The first in-person, campuswide orientation for new faculty since 2019 was also the largest ever, with more than 200 attendees filling the Michigan League Ballroom on Aug. 24.
Speaking two days before the 205th anniversary of the University of Michigan’s founding, President Mary Sue Coleman welcomed newcomers who are joining a tradition of accomplishment, risk taking and leadership exemplified by faculty predecessors like Nobel laureate and U.S. poet laureate Joseph Brodsky, Roman archaeologist Esther Van Deman and neuroanatomist Elizabeth Crosby.
Before providing an overview of the many offices that catalyze, support and safeguard faculty research, Vice President for Research Rebecca Cunningham strongly encouraged new faculty to fully experience the breadth of expertise at U-M and “be open to the ideas of amazing people around you.”
“Magic happens at the intersections,” Cunningham said, adding that inviting a colleague for coffee can result in shared scholarship and accelerated thinking that addresses major challenges.
Provost Laurie McCauley similarly urged new faculty, as they carve out a new or continuing body of work, to take full advantage of the resource constituted by their colleagues. These rich interactions lead to new knowledge, and she quoted philosopher John Dewey’s dictum: “Every great advance has issued from an audacity of imagination.”
She also reflected on the challenges of the past two years, as well as the lessons learned, including a deeper understanding of health and wellbeing as vital components for everyone in the community to thrive and do their best work.
The annual orientation for new faculty is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.
The CRLT Players introduced principles of equitable teaching through live and videotaped theatrical sketches.
The former showed the negative impact of assumptions faculty make about students, while the latter focused on the importance of creating transparent syllabi that clearly convey expectations to students. Faculty engaged in lively discussions of both topics, exchanging ideas for ways they can implement equitable teaching in their classrooms, studios and labs.
Leydy Diossa-Jimenez, a postdoctoral scholar who will teach sociology in winter 2023, said the players helped her realize she can’t take for granted that putting something in writing means students find it equally straightforward. Instead of rushing through her syllabus on the first day, she wants to use it to set the foundation and tone for her class.
Faculty continued discussions of teaching in a set of concurrent workshops led by CRLT consultants and experienced U-M faculty.
Juan Delgado, an LSA Collegiate Fellow in sociology, found the workshop on digital tools particularly useful. He plans to integrate the hypothesis annotation tool in Canvas into his fall course.
“It will provide preliminary evidence of their process” as students tackle dense readings and will help him track their engagement as they read, he said.
The program ended with a resource fair that brought together representatives from more than 40 offices across campus.
