Faculty Advisory Committee

Background

A faculty advisory “launch” committee was jointly appointed by the Senate and then EVCP Scott Waugh in March of 2018 and has been meeting quarterly since that time. In Fall 2020 the committee transitioned to a permanent status with a revised charge and structure.

Charge

The broad charge of the faculty advisory committee is to assist CAT in continually refining its mission and programming and in strengthening its role in advancing teaching excellence on campus. The specific charge of the committee includes, but is not limited to:

• Providing insights and knowledge of campus pedagogy needs;
• Advising CAT on new and ongoing initiatives in areas such as faculty pedagogical development, TA training, inclusive pedagogy, evaluation of teaching/educational assessment, innovations in teaching, classroom design, educational technology, instructional media and lecture capture, and data accessibility to improve student outcomes;
• Providing recommendations on the potential expansion and refocusing of CAT’s longstanding instructional improvement grants program (IIP);
• Proposing ways to communicate and connect faculty more effectively with CAT offerings and programs;
• Defining opportunities to promote teaching through development of an institutional culture that values teaching and rewards teaching excellence in faculty promotions; and
• Reviewing CAT benchmarks and program evaluation measures to assess its effectiveness.

Membership and Terms

• The membership comprises:
  • Nine at-large faculty members serving three-year staggered terms, such that three members rotate off each year. Terms are renewable for one additional three-year term.
  • Four ex-officio members selected each year to represent the Committee on Teaching, the Undergraduate Council, the Graduate Council, and the Council on Academic Personnel to serve one-year terms (renewable for up to three years in total).
  • The head of CAT (whose title may be Faculty Director, Associate Vice Provost, or Associate Dean).
• New at-large members will be selected by the head of CAT with input from the advisory committee. The following factors will be considered in selecting new members:
  • Distribution across the divisions of the college and the professional schools
  • Interest in teaching excellence
  • Scholarly expertise in education or learning (for some members)
• The four ex-officio members from the Senate may be selected directly by the four councils or by the Committee on Committees, at the Senate’s discretion, provided that the representatives are current or recent past members of the four councils.
• Terms will nominally begin September 1 of each year, to align with the Senate’s processes.

Current Membership

The current membership includes the following:

• Paul Barber, Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2021 – present)
• Clarence Braddock III, Vice Dean for Education and Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine (Chair) (2018 – present)
• Jessica Collett, Chair of Academic Senate Committee on Teaching and Professor, Sociology (ex-officio) (2020 – present)
• Robert Cooper, Undergraduate Council member and Associate Professor, Education (ex-officio) (2020 – present)
• Adrienne Lavine, Associate Vice Provost of CAT and Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (2018 – present)
• Paul Macey, Graduate Council member and Associate Professor, Nursing (ex-officio) (2021 – present)
• Victoria Marks, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, World Arts & Cultures/Dance (2020 – present)
• Christopher Mott, Lecturer and TA Coordinator, English (2018 – present)
• William Newman, Council on Academic Personnel member and Professor, Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Mathematics (ex-officio) (2021 – present)
• Gregory Payne, Professor, Biological Chemistry (2018 – present)
• Joshua Samani, Lecturer, Physics & Astronomy (2021 – present)