During the 2019-2020 academic year, I was an active participant in several college committees. Membership on these committees kept me busy. The committees work that I did, along with other ways in which I served the College, is highlighted below.
FDC
(Faculty Development Committee)
Although I have been active on FDC for several years, the 2019-2020 year was my second year as chairperson of faculty development, an elected position. As chair, I was predominately tasked with organizing and/or implementing professional development offerings for all interested faculty during the school year.
Being chair of the committee is a substantial time commitment. The committee meets four times per semester, and we hold four events per semester for faculty (and staff, as appropriate).
Some of the events offered during the 2019-2020 school year were:
Under my leadership, FDC implemented feedback forms for participants at all events so that we could plan future events based on the feedback from prior events. However, many faculty often reach out to personally let me know when they enjoyed/benefited from an event.
I also created and administered an end-of-the-year interest survey to faculty at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. The survey is used to plan future events.
As I mentioned, FDC is a substantial time commitment as it requires communication with many different stakeholders; including the presenters, Nichols admins, other faculty, etc. Examples of some interactions are given below.
I hope that FDC makes the planning and execution of our events look organized and smooth. However, circumstances beyond our control often impact the events that we hold. A few of these circumstances are detailed below.
Although the end of the year faculty retreat was cancelled due to COVID, I had already spent a great deal of time and energy planning for it. I was primarily responsible for planning the topic selection, speakers, catering, opening activity, etc. for the annual faculty retreat. This responsibility was extremely time consuming due to the amount of time that it required to arrange speakers, announcements, venue arrangements, etc. as shown below in some of the emails related to the retreat planning. The May 2020 retreat was to be on mental health issues related to the classroom. The speakers were going to be Christine Conways and her colleague from Cambridge College.
In addition, FDC also reviews all proposals for the course release program. This year, for the first time, FDC also reviewed proposals for summer research stipends.
Presenting for FDC
Being a member of FDC often means going beyond planning workshops. When requested, I will also help to facilitate workshops in my area of expertise. The workshop below has become an annual event for me and Nick Barnes.
Educational Technology Committee
I was also an active member of the Educational Technology Committee.
Dean’s Council
As chair of FDC, I was the FDC representative on Dean’s Council.
SPANN
I was an active member of one of the SPANN (strategic planning) groups.
Helping Out
I also try to help out at college events in a leadership role whenever the opportunity arises. Examples include:
Mentoring
I didn’t know that I would have such an interesting experience when I volunteered to be a mentor. I was a mentor for Jian, a new marketing professor. While I did try to provide Jian with sound advice, she had a different work ethic and view of what academic freedom allowed than what Nichols wanted and needed. Unfortunately, Jian wasn’t a good fit for Nichols.
After Jian left, I was assigned a new management adjunct to mentor. Heather Swendell seems to be a much better fit for Nichols and was hired as full-time faculty for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Promoting New Initiatives
When opportunities arise that will benefit students, I try to promote them.
Outside Service
For the second year, I served as a scorer for the DCU scholarships.
Collaborating with Colleagues to Obtain Outside Speakers
In addition to the in class speakers that I work to bring in, I also worked with Priscila Alfaro-Barrantes and Charlie Robert to bring in a speaker that would benefit students from multiple programs.
