The New Faculty Academy helps all new tenure-track faculty enjoy a productive and supportive start to their academic career at Ball State University.

The program is inspired by a community-of-practice model; it has as its goal to deepen knowledge and expertise through reciprocal mentoring, mutual exchange of ideas, and joint engagement in practice. Throughout the process, this community-of-practice model shapes collegial relationships across campus, sparking engagement and reducing isolation.

Activities

All new tenure-track faculty participate, throughout the Fall semester, attend weekly sessions facilitated by a team of faculty peers.

Participants and facilitators:

  • work to build and enhance their student-centered pedagogies
  • develop and exchange research and creative project agendas that will lead to high productivity in alignment with tenure and promotion goals
  • imagine and articulate ways University resources can assist in all aspects of faculty work
  • collectively identify and address barriers to faculty success

Program Goals

The members of the New Faculty Academy receive one course release in order to attend to the goals of NFA which include:

  • enhancing the learner-centeredness of their teaching and connecting to campus resources
  • refining and pursuing their research or creative projects agenda in meaningful ways
  • acquiring a working understanding of Ball State’s resources, policies, and practices
  • learning about community organizations and campus initiatives, and considering their future role in the Ball State and Muncie communities
  • reflecting upon their identity as a teacher/scholar to develop a fulfilling career that properly attends to the integration of their research, teaching, and service plans as well as work-life balance and wellbeing
  • building and maintaining a faculty community across campus

Facilitators

Debbie Mix
Professor of English and Assistant Chair of Programs
Department of English
College of Sciences and Humanities

Thalia Mulvihill
Faculty Fellow and Professor of Social Foundations and Higher Education
Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs | Department of Educational Leadership
Teachers College