Each year the Office of Undergraduate Studies sponsors an opportunity for a small cohort of faculty to participate in a faculty learning community addressing an important issue relevant to undergraduate education. The Office of Undergraduate Studies leads the weekly learning community meetings. In the coming year we will collaborate with the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Tenured, tenure-track, and professional-track faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.
Please consider joining the Undergraduate Studies Faculty Fellows in 2017-2018 to develop an I-Series course that will engage freshmen and contribute to the Carillon Communities Living Learning Program.
Carillon Communities are living-learning programs organized around an I-Series course for incoming new freshmen who are not participating in other special opportunities (such as the Honors College, College Park Scholars, or FIRE). Students in Carillon Communities live together in a residence hall in their first year. In the fall they take a Carillon Community I-Series course and a linked UNIV 100 studio course. More information about Carillon Communities.
The I-Series is the signature program of General Education at the University of Maryland. I-Series courses are lively and contemporary. They speak to important issues that spark the imagination, demand intellect, and inspire innovation. They challenge students to wrestle with big questions, and examine the ways that different disciplines address them. I-Series courses are not surveys of particular fields of knowledge. Instead, I-Series courses provide students with the basic concepts, approaches, and vocabulary of particular disciplines and fields of study as well as an understanding of how experts in those disciplines and fields employ terms, concepts, and approaches.
We seek applications from faculty who currently teach an I-Series course or who would like to develop a new I-Series course.
Those who are selected will participate as an Undergraduate Studies Faculty Fellow in 2017-18 to develop or redesign an I-Series course that meets the mission of Carillon Communities. In the following year, participants become Carillon Community professors as they offer their I-Series courses as part of Carillon Communities.During the fall 2017 semester, the Faculty Fellows will meet weekly to focus their I-Series course on the Carillon mission of promoting student success, engagement, and retention. The group will discuss design thinking, active learning, characteristics of freshmen, and how to establish a supportive environment to address the I-Series big questions. Courses will be transformed to include an emphasis on teamwork and problem solving and to take advantage of the linked UNIV 100 course and living experience.
In the spring 2018 semester, Faculty Fellows will work with Carillon Communities staff to market and recruit students to their new Carillon Community course.
Following successful recruitment of students to their Carillon Community, faculty will teach their course as a part of a new Carillon Community in fall 2018. Beyond fall 2018, faculty are expected to commit to at least one additional year’s participation as a Carillon Community professor.
Tenure-track and professional-track faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.
Undergraduate Studies Faculty Fellows must be on campus for the fall 2017 semester and available for open house events in the spring 2018 semester. Faculty Fellows must be committed to playing an active role in the UGST Faculty Fellows Learning community (see below) and to teaching a Carillon Community I-Series course.
Faculty Fellows will receive $2,500 in 2017-18 in recognition of their contributions to improving undergraduate learning. For participation in the following year as a Carillon Community professor (and in each subsequent year that they participate as a Carillon Community professor), faculty will receive a stipend of $5,000, and their departments will receive $10,000 to support a teaching assistant. I-Series seats offered in Carillon Communities count toward college targets. The preferred arrangement is a dedicated I-Series class (with up to 60 students) for Carillon Communities; however, arrangements can be made to have particular sections within a larger I-Series course designated for a Carillon Community.
Faculty proposing a new course will receive the usual $5,000 I-Series course development funding after the course is approved by the General Education I-Series Faculty Board and the course is offered for the first time. All Carillon and I-Series funding will be transferred to the faculty member’s department.
Letters of support should be addressed to: Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Studies William A.Cohen, and emailed to Dawn Simounet with subject line “Your Name - Faculty Fellow”.
Application materials must be received by July 17, 2017.
