Mission Statement

It is the mission of the Faculty and Academic Staff Development Board (FASDB) at UWRF to directly promote the effectiveness of faculty and academic staff with respect to teaching, professional development, and research.

This involves the provision of adequate funding and time to faculty and academic staff to pursue activities related to instructional and organizational development, community, and societal service as well as basic and applied research endeavors. Such activities are intended to have a direct impact on the career satisfaction of faculty and academic staff and in turn, positively affect student learning. 

Key issues regarding funding, identifying new resources and maintaining existing ones, selecting and evaluating faculty and academic staff initiated projects and providing ongoing support and mentoring will be within the scope of the FASDB. In this manner the FASDB seeks to identify and coordinate previously separate programs and resources for faculty and academic staff development into a single comprehensive effort. At the same time the FASDB seeks to maintain the variety of opportunities for faculty and academic staff development. 

Issues for faculty and academic staff development include the following: 

• Developing innovations in curriculum and instruction
• Responding to community and societal needs through increased service activities
• Engaging in research activities that contribute to academic disciplines and student learning
• Understanding the increased role of technology and its potential impact on instruction and learning
• Adapting instructional methods to changing student populations and needs
• Conducting research with respect to new paradigms for teaching and learning
• Responding to needs for continued efforts to improve retention of new faculty and academic staff in addition to retention and graduation of students
• Understanding the needs for continued development of diversity in our faculty and academic staff and student population
• Responding to the need to expand the traditional organization of higher education to include support for school-to-work efforts including cooperative education, internships, and team training
• Supporting the pursuit of opportunities for external funding
• Supporting travel for faculty and academic staff development