TCAC

July 2000 Report Index

Index to Appendices

TCAC July 2000 Report to the Provost--Appendix J

Preparing Future Faculty as a University of Washington Tri-Campus Initiative

The three campuses of the University of Washington offer an opportunity for professional development for a limited number of UW-S doctoral students and mentors from the partner campuses of UW-T and UW-B through the national Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) initiative, of which UW-S is a part. This initiative, begun in 1994, seeks to broaden Ph.D. training to include emphasis on teaching and service, as well as research. At least 25 research institutions, working with "partner" campuses (non-research universities) have developed many different kinds of activities that meet PFF goals. Surveys show that partner faculty who have participated in the activities of the initiative nationwide find the opportunity to work with doctoral students (not normally present on their own campuses) extremely valuable.

Faculty at UW-B and UW-T have mentored UW-S students in informal ways (Huckabay Fellowships, PFF I, adjunct teaching, etc.) for some time. Because of TCAC's interest in developing more contact across the three campuses, and because the Graduate School is in the process of developing a PFF graduate certificate, it is an optimal time to attempt to formalize these relationships between the campuses.

At a meeting on April 24, program directors at UW-T approved the idea of participation and planned to create a small group to work with the Associate Dean of the Graduate School to develop a pilot project. The meeting at UW-B will be held on May 10. Informal conversation with some UW-B faculty suggests that the May 10 meeting will result in a similar interest in continuing the discussion there.

A number of initial principles will guide the activities of the working group(s):

• PFF is not an opportunity to have a teaching assistant.
• Not all faculty will wish to participate; those who do, might participate in a variety of different ways.
• Funding for implementation will need to be shared by all three campuses.
• PFF implementation need not be exactly the same at UW-B and UW-T.
• Faculty recognition for mentoring doctoral students will need to be considered at UW-B and UW-T.

Once the working groups have been formed, many issues will need attention, including:

• Number of students
• Selection of students
• Funding
• Levels of participation (mentoring, shadowing, field trips, etc.)
• Assessment methods

The Graduate School recommends that TCAC encourage the development of PFF relationships between the three campuses and that it support a request to the Provost for two predoctoral associate II positions at each campus, to be matched by one such position from each campus as a pilot project.

Prepared by Elizabeth Feetham, Associate Dean of the Graduate School
May 8, 2000

TCAC July 2000 Report Index Index to Appendices

Tri-Campus Advisory Committee
tcacadmi@u.washington.edu
Modified: August 3, 2000