Initiatives

The Provost Office provides different types of professional development and training opportunities for faculty and staff.

Academic Affairs Goals, Priorities and Projects

How We Got Here

To identify and set priorities in alignment with the university’s strategic plan (Excellence by Design), as well as respond to opportunities and challenges highlighted by the pandemic, the Division of Academic Affairs held a major retreat in February 2021. Designed to be comprehensive, inclusive, and bottom-up, planning for the retreat began in September 2020, involved 10 working groups (each focused on a specific topic) and more than 120 participants. With more than 160 attendees, the retreat focused predominantly, but not exclusively, on the recommendations produced by the 10 working groups. To ensure transparency and full participation, the discussion summaries and recommendations that emerged from the retreat were shared widely to faculty and staff throughout the university for comments and feedback. Based on these multiple levels of recommendations and feedback, Academic Affairs identified six goals and priorities to guide decision-making and help position Illinois State as a competitive and innovative university.

Explore our six goals and priorities.

6 interwoven circles with icons representing Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Data, Financial, Enrollment, Research, Academics.

Spring 2021 Retreat

The retreat was held on February 24 and 25, where ten working groups were created around 10 different themes. On Fall 2021, the Provost staff presented the complete plan to the Academic Affairs community.

Faculty Success

Faculty members play an essential role in student success, and their creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge through scholarship, research, and creative expression are valuable to our campus community. Explore the Faculty Success webpage for information on specific programming Illinois State University offers to support faculty to thrive in teaching, research, and service.

Learn more about Staff Success in Academic Affairs.

COACHE

COACHE is a collaboration of colleges and universities committed to gathering the peer diagnostic and comparative data academic administrators need to recruit, retain, and develop faculty members. ISU partnered with COACHE to administer a survey specially designed for full-time faculty like you to provide information about your experience at our institution. Learn more about this initiative.
Faculty Diversity Enhancement Program

The Faculty Diversity Enhancement Program (FDEP) is designed to attract candidates who advance our commitment to fostering an inclusive environment. The goal of FDEP is to enrich student experiences by increasing faculty members who have a demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and access in teaching scholarship, and service.
Framework for Inclusive Teaching Excellence

The Framework for Inclusive Teaching Excellence (FITE) is Illinois State University’s signature pedagogy, and it outlines institutional values and priorities for high-quality teaching. Learn more about how it was developed.
Framework for Inclusive Support and Service Excellence

The Framework for Inclusive Support and Service Excellence (FISSE) was developed to help plan and organize professional development (PD) for staff in Academic Affairs with an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens.
GROWTH Change Team

The GROWTH Change Team is a University-wide structure for college-specific professional development aligned to the Framework for Inclusive Teaching Excellence.
NCFDD

Claim your free membership to get a number of resources for research, teaching, and general motivation.
University Faculty Success Network

Join the success network and participate in programming to support teaching, scholarship, and person/well-being development
Center for Integrated Professional Development

Learn more about professional development opportunities based on evidence-based approaches for teaching to support student success.

Staff Success in Academic Affairs

During Spring 2022, Illinois State University administered a Staff Success Survey to all staff - Academic Affairs, Athletics, Finance and Planning, President’s area, Student Affairs, and University Advancement. The overall response rate was approximately 57 percent, with strong representation from all six divisions. The survey included questions that gauged staff sentiment on Job Satisfaction, Performance and Feedback, Department Engagement, Work Climate, Workload, Professional Development, Employee Recognition, Overall Satisfaction, Remote Work, and Future Employment Plans.

Taskforce members include:

Tamekia Bailey, Program Director, Applied Science & Technology
Eric Boerngen, Coordinator of Research Graduate Programs, Research and Sponsored Programs
Corey Burgess, Program Coordinator, University College
Chelley Jackson, Associate Director, Financial Aid
Stacy Ramsey, Associate Director, Enrollment Management, Office of the Provost
Ryan Smith, Director, University Assessment
Heidi Verticchio, Director, Speech and Hearing Clinic
Wouter Van Alebeek, Interim Director of Academic Programs

The Academic Affairs Staff Success Workgroup has identified top priorities to focus our attention based on reoccurring themes: Job responsibilities, work-life balance, job performance/evaluation feedback, recognition, and compensation. This Academic Affairs Staff Success Workgroup is continuing to review survey results to establish recommendations of action plans. One recommendation would be to initiate a cross-divisional taskforce to minimize siloed university-wide initiatives.