging from pre-observation meeting, class observation, post-observation conversation and processing, and summary feedback letter) and develop a rubric for class observations across the curriculum. During the second semester, we will put the theory into practice. To do so, we will follow a triad structure, where three faculty members work together as a team throughout the semester. The faculty members of the triad will be the test subjects to train willing members of the FLC to be peer teaching observers. The training will take place through the consolidation of an observation rubric. After that, we will record the triad’s pre-observation meeting, their teaching in the classroom (with the help of IDD), and post-observation meetings, and use the recordings as collective observation practices. In this way, we will calibrate and develop a uniform implementation of peer observation processes. Once a few FLC members are calibrated, we will implement a self-sustaining POT program that is offered to anyone on campus who desires to grow in their teaching practices within a community of practice. We invite faculty, staff, and graduate teaching assistants from across the university to join the Peer Observation of Teaching FLC.

Facilitators: Melissa Bugdal, Becky Anthony, Rachel Buchanan, Chrys Egan

From 2018-2022, SU supported Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) cohorts through FLCs and University Analysis, Reporting & Assessment (UARA). During AY 2025-2026, with the restructuring of SU’s Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellent (CAFE), the University of Baltimore’s Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT), invited CAFE to partner on their existing “Teaching Scholars Program.” Both at UBalt and SU, these SoTL programs emerged from conversations with faculty who expressed a strong interest in conducting SoTL research, but faced barriers such as time constraints, limited capacity, and uncertainty about navigating the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process.

To date, we have faculty and staff from multiple units participating in this collaboration. While we will continue this pilot partnership with the current group of SoTL Fellows, we have received feedback to expand our SoTL FLC work on campus for those who are a.) just beginning their SoTL inquiry and b.) for those that need specific feedback on SoTL projects for SU-specific needs (such as SU IRB processes, other researchers to help in classroom data collection, etc.), and c.) as a space to continue to learn and grow as SoTL practitioners.

For AY 2026-2027, we propose the continuation of the SoTL FLC to 1.) support our inaugural cohort of SoTL fellows working with UBalt’s CELTT program, and 2.) open FLC membership to more SU faculty, staff, and graduate students who are interested in getting started with SoTL work or begin new projects with the added support a peer group of practitioners can provide.

Facilitator: Erin Stutelberg, Andrea Suk, Hannah Ginn

This Faculty Learning Community (FLC) will bring together Salisbury University faculty to collaboratively examine and address barriers neurodivergent and autistic students face during internships and clinical placements. As SU has experienced a growing population of neurodivergent students, faculty across disciplines have observed that many students who excel academically encounter challenges related to face‑to‑face communication, unspoken professional expectations, and real‑time social interactions in applied settings. These challenges can impede otherwise well‑qualified students from successfully completing internships, highlighting a need for more intentional faculty learning around inclusive, preparatory supports.

Through a structured model, FLC members will engage in shared inquiry, discussion, and the co‑designing of Seagull Spectrum Support - a resource for SU students in professional internships. The FLC will begin by establishing common goals and guiding questions related to internship readiness, social‑communication demands, and inclusive teaching practices. Members will conduct a needs assessment by drawing on faculty experiences, student and alumni perspectives, and research on comparable university initiatives. The FLC will examine existing models at other institutions, explore potential formats for student support (e.g., course‑based, co‑curricular, or blended approaches), and develop curricular ideas, teaching resources, and support strategies grounded in inclusive and neurodiversity‑affirming practices. The work of the FLC will culminate in the launch of a coordinated support initiative for education and social work students preparing for internships, beginning in Fall 2026. The FLC will meet throughout the 2026-2027 school year to plan and lead the Seagull Spectrum Support Program for students.

Facilitator: Hannah Ginn, Bibiana Koh

Research identifies that faculty and staff collaboration in higher education results in positive outcomes for students (Syno, 2021; van Vugt & Gallagher, 2025). To foster such collaboration, in Academic Year (AY) 2025/2026, facilitators launched the inaugural Faculty Learning Community (FLC) Social Justice Book Club. Building on the four successful and well-attended interdisciplinary events held in AY 2025/2026, FLC facilitators are requesting funding to continue providing and developing these collaborative learning events for university faculty and staff in AY 2026/2027.

The FLC will continue to use social justice-themed books to bring faculty and staff together across the disciplines to enhance community-building, develop critical thinking, and unite on a shared commitment to social justice. In AY 2026/2027, informed by the successful programming in AY 2025/2026, the FLC will read one social justice-oriented book each semester. Books will be selected for their ability to promote rich discussions regarding community-building, social justice, and critical thinking. Looking ahead, for Fall 2026, facilitators will use participant feedback and voting from the inaugural year (AY 2025/2026) to select the first book. In the event that FY26 funds are available, the co-facilitators will purchase the Fall 2026 book selection in advance to allow faculty and staff to read the book prior to meeting in Fall 2026. To determine the book selection for Spring 2027, facilitators will solicit participants’ votes during discussions in Fall 2026.

Facilitators will recruit interdisciplinary members through prior FLC participation lists, CAFE email newsletters, and university-supported dissemination avenues. Each semester, the facilitators will hold two discussion groups (i.e., one in person and one virtual) in order to promote accessibility for faculty and staff participation. Discussion questions – developed by both facilitators and FLC members – will include critical reflection regarding advancing social justice, with the broader aim of enhancing student outcomes and student success.

Facilitators: Derya Kulavuz-Onal

The TwINS FLC (Teaching with International Students) began its first year of activities during the 2019-2020 Academic Year. Our main focus is to explore pedagogies of teaching in the college classrooms where there are international students, especially those for whom English, the medium of instruction at SU, is a second/foreign language. Since September 2019, as members of the FLC, our goals have been to learn more about the different groups of international students, and the processes that international students go through before and during their studies in the United States; to better understand their needs, struggles and successes during their studies; to provide guidance and support in their acculturation process; to engage in advocacy for international students and international faculty on campus and beyond; to provide opportunities for community and career engagement for international students; and most importantly, to collaboratively enhance our college-level teaching pedagogies and differentiated instruction for international students in order to help them succeed in our classes and develop an enhanced sense of belonging on our campus.