Sam Houston State University (SHSU) has a commitment to professional development among its faculty. The University offers development opportunities and programs for SHSU faculty on a variety of topics, each of which promotes faculty development as outlined in the Texas Education Code, Title 3, Subtitle A, Subchapter C, Sec 51.102 [1]. Three policies, in particular, outline University efforts to provide ongoing professional development opportunities for faculty members as teachers, scholars, and practitioners:
Faculty Development Leave
The Faculty Development Leave policy, as outlined in Academic Policy 800328 [2] and in the SHSU Faculty Handbook [5], provides faculty leaves of absence designed to enable faculty members to engage in professional development, study, research, writing, and similar projects for the purpose of adding to the knowledge available to the faculty members, students, and the institution. All faculty development leaves are awarded on the basis of merit as evaluated by the Faculty Development Leave Committee (FDLC) and are subject to funding. All tenured faculty or tenured professional librarians are eligible to apply for faculty development leave. Eligible faculty members interested in academic or professional pursuits both on campus or off campus to study pedagogy, conduct research, develop writing projects, conduct field observation, and/or enhance one’s discipline are encouraged to apply for development leave. The following general criteria are used by the FDLC to evaluate applications:
Faculty members may take development leave for one academic year at one-half their regular salary or for one academic semester at their full salary. An academic year is defined as the 9-month period contained in the fall and spring semesters; development leaves are not authorized for summer sessions. Recipients of development leave submit a written report of their activity to the appropriate departmental chair, dean, and the Provost. The report explains activities undertaken while on leave and the perceived benefits to both the faculty member and the institution. The report also indicates whether any possible patentable or copyrightable intellectual property was created during the leave. Between academic years 2015 and 2018, 39 faculty members were granted developmental leave.
Faculty Administration Leave
The Faculty Administrative Leave Program, as outlined in Academic Policy 800215 [3] and the SHSU Faculty Handbook [6], provides an opportunity for a member of the tenured or tenure-track faculty, through a released-time arrangement, to acquire administrative experience and to contribute professional expertise by serving in a professional level administrative staff capacity in a selected administrative area for a specified period of time. The administrative areas for possible leave assignment include the offices of the President, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Vice President for Student Services, the Vice President for Finance and Operations, the Vice President for University Advancement, the academic deans, and the chairs, coordinators, and directors of academic units. Each leave participant will carry the equivalent of a full teaching load as defined in the current University Faculty Workload Policy, Academic Policy 790601 [7]. For academic year 2017, 13 out of 203 tenured/tenure-track faculty members received course reductions for the purpose of administrative leave in the fall, and 14 out of 205 received a reduction in the spring.
Reassigned Time for Faculty Members
The Reassigned Time for Faculty Members Pursuing Research and Artistic Endeavors Policy (Academic Policy 900420) [4] provides a procedure that enables faculty members to receive reassigned time for one course from the normal teaching load during a long semester in order to establish their research program, develop and submit an extramural funding proposal, or to enhance their professional standing through academic research and artistic endeavors. Consideration for approval of reassigned time will be based on the following:
Opportunities for Faculty Development
The Sam Houston State University Leadership Academy [8], which began in 2013, is a 9-month experience that involves a series of monthly development sessions that address key leadership topics. Annually, up to 21 faculty and staff participate in the leadership program and are selected utilizing a decentralized nomination process. Applicants must have at least one year of leadership experience and be nominated by supervisors through proper chain of command. Involvement in the SHSU Leadership Academy affords faculty identified as emerging leaders the opportunity to develop leadership strategies and skills. To date, 39 SHSU faculty and staff members from both academic and academic support units have participated in the intensive leadership training program.
The Office of Research and Special Programs (ORSP) [9] provides services to faculty to assist them in obtaining external funding to support their creative and scholarly activities. SHSU also has two internal grant programs to support faculty development—Faculty Research Grants (FRG) and Enhancement Research Grants (ERG)—each of which is administered by ORSP. ORSP allocated $200,000 each year for both the ERG and FRG. With this fund, 10 FRGs at $5,000 per grant and 10 ERGs at $15,000 per grant were awarded annually from 2014 to 2018.
SHSU recognizes the value of professional meetings for faculty and provides funding to support these activities. All travel is subject to the travel policies [10] for all employees and students of SHSU. The Faculty Handbook [11] also contains information regarding travel policy and procedures. As of June 2018, the academic departments at SHSU have spent over 2 million dollars on travel to support faculty development.
SHSU uses the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI) instrument (commonly referred to as the IDEA evaluations) to collect feedback from students on their perceived learning within courses and their observations on teaching methods. Students are asked to rate their instruction and course materials using a 5-item rating scale [12]. By collecting feedback on student learning and teaching methods, faculty and administrators are able to make improvements to courses that lead to improved student learning. The Office of Academic Planning and Assessment at the University coordinates the institution’s IDEA evaluation process [13] [14]. In addition to being an evaluative device for department chairs, program coordinators, and deans in their annual reviews of faculty members, the information gathered in the IDEA-SRI process is used by faculty members to design strategies for improved student learning and professional improvement. A sample faculty report is provided [15].
In 2008, the University opened the Professional and Academic Center for Excellence (PACE) [16]. PACE serves the campus as a resource for learning and teaching, providing professional development for administrators, faculty, staff, and students. Using programs and services founded on evidence-based teaching and leadership strategies, the goal of PACE is effective student learning and faculty development. PACE organizes and annually hosts the Teaching and Learning Conference (TLC) [17], which had 150 attendees in 2015, 193 in 2016, and 210 in 2017. PACE offers IDEA workshops [18] that guide faculty through their expectations regarding the evaluation system, including interpreting their IDEA results. PACE also organizes the New Faculty Investment, which includes presentations to faculty on various campus resources; attendance is typically 40-70 faculty. Since 2014, PACE has offered an interdisciplinary Art of Teaching workshop series, which consists of viewing video sessions followed by group discussion concerning application to faculty members’ teaching [19]. In collaboration with PACE, the SHSU Writing-in-the-Disciplines Program sponsors a Faculty Writing Circles program. The purpose of the faculty writing circles is to support faculty with their academic writing. Through the key strategy of daily writing, the circles provide an encouraging community of accountability for the sometimes exhausting task of scholarly writing.
In the fall 2017 term, Academic Affairs, PACE, and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Reimagining the First Year (RFY) Project announced the opportunity for faculty to apply for Teaching Innovation Grants (TIGs) [20]. One of the most effective ways to improve student learning through the curriculum is focused small groups of faculty working to employ evidence-based practices. TIGs are an internal competitive funding process, analogous to the ERG and FRG system used by the ORSP. Proposals are developed by faculty learning circles, consisting of 2-5 faculty, and must include High Impact Practices (as termed by the AASCU) that are based on research in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Projects are one year in length, and include a planning stage (fall semester) followed by implementation and assessment (spring semester), a final product, and sharing of the practices across campus. This program is designed to increase the practice of teaching as scholarship here at SHSU and is intended to transform the institutional culture so that teaching and learning are viewed as a scholarly activity, just like research. In its inaugural year (2017-2018), there were 19 applications, ten of which were funded, for a total of 38 faculty members. In total, $473,435 in funding was provided by PACE, Academic Affairs, College of Science and Engineering Technology, College of Health Sciences, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Instructional Technology, and the Academic Success Center.
SHSU Online offers faculty development in technologies and instructional strategies via a number of methods and modalities. SHSU Online provides faculty development opportunities in scheduled face-to-face sessions, fully online cohort-based development sessions, fully online self-paced development sessions, regularly scheduled faculty development webinars, and faculty development sessions by appointment [21] [22]. The “by appointment” sessions can be delivered face-to-face, via webinar, or over the phone.
For faculty members serving as departmental chairpersons, the Department of Human Resources offers a Chairs’ Academy designed to provide development for such topics relating to policies and procedures (operating legally, ethically, and effectively); leadership (peer to chair, conflict, and challenge); and performance management (supervising, evaluating, hiring, and salary administration) [23]. The first annual Chairs’ Academy was delivered in spring 2018.
SHSU also provides annual research, service, and teaching awards to encourage and support faculty excellence and development. The Excellence in Teaching Committee [24], Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Accomplishments Committee [25], Excellence in Service Committee [26], and David Payne Academic Community Engagement Committee [27] oversee the nominations and selection of the annual teaching, research, service, and academic engagement awards, respectively. Each recipient receives a medallion and an honorarium of $5,000.