What Does Integrate Mean?

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What does ‘integrate’ mean?

Our surveys and interviews with faculty suggest that part-time faculty are a large and integral part of educational programs provided by departments, and there can be better, more consistent and effective practices put in place to join the expertise and experience of the part-time faculty to the greater educational goals of the departments. Doing so will allow departments to partner with a richly diverse and talented resource within their reach.

Integration makes possible the cultivation of collaborative learning and a professional culture where problems of isolation, exclusion, and denial of access to information often experienced by part-time faculty, are turned into opportunities for sharing and communicating common departmental program goals, receiving feedback from classroom experiences, and exchanging information on mentoring and advising of students, all of which are essential for departments to improve undergraduate education.

Some of the information needs to be voiced by our part time faculty. Quotations are shown in the box to the left.

Effective methods of integration of part-time facultyinto the curriculum goals of the department will benefitthe department, the students and all faculty, ultimately resulting in an enhanced quality of undergraduate education at UAlbany.

This chapter describes ways that a department can ensure integration.Departments may need to review and revise their practices to include all faculty members; to be proactive in creating a culture that shares and disseminates information in a timely manner; and to foster and encourage practices that result in a rich and intellectually engaged student experience.

Best practices gleaned from surveys at UAlbany and reviews ofnational best practices relating to integration covered in this section of the handbook include:

Communication 2

Inclusion

Program Development

Service

Resources

Mentoring

Evaluation

Graduate Students & Professional Staff as Instructors of Record

Recognition

Communication

Establishing strong and consistent communication with part-time faculty is essential to successful integration.To succeed at effective communication with and between part-time faculty, who are often teaching at times and locations that do not allow for consistent contact with the department, departments need to be pro-active.It is essential that part-time faculty are able to communicate directly with the department administrative staff, support staff, and all other faculty members within the department.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Increasing Communication

• Create an email distribution list for departmental announcements to ALL faculty
• Create a listserv for ALL faculty to share experiences and learn from others
• Send faculty meeting reports to part-time faculty
• Inform part-time faculty of available resources and opportunities such as travel, FRAP, and professional development grants, etc.
• Include part-time faculty in departmental meetings (see Inclusion, below)

Department Notes and Ideas:

Inclusion

Creating a culture of inclusion among all faculty, given the vast physical and virtual spaces across which teaching occurs, presents challenges.Departments can help mitigate the problems of dislocation and isolation by extending invitations to part-time faculty to faculty meetings, and other events at which introductions and exchanges between faculty occur.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Increasing Inclusion

• Invite part-time faculty to faculty meetings
• Include part-time faculty in research symposia, conversations, brown bags, informal gatherings, and social events
• Organize meetings with other part-time faculty specifically to exchange ideas
• Coordinate part-time faculty meetings with tenure-track faculty and departmental staff
• Offer skill building and professional development opportunities with the entire department
• Invite the part-time faculty to join the department at the University Fall Faculty Retreat
• Include part-time faculty in the undergraduate program faculty listing and post nameplates on office doors
• Ensure part-time faculty are aware of resources such as the CHEER Fund and the Food for Thought Program

Department Notes and Ideas:

Program Development

Part-time faculty are in a unique position to provide perspective on the student experience in the classroom and on the role the courses they teach have in the goals of the department.Involving and inviting part-time faculty to engage in program development could elicit relevant empirical data that will enhance the effectiveness of the programs.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Involving Part-time Faculty in Program Development

• Explain the overall program’s mission and goals to part-time faculty
• Emphasize how a course taught by apart-time faculty supports the mission and goals and how it related to the other courses taught in the program
• Solicit input from part-time faculty about how to better integrate the course they are teaching into the overall program
• Solicit feedback from part-time faculty about how to improve the infrastructure of the program (advising, mentoring, course sequencing, etc.)
• Solicit feedback from part-time faculty about the undergraduate experience in the program
• Involve part-time faculty in discussions and decisions regarding text selection
• Clarify the flow from undergraduate to graduate programs within the department
• Offer part-time faculty opportunities to teach different courses within the program

Department Notes and Ideas:

Service

Many of the part-time faculty surveyed arealready involved in informal mentoring of students.Departments could further this initiative by actively inviting part-time faculty to participate in formal service opportunities within the department, at various levels of the university, and in direct service to students.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Integrating Part-time Faculty into Service Efforts

• Invite part-time faculty to serve on university-wide committees
• Invite part-time faculty to serve on departmental committees, such as (but not limited to):
• Curriculum committee
• Thesis advisor
• Faculty Searches
• Undergraduate committee
• Encourage and support part-time,along with full-time faculty,to mentor and advise undergraduate students

Department Notes and Ideas:

Resources

Since part-time faculty are an integral part of the University’s undergraduate teaching staff, any and all resources even when limited should be made available to part-time faculty.In addition, departments should be mindful of notifying part-time faculty when opportunities for additional resources do become available.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Utilizing Current Resources to Support Part-time Faculty

• Provide office space, even if shared among a set of part-time faculty
• Identify a contact person (in addition to the administrative support staff) who can guide the part-time faculty through curricular or instructional challenges
• Communicate eligibility requirements for travel grants, discretionary raises and grant opportunities to part-time faculty

Department Notes and Ideas:

Mentoring

Departments should encourage and facilitate collaboration by creating opportunities for informal mentoring of part-time faculty by full-time faculty as a way of working toward successful integration.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Mentoring Part-time Faculty

• Pair new part-time faculty with a full-time faculty member who teaches similar classes for advice and peer review of teaching materials, and peer observations
• Schedule professional development workshops, especially about teaching, specifically for part-time faculty, and at times they can attend
• Invite part-time faculty to participate in professional development events, meetings, colloquia, brownbags and retreats that full-time faculty attend
• Encourage mentors to invite part-time faculty to observe their classes

Department Notes and Ideas:

Evaluation

A full chapter is devoted to the procedures and practices of part-time faculty evaluation.The process of evaluation of part-time faculty is outlined in the “Guidelines for the Appointment of Part-Time Faculty:”

Department Notes and Ideas:

GraduateStudents & Professional Staff as Instructors of Record

The challenge for departments with regard to graduate students who serve as Instructor of Record (IOR) is that these individuals, unlike part-time faculty, have a relationship with the department in addition to their responsibilities as a course instructor. According to the survey results, these different roles are often not acknowledged. The graduate student may be integrated into the department as a student, but if not also integrated as teaching faculty, will not have all the tools and resources to support improved teaching.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Recognizing Unique Circumstances

• Include graduate student and professional staff IOR in the areas outlined in this handbook. Especially have them meet other instructors when teaching multiple sections of the same course or similar courses.
• Grad students have access to full-time faculty,and to teaching models by being in courses themselves.However, like part-time faculty, they may not understand how the curriculum works, what the department’s undergraduate mission is and how they and the courses they teach fit into that.
• Review how you include graduate students in the mission of the department (see program development chapter above).
• Inform graduate students about ITLAL’s professional development series.

Department Notes and Ideas:

Recognition

Survey data suggests part-time faculty who teach at UAlbany overwhelmingly enjoy teaching at this institution.To keep these dedicated teachers focused on their positive experiences here, to encourage them to continue to be engaged stakeholders who make valued contributions to the university at large, and to integrate them successfully into department and university life, extending various forms of recognition is necessary.Our part-time faculty suggested that departments might disseminate information about their accomplishments in a variety of formats.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Awards for Excellent Teaching

• Recognize outstanding teachers through departmental awards/prizes for excellence in teaching, honoring part-time teachers in particular, at the close of each year.
• Ask students to nominate excellent professors, or innovative and engaging teaching strategies that motivated them
• Solicit and actively prepare nominations for the University-wide President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for Part-time Instructors.

Best Practices/Recommendations for Increased Visibility of Part-time Faculty Contributions

• Announce successes and contributions in the departmental newsletter
• Announce accomplishments in department emails
• Include part-time faculty in departmental websites
• Sharesuccessful teaching innovations at faculty meetings, seminars
• Invite part-time faculty to share their teaching/research at departmental seminars

Best Practices/Recommendations for Excellent Teaching and Service Acknowledgement

• Provide a detailed letter from the chair or dean acknowledging excellent work
• Acknowledge contributions with a breakfast, lunch, or other social gathering
• Awardmerit increases: annually use the opportunity to review part-time faculty members’ teaching and reward them with an increase
• Extend thanks to part-time faculty via email, in-person conversation
• Make a regular effort to explore sources of support for scholarly and teaching work (conferences, etc.)

Department Notes and Ideas:

Handbook for Departments: Integration of Part-timeFaculty Fall 2012