Welcome to the New Faculty Learning Community (NFLC) at SVSU!
New faculty on college campuses often find their first year to be "full of surprises" and isolation, a problem compounded by a perceived lack of support from other colleagues and the pressures of learning new job duties. Researchers have concluded that faculty support groups can help facilitate the initial transition (Boice, 1991; 1992; Cawyer & Friedrich, 1998) and ease the "fish out of water" syndrome.
To this end, the New Faculty Learning Community was created by two new faculty members at SVSU. The plans for this group are to hold monthly luncheons for the group in which all interested first- and second-year faculty can meet to discuss teaching strategies, professional development, networking for grants and interdisciplinary projects, resources on campus, just meeting new people with similar interests, and any other shared concerns that the participants might raise. This is an informal group with no agenda other than providing colleague to colleague support.
One of the goals we discussed for our first meeting of the Winter semester was to generate a list of recommendations for improving the Faculty Orientation and Development process sponsored by SVSU. Please feel free to bring any other questions/concerns to the initial meeting of the semester which will take place
Monday, February 19
from 11:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m.
3rd Floor Zahnow Library Lounge.
Lunch will be provided for all who RSVP by Monday, February 12. Details will be announced soon.
Also, when you RSVP, you will be added to the NFLC Blackboard site where you will learn more about our goals and topics that we plan to address through future meetings.
Please participate in a brief online survey.