Full time Drake faculty (continuous term, tenured, and tenure-track) are invited to apply to be the next Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Drake University. The Director of the CTE will work closely with the office of the deputy provost to deliver essential pedagogical support to Drake faculty and staff.

Job description:

Drake’s Center for Teaching Excellence supports the ongoing work of providing an outstanding Drake education for all our students. Working closely with the deputy provost, as well as other campus partner, the Director of the CTE will develop, initiate, and assess programming to support the effective delivery of the Drake Curriculum – from FYS to the capstone experience – as well as excellence in teaching across the disciplines in every modality.

The CTE director will, in consultation with the Deputy Provost:
Define the scope of, reason for, and impact expected by the Center for Teaching Excellence. The Center was developed and launched just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and much of the work in these early years centered on our move to online teaching and learning. The new CTE director has the opportunity to shape the vision of the Center and articulate a passionate and visionary purpose for its role on campus.

Collaborate with university partners to create, initiate, and assess pedagogical support programming around the Drake Curriculum; teaching across the disciplines; and serving our commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our curricular spaces.

Serve as a liaison with Instructional Technologists and Course Designers to develop robust use of our Learning Management System, as well as classroom technology, and to support the creation of online coursework in the undergraduate curriculum;

Reinvigorate and launch a peer-to-peer course observation program;

Support effective teaching in our First Year Seminars by facilitating the FYS Learning Community in collaboration with the Director of the Writing Center as well as library faculty teaching within the Informational Literacy AOI.

Champion student-ready instruction and partner on initiatives related to retention and persistence;

Revitalize the CTE website, and write articles to share pedagogical resources for placement in OnCampus and on that site;

Collaborate on developing New Faculty Orientation and Onboarding opportunities.

The Director of the CTE will serve a three-year appointment, beginning January 1, 2023, with a professional development obligation in late fall 2022. The Deputy Provost and CTE Director will engage in an annual review each fall, with the director eligible for two terms of appointment (6 years total) before a university-wide call is circulated, at which point the director is welcome to reapply.

Resources for the work:

Compensation for the Director of the CTE will include:
Dedicated and directed professional development funding, to attend the POD Network annual fall meeting (mid-November) twice per three-year term, and to attend the New Educator Development Institute (summer) once per three-year term;

A $5,000 stipend paid each summer (this stipend applies for both 12- and 9-month faculty);

Up to two funded course reassignments per academic year.

The Director of the CTE will work with the office of the deputy provost to determine a budget that facilitates appropriate funding support for faculty pedagogical development opportunities; the Deputy Provost will support CTE workshops with funding for hospitality, stipends for participants, and material costs.

Application Process and Timeline:

The Deputy Provost will convene a hiring committee in early fall, 2022. The committee will seek applicants who: have a record of excellent teaching; demonstrate an understanding of the Drake curriculum and its intersections with our majors and minors; evidence good relationships with faculty and staff across the institution; are committed to interdisciplinary work as well as the work of equity and inclusion; and are well-organized, innovative, and ethical leaders.

Please submit a cover letter indicating interest in the position, qualifications for it, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and a vision for the CTE, along with a cv, to renee.cramer@drake.edu (cc:ing nicki.kimm@drake.edu) by Wednesday, September 14. Please use the subject line: CTE Director Application, on your email.

The hiring committee will meet to review files during the weeks of September 19 and 26, and will make a recommendation for interviews by September 30. The committee will complete interviews by October 15 and deliver to the deputy provost an evaluation of the interviewed candidates in time for an offer to be communicated by October 19.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Full-time Drake faculty (continuous term, tenured, and tenure-track) are invited to apply to be Director of the Drake University Honors Program. 

The Director of the Honors Program delivers on the Program’s mission to “ to create an environment, in and out of the classroom, that continually pushes, primarily, members of the Honors program and, then, secondarily, all University members to develop the skills necessary to engage complex problems with patience, depth and creativity.” 

Drake’s Honors Program offers undergraduate and Pharmacy students discussion-based, reading- and writing-intensive courses on interdisciplinary and ever-changing topical issues.  The program provides a unique opportunity for intellectual enrichment both in and out of the classroom, and the Director is vital to creating, delivering, and sustaining those opportunities.

Job description:

Working with the faculty advisory board and the honors student council, as well as the deputy provost and other campus partner, the Director of Drake’s Honors Program will develop, initiate, and assess coursework and programming to support the Mission of Honors at Drake University.

Duties and responsibilities include:

meeting regularly with the student board and the faculty advisory board, and setting the agenda for those meetings;

serving as a supplemental advisor for all Honors students;

working with all seniors writing an honors thesis;

attending all thesis and study abroad presentations;

overseeing the May Honors Ceremony and the Senior Poster presentation;

coordinating the Honors Practicum;

staffing the Paths to Knowledge course;

soliciting honors course proposals;

developing faculty training and workshop opportunities to increase faculty

participation in the program.

The Director of the Drake University Honors Program is responsible for articulating a consistent vision for the program and utilizing the faculty and student advisory boards to achieve that vision.  They will be equity-minded, and interested in furthering racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, and disciplinary diversity among the student body earning the Honors designation.  The director serves a spokesperson for the program with campus partners, including Admissions and Advancement, and acts as an advocate for the Honors Program in all relevant university forums.  The Director is encouraged to work with the Office of Sponsored Projects to develop grant proposals that increase capacity for the program.

The director will serve a three-year appointment, beginning August 1, 2023. The Director of Drake University Honors reports to, and consults with the Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs, and has full-time dedicated administrative and budgetary support. The Deputy Provost and Honors Director will engage in an annual review each fall, with the director eligible for two terms of appointment (6 years total) at the close of which a university-wide call will be circulated; the sitting director is welcome to reapply.

 Resources for the work:

Compensation for the Director of Drake University Honors will include:

A $7,400 stipend paid annually over the course of the 12-month appointment (this stipend applies for both 12- and 9-month faculty);

Up to two funded course reassignments per academic year.

Application Process and Timeline:

The Deputy Provost will convene a hiring committee in fall 2022.  The committee will be comprised of a member of the faculty advisory board, a member of the student advisory board, a recent alumni who graduated with honors, a staff member in a unit focused on student success, and a faculty member who has taught in the honors program but is not on the advisory council.

Successful applicants will: have a record of excellent teaching, and a record of engagement with Drake University Honors program and students – through course work and/or thesis advising; demonstrate an understanding of the Mission of the Honors Program, and their role in achieving it;  articulate a vision for Honors and a plan for manifesting that vision; demonstrate commitment to interdisciplinary work; be a well-organized, innovative, and ethical leader.

Please submit a cover letter indicating interest in the position, qualifications for it, and a vision for Honors, along with a cv, to renee.cramer@drake.edu (cc:ing nicki.kimm@drake.edu) by Friday, October 14.  Please use the subject line Honors Director Application, on your email.

The hiring committee will meet to review files during the weeks of October 17 and 24, and will make a recommendation for interviews by October 30.  The committee will complete interviews by November 15 and deliver to the deputy provost an evaluation of the interviewed candidates in time for an offer to be communicated by November 18.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

I’m going to be ‘working in public,’ and hoping for impromptu conversation, in several different locations this fall. I’d love the chance to catch up with faculty colleagues I don’t often see as in my day-to-day deputy-provosting. Please come find me. Here is where I’ll be:

Thursday, Sept. 8, 1–2 p.m., Cowles Coffee Shop

Thursday, Sept. 15, 1:30–2:30 p.m., Olin, 1st floor

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1:30–3 p.m., Olmsted Starbucks

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 9–10 a.m., Cowles Reading Room

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2–3 p.m., Collier Scripps, 1st floor

Thursday, Nov. 22, 10–11:30 a.m., Olmsted Starbucks

Friday, Dec. 2, 1–2 p.m., Cartwright Atrium

And, I’ll be hosting light breakfasts (pastries from La Mie, hot tea/instant coffee) in Howard Hall’s Academic Affairs suite, on the following dates.  No agenda—just conversation about teaching, professor-ing, curriculum, and Drake:

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 8:30–9:30 a.m.

Thursday, Oct. 20, 8:30–9:30 a.m.

Friday, Nov 4, 8:30–9:30 a.m.

Friday, Dec. 2, 8:30–9:30 a.m.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost