Faculty Well-Being North Carolina State University

1. Faculty Well-BeingNorth Carolina State University March 10, 2009 Committee on Faculty Well-Being

2. Faculty Well-Being Committee • Faculty Well-Being Survey, 2007 • Monthly meetings since January 08 • Change in leadership • Additional data analysis • Identified similar findings in other reports • COACHE survey, Task Force on Women Faculty, Interdisciplinary Task Force

3. Sensitivity to Diversity • Variance in satisfaction between tenured/tenure track and non-tenure track faculty • Variance in satisfaction and retention between men and women • Variance by age and career stage • Variance by race

4. Primary Issues • Building Productive Career Stages • Creating a Community of Scholars & Teachers • Balancing Work-Life Demands • Inspiring Creative Leadership & Effective Communication

5. Career Stages • Recommendations • Identify specific strategies to retain excellent faculty in all stages. • Teach coaching skills to senior faculty • Recognize that faculty work-life balance is experienced differently at each career stage • Review how time in rank varies among departments, especially for associate professors. • Review and evaluate the practices associated with promotion and time in rank (such as the impact of administrative responsibilities).

6. Sense of Community Recommendations at the University Level: • Promote activities for new university faculty to meet others and develop a sense of community • Build community through faculty initiated and administratively supported interdisciplinary seminars, informal journal clubs, reading groups and exhibitions that bring the campus community together • Encourage and reward interdisciplinary activities through university sponsored websites and seed-grants

7. Sense of Community Recommendations at the University Level: • Encourage and reward international interdisciplinary activities that engage the university community • Provide faculty with amenities that foster community and collaboration (e.g., coffee, gym memberships) • Establish an Interdisciplinary Center, examine current physical spaces on campus that may be used to house the Center • Address the fundamental challenge of bringing the physically separate campuses together (The FWBAC plans to explore in detail next year, and will prepare a report on its findings and recommendations)

8. Sense of Community Recommendations at the Departmental Level: • Hold regular (at least monthly) departmental faculty meetings, social events and faculty retreats • Regularly communicate budget decisions that are transparent for full understanding • Strategically communicate with all faculty • Hold annual faculty reviews. Use separate mentoring with new faculty in particular • Appoint grant writing teams and other teams to work on common goals • Unit heads should present a “State of the Department’ report to the faculty – with successes, a completely transparent budget and challenges to be faced

9. Work- Life Fit Framework for Work-Life Life Fit

10. Work- Life Fit • Recommendations: • Sensitivity to faculty personal needs when planning work events (e.g., time of meeting conflicts with child care hours) • Assure compatibility between new faculty and faculty mentors • Encourage faculty flextime for school conferences, medical appointments, etc • Encourage faculty wellness to include physical activity • Assure distribution of departmental tasks while discouraging faculty overload

11. Leadership & Communication • Issues identified in survey • Departments lack: • clear priorities • conflict resolution abilities • budget transparency • Faculty input on decisions made within departments • Little provision of and equitable distribution of resources

12. Leadership & Communication Recommendations: • Department head development • Leadership development for faculty interested in personal growth opportunities • Required mentoring system

13. Immediate Action Implement training and development program for department heads to: • Develop mentoring at all career stages; • Build a sense of departmental community with activities; • Be aware of work-life balance when planning schedules and • Utilize best ways/tools for communication.  Develop a greater sense of community across the colleges.