Year in Review: OFA's Impact in 2025

This year, the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA) welcomed nearly 100 new faculty members at New Faculty Orientation; held 58 workshops and professional development events; received 41 campus and University System of Maryland (USM) award nominations for excellence in faculty teaching, research, service, mentoring, and leadership; and reviewed 188 cases for appointment, tenure, and promotion of TTK faculty,  PTK promotion, permanent status (librarians), and appointment to emeritus/emerita status. In addition, we have launched new programs and initiatives this year to improve faculty life at the university. We have listed some highlights below: 

Promotion

Appointment, Evaluation and Promotion (AEP) Manual: The Appointment, Evaluation and Promotion (AEP) manual for PTK faculty became effective in July 2025, creating greater uniformity of AEP processes across campus. Colleges and units have been revising their AEP plans to bring them into alignment with the Manual, and in 2025 OFA continued to hold workshops to further familiarize faculty members and administrators with the document. 

Development

ADVANCE: Throughout the year, the ADVANCE Program collaborated on and led a range of impactful initiatives to support UMD faculty. Over the course of the year, ADVANCE facilitated five, cohort-based learning communities for 70 faculty. Two of these programs were new and collaborative: a coaching program for assistant professors with CLOC and a peer network for community-engaged researchers with the Center for Community Engagement. ADVANCE also organized four campuswide faculty development workshops, collectively engaging 125 faculty. Within colleges/schools, ADVANCE Professors provided mentoring and support to more than 720 faculty members through advocacy and professional development. ADVANCE also continued to support education and training for faculty search committees in collaboration with Belonging & Community, including implementing 5 faculty search committee workshops and training 27 faculty and staff to facilitate faculty search committee workshops.

BIG 10 Academic Alliance: A cohort of 5 department heads participated in an intense program (Department Executive Officers) with their BIG 10 colleagues to network, refine their skills, and learn problem-solving strategies. A second cohort of 5 senior faculty participated in the BIG 10 Academic Alliance’s Academic Leadership Program, which brings developing leaders to three BIG 10 universities to network, learn about each other’s institutions, and explore topics such as the current state of higher education, resource management, and belonging and community. Both groups also met together weekly to learn about leadership at the University of Maryland.

CLOC: The Center for Leadership & Organizational Change successfully launched Excellence in Supervision (EIS), a comprehensive leadership development program for faculty and staff. Over 200 people are currently enrolled in the program. CLOC provided consultation, coaching, and training for more than 50 teams across 10 colleges and schools, 5 divisions, and multiple interdisciplinary ventures. We also partnered with several organizations in the broader community including the MD Office of the Attorney General, Martha's Table, Maryland State Library Association, and various USM institutions. Additionally, 1,100 faculty and staff engaged in our learning and development programs.

Faculty Forums and Workshops: The Office of Faculty Affairs held open faculty forums on the McKeldin Library Renovation, Teaching in the Wake of AI, Research in & with PK-12 Schools, Disability Awareness, Burnout and Resilience, and Academic Freedom and Free Speech. These events, along with informational workshops on promotion and awards engaged more than 600 TTK and PTK faculty attendees.

Fearless Unit Leadership, a collaboration between OFA and CLOC, held six sessions in 2025, helping chairs and unit heads network and learn about managing conflict, working with their deans, creating a positive climate in their department, and other pressing topics. Starting with the 2025-26 academic year, Fearless Unit Leadership transitioned to a cohort program for new chairs and unit heads.

OFA launched a new program in the 2025-2026 academic year called Fearless Leadership Foundations. Fearless Leadership Foundations offers learning, development, and community for faculty members, both TTK and PTK, who are taking on administrative roles within their units, possibly for the first time. These crucial positions can be very rewarding, but also come with new challenges. Fearless Leadership Foundations supports mid-career faculty members looking to develop skills in leadership and management

Orientations for new faculty members and new administrators welcomed over 115 colleagues taking on new faculty and/or academic leadership roles at the University of Maryland.

TerrapinSTRONG Symposium: The University held the third TerrapinSTRONG Symposium for faculty and staff. Organized by a partnership between the Office of Faculty Affairs, Belonging & Community, and University Human Resources (UHR), this two-day symposium focused on the theme of “Navigating Change: Turning Disruption into Direction,” bringing faculty and staff members together to share insights and expertise about artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education, and belonging and community efforts. Over 175 participants attended 15 presentations on a wide variety of topics related to the Symposium’s theme. Learn more about the Symposium.

UMDRFA: Over the past year, the University of Maryland Retired Faculty Association (UMDRFA) launched the Silver Terp Seminars series online, holding eight sessions presented by retired faculty members spanning a wide range of topics on academic research or scholarship relevant to a general academic audience. UMDRFA also hosted three webinars focusing on practical topics to help retired and retiring faculty navigate the complex transition into life as retirees.

Policy and Procedures

Professional Track Faculty Instructional Workload Policy: The Professional Track Faculty (PTK) Instructional Workload Policy working group prepared a draft policy in Spring 2024. After receiving and incorporating feedback from the broader campus community, the draft policy was transmitted to the University Senate in Fall 2024. The Senate’s Faculty Affairs Committee is expected to start their review of the draft policy in Spring 2025. 

Reporting

Updates to Faculty Success: We continue to make updates and improvements to the Faculty Success system. We have continued to improve the University CV to better meet the needs of faculty across the campus. Faculty Success can help in the creation of the Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) document for proposal submissions to NSF and other government agencies. It can also aggregate current and pending projects and proposal information to assist with the preparation of the SciENcv.

Workday: Workday officially launched in November 2024, replacing multiple existing Human Resource and Finance systems with an integrated cloud-based solution. 2025 marked the first full year of campus interaction with the system, and OFA reviewed and processed hundreds of faculty actions and requests in the Faculty Affairs Partner role. The transition has affected all aspects of faculty systems, including appointments and promotions, leave recording, training, and reporting.