Skip to main content

February 2020 Announcements

Talley Student Union
  • Submit a nomination for the NC State University Awards for Excellence — the most prestigious honor bestowed upon non-faculty employees — today. The NC State Awards for Excellence commence each year when all colleges and business units across campus select employees to be recognized as Awards for Excellence recipients. In addition to receiving eight hours of paid time off and a $250 cash-award from the respective college or business unit, recipients are also honored at the NC State University Awards for Excellence ceremony, where up to twelve individuals receive special distinction as recipients of the NC State University Awards for Excellence. 
  • RPT General Information Sessions will be offered this semester.  The sessions include details about the process, an overview of the RPT website and a question and answer period. New faculty in all tracks (tenure track, teaching, research, etc.),  those who will be entering the RPT cycle and anyone involved in the RPT process are encouraged to attend. Sessions will be on Wednesday, February 26, 3:30–5 p.m. in Cox Hall, Room 206 (Main Campus); and Friday, March 20, 9-10:30 a.m. in Engineering Building I, Room 1007 (Centennial Campus). No registration or RSVP is required. Please familiarize yourself with the Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure website prior to the sessions. If you have questions please contact arjinnet@ncsu.edu
  • A 2018 survey of faculty and staff led to a host of workplace improvements across campus. In February, employees will have the opportunity to weigh in again. Beginning February 4, faculty and staff will have two weeks to weigh in on the same questions when the UNC System conducts the confidential survey for the second time. Watch for an email with a survey link and instructions from ModernThink, an independent research and consulting firm that is administering the survey. Learn more about the upcoming UNC System Employee Engagement Survey.
  • NC State Staff Senate is now accepting nominations for the 2020-2022 term. Staff Senate represents over 6,000 NC State employees, including all SHRA and EHRA professional and support staff, both on and off campus. Staff Senate is an advisory body to the chancellor; it provides feedback regarding concerns that affect staff, makes recommendations on policies and regulations that affect staff, and encourages a sense of community and engagement among all staff members. 

Duties of senators include attending a one-day retreat in July, participating in monthly general meetings, participating in a committee and monthly committee meetings, communicating and disseminating information to constituents, and working to build a sense of community on campus. To nominate yourself or a colleague, go to go.ncsu.edu/staff.senate.nominations.  Online nominations are being accepted through noon on Monday, February 24.

  • A coalition of graduate students at NC State will host the inaugural Graduate Mental Health Symposium this spring aimed at addressing graduate student mental health. The day-long symposium will take place March 27 at Duke Energy Hall in Hunt Library. Learn more and register on the Graduate Student Association website.

Administrator Search Updates:

  • Two finalists for dean of the College of Natural Resources are coming to campus for interviews. The finalists and their interview dates are:
    • Myron Floyd, NC State University: Sunday, Feb. 16 – Tuesday, February 18
    • Delphis Levia, University of Delaware: Wednesday, Feb. 19 – Friday, February 21

The entire NC State community is invited to participate in open forums. The candidates’ CVs and interview schedules are available on the search website, which can be found here or at go.ncsu.edu/natural-resources-search.

  • Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Division of Academic and Student Affairs: The nomination committee met on February 7 to identify a handful of candidates for first round interviews that will take place the week of February 24. The committee will then make a recommendation to the provost to bring in two to four candidates for on-campus interviews to tentatively be conducted in April. Stay up to date on the search by visiting the search page on the Provost’s Office website or go.ncsu.edu/dasa-search.

From the Office of Assessment:

  • Reminder: Academic Assessment Reports Due February 28;  Drop-in sessions offered for report writing support. Academic assessment reports are due to be submitted in the APA app by February 28. For support with report writing or any other aspect of the assessment process, drop-in sessions will be offered throughout February. Drop-in sessions are for directors of undergraduate programs (DUPs), directors of graduate programs (DGPs) and other faculty involved in the assessment of academic programs to come and discuss their assessment plans, review data collection, analysis, and review or write report drafts. Drop in any time during the hours listed below for assistance:
    • February 14, 2020; 1:00-3:00pm; Hunt Library 5234
    • February 21, 2020; 1:00-3:00pm; Park Shops 211-D 
    • February 28, 2020; 1:00-3:00pm, Hunt Library 5234

Individual consultations are also available. Contact Dr. Stephany Dunstan (sbdunsta@ncsu.edu) for additional information or to schedule an individual consultation.

  • One-time Funding Opportunity for Faculty: Student Success Studies Using GPS Analytics. The Division of Academic and Student Affairs is excited to offer a competitive one-time funding opportunity to faculty interested in analyzing and leveraging data related to student success. The main goal of the initiative is to encourage faculty-led, focused institutional research that supports data-driven decision making through the use of Institution Reports in the Student Success GPS platform and additional institutional data as needed. The Division of Academic and Student Affairs will award funding to faculty and teams of faculty, with an individual award amount up to $1,000.  Funding recipients will receive half of the amount at the start of the research project, and the remaining amount at the conclusion.

Funding Restrictions: The fund source is state appropriations and all spending is subject to state and university guidelines, reference https://controller.ofa.ncsu.edu/resources/guidelines-references/ (requires unity login).

Click here to learn more about GPS, Institution Reports, and the proposal process. Applications are due by March 2. Please share this opportunity broadly with your colleagues. Contact Samantha Rich (snrich@ncsu.edu) with any questions you have.   

  • General Education Competency Assessment:  Critical and Creative Thinking. NC State strives for continuous improvement. Assessment of the General Education Competencies helps NC State faculty and staff to better understand how to support student learning.  This spring, NC State is assessing two of these competency areas: critical and creative thinking for graduating seniors. The Critical Thinking Assessment Test (“CAT”;  one of the instruments selected by NC State faculty for the assessment of critical and creative thinking as part of the TH!NK Program) will be administered to seniors during open testing sessions February 17 – March 5, 2020. All eligible graduating seniors have been emailed a link to register to complete the assessment.  Participation is voluntary and prize incentives are offered for participants. Academic programs with learning outcomes tied to critical and creative thinking can encourage their students to participate in the assessment during the open testing sessions or work with Samantha Rich (snrich@ncsu.edu) to schedule a time to administer the assessment in class. Analyzed, aggregate data can be returned to academic programs for use in making decisions to support student learning around critical and creative thinking, and these data can also be used in 2021 academic program assessment reporting.  For questions or more information, please visit https://assessment.dasa.ncsu.edu/academic-assessment/general-education-assessment/ or contact Dr. Stephany Dunstan (sbdunsta@ncsu.edu) or Samantha Rich (snrich@ncsu.edu

From the Office of Faculty Development:

  • Registration is now open for the Teaching and Learning Symposium, which will be held on Friday, February 28 from 9:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. at the McKimmon Center. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in interactive sessions led by NC State faculty, attend a keynote lecture, and meet and talk with NC State peers who are interested in teaching and learning.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Thomas J. Tobin, co-author of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, our Fall 2019 Reading Circle selection. Dr. Tobin is an internationally-recognized speaker and author on topics related to quality in distance education, especially copyright, evaluation of teaching practice, academic integrity, and accessibility/universal design for learning. Since the advent of online courses in higher education in the late 1990s, his work has focused on using technology to extend the reach of higher education beyond its traditional audience. Please register to attend the Teaching and Learning Symposium at: https://forms.gle/b8EC1zDMHEFpsbAo9. The Symposium (including lunch) is free of charge. Registration is for the full day, but attendees may come and go as needed. If you are interested in submitting a session, roundtable, or poster proposal, please see the Call for Proposals.

  • Do you struggle to keep writing projects moving during the busy semester? The Office of Faculty Development has partnered with the NC State University Libraries to offer Faculty Writing Retreats. Our next retreat will be held during Spring Break: Monday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 10, in the Faculty Research Commons spaces at James B. Hunt Jr. Library (Centennial Campus). Sign up now to find uninterrupted time to write your article, grant proposal, book chapter, or dossier materials. Coffee/tea/water and a light breakfast will be provided. Registration is for the full-day event (8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.), but please feel free to come and go as needed — join us all day, just in the morning, just in the afternoon, or even just for an hour or two! Our Faculty Writing Retreats feature drop-in consultations with librarians from the Libraries. Librarians will be available in the Faculty Commons to consult on various subjects related to faculty writing. You must register for the Writing Retreat to take advantage of this opportunity! Register at http://go.ncsu.edu/ofd-writingretreat
  • The Office of Faculty Development will host Career Mapping: A Tool to Help You Set Goals and Design a Development Plan on Monday, March 30 from 1–3 p.m. in Clark Hall, Room 405. By popular demand, we are offering this workshop a second time. Career mapping is a structured process that helps professionals identify their career goals and develop a plan for getting the mentorship and professional development they need to achieve those goals. Dr. Katharine Stewart, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, has refined a career mapping process specifically for faculty, and has used this process with hundreds of graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty at all stages of their careers (from first year through planning for senior administrative roles or research leadership). In this workshop, Dr. Stewart will help you get started in building your own career map and identifying the components of a professional development and mentorship network that will be most helpful to you in the next few years. Registration Link

From the Graduate School:

  • A coalition of graduate students at NC State will host the inaugural Graduate Mental Health Symposium this spring aimed at addressing graduate student mental health. The day-long symposium will take place March 27 at Duke Energy Hall in Hunt Library. Registration is coming soon. Learn more and register on the Graduate Student Association website.
  • Sign up to participate in the inaugural Faculty 3MT Competition on April 6, 3- 5 p.m. in Hunt Library’s Duke Energy Hall. 3MT is an opportunity for faculty to explain their research projects in just 3 minutes using nontechnical language and only one visual slide. Participants will compete for cash prizes and the honor of being NC State’s first-ever Faculty 3MT winner! In addition, all competitors will receive a professionally-edited video of their performance for promotional uses. Learn more and register online or contact Laura Demarse (ledemars@ncsu.edu) with questions.

From the NC State University Libraries:

  • Data management support: The Libraries is excited to announce a new institutional membership to Dryad, a nonprofit, community-governed research data repository that allows NC State researchers to make their data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad is one of many data repository options that we recommend, and our institutional membership to Dryad means that any researchers associated with NC State University can deposit datasets at no cost – the data package cost is covered by our membership. Also, please visit the Libraries’ updated Research Data Management guide at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/do/data-management. This guide provides support across the research data life cycle including data storage, creating data management plans and data sharing agreements, selecting disciplinary and general data repositories, and data curation guidance.
  • Apply now for the Open Project Engagement Network (OPEN) Incubator, a research development program designed to advance a project from idea to proof-of-concept. Applications are being accepted now for the program, which will meet weekly during a spring session (March 23-April 24) or a summer session (May 11-June 8). Participants will gain sustainable strategies to enhance their research workflow and produce research outputs that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) through conversations with other members of the cohort, and individual consultations with researchers and information specialists in the library. Meetings will be 1.5 hours weekly. The application deadline is February 28. Applications are welcome from any researcher, at any level, from undergraduate to senior professor. Read about program details and apply online.

From NC State DELTA:

  • Save the date for DELTA Grants. Start brainstorming your 2020-2021 DELTA Grants project proposals. Stay tuned for more info in March.
    • March 3: Group consultation and info session sign-ups begin
    • March 30: DELTA Grants submission system opens at 8 a.m.
    • May 15: DELTA Grants submission system closes at 5 p.m.

Learn more about DELTA Grants.

  • The WolfWare Resource Guide is your one-stop hub of knowledge for all things WolfWare and other DELTA-supported learning technologies. You will find a collection of help sources, quickstart instructions, and materials to support the development and maintenance of your courses. View the resource guide.
  • Director of Instructional Support Services Stacy Gant shares her favorite new features and enhancements to the teaching tool, Top Hat. From improved editing of slides to a new gradebook, see how the improvements can benefit your teaching. Read about the Top Hat improvements.

From the Office of Global Engagement:

  • Registration is now open for the Global Training Initiative’s Global Skills Certification Training. Explore best practice tools and frameworks for understanding, managing, and leveraging cultural differences. Register for the entire 3-part series at go.ncsu.edu/culturaltraining.
  • The International Travel Assistance Fund encourages and supports faculty or staff international engagement in research, teaching and other scholarly activities. Faculty and staff can request $1,000 to use towards international travel that relates to NC State’s global strategic plan. Learn more and apply today.

From the Office of Research and Innovation:

  • The Office of Research and Innovation will host the University Research Symposium on Monday, March 23 from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. in the Hunt Library. The University Research Symposium provides a forum for cross-college networking and seeks to promote collaboration across disciplines and colleges. The purpose of this event is to introduce researchers and scholars to each other, to explore opportunities for new partnerships, and to envision the future of research at NC State. This year’s focus will be on Climate Change and Resilience. The program agenda will include: keynote addresses, multiple panel sessions, networking opportunities and lightning rounds to convey and discover research across campus.

If you are interested in learning about how faculty at NC State are addressing climate change and resilience, save the date and let us know that you plan to attend. If you are engaged in related research or scholarship, please consider participating in the lightning presentations/ digital poster session. This will be an opportunity to use the great visualization spaces in Hunt Library, with support from library staff. Lunch will be provided. If you have questions please contact Laura Kroeger (lakroege@ncsu.edu). Register Today!

  • The 2020 NSF CAREER Workshop will take place Wednesday, March 25 from 1-4 p.m. at the Wilson College of Textiles Convocation Center. NSF’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers support for early-career faculty seeking to build strong foundations for research and education in their respective fields. Faculty interested in submitting a CAREER proposal are invited to attend a workshop covering key aspects of proposal development. The workshop is open to tenure-track NC State faculty considering a CAREER proposal. Registration is required as space is limited. For more information please contact Matt Hooker (PDU, mwhooker@ncsu.edu), Christy Sandy (CALS, clsandy@ncsu.edu), Meredith Jeffers (WCOT, mgjeffer@ncsu.edu), or Ann Zhang (COS, nzhang7@ncsu.edu). Register today

Leave a Response

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.