2019 - 2020 Faculty Learning Communities

Facilitator: Tim Robinson, History

The focus of the Adjunct FLC is to examine the perceptions, experiences, and logistics affecting adjuncts in higher education and their potential for faculty development. We explore issues that adjuncts can face both in the classroom and at the university. The members of this Adjunct Faculty Learning Community will hold discussions twice a semester surrounding their examination of a book, Adjunct Faculty Voices: Cultivating Professional Development and Community at the Front Lines of Higher Education. As adjuncts are compensated solely for providing education in the classroom, a stipend will be provided to a maximum of ten faculty members in the amount of $150.00. This stipend will both encourage participation as well as compensate those members for their participation.

Facilitators: Lisa Joyner, Respiratory Therapy; Jessica Walter, Exercise Science

Continue to foster the interdisciplinary collaboration in health and human services and discuss opportunities to collaborate in student learning, course development, and research in the new College structure. Coordinate the Annual IPE Conference.

Facilitators: Aric Snee, Art; Ryan Sporer, Sociology

Faculty are traditionally split by the dualisms of science/art, natural/social sciences, and academic/professional. We hope to attract a radically interdisciplinary membership. Design activism has something to offer to each disciplinary silo, while also extending beyond the university. Design activism offers different registers to enact a politics of critique, but also one of construction. Through sustained study of principles and cases of design activism, this FLC is oriented towards identifying local concerns and contributing to robust, modest, and accessible solutions.

Facilitator: Melissa Thomas, Instructional Design & Delivery

The focus of the Distance Education FLC is to connect distance education faculty teaching satellite, hybrid or online courses. Our goal is to share and discuss best practices in distance education and to create avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration in developing and honing instructional strategies specific to these modalities. Participants will attend monthly virtual meetings via Zoom and have access to a shared MyClasses course so that faculty/members can collaborate and share resources between meetings.

Facilitators: Steven Binz, Physics; Chris Woodall, SU Libraries

This FLC is for faculty and staff who would like to learn more about, discuss, and possibly experiment with using 3D technologies in the classroom, including (but not necessarily limited to) Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), 3D Printing, and 3D Scanning. These technologies have the possibility of enhancing student learning by creating engaging experiences in the classroom and allowing students to interact with course content in new and exciting ways. The goals of this FLC are to make existing resources at SU more well-known, to brainstorm new ways that those resources can benefit classrooms across campus and then share those ideas, search for possible external sources of funding, and explore options for future investments in technologies that could further enhance courses across campus.

Facilitator: Yujia Song, Philosophy

The Health Humanities FLC brings together faculty who share common interests in medicine, health, and related topics. Current members come from philosophy, communications, sociology, psychology, and nursing, but we welcome faculty from all departments and schools/colleges. In addition to creating and sustaining the Health Humanities Minor, the FLC also aims to facilitate the interdisciplinary collaboration of faculty members interested in the teaching and scholarship of health, healthcare, and medicine from diverse perspectives.

Facilitators: Lori DeWitt, Communications; Michele Schlehofer, Psychology

Faculty Membership: The proposal is to invite 8-10 department chairs, both new and established. Ideally, departmental chairs will represent all four schools and be diverse in gender and race/ethnicity. At the time of the proposal submission, three have expressed strong interest in participating.

Facilitators: Jessica Clark and Chrys Egan, OURCA

The Promise FLC cohort of faculty and staff consider how institutional commitment and peer mentoring nurture a culture of diversity and inclusion, now and moving forward. Members read the book “Faculty Success through Mentoring: A Guide for Mentors, Mentees, and Leaders” to consider opportunities to promote underrepresented populations of faculty, staff, and students who may wish to become academics.  FLC goals were to; (1) collaborate with relevant SU offices to support efforts to strategically recruit, hire, and retain underrepresented faculty and staff; (2) design and disseminate faculty and staff development programs to support mentorship, success, and promotion of diverse members; (3)  entice current candidates and future academics, like graduate and undergraduate students, to seek employment at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution like SU; (4) present findings as workshops, conference sessions, online materials, and in publications as an applicable model of diversity and inclusion.  To find out more about the faculty mentoring program that was built from this work click the button below:

University Mosaic Mentoring Program

Facilitators: Shawn McEntee, Sociology; Lena Woodis, Chemistry

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) FLC will explore assessment strategies and how Salisbury University’s HIPs facilitate student success in achieving Student Learning Outcomes. We will create definitions that enable HIPs to be tracked throughout SU’s curriculum and to design approaches for quantifying HIPs across curricula as well as assessing the effectiveness of HIPs at SU. We believe that the chief goals of assessment are to understand and guide the development of pathways to success for students; therefore, our work is to identify, unpack, and support promising practices that build a culture of evidence at SU that reflects the aforementioned aims. We will also be working with Assessment Fellows throughout the year.

Facilitators: Becky Anthony, Social Work; Erin Stutelberg, Secondary and Physical Education

This topic-based FLC will help faculty discuss and learn how to effectively teach topics of diversity and implement pedagogical choices that respect and affirm diversity on campus. For the purpose of this FLC, “diversity” is utilized as a broad term including: race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ability, religion, language, etc.

Facilitators: Judith Jarosinski and members of the University Academic Sustainability Committee (U-ASC)

The committee has spent the previous year developing a Sustainability and Eco-Justice path through a new General Education program. This year, as General Education Reform unfolds, we will provide opportunities for faculty to successfully integrate sustainability concepts in their own courses.

Facilitators: Derya Kulavuz-Onal, English; Mou Chakraborty, SU Libraries

This FLC focuses on exploring pedagogies of teaching in the college classrooms where there are international students. Although we acknowledge that “international students” is not a homogeneous group, we primarily define the target group of international students that we want to focus on as those who are born in another country where a different language than English is spoken dominantly, and who recently came to the United States within a study abroad program or to pursue an academic degree at the undergraduate or graduate level. As the members of the FLC our goals will be 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 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. Our secondary or related goal will also have faculty share their experiences when taking SU students on study abroad. Eventually, we want to raise awareness towards the different needs of international students in the US college classrooms, and contribute to faculty development initiatives.

Facilitators: Alexander (Sandy) Pope, Secondary and Physical Education; Shawn McEntee, Sociology

This FLC seeks to examine and demonstrate the value of Civic Reflection as a pedagogical tool to facilitate student achievement of a range of Student Learning Outcomes including Oral Communication, Ethical Reasoning, Inclusion & Diversity, Intellectual Curiosity, Intercultural Competence, and Personal Health & Wellness. Civic Reflection uses readings, images, and videos to engage people in deep, productive conversation about issues that impact their communities and work in the world. The strategy is supported through the Center for Civic Reflection, under the guidance of PACE. 

Facilitator: Yuki Okubo, Psychology

The objective of this FLC is to increase research and writing productivity among full-time faculty members. By using National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) individual memberships, faculty will engage in monthly face-to-face meetings, daily writing, and other professional development activities provided by NCFDD. We believe that such focus on professional development for faculty will not only help in the recruitment of competitive faculty applicants in the future but also contribute to faculty retention due to feeling supported and nurtured on their professional goals. We will keep track of the writing and research goals for each semester as well as keeping track of the amount of time spent on writing and research tasks and types of tasks and writing activities.

Facilitator: Mary Gunther, Biological Sciences

Faculty interested in partnering with the Salisbury Zoo to develop formal relationships and to determine programs with equal appeal to both Salisbury University and the Salisbury Zoo.