NCFDD Core Curriculum

“The Core Curriculum is a series of webinars based on empirical research and focused on the skills  necessary to “Thrive in the Academy,” defined as having extraordinary writing/research  productivity as well as a full, healthy work-life balance.”

Scholarship/Teaching Support

All faculty are eligible to receive scholarship support, regardless of rank or contract type. Please find more information about the support offered through the Dean of Faculty’s office here.

Robust support for teaching and learning is made available through the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. 

The Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning promotes student success by supporting faculty and staff educators through ongoing professional development, including work in developing reflective, innovative, and inclusive pedagogies. Holding the values of collaboration and co-creation, the Center aspires to be a hub where Bates celebrates its educators while helping them hone their skills to ensure that all students experience equitable and learner-centered spaces that contribute to their thriving at Bates.

Faculty Success Program:

All incoming tenure track faculty are encouraged to participate in the NCFDD Faculty Success Program during their first 2 years pre-tenure. This 12-week, online program is: “designed to teach tenure-track faculty the skills to increase research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Each FSP participant is assigned to a small group (4 people) that is led by an NCFDD-Certified Coach. Every week, participants meet for their small-group coaching call with their coach. During this call, participants will share their goals for the week as well as review the previous week’s goals. By the end of the program, participants will have developed the skills and habits they need to move forward with increased research and writing productivity and a better work-life balance.” (NCFDD Website). Participation costs are paid for by the Office of the Dean of Faculty. Please reach out to Krista Aronson (karonson@bates.edu) to register for an upcoming semester. 

What do faculty have to say about the FSP?

Cohort Mentoring:

Opportunities for group, peer, and individual mentorship are provided to each tenure track  faculty member in pre-tenure years 1-5, and lecturers, through the cohort mentor program. As part of this program, senior faculty cohort leaders work with their groups to identify and discuss topics of shared interest, and provide one-on-one support. 

This program is part of the larger, network mentoring approach encouraged by the NCFDD and utilized at Bates. As Kerry Ann Rockquemore communicates in this article it’s perfectly normal for faculty members to have a wide range of needs including: 1) professional development, 2) emotional support, 3) intellectual community, 4) role models, 5) safe space, 6) accountability for what really matters, 7) sponsorship, 8) access to opportunities, and 9) substantive feedback. Recognizing that no one person can likely meet all of these needs, the NCFDD recommends using a model of mentoring that, “isn’t dependent on a one-on-one relationship and where everyone has access to exactly what they need, when they need it, and how they need it”.

Called Network Mentoring, this approach centers the faculty member, putting them in charge of building a network of community and support designed to help them meet their own goals and address their own needs. Although it can feel counterintuitive, data indicate that, “faculty members find the idea of being surrounded by an enormous network of support to be far more efficient, effective, and helpful than relying on a single mentor”. 

The Second Year Review:

All tenure track faculty have a formative moment in the fall of their second year called a “Second Year Review.” Full details of that process including actions and a timeline are available here.

Third Year Dossier Institute:

The DOF, in collaboration with the CITL, offers a non-evaluative dossier workshop each year during the month of August. Drawing on extensive research by Peter Seldin, whose book, co-authored with J. Elizabeth Miller, The Academic Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Documenting Teaching, Research, and Service, is the framework for the Institute, participants engage in the process of writing, reflection, and identification of evidence, resulting in a complete dossier draft that presents a comprehensive picture of their work as a teacher, researcher, and actively contributing member of the professional communities of which they are a part.

This institute is available to all tenure track faculty during the August prior to their third year review.

Recognizing the unique needs of faculty with shorter term contracts at Bates, sometimes referred to as contingent faculty on campus, programming specific for this group is made available each year. Guided by the needs of this group, all programming is designed to support contingent faculty:

Several programmatic elements exist to support the attainment of these goals, including fall workshops designed to support colleagues as they engage the job market.