This article outlines an appreciative inquiry (AI) into a departmental professional development process and describes the resulting implementation of an appreciative peer evaluation meeting as one part of the new professional development process. Using AI, a departmental faculty development committee sought to re-envision the professional…

For decades, national surveys have shown faculty report high levels of dissatisfaction with the distribution of labor in their departments, especially women and underrepresented minority faculty. Research suggests this dissatisfaction is warranted, as these groups are often engaged in more service, mentoring, and institutional housekeeping than…

In 2011, the Association of American Universities (AAU) embarked on an ambitious effort to improve the instructional quality and effectiveness of undergraduate introductory Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses. The primary focus was on sustainable implementation of evidence-based methods of instruction in courses that…

After North Carolina State University developed recommendations for departments and faculty to integrate learning, discovery, and engagement through the scholarship of engagement, the issue was raised: "What do department heads think, and how do they support engagement especially during promotion, tenure, and reappointment of engaged…

In their seminal 1995 article, Barr and Tagg encouraged higher education to think differently about undergraduate education and suggested that a new paradigm be adopted that focused less on what is taught and more on what is learned. Dubbed the learner-centered paradigm, this reframing of education challenges long standing practices and removes…

This article describes the creation of the Master of Science of Computer Science and Information Systems at University of North Carolina Wilmington. The creation of this graduate degree was funded by the Sloan Foundation as a new type of program, the Professional Master's. The program was designed with significant industry input, and is truly…

Academic service-learning is based on the value of university-community partnerships. But what about campus partnerships? Who on campus best understands and most effectively administers academic service-learning programs? Locating service-learning programs solely in academic affairs or student affairs departments certainly simplifies the process.…

Implementation of communication-across-the-curriculum initiatives has outpaced their systematic assessment, leaving many stakeholders wondering whether faculty and students are benefiting from the emphasis on writing, speaking, and other communicative media in discipline-based courses and curricula. Increasing interest in assessment, however, has…

DepaeThe new conditions of the study abroad "market" have impelled us to rethink the costs and benefits of a small, selective US-based program, such as Duke in Berlin. The principal advantage, we argue, is an environment of "academic intimacy," a generous teacher/student ratio, which in turn fosters additional undergraduate…

During the last twenty years, there has been a shift in the academy's philosophy regarding Teaching Assistants (TAs). Consequently, TAs are no longer rated and trained by how useful they are to the university, but rather by their usefulness to the future professoriate. In order to successfully launch a training program that satisfies this…

The justice studies program at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) is designed to produce a new breed of justice practitioners whose understanding of justice and its administration is broadened to include the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions within which issues of crime and punishment are pursued and addressed. While it…

The work of the Bureau of extension of the University of North Carolina is presented here as typical of what can be done in making widely serviceable, the resources of an institution of higher learning. The university of North Carolina chartered in 1789 is one of the oldest of the State universities. Its genesis and development have been along…

The improvement of the rural schools of the United States is the most important school problem. The most important factor in their improvement must be better educated and better trained teachers. The education and training of teachers should always have some special reference to the work of the schools in which they are to teach. Therefore any…