I discuss my engagement with three professional recognition and development opportunities for academic developers: Senior Fellowship of HEA, HERDSA Fellowship, and SEDA Fellowship. I found that the portfolios for these fellowships complement one another well, and together present a valuable reflection on all aspects of the academic development…

The university system has expanded worldwide and with it the number of those holding a full professorial title. Around a third of US academics eventually become full professors, and the title is used still more exclusively in an Australasian and UK context, representing around 10-12% of university faculty. The professoriate undertake a range of…

In this article the authors reflect on KerryAnn O'Meara and Audrey Jaeger's 2006 article, "Preparing Future Faculty for Community Engagement: Barriers, Facilitators, Models, and Recommendations" (EJ1092909) reprinted in this 20th anniversary issue of "Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement." Ten years ago, O'Meara…

The digital dissertation has been here for almost a decade, but people in the academe still don't seem to know what to do with it. How should it be presented? How should it be archived? In August 2005, the author successfully defended a media-rich digital dissertation in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The…

Think back to the famous 1920s debate between Walter Lippmann and John Dewey. The argument--begun by Lippmann with a series of three brilliant books published between 1919 and 1925 and ended by Dewey in 1927 with his book-length response to "Public Opinion," Lippmann's masterpiece--turned on many issues simultaneously but rested foundationally on…

Academic professionalization and specialization recognize the faculty member's mastery of method and a discrete sphere of knowledge while insisting that ultimate questions be bracketed from the academy. Early in the twentieth century, Max Weber (1946) argued for the separation of knowledge and morality, insisting that values are not scientific and…

In this article, the authors provide an overview and critically analyze three successful faculty-developed urban K-12 science outreach programs. They consider a successful outreach program as one that has been sustained for at least five years after initial funding, and has provided empirically-based research findings from the program.…

In his provocatively titled recent book, "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't", Robert I. Sutton argues for zero tolerance of "bullies, creeps, jerks, weasels, tormentors, tyrants, serial slammers, despots, [and] unconstrained egomaniacs" in the workplace. These individuals systematically prey on their…

Something is wrong with tenure, and one needs to make it right. Abolishing it is not feasible, but it doesn't mean that one shouldn't at least consider changing some of the ways that tenure works. In this article, the author proposes that a better way to change tenure is to offer an implied contract of about 30 years. A 30-year contract would…

In 2008, the Department of Instructional Technology at Utah State University (USU) changed its name to the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. Like many other programs that have undergone similar name changes, the Department first considered the idea several years ago, with the official title modification taking place…

In 2007 the faculty at Miami Dade College joined the student body in signing a covenant "to build a foundation for the success of future students." The event capped a two-year effort on the part of the faculty to articulate the foundations of a 21st-century college education and codify them into 10 clear statements. However, creating a…

In this essay, the authors begin by examining and challenging the way in which faculty vitality has been operationalized in the past, arguing for the value of institution-specific analysis of the faculty vitality issue. They then propose alternative models for understanding previously unexplored aspects of faculty vitality, drawing on research in…

Is there an ethical giftedness, and if so, what does it look like? In this article, I consider why ethical behavior is much harder to come by than one would expect. Ethically gifted individuals are able to complete a series of eight steps to action, the failure of any one of which may result in a person, even one who is ethically well trained, to…

At a time when intelligence agencies have never been more important, universities are teaching and studying just about everything else. In 2006 only four of the top 25 universities offered undergraduate courses on intelligence agencies or issues. Scholarly inattention is equally glaring in academic publishing. Between 2001 and 2006, the three most…

During a period of financial difficulty, presidents and chief financial officers can be tempted to restrict the flow of information and to discuss financial exigencies only with senior staff members, so that board members and people throughout the campus do not become worried. However, it is better to get the facts out rather than to allow…