coe-staff: The Weekly Vol. 6 #3

[Laura Lee McIntyre]

Dear COE Community,

Last week I shared UO's larger strategic plan, Oregon Rising, that details the priorities of the university and provides the goals that UO will be advancing this year. This week, I wanted to share updates related to our College of Education climate action plan that emerged from the larger university climate survey launched in winter 2022. Four major themes emerged from the COE data that translate to our climate action plans: 1) enhance clarity of employee expectations, 2) enhance clarity around professional transitions, 3) expand opportunities for community and celebrate value for all, and 4) enhance communication. Over the past two years, and with your help, we've been working hard to address some of the issues that were articulated in the climate survey data and further expanded on during our listening sessions from the 2022-23 school year. Below I summarize updates in each of the four areas.


  *   Enhance clarity of employee expectations: Activities that strive to bring greater clarity and transparency to recurring professional expectations that are embedded into our community's fabric.



     *   Instructional Policy Liaison role: As of summer 2024, the Teaching Engagement Program has begun to provide consistent training across all schools and colleges to ensure that faculty and staff who are navigating concerns within the areas of: student conduct, student accommodations, and student engagement, can benefit from consistent interpretation, clean hand-offs, and a strongly resourced pool of support for those issues. The naming and training of an Instructional Policy Liaison in each college now allows COE faculty to work closely with a single individual when navigating academic policies related to recurring issues. Sylvia Thompson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, is serving as the COE's Instructional Policy Liaison.
     *   Draft internal website: The COE is updating the internal facing website to serve as a cohesive resource for supporting the day-to-day administrative systems that impact tasks and activities across the college. The goal of this site is to provide clear navigation to contacts, roles and responsibilities, frequently used tools, forms, meetings, acronyms, and shared definitions of commonly used terms. This internal-facing COE website will be shared soon!
     *   Calendar of activities: The college is maintaining an annual calendar of activities is an attempt to list a wide-ranging scope of activities that department and program leaders can anticipate and plan for when prioritizing their time over the course of the year. Faculty and staff in leadership positions (department heads, program directors, program coordinators) identified a need for more predictability related to the critical university and college deadlines that require faculty and staff contributions.
     *   Policy deep dive: Policy level development and renewal is moving from a college schedule to a university schedule that permits more support, coordination, and awareness around these topics and the shared administrative activities of units. Policies are developed from templates with clear indications of shared vs. unique language and clarification of the sequence of review. When appropriate, FAQs are provided that indicate the interpretation of the policy. Faculty governance is a cornerstone of this work as is the shared value of transparency.


  *   Professional transitions: Intentional planning and preparation around professional transitions from one role within the college to another and that supports the individual's success in their subsequent activities.


     *   Addition of the Associate Dean for Career Instructional and Clinical Faculty Development: This new role was created in 2023 to provide additional supports and faculty development to instructional and clinical faculty in the COE. Angie Whalen is currently in this position.
     *   New employee onboarding: Initiated in 2022, all new and incoming faculty and staff receive a comprehensive introduction to the COE and hear from the dean and key staff and leadership about the context, structure, values, and goals of the COE in a casual setting with other new members of the COE. Onboarding sessions occur three times a year to ensure that faculty and staff entering the college at any time of year have timely access to this information. Amy Green (Associate Director of Human Resources) is spearheading these sessions with contributions from the dean, associate dean for academic affairs, associate dean for research, and assistant dean of administration, equity and inclusion.
     *   Year of Welcome - a new faculty series in the College of Education: As of 2024, all new faculty (TTF, Career Instructional, Clinical, and Research Faculty) are invited to attend a monthly lunch session in the COE designed to foster faculty success and community-building.
     *   Program Directors' meetings: Each month program directors meet as a group and with members of the office of the dean to raise and solve problems of practice, learn and understand college and university policy, and to identify potential shared efficiencies in their roles.  This meeting is structured to provide faculty and staff in these roles with access to avenues that can resolve shared issues that arise.


  *   Community and value: The creation of a culture of community that fosters engagement, joy, and emphasizes the value of our shared work and connections between individuals, roles, groups, and goals. Our community thrives when we are diverse, inclusive, and equitable.


     *   Investment in community events: The COE has made an ongoing commitment to ensure that there is a quarterly opportunity to bring individuals together in a shared space. In addition to faculty and staff meetings, there is annual support for an end of calendar year luncheon (December) and the end of academic year picnic (June), Donuts for Ducks, and other impromptu broad activities across and within units designed to celebrate and appreciate the people that make up the college. Our joy is worth investing in.
     *   Distance and remote employees: Faculty and staff meetings are hosted in a hybrid structure to support the inclusion of distance employees. For off-campus units that have high faculty and staff hiring activity, COE staff have begun the practice of travelling within Eugene to offer the new faculty and staff orientation on site at the unit's location. This was introduced this year with Early Childhood CARES staff and leadership.
     *   Scholarships and funding: As part of the OR150 Student Success initiative, the COE Development team is creating a new funding mechanism for masters students to access retention funds to enable them to continue in their studies despite financial hurdles.


  *   Communication: Intentionality and coordination in information-sharing that strives for efficient dissemination by considering content, mode, timing, sender, and recipient in all communication planning.


     *   Communication Director: The COE hired a director of communications, Julia Vickers, in Fall 2022 and we have expanded our support to programs for marketing and advertising programs. We have expanded our social media impact and leveraged videos (e.g., Coffee N Conversation<https://blogs.uoregon.edu/collegeofeducationdean/coffee-n-conversation/>, Research Briefly<https://www.youtube.com/user/uoeducation>) to showcase the impact of our faculty.
     *   COE Dean's Weekly communication: These weekly messages are intended to contain timely updates and information that is of value to all members of the COE community. The messages contained in the weekly may be submitted by faculty, staff, departments, college and/or university leadership, and, when appropriate, external agencies. All COE Dean's Weekly communications are posted here<https://blogs.uoregon.edu/collegeofeducationdean/>. The COE Dean's Weekly is designed to celebrate, recognize and honor our community successes and  community and the mechanisms that unite us. The Weekly is intended to provide a touch point for faculty and staff and provide insights into the daily operations, goals, achievements, updates, and changes that contribute to our shared identity.
     *   Faculty and staff meetings: Faculty and staff in which all COE faculty and staff are invited to a group meeting occur once a quarter (twice in Fall). Faculty and staff meetings occur too seldom to be considered a mechanism for critical or timely communication, but instead are an opportunity to underscore changes and updates, revisit around shared values, celebrate recent or upcoming achievements, hear from guests, and highlight critical items that may need our attention. Overall, the primary purpose of the faculty and staff meeting is an opportunity to revisit and touch base as a shared community. Materials following each Faculty and Staff meeting are posted here https://coedocs.uoregon.edu/faculty-and-staff-meetings/.

As we continue the journey towards creating meaningful connections, a sense of purpose and belonging, and supporting our students and our work to maximize societal impact, I'm reminded that small, intentional steps can be incorporated into our day-day-to-day activities. Share the actions you take, have taken, plan to take, or suggest we take as we move with mindfulness and intentionality towards continuous improvement. In these, our college goals, we support and utilize the university principles of prioritizing common goals, breaking down silos, creating accountability, acknowledging our people, using data to inform our decisions, utilizing an equity-minded approach, and celebrating and sharing the joy of success and we appreciate building these experiences with you.


Phew...that was a lot. Happy Week 2, all!

Warmly,
Laura Lee


Updates and Upcoming
Fall COE Faculty & Staff Meeting: This Friday October 11th
Our Fall Faculty & Staff Meeting is this Friday October 11 from 2:30-4pm in CSB 250. Provost Chris Long will join us and we encourage you to attend in person if possible. The Provost would like to use most of his time to answer questions from faculty/staff, so please send any questions you have for him to educationdean at uoregon.edu<mailto:educationdean at uoregon.edu> by 5pm on Thursday so we can submit to OtP ahead of time.

Develop a Faculty-Led Program with Global Education Oregon (GEO Study Abroad)
All UO faculty are invited to propose a faculty-led study abroad program. Applications for all programs, including those that have run in previous years, must be submitted each year for review and renewal. Apply by November 1 for programs in winter and spring 2026<https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/83f8779c062540bf90dbcc657380895d>.

Spotlights and Recognition
New Faculty Featured on EPoL Website
Check out the Education Policy and Leadership page<https://education.uoregon.edu/epol#faculty-spotlight> which spotlights new Associate Professor Maithreyi Gopalan.<https://education.uoregon.edu/directory/faculty/all/mgopalan> Welcome, Professor Gopalan!

Reminders
College of Education's Annual Faculty Fund Awards<https://blogs.uoregon.edu/coefacultyawards/>: Applications Open!

  *   Faculty Fund Award Call for Proposals<https://blogs.uoregon.edu/coefacultyawards/faculty-fund-award-application/>: The College of Education's Faculty Fund Awards provide financial support for the innovative ideas that contribute to the early career development of our faculty members. Funding is meant to catalyze projects and help faculty members achieve sustainability. Proposal deadline: November 1.

  *   Professional Development Funding<https://blogs.uoregon.edu/coefacultyawards/request-for-professional-development-funding/>: The Office of the Dean has made available funds to support College of Education faculty in their professional development. Faculty members can apply for up to $2,500 once each academic year. Funding priority is given to professional development activities that advance your research productivity and/or teaching quality. Application deadline: November 1.

  *   Contact Laura King at lking9 at uoregon<mailto:lking9 at Uoregon.edu> with any questions.

Add Research Interests to your Faculty Profile
The communications team encourages faculty to submit 3-5 key words or phrases to add to your website profile within a new category, Research Interests. View an example profile that contains Research interests here<https://education.uoregon.edu/directory/cpsy/all/etanners>, and use this simple form to submit yours: https://form.jotform.com/242815448845163.

Reminder from Office of the Provost: The Instructional Policy Liaison<https://teaching.uoregon.edu/instructional-policy-liaisons> for your school/college, Sylvia Thompson, is prepared to support colleagues with their attendance policies, navigate Student Conduct and Community Standards policies and processes, and understand Accessible Education Center accommodations. Instructors can work with their liaison in the weeks ahead, including through weekly drop-in office hours.

Job Listings/Opportunities

  *   Assistant Professor, Health Promotion in Hispanic/Latine/Underserved Communities<https://careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/534179/assistant-professor-health-promotion-in-hispaniclatineunderserved-communities>: Applications due October 14

  *   Assistant Professor of Education Policy and Equity<https://careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/534178/assistant-professor-of-education-policy-and-equity>: Applications due October 14

  *   Associate/Full Professor in Child Behavioral Health<https://careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/534233/associate-full-professor-in-child-behavioral-health>: Applications due October 21

  *   Assistant, Associate, Full Professor in Child Behavioral Health<https://careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/534234/assistant-associate-full-professor-in-child-behavioral-health>: Applications due October 21


Laura Lee McIntyre | Dean & Castle-McIntosh-Knight Professor (she/her)
University of Oregon | College of Education
230 Hedco Education Building | Eugene, OR 97403-1215
llmcinty at uoregon.edu<mailto:email at uoregon.edu> |  https://education.uoregon.edu<https://education.uoregon.edu/>
[cid:image001.png at 01DB19AF.0A86A8D0]<https://www.uoregon.edu/>

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