Academic Affairs seeks nominations for Faculty Leadership Fellow Program
Academic Affairs offers an annual faculty-oriented leadership program to advance institutional excellence through fostering a climate of inclusive leadership from diverse leaders, in order to achieve President Eighmy’s goals for the 3rd destination, an exemplar for strategic growth and innovative excellence, in UTSA’s strategic plan. The Advancing Next-Gen Faculty Leadership Fellow Program is designed specifically to enhance the career development of Fellows by providing an intensive one-on-one training and development experience to promote the next generation of diverse faculty leaders.
This program is individually tailored to the specific needs of the selected Faculty Fellow, to provide knowledge of university operations in specific areas and advancing leadership skills towards program development, as well as more broadly, across our higher education sector. Through mentorship and shadowing, the Fellow will gain perspective, guidance, and vision in relation to the administrative office(s) that s/he wishes to serve with the ultimate goal of promoting inclusive leadership. Faculty Fellows also will apply their new understanding of leadership principles to their current positions through work on specific projects.
Given UTSA’s leadership in promoting a diverse academic community and the Provost Espy’s goals in Academic Affairs to accelerate our leadership in this area, candidate fellows from underrepresented backgrounds are particularly encouraged to seek this leadership opportunity. The Next-Gen Faculty Leadership Fellow Program is administered under the Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and division of Faculty Success team.
Objectives
- To learn more about the academic organization, operations, and physical infrastructure
- To consider the skills and attributes of effective academic leaders, and the challenges and rewards of becoming an academic leader
- To consider current and future challenges and opportunities in higher education
- To recognize and implement the values of diversity, inclusion, self-awareness, and ethical leadership
- To meet and develop professional relationships with colleagues through on-campus activities
Outcomes
The overall outcome for this program will be to develop the next generation of university leaders. The Fellow’s outcomes will be the following:
- Acquire an understanding of contemporary issues in higher education in their historical and institutional context
- Engage in emerging topics related to instruction, student learning and innovation
- Advance faculty and their professional, scholarly, and personal development
- Consider the value of building and maintaining a diverse and inclusive university community
- Learn skills for assessing competing priorities and managing time
- Reflect on leadership values, styles, and skills and consider the range of opportunities in higher education leadership, both formal and informal
Requirements
- Tenured faculty at the rank of associate or full professor, appointed in any department (associate must show evidence that they are making satisfactory progress toward promotion to professor) or full-time, fixed-term track faculty at the rank of Associate or Professor in the Practice, Instruction, Research, or Clinical series.
- Employed as faculty at UTSA for at least three years
Process
Typically, the faculty will be appointed as a Fellow for one academic year. The Faculty Fellow will be expected to spend approximately 10 hours per week in residence in their unit, attending regular meetings of the unit, working with their mentor and completing a special project. In addition, the Faculty Fellow will receive funding to attend an external leadership conference during the appointment and one semester course buy-out.
Projects
The projects are from various Vice President units on campus. Each unit will provide a unique opportunity for the faculty fellow to gain knowledge of university operations and advance their leadership skills across the higher education sector.
- Academic Affairs: Academic Innovation
The Academic Innovation Fellow will develop and champion innovative and transformational practices that enhance the academic experience of our students and faculty through teaching, technology, and virtual learning.
- Academic Affairs: Graduate School
The Graduate School Faculty Fellow will gain administrative experience by working on a project to implement certain aspects of the recommendations issued by the Graduate Student Success for Faculty Excellence Task Force related to enhancing the teaching experience of graduate students. This will include development of a trans-disciplinary graduate certificate in teaching (with aspects of F2F, hybrid, online modalities, curriculum development, assessment) as well as associated professional development such as exposure to careers in teaching (such as at research institutions, primarily undergraduate institutions, community colleges, K-12 education) and marketable skill sets to develop competencies with particular fluency in digital literacy.
- Academic Affairs: Multidisciplinary Studies
The Multidisciplinary Studies degree is an interdisciplinary degree that allows students to create their own major. It also serves as an incubator for the university to innovate and grow new academic programs along with being nimble and responsive to the marketplace. The faculty fellow will support the development of new trans-disciplinary pathways as well as help develop the curriculum needed to support these pathways
- Business Affairs: People Excellence
Understanding key HR processes within People Excellence functional areas such as Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Employee Services Center, and HR Partners. Agile HR approach to process improvement initiatives to support its customers at all levels. In addition, understanding the digital transformation of People Excellence leveraging ServiceNow technology to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences.
- Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise (VPREDKE)
The VPREDKE fellow will focus on fostering international partnerships with higher education institutions, organizations and governments around the world to connect UTSA with research development opportunities. This includes the monitoring of UTSA’s status in international rankings (i.e. Times Higher Education World University Rankings) and the development of strategies to increase the institution’s research reputation and visibility at the global level.
Application
Nominations by deans and other senior administrators are welcome, as are self-nominations.
The application materials should include the following:
- A 1000-word statement presenting evidence of interest in academic leadership, experience in academic governance or administration to date, experience working to advance inclusion of underrepresented minorities, and what the nominee hopes to accomplish with the support of the program
- 500-word statement of which project(s) the applicant would be interested in leading as their special project and initial thoughts/ideas for the effort(s).
- Up to 2 letters of recommendation (department chair, dean, center director, etc.). Each recommendation letter is limited to one page in length.
- A current CV
The 2 letters of reference and CV should be combined as a single pdf file.
Applications should be submitted by March 19, 2021, for academic year 2021-22. Applications should be submitted electronically via this application form. Questions about this program can be directed to Heather Shipley, heather.shipley@utsa.edu .
