Faculty Resources

From the Director of Faculty Development:

Spring 2025 Educator Resource Institute (ERI): The Spring 2025 ERI will take place on Tuesday, May 13 in Pelletier. You can find a schedule with workshop descriptions here. Please RSVP here by Thursday, May 8 so that we can plan for food, etc. Note that you are free to attend as many of these sessions as you like, but we hope to see you at all of them! Most sessions will be taking place in the new CREATE Lab (formerly the Collaboratory) – come take a sneak peek at the new CREATE space!

We also could use some of your help in planning these workshops, even if you are unable to attend sessions:

• If you already use alternative grading strategies (and Lisa hasn’t already reached out to you), please fill out this 6-question survey.
• The RSVP form also has a field for questions about alternative grading that you may have.

RSE week is coming!: This is a friendly reminder that RSEs are being administered the week of April 21. Please allow class time during that week for your students to complete their feedback.

COACHE: From the COACHE team, thank you to everyone who took the survey and/or encouraged others to do so. Our final response rate was 83.6%!! High fives to everyone!

Brain break: In “The Waste Land”, T.S. Eliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month”. While he was not referring to the rhythm of the academic year, the sentiment applies. The mad dash to the end of the semester can be a lot. Please make sure that you’re taking care of yourself and taking breaks in this final leg of the semester (just like when we tell our students to take study breaks!). One of the things that I like to do when I feel chained to my desk, but can’t get out into nature, is to keep a live cam going in the background so that I can stop and watch the fishes for a while. Coral City in Miami is one of my frequent ones, as is the live stream from the Okeanos Explorer which will be at sea from April 11 – May 2. Coral City was coincidentally featured on NPR on April 14! If fishes aren’t your thing, there are oodles of live cams at explore.org, including birds, general landscapes, bears, and more.

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.

Updates from the Library

Student appointments with the Research librarians: The Research librarians at Pelletier encourage faculty to recommend that their students make an appointment with a librarian for one-on-one assistance with papers, presentations, and reports. Appointments are available throughout the week, with 48 hours notice, either in person or via Google Meet. Librarians can assist with honing search strategies, focusing research, identifying authoritative articles and books, tracking citations, using correct citation styles, and more. The library also offers research assistance at the Research Desk, facing the entrance to the library. Librarians and trained students provide on-the-spot research help from 3-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Summer research students & the library: Research librarians are offering summer research support to both students and faculty. We want to partner with you! Sessions can be tailored to individuals or groups. Email researchinstruction@allegheny.edu for more information. *New to our research repertoire includes support of digital humanities, archives and special collections research and research projects. Contact us today!

Meeting with departments: The Dean of the Library is meeting with interested departments to discuss research and resource needs and to showcase department and program-specific resources. If your department would like to move to the top of the list, please contact Tressa Snyder, as soon as possible at tsnyder@allegheny.edu.

Upcoming library events:

-Lafayette at Allegheny College, a Merrick Archives Exhibit, April 11 to May 2, 2025   

In 1825, French General Marquis de Lafayette was on a national tour of the United States. On June 2, 1825, Lafayette’s entourage stopped in Meadville and the General gave a speech from the steps of Bentley Hall.

From April 11 to May 2, the exhibit “Lafayette at Allegheny College” will be displayed at the Merrick Archives on the 3rd floor of Pelletier Library. The exhibit showcases several original artifacts, including the recently rediscovered 1825 Allegheny College Guest Book, signed by Lafayette, his son, and several of his French companions. The exhibit also features original artifacts related to Lafayette’s brief stay in Meadville, on loan from the Crawford County Historical Society, the Hagen History Center in Erie, and Allegheny Alumnus Bill Owen.

-Out of the Vault, April 22, 2025, 4:00 PM

On Tuesday, April 22, at 4:00pm, the Merrick Archives will host the final Out of the Vault program for the spring semester. Allegheny Archivist Chris Anderson will discuss General Lafayette’s stop at Allegheny College and also showcase original artifacts from the exhibit. The Allegheny College and Meadville communities are invited to attend the event to be held on the 3rd floor of the Pelletier Library.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Resources for higher education news & issues: 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!

Self-archiving your research and teaching materials: There are several reasons that folks may have for backing up your professional materials in multiple places. During my Ph.D., I backed up all of my data on 3 copies of CDs – one for the lab, one for home, and one that mailed to my parents to put in their safe deposit box – because what if I lost one of those CDs?! An Allegheny faculty member sent me this Bluesky thread about how to go about self-archiving your electronic stuff (which I printed to a PDF in case you’re not on Bluesky). Note that the thread is focused on potential censorship in the current political climate, but the advice is solid regardless of your reason for self-archiving.

Reflecting on the semester: While it’s tempting to close up your course notes and grade book and sail into the summer, it’s worth taking time to reflect on your courses while the experience is fresh in your brain. This guide from the City University of New York talks about pausing your sprint into summer to close out the semester with reflection, record-keeping, and thinking about how these connect to your professional development.

Upcoming Opportunities

GLCA teaching & learning workshop – AI in Action: Improve, Create, Integrate, a Hands-on Workshop: April 16, 12-1 pm Eastern. As educators, finding the time to explore the practical applications of AI in our teaching can be challenging. This hands-on workinar, designed specifically for those with minimal AI experience, will guide you through effective ways to use AI to improve your existing assignments, create innovative new ones, and seamlessly integrate generative AI into your busy academic life. We will primarily use ChatGPT, the platform most used by students. This session will be highly interactive, featuring group discussions and hands-on activities, so it will not be recorded. Throughout the workshop, we will actively use ChatGPT to demonstrate its capabilities and explore its applications in your teaching. To fully engage with the workshop materials, we recommend that attendees create at least a base account on a generative AI platform such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini before the session. This will allow you to upload files and experiment with AI tools in real time, ensuring a more productive and immersive learning experience. By the end of this session, you will have a solid understanding of how AI operates in educational contexts and its potential implications for your teaching. You’ll leave equipped to make well-informed decisions about whether and how to incorporate AI tools into your teaching practices based on your specific educational objectives and classroom needs. Register here.

What Works in 2025? Building for the Future of Higher Education: The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College invites presentations on teaching and learning for a hybrid conference May 28-29, 2025.  This conference is an opportunity for faculty and academic support professionals to share their experiences innovating for the classroom. The presentation application deadline has already passed, but it may be worth checking out as an attendee! More information can be found here.

From the Director of Faculty Development:

COACHE: Great news!! As of 3/18, our response rate to the COACHE survey is 56.9%! That means that we’ve earned cookies and finals week beverages at French Creek Coffee! We will be getting cookies and punchcards for beverages to your mailboxes in the coming weeks.

This also means that we still need eligible folks to complete their surveys if y’all want a nice brunch at the last faculty meeting. You’re probably tired of hearing me say this, but if you’re eligible, please take the COACHE survey! If you’ve already taken it, thank you. Please be sure to encourage your colleagues to take the survey as well!

Don’t forget that our second open tab at GFC is on March 27!

Allegheny Awesome: Tommy Conners, Assistant Professor of World Language & Culture, has been experimenting with curricular-extracurricular collaboration in “Intro to Latinx Studies”.  On Wednesday, 2/26, students held poster presentations defining, contextualizing, and complicating keywords in the field. This directly preceded a panel that the student org Latinas on the Rise held about colorism in the Latin American diaspora. Tommy writes “It’s a curricular-extracurricular collaboration that aims to support Latinx students on campus, make space for Latinx Studies as a field, and turns a midterm project from a written paper into a public-facing interdisciplinary conversation.” This required close work with Latinas on the Rise, including attending meetings, navigating meeting students as both students and officers, pitching ideas and listening to their needs, and collaborating with IDEAS center leadership.

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.

Spring 2025 Educator Resource Insitute (ERI): The Spring 2025 ERI will take place on Tuesday, May 13 in Pelletier. Topics planned include a syllabus audit workshop, a workshop on alternate grading schemes (e.g. contract grading, mastery-based grading, and more), and a workshop on teaching oral communication skills. The form for RSVPing to the ERI will be coming soon.

From the Office of Inclusive Excellence

“Research for Lunch” is a once-monthly lunch event that showcases the different forms research can take. It’s geared towards students interested in summer research or in early stages of preparing to comp, but faculty are encouraged to attend! It features the projects and day-to-day research of faculty and staff from creative writing, music, sustainability, athletics, COMJ, public humanities, art, philosophy, theatre, and more. It convenes on Jan 28, Feb 19, March 27, and April 14 from 12:30 pm-1:20 pm in the Brooks Gillespie Room. Please RSVP here. Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the IDEAS Center, and URSCA; please direct any questions to Tommy Conners (tconners@allegheny.edu).

Updates from the Library

Data Bites: The next Data Bites session is on Friday, March 28 from 12:15-1:20 pm in Pelletier classroom 224. Tressa Snyder and Doug Anderson will talk about Copyright & Fair Use information: Want to become more copyright literate? Learn more about copyright as it applies to faculty publishing and AI, senior comps, sharing course content, and using copyrighted materials in Canvas and in the classroom. Find out about public domain, Creative Commons, and fair use in education. Snacks will be served!

Looking ahead to Fall 2025: As you start to plan your fall courses, consider inviting a librarian! Librarians will work with faculty to prepare classroom sessions designed to help students develop and reinforce both information literacy and research skills. Presentations are tailored to each course’s level and subject matter.

A sampling of possible topics:

From Student Success:

Help us get ready for first-year advising: Erin O’Day-Frye is looking for information about courses offered in Fall 2025 for the purposes of first-year course registration. Please especially send her information about special topics courses, new courses, and courses that will count for other major/minor requirements. This information will be shared with Exploratory and First Year Course Registration Advisors.

Resources for career education and Gator2Gator: Sara Pineo and colleagues have made a number of resources related to Gator2Gator, a networking platform that connects Allegheny students with alumni for career advice and professional connections. You can find the folder of resources here, which includes an info sheet for faculty and staff, as well as individual flyers/posters for majors/minors that have alumni connected to Gator2Gator.

Readings, Slides, and Guides

Updating think-pair-share: This article by Ashley Harvey offers some quick upgrades to think-pair-share.

Materials from GLCA workshop with Mays Imad: The Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) hosted a virtual workshop titled “Teaching Through Difficulty” with Dr. Mays Imad on Weds. March 12. You can find the recording here, the slides here, and a related article here.

A tool kit for open educational resources (OERs): If you’re curious about adopting OERs to reduce textbook costs for students, you may find this guide by Sami Lange handy.

Upcoming Opportunities

Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership & Course Enhancement Grants: Funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, these grants provide up to $4,500 to support faculty in developing or enhancing courses with civic engagement, community partnerships, and/or public scholarship. Selected faculty will (i) receive funding for course development, faculty or student stipends, research, travel, and/or community-engaged projects and (ii) join a national network of scholars dedicated to advancing civic engagement in higher education.

There are two different grants:

• Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program ($4,500)
• Periclean Course Enhancement (PCE) Grants ($1,000-$3,000)

Application Deadline: April 4, 2025 (for courses taught in Fall 2025 or Spring 2026) and October 3, 2025 (for courses taught in Spring 2026.)
 Click here to learn more and apply.

*** Interested faculty should complete the Allegheny College grant proposal endorsement form well before the deadline. Please also keep in mind that the Foundations & Corporate Relations Office will need to review all drafts of the proposal at least 2 weeks before the proposal deadline.

For questions or more information, please contact Brian Miller (bmiller2@allegheny.edu) or Tarah Williams (twilliams@allegheny.edu).

What Works in 2025? Building for the Future of Higher Education: The Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College invites presentations on teaching and learning for a hybrid conference May 28-29, 2025.  This conference is an opportunity for faculty and academic support professionals to share their experiences innovating for the classroom. Your proposal should include an explanation of how your session would apply to the teaching of undergraduates in small colleges and universities. These can be lessons learned in larger institutions that would also apply to smaller settings. We will consider all proposals that would apply to undergraduate education at a small college or university, but we especially want to encourage proposals in these areas:

• approaches that build community and belonging in the classroom
• creative connections between different disciplines across the curriculum
• experiential opportunities and real world applications for the liberal arts

The presentation application deadline has already passed, but it may be worth checking out as an attendee!