Welcome to Messiah! The Office of Faculty Development is happy to serve a central role in the onboarding of new faculty and co-curricular educators. While the full range of programming is available to new faculty, we have three main programs focused on orientation and development of faculty who are new to Messiah:
Provost's Seminar is a series of lectures and discussions for first-year faculty held on Wednesday afternoons throughout the fall semester. Covering topics that range from university mission to academic freedom, the Provost's Seminar serves to introduce educators to the identity of Messiah University and its place within Christian Higher Education, as well as lay the foundation for functioning as successful educators within this context.
University-wide Readings and Prompts Discussions are opportunities for second-year faculty to come together and discuss the university-wide readings and prompts in preparation for responding to the prompts prior to the 5th semester initial review. There are four discussion sessions, one for each prompt, held in the spring semester. Each session will be facilitated by one or more senior faculty members with insight into the discussion topic.
Held each August, New Educator Orientation (NEO) is designed to introduce new educators to the university and its students, structures, programs, and policies. NEO allows new educators to connect with other colleagues in their incoming cohort, to interact with institutional leaders, and to be equipped towards a confident and successful first semester at Messiah University.
We recognize that new educators may be adjusting to many changes in their lives. For many of our new faculty, their first semester of teaching at Messiah University also means that they may be new to the area and, thus, finding new social and faith communities. Our hope is that establishing mentoring relationships early will encourage new faculty during their first year and beyond at Messiah University. It is the goal of the university to acclimate new educators and help cultivate their sense of belonging in our community.
During the new faculty's first year at Messiah University, they are paired with a faculty mentor from outside of their academic department. Mentors will observe and complete a Development Evaluation of Teaching Form of their mentoring partner's teaching as part of preparing them for evaluative peer review later in the TTP process.