Providing pathways for development, promotion and everything in between.

September 2019

Welcome New Faculty Members

On August 20 and 21, we welcomed nearly 100 new faculty members from all ranks and all parts of campus at New Faculty Orientation. Thank you to all who attended and contributed. We are so happy you're here and hope to see you at future events.

Check out the Orientation Follow-up Workshops in the Upcoming Programs and Events.

Group photo of new faculty

Awards & Recognition

Campus and System Awards Nominations

University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Awards

Deans and/or Chairs are requested to submit a nomination record for the selected candidate and upload preliminary nominating materials through the APA website no later than Tuesday, October 1. More information may be found here.

Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Awards

This award honors senior faculty who, as men and women of outstanding scholarly accomplishment, combined with excellence in teaching, personify our image of the professoriate. Please nominate your best scholars and educators for the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award. Submit nominations through the APA website by Tuesday, October 15. Full nominating materials will be due November 5, 2019. Details on nominations and former DSTs may be found here.

Distinguished University Professor

The title of Distinguished University Professor is the highest appointment bestowed on a tenured faculty member. It is a recognition of excellence, but even more of impact and significant contribution to the nominee’s field, knowledge, profession, and/or practice. Nominations for Distinguished University Professor are welcome through October 15 via the APA website. The full nomination dossier will be due December 1, 2019. More information on award criteria and the nomination and selection process may be found here.

We will be holding a workshop for DUP and DST nominations October 10. See the Upcoming Programs and Events for details, and contact OFA with any questions.

Sundial at UMD

Faculty Development

Upcoming Programs and Events

Oct. 1APT Workshop for New Faculty3-4:30 pm1103 Biosciences Research Bldg.
Oct. 10Orientation Follow Up: Faculty Support & Expectations12-1:30 pm6137 McKeldin Library
Oct. 10Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and Distinguished University Professor Nomination Workshop3-4:30 pm1103 Biosciences Research Bldg.
Oct. 23Orientation Follow Up: Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC)12-1:30 pm0201 Edward St. John Bldg.
Oct. 29Orientation Follow Up: Research Development12-1:30 pm0100 Marie Mount Hall
Nov. 1Second Annual PTK Symposium1-5 pmStamp Student Union

UMD's New Membership in the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

The University is now an institutional member of the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity. NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring center with a community of over 450 colleges and universities. The Center is dedicated to supporting academics in making successful transitions throughout their careers, and providing on-demand access to member resources. A kick-off event was held on May 15 to share how this resource benefits faculty members, graduate students and postdocs at UMD, and to preview the available programs. We will continue to provide information on this resource during the summer. Don't forget to activate your membership!


Telling Y(our) Story: Activity Insight Launch

We are launching Activity Insight by Digital Measures/Watermark as our faculty activities system this year, 2019-2020. This system enables individual faculty members and the University as a whole to promote and report their accomplishments and activities. We have been launching this new tool over the 2019 calendar year with tenured/tenure-track faculty members, with the goal of using the platform for annual reporting in early 2020. The next phase, in 2020, will expand the use of the platform to all faculty members. 

Those of you who will be using the platform to submit your 2019 annual activity report (tenured and tenure-track faculty) can get started documenting your 2019 activities in the platform now. Head to the Faculty Affairs Activity Insight portal to log in. When you access the platform, you'll notice that some activities have already been loaded for you in the system. There are a number of campus integrations in place that automatically load data for you, including data from the legacy Lyterati system. 

Activity Data from Other Sources

Activity Insight automatically brings in activity data from other sources, in particular other campus data management systems, so you do not have to enter those data manually. Note that data populated from campus integrations cannot be edited on the data screen. The chart below explains from where the data are drawn, how often the update occurs, and how far back the data go.

Activity Screen NameCampus SystemData Update ScheduleData Coverage
Personal and Contact Information; Tenure and Rank; Appointments at UMDPHRBi-weekly on Mondays2010-present
Scheduled TeachingSISFive weeks after term endsAY 2010-present
Course EvaluationsCourse EvalUMFive weeks after term endsAY 2014-present
ORA Managed Awards; ORA Managed Proposals; Active ORA Managed AwardsKuali ResearchFebruary each year, with the previous calendar year's data2010-present
Partipation in Thesis / Dissertation CommitteesGraduate School Student AdvisingFive weeks after term endsAY 2018

Legacy Data from Lyterati

Other activity screens may have pre-2016 data that was pulled from the Lyterati system. Every effort has been made to bring these data in cleanly and to populate the correct set of fields. However, the import of these data have been imperfect. For this reason, we did not import publications readily available through third-party citation/reference managers, including refereed journal articles. You will get cleaner results for these publications through the Publications Import feature in Activity Insight. Note that the University Libraries offers workshops and monthly office hours for publication import support; check their calendar for a session if you need assistance, or reach out to the Activity Insight team.

Please review any data that have been imported from Lyterati for accuracy and to make sure that the information has been correctly mapped. If you need to make changes to any of your pre-loaded activities, or any activities you have entered, you can locate the record you want to edit and click on the link to modify it. 

Learn More About Activity Insight

The Activity Insight portal is not only your starting point for logging in to the platform; it is also a self-service resource with short how-to videos, extensive user guides, and contact information for the Activity Insight team. Platform support is available through email, by phone (301.405.7681) and drop-in office hours in 1120A Toll Physics Building (M 12-2/Tu 9-12/W 11-1/Th 9-12/F 9-12).


From the Associate Provost

Associate Director Position

The Office of the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs (OFA) seeks an Associate Director for Faculty Initiatives to focus on matters related to supporting our Professional Track (PTK) Faculty. In this leadership role, the Associate Director for Faculty Initiatives will be responsible for designing and delivering professional development opportunities for PTK faculty; improving policies and procedures for how the University engages and employs PTK faculty; managing awards; overseeing implementation of University policies regarding appointment, evaluation, and promotion, including managing the process for promotions that come to the Provost's office for review; and other matters of importance to PTK faculty. The successful candidate will have an understanding of and familiarity with PTK faculty policies, procedures, and issues as well as a strong desire to foster collaborative efforts and work with campus constituencies on matters related to PTK faculty members.

More information regarding the position is available at: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/72429. In addition to direct applications for the position, nominations are welcome. Please contact the Chair of the Search Committee, Wayne McIntosh (wvmci@umd.edu), should you wish to discuss the opportunity.


Tips & Resources

M Circle at UMD
New Faculty Resources

New to campus? Be sure to check out our New Faculty Start Up Resources and Orientation information, if you haven't already.


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