From navigating and leveraging student differences in the classroom to using digital tools for student learning, new University of Michigan faculty members learned ways to enhance their teaching and were welcomed as Wolverines at the New Faculty Orientation Aug. 29.
The annual campuswide New Faculty Orientation is sponsored by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching and the Office of the Provost.
Speaking to a packed Michigan League Ballroom, President Mark Schlissel expounded on the unique aspects of working at U-M, including the breadth of the university and its commitment to teaching.
“You should feel 100 percent comfortable taking as much pride in your teaching as the next book you write or the next fancy meeting you get invited to talk at,” Schlissel said.
Schlissel also addressed several of the challenges U-M will continue to face, such as finding the balance between protecting free speech while promoting a sense of inclusion, safety and equity on campus.
The president offered each group of faculty parting words of advice.
He implored assistant professors to take care of themselves and enjoy life while navigating the journey to tenure, urged tenured faculty to consider what they will do with this new privilege, and emphasized the essential role lecturers and research scientists play in U-M’s excellence.
After introductory remarks, faculty members broke into concurrent sessions, where they learned about topics that included research-based practices for college teaching, using digital tools to engage students, leveraging group work and student differences to enhance student learning, and strategies for clinical teaching in the health sciences.
Brendan Nyhan, professor of public policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, said he values the interdisciplinary focus of the Ford School and U-M, and that he is excited by the way the Ford School combines undergraduate and graduate teaching.
“The opportunities to do the kind of work that I want to do here are better than anywhere else in the world,” Nyhan said.
In regards to why she chose U-M, Elizabeth Galvez, the 2018-19 William Muschenheim Fellow at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, said she enjoyed the atmosphere at the architecture school.
“There were a lot of opportunities for sharing, mentorship and a real community of architecture,” Galvez said.
In his remarks, Provost Martin Philbert said the university’s core values are diversity, excellence, free and open thought, and speech and integrity. He said society is at a moment in time where these values are critically important, yet often attacked.
“Our work in the academy is of tremendous importance to society,” Philbert said. “It is imperative that we continue it with the same dedication that has characterized American higher education for generations and made it the envy of the world.”
