This information is provided to new faculty during our New Faculty Orientation.
News (yours and others)
Hooray! You’ve just had an article published / had an op-ed based on your professional expertise published in a newspaper / appeared on a radio program as a subject-matter expert / presented at a professional conference. Who on campus should you notify?
Submit your good news to the Berg Bulletin (daily email of campus events / announcements / news). You can also let the Office of Communications know. Be sure to share the good news with your department chair. Once a year the Library collects information about all faculty publications from the preceding year and holds a reception to celebrate faculty authors. Share your info when that form comes around. The Library also maintains a file of open-access faculty publications. Talk to Kelly Cannon for more information and to get your work in the file.
If you’re not yet receiving the Berg Bulletin, sign up by sending an email from your Muhlenberg account to TheBergBulletinStaffFaculty+subscribe@muhlenberg.edu. The Bulletin is a good way to keep in the loop on campus events and campus culture.
College Service: To Serve or Not To Serve
You are in your first year as a tenure-track faculty member and the call for self-nominations for College and Faculty Committees was sent out. You are very interested in serving on a committee in order to meet colleagues and contribute to the College more broadly. How should you proceed?
While college service is an important part of our job as faculty, Muhlenberg also feels strongly about protecting the time of our junior colleagues. With all of the obligations that new faculty have, including getting their courses and scholarship up and running and adjusting to the campus culture, it is important for first and second year faculty to make informed decisions about service commitments. If you are considering taking on any type of service obligation, including running for a committee, we recommend that you talk it over with your department chair, peer partner, an MCTL board member, and/or other colleagues first. And, keep an eye out for the NFO session on balancing teaching, professional activity, and service!
Expectations / Reviews / Policies
You have heard conflicting information about [expectations for tenure / your responsibilities as a non-tenure-track faculty member]. You asked your Chair. She wasn’t sure and said she’d get back to you, but you hate to keep bothering her. In any case, it would be helpful to have in writing a clear sense of expectations. Where can you look?
All the official policies governing faculty responsibilities and faculty reviews, as well as information about procedures for and timing of reviews, are in the Faculty Handbook. The Handbook is the basis for the Faculty Evaluation Committee’s (FEC) reviews of tenure and promotion cases. The Handbook also contains useful descriptions of the functions of Faculty and College committees, and (on the last page) a list of abbreviations in common use (e.g. MCTL).
