New engineering faculty are required to make many choices that affect their academic career and personal life. It is proposed to conduct a series of workshops designed to assist new and prospective faculty (< 2 years in position) successfully transition to an academic career. This workshop encourages faculty to identify suitable career goals and specific objectives developing a plan. The workshop is designed to be active (e.g., mock panel and begin to develop a plan for achieving them. The components of the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program are used as model for reviews, team activities) and it covers a range of topics. Elements of the career plan will include:
Establishing a Research Program (funding, Career Award, problem identification & selection, program management, collaborations, network development)
Developing into an Effective Teacher (resources for teaching strategies, education scholarship (e.g., books, innovations), development of course materials and lectures)
Understanding the University Environment (tenure & promotion, service activities, sabbaticals, entrepreneurship, reward structure, mentoring expectations)
Balancing Your Life (dual careers, personal & family time)
Developing as a Professional (role of consulting, professional service, peer groups)
Managing Your Time (goal setting & priorities, stress reduction, good habits)
The prepared workshop material represents a contribution to the more general field of faculty development. Through collection of responses to Likert items and open-ended questions this program will collect information on the challenges facing new faculty and their responses. In addition, both formative (e.g., end-of-workshop survey) and summative (follow-on survey after 1 year) assessment and evaluation findings will contribute to better understanding of how new faculty navigate the transition to an academic career and plan for success.
There is clear benefit to helping new faculty quickly become productive in research and effective as a teacher. It is also clear that early creation of a sensible career plan allows faculty to achieve more over their career. In addition, it will likely contribute to increased faculty retention. While these workshops should benefit all new faculty members, they should be particularly beneficial to women and underrepresented minorities, who are frequently subject to greater demands and stresses than are their male counterparts and are also more apt to be left out of informal faculty support networks.
Participation of new faculty in the CBET disciplines will be emphasized. It is also proposed to cost effectively reach out to prospective faculty by conducting workshops at professional societies. It is anticipated that a significant number (~150 to 200) of new faculty will directly participate in the workshop. The content of the workshop will be further disseminated by posting the workshop material on the web and publishing the findings of the surveys.
