Author: p982z469@wichita.edu

Faculty in their first three years as WSU are invited to join the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence’s (FARE) New Faculty On-Ramp from noon to 1:30 p.m. Dec. 3 in 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room for a panel on tenure and promotion for tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty.

The panel will feature faculty from across the university who have served on T&P panels and will provide valuable insights into the promotion process at WSU.

For more information, contact fare@wichita.edu.

Faculty in their first two years at WSU are invited to join a casual social hour(s) with the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE) from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10 at Social Tap in Braeburn Square. Order yourself a drink, appetizer, dinner or even just water and come get to know your colleagues. Come and go as needed.

Email fare@wichita.edu for more details, or reach out to one of the faculty organizers: Fiona Holly, Kate Compton or Haley Schroer.

Higher education has seen many challenges to its value and the validity of expertise in recent years. How do academics push back against this rising narrative? The Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE) will host a Faculty Support Network discussion from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13 in 102C McKinley Hal over “The Attack on Higher Education: What is our Response?” Snacks and drinks are provided.

Faculty Support Network events are facilitated by Dr. Rhonda Lewis, community psychology professor, and are intended to be a safe place for faculty to discuss challenging and sensitive topics that affect their work. The Nov. 13 event will create space for discussion around recent changes affecting the academic community, including enrollment declines, policies affecting international students and faculty, the devaluing of expertise, and more.

Email rhonda.lewis@wichita.edu for more information.

Faculty juggle many responsibilities between teaching, research and service. The next installment of the FARE New Faculty On-Ramp will host a panel of veteran faculty to share insights into how they’ve learned to effectively manage their time and tasks. The gathering will be noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5 in 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room. Faculty in their first two years at WSU are welcome to attend.

The panel, moderated by David Eichhorn, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senior associate dean, will feature:

• Jay Price, professor of history
• Chelsea Redger-Marquardt, assistant dean of the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College and assistant professor of organizational leadership & learning
• Carolyn Shaw, professor of political science

Faculty coming to/from class are welcome to arrive late or leave early as needed for classes. Bring your lunch if you’d like, and FARE will provide dessert, snacks and beverages. If you’d like to be added to the Outlook calendar invite for the event, email fare@wichita.edu.

This month’s Faculty Research Collaborative, sponsored by the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE), will meet from 2 to 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room. This month’s gathering will feature three-minute presentations by:

• Erin O’Bryan, communication sciences and disorders, presenting “Singing versus Speech in the Human Brain”
• Tetsuya Sato, human factors psychology, presenting “Examining Human–Automation Trust and Eye Movement Behavior Under Varying Risk Conditions in a High-Fidelity Flight Simulation Environment”
• Suman Bhandary, graphic design, presenting “An Investigation into the Readability Research for Native Bangla”

The Faculty Research Collaborative is an opportunity for faculty to network with other researchers on campus over brief research presentations, followed by Q&A and informal conversation. Coffee, drinks and snacks are provided.

The collaborative is spearheaded by engineering Professor Nils Hakansson, philosophy Professor Susan Castro, graphic design Assistant Professor Irmaj Puškarević and sociology Professor Twyla Hill.

With news of university firings in other states, faculty may feel a sense of uncertainty and anxiety about academic freedom in their research and teaching. Join Rhonda Lewis, community psychology professor, for a facilitated conversation about this topic from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23 in 102C McKinley Hall. Coffee, beverages and light snacks will be provided.

This event is part of the Faculty Support Network series sponsored by the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE). These events are intended to create a socially and emotionally supportive environment for WSU faculty by providing a safe forum for difficult conversations to take place.

For more information about Faculty Support Network events, contact rhonda.lewis@wichita.edu. To see all FARE events on your calendar, join the FARE Events group and select the option to show the group calendar in Outlook.

The Faculty Research Collaborative is a faculty club that seeks to build an interdisciplinary research culture at WSU through brief pitches of research projects in development and interdisciplinary discussion of the ideas. The group is led by Susan Castro, associate professor of philosophy, and Nils Hakansson, professor of biomedical engineering. You bring your thinking cap, and FARE will bring the snacks and caffeine to stimulate your creative thinking from 2 to 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room.

September’s presenters:

• Dr. Irma Puškarević, assistant professor of graphic design, with “Digital Humanities Lab: Developing frameworks to preserve multilingual and multiscript typographic heritage from historically dynamic regions.”
• Dr. Haley Schroer, assistant professor of history, with “Fashion Police? Materiality, Identity, and Power in the Spanish Imperial World”
• Dr. Atri Dutta, associate professor of aerospace engineering, will present on the impact of AI-assisted hazard prediction on resilience

Attend at least half of this year’s gatherings for a letter of participation from FARE for your FAAR.

Dr Terrance Figy, associate professor of physics, has arranged an informational Zoom at 2 p.m. Monday, Sept 22 over NSF resources and funding for researchers and educators with Dr. Amy Apon, a program officer at the National Science Foundation. She is a rotator from Clemson University and has a long history of leadership in the HPC/Cyberinfrastructure community.

Apon will discuss funding opportunities and resources for computations available for researchers via the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC).

Contact terrance.figy@wichita.edu for the Zoom link or check your email for the FARE Faculty Events Newsletter from Sept. 15.

Promoting your work (and by extension, yourself) can be terribly uncomfortable and awkward, but it’s a necessary component of research networking and professional advancement. This fall, the Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE) is holding a two-part Faculty Exchange series called “The Uncomfortable Art of Promoting Your Work (Without Sounding Like a Jerk).” The first session will be from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19 262 Rhatigan Student Center, Herrman Room and focuses on promoting your work internally at WSU and in person, while the second workshop Nov. 6 will focus on external and online promotion.

What to expect: Time to meet and get to know colleagues over snacks and coffee/tea, with content presented by fellow faculty (including Adam Lynch and Jan Twomey from the College of Engineering) on how to effectively tell your professional story when it matters and in terminology that those across disciplines understand. You’ll leave with a practiced pitch you can share about your recent professional accomplishments.

The WSU Office of Faculty Advancement, Retention, and Excellence (FARE) is working to create a better experience for new faculty adjusting to their positions at WSU, and it needs your help to make that happen. FARE would like to hear about the experiences of early-career faculty who have been at WSU fewer than seven years, both tenure track and non-tenure track. There are two ways to get involved:

• Complete the survey by Friday, Sept. 12
• Email fare@wichita.edu if you would like to share more about your experiences in an interview or focus group with Dr. Debby Hinsdale from FARE.

FARE thanks everyone who has taken the time to complete the survey so far. Your input is invaluable to making WSU an even better place to work.