The College of Charleston has been invited to participate in a national program designed to address the unique needs of non-tenure-track STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) faculty.

The College is one of eight institutions participating in the Institute on Reframing Institutional Transformation organized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, offers guidance to university leaders concerning best practices for adjunct instructors.

Participating university teams will partner with national scholars to examine and interrogate root causes of the adverse institutional conditions that disproportionately marginalize non-tenure-track STEM faculty. All sessions will be grounded in a blended conceptual model for institutional transformation that emphasizes organizational learning and change.

Programming will also focus on cultivating tools for critical self-reflection, mindfulness and strategic design mapping. As an added benefit, participating teams will be paired with an institutional transformation coach whose expertise and experience will contribute to building team capacity in institutional transformation, broadening participation, organizational change theory, STEM education research and culturally responsive evaluation.

โ€œThe School of Sciences and Mathematics applied to be a participant in this institute to support our work meeting the goals of pillar three of our new strategic plan โ€“ to inspire excellence and innovation in our faculty,โ€ says Christopher Korey, associate provost for student success. โ€œNon-tenure-track faculty, instructors/senior instructors and adjunct faculty play a key role in educating our students in STEM fields and hold key leadership roles in our school. This institute will help us envision how to better support their growth as faculty and in turn support student success in our STEM classrooms.โ€

The College of Charleston team includes:

Kate Owens (Senior Instructor/Associate Chair in Math)

RoxAnn Stalvey (Senior Instructor/Associate Chair in Computer Science)

Kathleen Janech (Adjunct Faculty in Biology)

Christine Moore (Senior Instructor in Computer Science)

Christopher Korey (Associated Provost for Student Success)

The Institute on Reframing Institutional Transformation to Include Non-Tenure-Track STEM Faculty will be held July 25โ€“29, 2022, in Washington, D.C.