This article analyzes links between the origins of higher education institutions and the university "faculty development" movements. University faculty development programs surged during the peak of Cold War geopolitics. Thus, we trace the genealogy of higher education institutions to the surge in faculty development programs, specifically relative to histories and ideologies informing and shaping higher education institutions and faculty development programs. Subsequently, the contemporary issues BIPOC faculty members face relative to faculty development programs deriving from developmental psychology and non-academic faculty, clinicians, and university administrators are analyzed. This critical examination of the origins of faculty development concludes with a few suggested opportunities for repurposing faculty development toward decoloniality in higher education.