Faculty Resources

From the Director of Faculty Development

Welcome back to our returning faculty & staff, and welcome to Allegheny for those who are new! I hope that everyone had a summer that gave them everything they needed. After a lot of summer travel, including a conference in New Orleans, I’m well-fed and about 50% butter (seriously, it’s impossible to eat even a little healthy in NOLA). Anyway, we’re on the precipice of a new academic year, and with that comes various professional development events and reminders. Here we go!

Fall 2026 Educator Resource Institute: The Fall 2026 ERI is Monday, August 17, with programming starting at 8:30 am (breakfast ready at 8 am!) and ending at 4:20 pm. If you’re planning on attending the ERI, please register here by Monday, Aug. 10, so we can get an accurate count for food. You can find the program schedule here.

Fall 2026 Teaching Circle: A teaching circle is a group of up to a dozen faculty members who meet on a regular basis throughout the semester to share issues, ideas, and advice connected to their teaching in a confidential and supportive setting. We are still looking for someone to lead the teaching circle for fall. If you’re interested in doing so, please contact Lisa Whitenack (lwhitena@allegheny.edu) for more information!

Dates for your Fall 2026 syllabus: In a fit of grading procrastination this spring, I made this Google Sheet that has tabs for three different class meeting schedules (MWF, MW, TuTh); each tab has the class date and information about deadlines, holidays, and no-class days. I also set the permissions to “comment” so that if there’s an error, folks can note that. If you have another class meeting schedule (e.g. MTuWTh), you can use this syllabus maker by Caleb McDaniel to make your schedule. This is the tool I use every semester! Regardless of which resource you use (if any), please be sure to consult the official Academic Calendar to double-check dates!

Sabbatical/Pre-Tenure Leave Reports: If you had a sabbatical or pre-tenure leave during the 2024/25 academic year, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page. For fall one-semester leaves, reports were due by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31. Questions can be directed to Lisa Whitenack  (lwhitena@allegheny.edu)

Oracle stuff: It’s not a 2026 Faculty Development Digest unless there’s something about Oracle, right? I took some time to update the Oracle instructions for faculty travel and ASC funding. Note that there are now several tabs in the document instead of having one long set of pages. In particular, there are updates for non-US travel, what to name your expense reports, and how to order items directly for ASC funding.

ASC funding reports: If you received an ASC grant for the last fiscal year (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026), please remember that the Funding Report submission form was due by June 30. This form and further details are available on the ASC Grant Applications page. Please contact ASC Chair Teresa Herrera (thererra@allegheny.edu) or Lisa Whitenack (lwhitena@allegheny.edu) with any questions. Please note that if you do not turn in this report, you are not eligible for ASC funds in future award cycles until we’ve received your report. Note that this form is separate from the sabbatical/pre-tenure leave report.

Sabbatical/Pre-Tenure Leave Reports: If you had a sabbatical or pre-tenure leave during the 2025/26 academic year, please remember to submit your leave report using the form on this page. For fall one-semester leaves, reports were due by March 31. For spring one-semester leaves and two-semester (fall/spring) leaves, reports are due by October 31. Questions can be directed to Lisa (lwhitena@allegheny.edu).

Faculty travel funding: This academic year, we are piloting getting rid of the 2/3 rule, which previously stated that if you weren’t presenting at a conference (or running a workshop, etc), you could only be reimbursed for 2/3 of your confernece travel expenses. The pre-approval form will stay the same so that we can track how this pilot will work.

Allegheny Awesome: If you have a cool pedagogical thing that you’re doing and would like to share, please email me! If you’ve seen a colleague doing something awesome in the classroom or while advising that people should know about, please let me know! If you’ve discovered the key to staying productive in your scholarship while juggling all of the things, send me an email! From there, I will follow up with folks and work with them to write a paragraph or two for a future Faculty Development Digest.

Writing accountability groups: Do you have scholarly writing projects you need to complete, and just have a hard time finding the time? Do you like to have camaraderie while you work? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please join us for a writing accountability group. We will have two versions of this for the upcoming academic year!

• WAGS, which is for untentured faculty, will continue to meet one Saturday per month from 9 am-4 pm in CREATE. All dates are TBD. If you are interested in attending, please contact Chris Normile (cnormile@allegheny.edu)
• We also have a group for tenured faculty, which will meet Fridays from 1:30-4 pm in CREATE starting on Sept. 4. There is no need to RSVP to this group, and it is meant to be “come when you can”. Please contact Lisa Whitenack (lwhitena@allegheny.edu) if you have questions for this group.

Setting Up Your Courses

Check out the Preparing for a New Semester page for reminders and tips for the new academic year. In particular:

• Take a look at the Syllabus Checklist page as a reminder of the required and recommended syllabus content. This page summarizes the information found in Section 9.1 of the Faculty Handbook.
• Don’t forget to update your syllabus statements if you’re reworking a syllabus from a previous semester.
• If you are teaching a course that has an QR or IP distribution requirements tag, please make sure you are able to identify at least one assignment that will assess that learning outcome. The rubrics that will be used to assess those learning outcomes can be found here (QR) and here (IP).

Reports of Student Experience (RSEs): The fall RSE survey will be open during the week of November 30, so please make sure that you set aside time for students to complete the survey during class that week. This survey is administered via the RSEs link that appears in the navigation menu in each of your Canvas courses. For this reason, all courses that are eligible for RSEs must have published Canvas sites, preferably by the Add/Drop deadline so that reminders don’t need to be sent out to instructors. This doesn’t mean that entire courses need to be managed through Canvas. You can find instructions on how to create a minimal Canvas course in this document.

You may also want to make time to administer a midterm course reflection, followed by a post-semester course reflection.

Honor Code Reminders: As faculty write syllabi and assignments, please remember to give students clear guidance on what is and is not acceptable in each course. This guidance should be repeated to students at appropriate intervals, especially as tests and assignments are coming due. Faculty teaching classes with first-year students should be especially mindful to teach academic integrity to students, as the standards and habits these students are used to may not be the same from high school to college.

As a reminder, the Honor Code was revised by student vote in Spring 2024, but nothing has changed in terms of the expectations or process for faculty to report suspected Honor Code violations. The Honor Code reporting form is here and the up-to-date Honor Code is here (just click on “Read the Honor Code”).

Mandatory Honor Code training is built into Week of Welcome for first-year students – this will also include a discussion of AI. This means that there will have been Honor Code training BEFORE we ask students to swear to uphold the Code.

Office hours – Intentional Athletic Study Hall partnership: Chris Calliari and Aacha Brown-Gregg are again partnering with coaches to encourage athletes to attend weekly Intentional Athletic Study Halls, structured study sessions for students — primarily first-years — to complete coursework in a supportive environment. Tutors, writing consultants, and CCPD staff will also be present to provide assistance. They would like to invite faculty from your departments to help connect and build relationships with our students.  Our students will have the opportunity to seek help and ask questions they may not have done on their own. Study halls will take place in Pelletier 311 every Monday from 4pm to 6pm, starting on September 14th.  Participating faculty may choose the level of participation that works best for them — whether that means attending for 30 minutes one time or coming multiple Mondays throughout the semester. These hours would be part of the standard six office hours per week, as described in the Faculty Handbook (§9.5), not an additional commitment beyond those hours. If you are interested in joining us please reach out to Chris at ccalliari@allegheny.edu . Thank you for partnering with us!

Updates from the Library

Course Reserves: Pelletier Library is getting ready for the upcoming Fall 2026 semester! Please see the steps below for submitting books, videos, or audio materials to Course Reserves:

1. Fill out the Course Reserves Google Form and indicate if the item is already part of our library collection or if you will be stopping by with a personal copy.

OR

2. Stop by Pelletier and speak with Kirsten Hauser about placing Pelletier items or personal copy items on course reserves.

Email libraryservices@allegheny.edu with questions.

Collaborate with CREATE!:

• Looking to improve course design and accessibility?
• Want to support and guide students with information literacy skills and AI literacy skills?
• Looking for research support or citation guidance for your students?
• Want to learn about digital tools for classroom or individual project use?
• Want information on faculty publishing support?
• Want to have a coffee break and a snack with colleagues?

Check out the CREATE website or contact research.instruction@allegheny.edu

Reminder: Library Research Instruction for Fall 2026 Courses:  It’s never too late to schedule a research librarian visit for your course! Research librarians are available to work with faculty to design classroom sessions to help students develop the information literacy and/or research skills they need for their courses. Using the Request a Library Session button on the library’s Research Instruction Classes page, please request two possible dates and times for a librarian visit to your class. Librarians can visit your classroom, or you can bring your students to the Pelletier CREATE lab or classroom, depending on availability.

A list of suggested possible topics can be found on the same page. Please let us know which would be particularly important for your students to learn, or we encourage you as well to suggest additional topics. A librarian will reach out to you to establish dates and discuss topics to be covered. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Research Instruction Services at research.instruction@allegheny.edu.

From Student Success

Improving student success with aPlus+ Attendance (a preview of the ERI!): To give faculty more options in Canvas to deal with attendance and to help identify at-risk students earlier, we would like to remind you about the new Canvas tool: aPlus+ Attendance. Class attendance is fundamental to student success in Allegheny courses, and we know from academic alerts over the past few years that students not attending class is a problem. This is a national issue, not just Allegheny-specific, but we aim to provide tools to faculty to help us help students be accountable.

Why switch? The native Canvas tool is binary (Present/Absent). The new aPlus+ tool offers:

• Nuance: Mark students as Late, Sick, or Excused.
• Efficiency: Let students check themselves in via a code.
• Integration: Automatically syncs class sessions to the Canvas Calendar.

Vetting via governance: the Academic Support Committee, alongside Academic Success, and the Library’s Canvas Team, reviewed and vetted this tool.

Is this required? NO. While the tool will appear in your course menu, you are free to ignore it or continue using your current methods.

Is this replacing the current Attendance tool? NO. Both tools will appear in your course menu.

How to try it: Simply click the aPlus+ Attendance link in your course menu and select “Authorize.” Note: Class sessions will automatically populate in your Canvas Calendar. You can manage this via the “Calendars” menu.

Support:

• Guides: Vendor’s instructor guide . The Allegheny Canvas team is working with APlus+ to develop guides and videos tailored for Allegheny College.
• Feedback: Report issues using the aPlus+ tab on the Academic Alert and aPlus Issues Tracking sheet

Help: Contact Doug Anderson or Betsy Garloch at canvasteam@allegheny.edu

From Global Education

Study abroad deadlines & student opportunities: The Global Education Office will host several events throughout the fall semester to help students explore study away opportunities. We are excited to host our annual Study Away Fair on September 16 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., where students can meet with program and university representatives, learn more about the study away process, and explore programs that match their academic and personal interests.

Students planning to study away should note that priority applications are due September 1, and regular applications are due September 20 for the spring 207 semester.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

AI Ethics Learning Toolkit: If you’re thinking about tackling ethics & AI in your courses, Duke’s Center for Teaching & Learning released a free toolkit this summer.

Instructor talk: “Instructor talk”, or the non-content stuff that instructors say while teaching, can influence students’ perceptions of belonging in a classroom and discipline. While this paper by Jackson et al. is focused on the biology classroom, it’s takehome message is applicable widely – the effects of instructor talk vary with student identities.  If you’d like to learn more about instructor talk, you can also listen to this podcast that features an interview with Dr. Kimberly Tanner (who has researched this extensively)

Another AI resource: Elon University, along with the AAC&U, has put together a student guide to AI that they are calling “Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills“. The description says that this program “helps students develop the human capabilities needed to thrive in a digital world, whether working with AI technologies or thinking independently of those tools. The guide is framed by great thinkers throughout history whose wisdom and insights endure, even as AI rapidly evolves.”

It’s ok to say “I don’t know”: This article in Faculty Focus by Cassidy Downs talks about why it’s good to admit that you don’t know the answer and ways to leverage that in the classroom. (You may need to login to access this article, but creating an account is free)

Making learning accessible to all: This one is a re-post from May, but is important as you finish course prep! This collection of articles about all aspects of accessibility has some great stuff in it! Articles cover accessibility as inclusivity and belonging, classroom technology, rethinking learning spaces beyond the classroom (e.g. lab, fieldwork), the role of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), neurodiversity-friendly teaching, ADHD, autism, dyslexia, hearing and visual challenges, and assessment.

Starting class with creativity: Jessica Manzone in The Teaching Professor describes what she calls “heART” – a first-day activity that her students love and allows them to combine some arts & crafts time with building community in the classroom.

Keeping up with higher ed news: While many of us have particular go-to sources that keep us apprised of the latest topics and news related to our specific disciplines, there are some great resources for news and information on higher ed in general, pedagogy, and scholarship. Many of these resources are either free or freely available with an Allegheny email. Here is a list of Whitenack’s go-to sources for staying updated on higher education news and for bringing things to you in this digest. If you have suggestions for some that I may have missed, please let me know!

Upcoming Opportunities

Grant opportunities from the National Endowment for the Humanities: There are two grant opportunities from the NEH, both with due dates of September 16, 2026.

• Applications must focus on the history and culture of the United States or Western civilization.
• The program supports three project categories: Planning International Collaboration, Manuscript Preparation, and Scholarly Digital Project
• Planning International Collaboration projects have a maximum award amount of $50,000.

• Aug TBD:  Looking for ways to get students engaged and ready to learn in minute one?  Join your GLCA colleagues to learn about some energizing and successful classroom warm-up ideas
• Sept 3:  Regan Gurung (Oregon State University) A Foot in the Door to Inspiring Learning: Creating Student Centered Syllabi
• Oct 22:  Lindsay Masland (Appalachian State University):  A Permission Slip to Say No: Sustainable Teaching in Unsustainable Conditions

Fulbright-IMC Krems Visiting Professor Award: This distinguished award offers scholars from the United States the opportunity to engage in both teaching and research at IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences, an internationally oriented higher education institution in Austria. The program is designed to promote academic exchange, strengthen international collaboration, and further enhance the long-standing ties between Austria and the United States. For further information regarding the award, eligibility requirements, and the application process, please refer to the Fulbright Austria website: Fulbright-IMC Krems Visiting Professor.  Applications are due on September 15, 2026.