Faculty Handbook

Faculty Growth Plan

Purpose

The Faculty Development Program at George Fox University exists to help faculty members exercise appropriate stewardship of their abilities and of university resources. The faculty member will need to recognize and balance the expectations for teaching, scholarship, service, and the integration of faith and learning by making a Faculty Growth Plan (FGP) in which he or she sets goals and defines the means to accomplish them. This FGP provides an ongoing structure to encourage accountability and to focus energies. Faculty should consult the Faculty Handbook for promotion and/or tenure expectations.

Though George Fox University is committed to providing resources for implementing FGPs, these resources are limited and are a privilege rather than an entitlement. The university views them as an investment in the future of the faculty and the institution. Therefore, requests for funds will be evaluated in light of a thoughtfully developed FGP. When assessing the previous year’s FGP, each faculty member will be responsible to show that the funds have been used wisely and have advanced his or her progress toward a stated goal.

Faculty development activities should:

The program seeks to foster:

Funding is available for, but is not necessarily limited to:

Instructions for Individual profile

In order to help focus the individual FGP, each faculty member needs to take stock of his or her strengths and weaknesses, current responsibilities, and long-range goals. This profile is for the use of the faculty member only. Do not turn this in with the FGP. Using this document, the faculty member will prepare a two-year FGP.

Self-Assessment

Include strengths and current interests as well as weaknesses and current dislikes. Include items directly related to your current institutional responsibilities (e.g., preference for lecturing over leading discussion, preference for class sizes of fewer than 20, inability to turn back written work promptly). Include indirectly related items as appropriate (interest in subjects outside your discipline, desire to spend more time with your family).

Current Responsibilities

List your current institutional responsibilities including teaching duties, scholarly activities, committee work, administrative work, and extracurricular work with students. List your extra-institutional responsibilities,

including such items as major church involvement, civic responsibilities, leadership in professional organizations, family time commitment, and the like.

Long-Range Goals

List your teaching, scholarship, service, and faith-learning integration goals for the next five years. Include any institutional roles you would like to perform. If administration is a part of your load, include administrative goals as well.

Short-Range Goals

Outline two or three one or two-year goals in each category that will move you toward your long-term goals.

Keep this document for your own reference.

Instructions for Formal Annual Rolling FGP

General Instructions

Each year in early May, assess the degree to which you accomplished your goals for the year just past, and update your growth plan to apply to the next two years. Department chairs should work with new faculty on this plan. It should have specific goals for professional growth. The means by which you will accomplish each goal should be adequately described. The goals should be attainable within the two years. Both goals and means of accomplishment should be specific enough to allow for evaluating the extent of attainment of each goal. The relationship between the goals and any requested funds needs to be clear and direct.

FGP Format

Goals and Plans for the Next Two Years

Use the categories of Teaching, Scholarship, Service, and Integration of Faith and Learning to organize your FGP. A reasonable FGP will include two or three substantive goals in each of the four areas. For each goal, please include a goal statement, the steps you will take to accomplish your goal, a budget estimate of costs directly related to your goals, and the year of expected completion. Goal statements should be succinct and represent professional development ends, rather than means of accomplishment. For example, a general goal may be to increase your abilities to teach students of diverse learning styles; a means of accomplishment might be to learn which technologies can engage them and how to incorporate those into your classroom presentations.

Teaching goals should include at least one goal related to methodology in addition to whatever curricular or content goals are included. This is also a good place to incorporate the changes you are making in response to department assessment activities.

Please place your goals that address the integration of your faith with your teaching, scholarship, and/or service in a separate category called Integration of Faith and Learning. The assessment of the previous year’s integration goals belongs in a separate category as well.

Send FGP to Department Chair and College Dean

Send the FGP to both the department chair (or program director) and to the College Dean by the end of May; the College Dean evaluates it and sends it to the AAO where it will be used as a basis for granting funds. The AAO will return to you the dean’s evaluation. At your fall meeting with the department chair, the chair will discuss your FGP with you in light of department priorities and the dean’s evaluation.

The department chair will submit his or her FGP to the College Dean. The chair will meet annually with the College Dean to discuss that year’s FGPs from his or her department, including the chair’s own FGP.

The Faculty Personnel Committee will review the FGP for each faculty member as part of the third-year and sixth-year reviews.

Fundable Activities and Guidelines

Fundable Activities

Faculty development activities should:

The program seeks to foster:

Funding is available for, but is not necessarily limited to:

Funding Guidelines

The faculty development program is intended to support faculty in their professional development. Online travel and membership request forms are sent to the faculty via email during the summer with early- to mid- September deadlines for submission. Late requests will not be considered. The following professional support opportunities will be considered for funding:

Professional Organizations

Professional Conferences

Educational Experiences

Books & Software

Submit proposals for research grants or leaves to the Faculty Development Committee when you receive the call for proposals in the Fall. Expenses that can be included in your proposals are as follows: