Dear Colleagues,
Our focus on the mental health of our students and ourselves continues to be a priority. In response to the urgent conversation around the state of mental health issues and treatment challenges in the region, Wright State University will host “Mental Health Matters: A Community Conversation” on Tuesday, September 17, in the Apollo Room of the Student Union. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a mental health resource fair featuring local providers and support networks. A keynote address, panel discussion, and Q&A will follow at 6 p.m. I encourage you to register and attend—I look forward to seeing you.
Additionally, as an institution whose new student class is comprised of 31% transfer students, we would like to show them our support. Please submit your words of encouragement and wisdom to our students through this online form. Your support and perspective will be shared during National Student Transfer Week, October 21–25. I see this as an immediate and direct positive impact on our students and appreciate your involvement.
I would like to take a moment to recognize the great work of all our faculty this semester in submitting their participation rosters. Collectively, we reached a submission rate of 96.9%. I especially want to recognize the Boonshoft School of Medicine for its 100% submission rate! Also, congratulations to the College of Health, Education, and Human Services, which had a 99.2% submission rate! Dean Toussaint was presented with our traveling trophy for the semester, and I will provide a pizza party for the school.
Faculty Recognition
Congratulations to the faculty recipients of the President’s Awards for Excellence! I look forward to celebrating with you at the Faculty and Staff Awards for Excellence ceremony on Wednesday, September 25, from 3:30–4:30 p.m. in the Student Union Apollo Room.
Trustees’ Award for Faculty Excellence: Henry Chen, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering
Brage Golding Distinguished Professor of Research: Anand Jeyaraj, Ph.D., Professor, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
Frederick A. White Distinguished Professor of Professional Service: Mindy McNutt, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Leadership Studies in Education
Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching: Junjie Zhang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Computer Science
Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence, Early Career Achievement Award: Fathi Amsaad, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Presidential Award for Outstanding NTE Faculty, Service: Kayleigh Duncan, Instructor, Computer Science
Presidential Award for Outstanding NTE Faculty, Teaching: Lynn Franck, Clinical Instructor, Nursing
Presidential Award for Faculty Mentoring: Jeffrey Peters, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Chair, Biological Sciences
Student Success: Building a Culture of Care
We are sharing some quick tips to build a culture of care in your classroom this fall as we collaborate to impact student success. This week’s focus is emotional and mental well-being.
A culture of care creates an environment where students feel safe asking for help and are provided resources and referrals to support their overall mental well-being. By supporting students' emotional and mental well-being, we can ensure that students are better equipped to handle the challenges of academia and life.
Quick tips to infuse emotional and mental well-being into your classroom:
- Normalize the transition and stressors a new semester brings, particularly for first-year students.
- Share resources that support students’ emotional well-being like those provided by Counseling and Wellness Services. This includes one-on-one therapy, group sessions, outreach presentations, and faculty and staff consultations should you want to discuss how to best support a student.
- If there is a student in your course who needs emotional support or resources beyond your comfort zone, submit an alert to the Wright State Cares Team.
If you have any thoughts or questions regarding this or other student success topics, reach out to Dr. Amelia Salazar, vice president for student success, at Amelia.Salazar@wright.edu to get connected!
Student Recognition in Best Integrated Writing Journal
Our students inspire us every day by submitting exceptional written work. After a hiatus, Wright State’s Best Integrated Writing journal has returned as a biannual edition and will showcase student writing excellence in fall 2024. Consider submitting the work of students whom you believe deserve recognition and publication. Written work can come from fall 2023, spring 2024, or summer 2024 Integrated Writing courses.
The deadline for the fall 2024 edition of Best Integrated Writing is September 16. To submit, email the editors at kristie.mckiernan@wright.edu or tracy.smith@wright.edu.
Submissions should include brief comments about the piece and are accepted only by faculty nomination in Word or PDF format. Nominations (whether they are collaborative or individual) may include essays, posters, multimedia projects, or any other work that involves superior writing. Nominations do not guarantee acceptance of a student’s work. Selection is done by the editors. Student permission and knowledge are required for a nomination as well as before a work is published. We ask that each faculty member send no more than three nominations unless there have been previous arrangements.
Events
The College of Liberal Arts kicks off its Fall Speaker Series tomorrow with a presentation by Dr. Angus Fletcher, professor of humanities at The Ohio State University, at 4:30 p.m. in Schuster Hall in the Creative Arts Center.
Dr. Fletcher has been cited by David Brooks in The New York Times as an expert on AI and the humanities. During his presentation, “Why the Future will be Less AI and More Human,” Dr. Fletcher will consider what the brain can do that computers can’t and how the humanities can help do it.
Faculty and Staff Survey on Experiential Learning and Careers
Last spring the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), and the Society for Experiential Education (SEE) released the report Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors: The Integration of Career Readiness Into the Curriculum highlighting data from our joint survey that demonstrate the many ways faculty support career readiness.
This fall, a new study is being conducted to better understand how faculty and staff are connecting experiential learning and high-impact learning practices with career preparation for students. NACE, AAC&U, and SEE will utilize findings to inform a deeper understanding of current practices involving experiential learning and high-impact practices linked to career preparation, as well as to create resources and programs to promote innovation for faculty, staff, and institutions of higher education.
Your participation in this survey is requested—it should take less than eight minutes to complete. Your responses are saved every time you advance to the next page, and you can leave and return to the survey where you left off as long as you use the same computer or device. NACE, AAC&U, and SEE responses are confidential. Individual responses will be aggregated and summarized.
The survey will remain open through December 31, 2024.
Center for Faculty Excellence
- Program Assessment for 2023-2024: Program assessment is done first and foremost to improve the quality of our academic programs. Accreditors like HLC ensure the institution has quality programs and therefore require assessment. The 2022-2023 program assessments were reviewed and individual feedback was provided. This workshop will review trends from the 2022-2023 reports and review the Planning and Self-Study system for program assessment, including introducing newly unlocked features.
Thursday, September 12, 12:30-1:25 p.m., virtual (Webex link will be sent upon registration)
Register
- Closing the Loop on Program Assessment: The greatest benefit from program assessment comes from closing the loop on the assessment cycle. In this workshop, participants will recognize the importance of discussing assessment results in their department and articulate questions that could be asked of assessment data that lead to data-informed changes and greater student success.
Wednesday, October 9, 9:05-10:00 a.m., in-person
Monday, October 14, 3:35-4:30 p.m., virtual (Webex link will be sent upon registration)
Tuesday, October 15, 2:00-2:55 p.m., in-person
Register
- Closing the Loop on Course Assessment: At the beginning of the term, assessment plans were created for each course. Now that the term is wrapping up, it is time to collect, report, and analyze the data. This workshop will walk through these processes to close the loop on course assessment for the term. Participants will learn how to report and/or collect data in the Planning and Self-Study system, receive tips on analyzing assessment results, and identify data-informed opportunities to improve student success.
Tuesday, November 26, 2:30-3:25 p.m., in-person
Friday, December 6, 11:15 a.m.-12:10 p.m., virtual (Webex link will be sent upon registration)
Thursday, December 12, 12:30-1:25 p.m., in-person
Register
Mental Health First Aid Training
Mental Health First Aid helps to teach individuals how to assist and support others who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge. Mental Health First Aid is an evidence-based practice training offered virtually and in-person that uses community-specific scenarios, activities, and videos to teach the skills needed to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges as well as how to provide initial support until they are connected with appropriate professional help.
Training sessions are available to all employees throughout the fall semester. Learn more and register.
Faculty Affairs – Important Dates
- September 16 – Faculty Annual Reviews (FAR) are due. Faculty will report their academic year activities for the previous academic year (thus, fall 2023 to spring 2024) not for the calendar year, as in the past.
- Submissions will solely be collected through information entered by faculty in Watermark’s Faculty Success software.
- One-hour user training sessions and system overview and submissions training are available.
- Criteria for evaluation of teaching and service have changed; bargaining unit faculty members (BUFMs) see Article 11.6.
- September 30 – Professional Development Course Release proposals for NTE BUFMs are due to chairs.
- October 15 – Professional Development Leave proposals (TET and BSOM) are due to deans. Bargaining Unit Faculty should review Article 30-3.2 for guidelines and process. Boonshoft School of Medicine faculty follow the Wright State University Policy 8430.
Research and Sponsored Programs Training Opportunities
- The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs is offering Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training this academic year. Forums will be held on:
Fall semester: October 9, 16, 23, and 30 at 1:00 p.m. in 158 University Hall
Spring semester: January 31, February 7, 14, and 21, time and location will be finalized as the dates approach
Learn more
The 50-minute sessions address core areas of Responsible Conduct of Research and discuss the structure of the program. Grant contracts may require researcher participation in Responsible Conduct of Research programs.
Contractual RCR Requirements: Faculty, staff, students, and external collaborators whose research is supported by NSF or NIH must periodically participate in the RCR forums and program. This includes anyone who can influence the results and validity of your research. The RCR program requires participation in four forum sessions at four-year intervals.
Although only required for NSF- or NIH-funded research, anyone is welcome to attend.
- The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will host grant writing workshops, facilitated by Hanover Research, throughout the fall semester. All sessions will be held on Zoom from noon to 2:00 p.m. To access, select the link below on the date of the presentation:
September 25: Long-Term Strategic Grant Planning and Developing a Strong Concept Paper
September 27: Program Officer Engagement and Essentials of Competitive Proposals
October 2: Writing Competitive NSF, NIH, and DOD CDMRP Proposals
October 4: Developing and Maintaining Collaborations and Resubmissions
The sessions will be facilitated by Steven Jax, Ph.D., a senior grants consultant at Hanover Research who has supported over $48 million in funded grants from a wide range of funders, including NIH, NSF, DOE, and many private funders. Before joining Hanover, Dr. Jax was a research scientist for 14 years in the field of cognitive neuroscience and neurorehabilitation.
When a Student Needs Support
As we approach the fourth week of the semester, students may already be struggling. Wright.edu/help is a great resource for helping students or making referrals. This site contains contact information for emergency or essential departments that can assist your students all in one location.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! You are appreciated!
Amy Thompson, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
