Shh! Protecting Faculty Time With Near Silent Events

Transcript

1. SHH! Protecting Faculty Time
   with Near-Silent Events
   JOSEPH MURPHY & ASHLEY BUTLER, KENYON COLLEGE
   NOVEMBER 18, 2023
   

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2. The Problem
   • Faculty are busy and their jobs are stressful.
   • The “banking model” of faculty development may
   make this worse as much as better.
   • How can we guide faculty members to new ideas
   without seeming to impose on their time?
   

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3. Origins
   • Much of our work in this area was started/inspired by Jan
   Thomas during her time as Associate Provost at Kenyon.
   • Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Karla A. Erickson, and Jan Thomas
   on post-tenure thriving and professional pathways (Journal of
   Higher Education, 2019; Peer Review, 2019).
   • Faculty identity post-tenure is a complex interplay of career
   satisfaction and institutional fit.
   • Faculty development as a form of both guidance and reward.
   

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4. Writing Groups
   

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5. Writing Groups – The History
   What are they?
   ◦ Regular, weekly time to write quietly among colleagues
   ◦ What they are not: workshop/critique space
   Started in Spring 2019
   ◦ Coordinating available spaces around campus
   Currently:
   ◦ Our space!
   ◦ Google Form Sign Ups
   ◦ We offer 7 groups per week during the semester and 4 during the summer
   ◦ Semester groups last 1.5 hours, summer groups last 3 hours
   ◦ Hybrid format
   

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6. 0
   5
   10
   15
   20
   25
   30
   35
   40
   45
   Spring
   2019
   Fall 2019 Spring
   2020
   Fall 2020 Spring
   2021
   Fall 2021 Spring
   2022
   Fall 2022 Spring
   2023
   Fall 2023
   Semester Writing Group Participation Over Time
   1 Group 2 Groups 3 Groups 4+ Groups
   Cancelled due to COVID-19
   

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7. 0
   5
   10
   15
   20
   25
   Summer 2019 Summer 2020 Summer 2021 Summer 2022 Summer 2023
   Summer Writing Group Participation Over Time
   1 Group 2 Groups 3 Groups 4 Groups
   

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8. Breakdown in Departmental Participation
   in Writing Groups
   Humanities
   Natural Sciences
   Social Sciences
   Fine Arts
   Interdisciplinary
   Studies
   Staff
   Spring, Summer, Fall 2023
   Humanities
   Natural Sciences
   Social Sciences
   Fine Arts
   Interdisciplinary
   Studies
   Staff
   (Spring, Summer, Fall 2019)
   93 total participants 89 total participants
   

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9. Writing Group Impressions
   On average, during the semester, we have around unique 32 participants signing up for about 48
   group spots altogether (several sign up for multiple groups)
   Altogether, we’ve had a grand total of 355 participants sign up and our groups have totaled 537
   participants
   A little over 1/3 of participants sign up for multiple groups (37.33%)
   Folks on sabbaticals/leave often sign up for multiple groups
   Many folks sign up for the same group times every semester
   Most popular for early and mid career faculty and visiting faculty
   

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10. Our Take Aways:
    Space and hospitality go
    a long way
    

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11. Our Take Aways:
    Space and hospitality go
    a long way
    Quickly became a part of
    faculty routines
    

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12. Our Take Aways:
    Space and hospitality go
    a long way
    Quickly became a part of
    faculty routines
    Celebrations and incentives
    help to make people feel
    appreciated for the work
    they’ve done
    

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13. Semester to Summer
    

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14. Semester to Summer Planning
    What is it?
    ◦ Gently guided work time to help faculty plan for a productive and restorative summer
    Started in 2017 and 2018 by then-Associate Provost Jan Thomas
    ◦ Heavily inspired by the work of Kerry Ann Rockquemore and National Center for Faculty Development &
    Diversity
    Adopted and Revised for 2022 and 2023 by CIP
    ◦ Averaging 8 participants per time we’ve held it
    Run time: 3 hours
    

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15. Structure
    1. Reflections
    ◦ Things learned last year
    ◦ Obstacles overcome in the last year
    ◦ People or resources who supported me in a
    meaningful way
    2. Summer Goal Setting
    ◦ 3 professional goals
    ◦ 3 personal goals
    ◦ Tasks that need to be taken off your plate
    ◦ Tasks you never seem to have time for
    3. Action Items and Task Mapping
    ◦ Choose one goal
    ◦ Break goal up into milestones
    ◦ Break milestones down into action items/tasks
    ◦ ADD TASKS TO CALENDAR!
    4. Anticipating Obstacles
    ◦ What obstacles might get in your way?
    ◦ What strategies do you have to get around
    barriers and obstacles?
    

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16. Finalize
    List
    •Add to staff meeting agenda
    •Preliminary discussion (May 25)
    •Additional Discussion (June 1)
    •Finalize List and room requests (June 8)
    •Assign Dates (June 8)
    Arrange
    Logistics
    •Double check rooms/tech (by June 10)
    •Schedule rooms (June 15)
    •Create Google Form and add anyone who
    needs to be able to access it (June 17)
    •Add to Internal Calendar and invite
    facilitator (June 17)
    •Solicit/Write Email Copy (June 17)
    •Customize Google Form Response
    Spreadsheet to sort responses (June 20)
    Market •Add to campus calendar (June 22)
    •Write and pre-schedule email marketing
    (June 22)
    Deliver
    •Add reminders to calendar about checking
    RSVPs and sending out invitations (July 1)
    •Send out reminder emails the morning of
    the session (preschedule this year or
    delegate?)
    •Coordinate with facilitator to make sure
    everything is good to go (Before each
    session)
    Task Mapping:
    Example
    Coordinating the
    CIP’s Tech Tuesday
    Learning Series
    Download a
    template
    

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17. Our Take Aways:
    Faculty love the space, time, and quiet to focus on their
    summer planning
    Faculty sometimes realize they’ve already said “yes” to too
    many things
    Faculty desire for a planning session in January
    ◦ Currently partnering with the Director of the Office of
    Sponsored Faculty Projects to add scholarly development angle
    and integrate some long-term planning into the short-term
    planning
    

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18. Silent Book Club
    

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19. Silent Book Club, AKA “Faculty Book Spa”
    What is it?
    ◦ Choose a book
    ◦ Choose a lunch
    ◦ Show up weekly to eat and read in silence among peers
    ◦ Write a bookstore-style review for CIP Little [Free] Library
    Idea inspired from public library programming and an
    informal Kenyon group in the early days of COVID
    We have good luck getting faculty to traditional book
    clubs in summer but less traction during the semester
    ◦ Lower length readings are more popular during the
    semester
    ◦ Model: Natural Science Reading Club
    ◦ Their secret: DO THE READING AT THE MEETING.
    

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20. Silent Book Club Reception
    2 Semesters so far
    Spring 2023
    ◦ 12 participants total
    ◦ Two sessions (4 weeks each)
    ◦ People from session 1 asked to be a part of session 2
    so they could finish their books
    ◦ People from session 2 asked if we could sponsor more dates
    Fall 2023
    ◦ 7 participants
    ◦ One session (8 weeks)
    ◦ Still ended up adding 3 sessions
    Future
    ◦ Model after writing groups (semester-long)?
    ◦ Continue offering lunch for every session?
    Humanities, 5
    Natural Sciences,
    9
    Social Sciences, 3
    Fine Arts, 1
    Staff, 1
    Disciplinary Distribution of Silent Reading
    Group Participants Over Time
    

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21. Our Take Aways:
    Helps to have a list of books
    to help people choose
    ◦ https://www.librarything.co
    m/catalog/KenyonCIP
    

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22. Our Take Aways:
    Helps to have a list of books
    to help people choose
    ◦ https://www.librarything.co
    m/catalog/KenyonCIP
    “Book Spa”
    ◦ Relaxed faculty environment
    ◦ Space and Hospitality
    

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23. Our Take Aways:
    Helps to have a list of books
    to help people choose
    ◦ https://www.librarything.co
    m/catalog/KenyonCIP
    “Book Spa”
    ◦ Relaxed faculty environment
    ◦ Space and Hospitality
    A little more talking than
    reading sometimes
    

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24. Questions?
    MURPHYJM@KENYON.EDU & BUTLER1@KENYON.EDU
    

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