A Word From the VP
The 2018-19 academic year has been a busy one! FSU welcomed 240 new faculty members and celebrated the promotions and tenure awards of 126 colleagues. In the past year, the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement more than doubled the number of professional development activities offered to faculty including workshops, writing groups, and leadership development programs.
We continue to receive positive feedback about our online Promotion and Tenure system and I am very pleased to see that the Academic Leadership Toolkit we developed about a year ago is getting lots of use. Soon we will roll out an upgraded, more user-friendly version of our Faculty Expertise and Advancement System (FEAS). These accomplishments are truly a team effort. I am very grateful to have such a hard-working and talented group of colleagues in this office.
One of my goals this year was to disseminate the results of the COACHE faculty survey and engage in campus discussions with deans, department chairs and faculty members about how to use this feedback to make FSU an even better academic home for the faculty. I met with the deans, department chairs, and many faculty members. Based on these discussions, we’ve decided to focus our efforts in two areas: 1) increasing faculty satisfaction with interdisciplinary work; and 2) enhancing faculty support and mentoring, especially for our associate professors. I hope you will join us for meetings early in the fall semester to get started on our campus action plans.
I wish you all a happy and productive summer.
Regards,
Janet Kistner
Professor of Psychology
Vice President for Faculty Development and Advancement
Faculty Support
Faculty Development Opportunities don’t disappear in the summer. We have writing opportunities, review opportunities, and conversation to plan more social interaction in the fall. Come join in the fun!
Summer Faculty Writing Retreats
On May 8th, 37 faculty kicked off their summer writing projects in a Full Day Faculty Writing Retreat. Before the day was over, some of those same faculty requested writing time and space on campus to keep their summer projects going. Faculty asked; we made it so. In May, June, and July, faculty will have space reserved from 9:00 – 4:00 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to write in solidarity. If you would like to join these colleagues daily or sporadically, contact Peggy Wright-Cleveland for the schedule because we will not be at the same location all summer. Our thanks to our gracious colleagues at University Libraries, the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House, and the Pepper Institute for hosting us.
Writing Retreats facilitate collegiality. Lunch break, FSU May 2019 Writing Retreat.
It’s all in a day’s writing. FSU May 2019 Writing Retreat.
Draft Exchange
If you are working on a Fulbright Scholar proposal, take advantage of the expert outside readers available right here on campus. Once in May, once in June, and once in July the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement will host a draft exchange for interested faculty. Participants are expected to provide a draft and to make comments on a colleague’s draft. If you are interested, send your draft ready for review to Peggy Wright-Cleveland by the following dates: June 20, and July 18.
New Faculty Orientation
FSU will welcome new faculty on August 19 and 20 with New Faculty Orientation, followed by a reception at the President’s House and dinner with the Provost. Be sure to make plans to help welcome our new colleagues to Tallahassee and to campus.
Faculty Requests for Fall Programming
If you are in need of information on a particular research or teaching or career topic, let Peggy Wright-Cleveland know. Plans are in the works with the Office of Research to host a workshop this fall on first book publication. What other topics would you like to discuss with your colleagues?
Faculty Social Squad
Do you wish you could meet more people outside your department? Do you yearn to touch base with that crew you talked with during your New Faculty Orientation? Would you like another woman, or Californian, or ex-pat, or vegan to talk to? Join the brand new Faculty Social Squad. This group will be charged with organizing monthly, off-campus, social events during the 2019-20 calendar year. The best time to join anything is during the planning stages, right? Make your mark and help make life friendlier for your FSU colleagues. Email Peggy Wright-Cleveland or Matthew Goff and volunteer.
Faculty Women of Color in the Academy
In April, five FSU faculty participated in the FWCA Conference. This Faculty Women of Color Conference is in its seventh year: https://www.inclusive.vt.edu/Programs/FWCA.html. Hosted by our ACC colleague Virginia Tech, this conference offers women of color faculty, university administrators, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates a unique educational and professional opportunity to network, engage, and learn with peers from around the country. FSU is proud to be a sponsor and to ensure our faculty women of color participate.
Some of our 2019 participants had the following to say about their experiences at the conferences.
“The most important takeaway for me was the feeling of empowerment that I felt after the conference. To meet and hear from so many women of color in academia was incredibly inspiring for me, someone who is early in their career who has bouts of self-doubt. I plan on implementing what I heard at the conference by talking about the conference, telling other women of color that I work with about my experience, and advocating for more women of color to be hired in the library and at Florida State University.”
Mallary Rawls, University Librarian
“It’s hard for me to choose only one thing because I learned so much! The top three would be how to value your worth, to take advantage of all the opportunities presented to you, and maximize your network and the many gifts that each of us bring to the table. FSU provides a wealth of resources right at our fingertips and I will become more intentional about tapping into those resources to better myself both personally and professionally. By doing so, my performance and passion will continue to improve as I positively impact the lives of my students and colleagues.”
Kawana Johnson, Director of Internships and Career Services, College of Business
“The FWCA conference was uplifting and inspirational. It provided a forum for women of color at FSU to see ourselves represented among brilliant scholars across the country. It was an excellent opportunity for networking, particularly interdisciplinary networking. Overall, the conference reinforced the idea that representation matters. It reminded me that it is helpful to not only share our triumphs, but also share our challenges and how we overcame them. Remembering the importance of sharing challenges and paths through them to success will definitely help in my mentoring of students and newer faculty.”
Melinda Gonzales-Backen, Assistant Professor and Department Graduate Coordinator, Department of Family and Child Sciences
Attendees Mindy Gonzales-Backen and Marie Denis-Luque.
Faculty Celebrations
Promotion and Tenure
Congratulations to the 74 FSU faculty awarded tenure and/or promotion through peer and university review.
Specialized Faculty Promotions
Congratulations to these 52 faculty promoted as teaching, research, and clinical faculty.
FSU Faculty Earn National Recognition
Congratulations to our faculty earning national recognition. Thank you to those who mentored them, wrote letters of support or nomination, encouraged them, proofread drafts, and offered affirmation and instruction. We are all bettered by the opportunities and recognition these awards bring to our departments, colleges, and university. Take the time to congratulate these peers.
FSU Faculty Earn Local Recognition
Congratulations to our faculty recognized as outstanding by their FSU peers and students. Some of these awards are stepping stones to larger recognitions; some of these awards are the ultimate career achievement at FSU. All of these awards mean that the peers and students you work with daily have found your work exceptionally meaningful and important. Thanks to all who took the time to make or support a nomination. Be sure to offer your congratulations to these peers.
Nuts and Bolts
Specialized Faculty Professional Development Leave
Applications for the 2020-2021 academic year will be available in September 2019. Please look for announcements early fall.
Academic Honor Policy: Best Practices
- When meeting with a student to discuss a Step 1 Agreement, let students know what their options are by sharing the Quick Reference Guide
- Students do not have to sign a Step 1 Agreement immediately. Encourage them to meet with a representative in the Dean of Students Department to discuss their options. Provide a reasonable deadline in which they should respond with a decision.
- Faculty cannot give a grade penalty without following the Academic Honor Policy.
- Check out this link on Contract Cheating (pay-for-paper services): https://www.npr.org/2019/04/08/710953499/how-students-may-be-cheating-their-way-through-college.
Please call the Office of Faculty Development if you have questions! 850/644-6876 or https://fda.fsu.edu/academic-resources/academic-integrity-and-grievances/academic-honor-policy.
Sabbatical Leave
The University Committee on Faculty Sabbaticals will invite applications for one-semester sabbaticals at full pay and two-semester sabbaticals at one-half pay for the academic year 2020-2021 in early September 2019. An informational memorandum and the applicable forms will be available on the Office of Faculty Development and Advancement website no later than Monday, September 9, 2019. The deadline for deans' offices to submit electronic applications will be Friday, October 11, 2019. Please note that there may be earlier deadlines at the department and/or college level. Please contact Melissa Crawford if you have questions.
Robert B. Bradley Library Research Grants
Application Deadline October 11, 2019
This announcement is an invitation to faculty to apply for the annual Robert B. Bradley Library Research Grants, which support the research and creative endeavors of our faculty while developing our library’s world class collections. Bob Bradley (retired VP for Planning and Programs at FSU) has been a longtime supporter of the University Libraries, and he has advocated consistently for resources to support the centrality of the libraries that play such an important role in the scholarly work of our faculty.
In 2019-2020 the Faculty Senate Library Committee will have a total of $100,000 to support the research and creative work of faculty with new library acquisitions accessible for the whole FSU community. Please consider preparing your brief mini-grant application over the summer, as all application materials are due in October.
The deadline to submit applications for 2019-2020 Bradley grants is Friday, October 11, 2019.
For more information, including further details about eligible items and application instructions, please see the materials posted to the Bradley Grant webpage at http://facsenate.fsu.edu/Robert-B.-Bradley-Library-Research-Grants.
Questions? Please contact Bradley Grant sub-committee co-chair, Jimmy Yu at jyu2@fsu.edu.
The FSU Faculty Community
A Word from Faculty Senate President Kristine Harper
It has been a busy spring semester for Faculty Senate, with most of our meetings devoted to discussing possible changes to the FSU Constitution. Technical changes, such as changes to titles and the elimination of out-of-date terminology, were passed in the fall semester, while in the spring we were devoted to a decision on including specialized faculty into faculty senate membership. Meetings gave faculty senate members the opportunity to state their opinions and specialized faculty who were not part of the senate were also given an opportunity to speak. In the end, the faculty senate vote was almost an even split between including specialized faculty in its ranks and keeping the current practice of limiting membership to tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Further discussions will likely take place in the upcoming fall semester. Additionally, faculty senators continued to support the University Libraries’ break from the Elsevier contract and the Faculty Senate Library Committee presented a plan that would free up space in the library by withdrawing little used print resources from the shelves. At the April meeting, the senate elected a new president—Dr. Kristine Harper from the Department of History—and selected members to serve on the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, which will now head into the summer session preparing to fill the faculty senate standing committees that contribute so much to faculty governance, including the development of curriculum policy for undergraduates and graduate students, supporting the libraries, and ensuring that technological needs of faculty and students are being met.
I encourage you to attend Faculty Senate meetings, which are held once a month during the academic year (the next one is September 17), and take that opportunity to know your University colleagues through service to your departments, colleges, and committees. By joining together to take part in faculty governance, we make our university stronger, make FSU a great place to work, and continue to make FSU the best place for our students to learn and expand their horizons.
FSU Retired Faculty Keep On Contributing: Elizabeth Goldsmith Serves as a Fulbright Specialist
Professor Liz Goldsmith in Malta
Waste Management in Malta
Malta is a small island just Southwest of Sicily. If you look at it on a map it almost looks like the boot of Italy is kicking it. Famous for its isolation and tranquility, Malta is home to breathtaking beaches and gravity defying rock structures. Dr. Elizabeth Goldsmith spent this past March working as a Fulbright Specialist on this tiny island. The Fulbright Specialist Program sends U.S. faculty and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning, and related subjects at academic institutions abroad for a period of 2 to 6 weeks.
Dr. Goldsmith got her Bachelor of Arts from FSU, and started working at the university in August of 1981. After 35 years of dedicated professorship, she retired in 2016 to become Professor Emerita and now continues her successful career consulting and teaching at FSU and other universities, such as Virginia Tech. From March 1st to March 17th of this year, Dr. Goldsmith experienced a new yet familiar adventure, traveling with Fulbright to Malta.
“In 2006 I had Fulbright in Trinidad. I was only there for three months because they didn’t want me there during hurricane season, which is in the fall, since it is dangerous during that time. So I was there January through April and I participated in research as well as taught family research management at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad’s main university.”
This trip was different though. The position of Fulbright specialist differs from a traditional Fulbright experience.
“The Fulbright specialist is more specific and shorter. I’ve been so busy with teaching and writing that I can’t take a long time off, so that’s why I liked this position. Basically, you’re on a roster that has your specialties and interests and countries match up with you, or sometimes put in an individual request to work together on a project.”
And what are Dr. Goldsmith’s specialties exactly?
“I’ve published articles and books on consumer economics. My latest interest is in sustainable consumption, which I’m very involved with at Malta. They’re a small island nation and their government is concerned with sustainability and preserving the island. I also work in personal finance, consumer behaviors, and research on the White House.”
For a professor for the Department of Retail Merchandising and Product Development, one might think the White House is a bit out there. But Dr. Goldsmith has something to say about that.
“All my work is interdisciplinary. I was trained to think like that at my Ph.D. program at Michigan State University. I studied Family ecology, which put together families and environments. Because it’s a unique combination it makes me stick out. In Trinidad the Embassy told me that I stuck out because it was something they wanted and needed and it was unique. So that’s how it works, being flexible and multidisciplinary helps.”
To hear more about her trip and stay updated with all that Dr. Goldsmith is doing, find her on Facebook and LinkedIn!
Blog post written by Emily Campana
Check out more blogposts about FSU faculty here: https://fda-interns.wixsite.com/fsufaculty