University of Delaware faculty gathered for the first annual UD Faculty Achievement Program (UDFAP) End of Year Celebration on Wednesday, May 17.

The event invited faculty to reflect on their successes over the year and featured brief remarks from Carol Henderson, vice provost for diversity, and Matt Kinservik, vice provost for faculty affairs, who both reiterated their commitment to faculty development and a continued emphasis on faculty mentoring and career growth.

At the celebration, three speakers discussed key support resources available through UDFAP.

In-person weekly planning meeting

Steve Amendum, associate professor in the School of Education, described how learning this approach to planning taught through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) “Core Curriculum ” -- in the NCFDD Faculty Success Program Bootcamp and in UDFAP Small Groups -- moved him from “putting out fires” on a daily basis to having a clear plan and time-map for the week. Instead of making to-do lists and putting items on his calendar that he proceeded to ignore, he said he now has a plan he actually follows.

The summer, UDFAP will continue to experiment with virtual planning meetings. Those interested in being included in the meeting request should contact Stephanie Kerschbaum, UDFAP faculty coordinator, at kersch@udel.edu.

UDFAP small groups

Carla Guerrón Montero, associate professor of anthropology, discussed her experience participating as a mentor for a UDFAP-sponsored small group of faculty. As a mentor, Guerrón Montero was responsible for ensuring that everyone had equal time to celebrate something from the past week, identify their goals for the current week and ask the group for feedback on an issue they were facing.

Faculty interested in participating in a small group, as participant or mentor, for fall 2017 can find more details and a registration form online.

Write on Site

Janel Atlas, assistant director of the Writing Center, described how sharing quiet writing space with colleagues all committed to showing up and getting their work done enhanced her writing productivity. Write on Sites are the UDFAP’s largest initiative, sponsored across campus regularly each semester.

Faculty interested in write on site during the summer months, whether hosting a time slot or seeing what’s already on the calendar, should contact Atlas at atlasj@udel.edu or Stephanie Kerschbaum at kersch@udel.edu.

Reasons for celebration

Also at the May 17 event, participants broke into small groups to share what they are celebrating — personal or professional — and to nominate their “Most Valuable Resources” while brainstorming suggestions and big ideas for continued faculty support on campus.

The “Most Valuable Resource” nominations included mention of software programs One Note and Mendeley, campus resources, such as Write on Site sessions and on-campus collaborators and support systems, as well as mention of numerous resources available through UD’s institutional membership in the NCFDD: the weekly Monday Motivator emails, the NCFDD’s Workshop Library, which contains webinars on wide-ranging topics from how to get published to navigating academic culture to improving teaching, the NCFDD’s custom-designed “Write Now” software and online accountability check-ins.