The Northern Light

Orientation isn't just for students. Lucy Cuddy tables cradled around 50 attendees this year for UAA's new faculty orientation Aug. 14.

Not all the faculty were new. During the day's introductory remarks, familiar faces gazed at the podium along with fresh ones.

"If they're adjunct faculty, they don't necessarily have to do research," said Lauren Bruce, director of the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence. "Once they're on the tenure track, they have to do research, and you need to know more about the institution if you're going to be able to do your research as well as your teaching and service."

Bruce's office coordinated the new faculty orientation, along with Faculty Services manager Barbara Tullis and former interim provost Jan Gehler. Bruce said this year's orientation included some new elements. The first was the focus on servant leadership in the chancellor's and deans' speeches.

Bruce said the focus on servant leadership fits the university's ultimate goal of supporting student success.

"Leadership is not about, 'I'm in charge, you're below me,'" Bruce said. "It's about advancing whomever you're trying to serve. In this case we're trying to serve the students. And the administration's trying to make things happen for both faculty and students so things work out well in their academic careers."

Interactivity was a second new element this year. Faculty were given a forum to get acquainted after introductory remarks. And they picked through brochures splayed on booths from various university programs after lunch, rather than listening to a series of talks from each program's representatives.

"We tried to have less talking heads," said Bruce, "and tried to have more interaction."

The faculty meet-and-greet in the morning initially threatened to turn into a trainwreck of tedium, however. The 50-or-so professors were instructed to pair up and get to know their new buddies. Every single professor then stood up and told everyone else what they'd learned about their partner.

Students familiar with this exercise know it can be a monotonous one even for a small class. The new faculty meet-and-greet seemed doomed by the cumbersome number of participants. The large space compounded the problem, making it difficult to hear all but the loudest of voices from the opposite end of the room.

However, most professors soon compensated by livening up their introductions, and in the end, many faculty said the meet-and-greet was what they liked best about the orientation.

"It forced us to interact with each other more than we probably would have," said Nyree McDonald, a professor in the engineering department. McDonald begins her second year teaching at UAA this fall.

"Most Ph.D.s I know are naturally introverts," she said. "So getting them to step outside of their norms is difficult. I think the format they chose made that easier."

Inna Rivkin, a new faculty member hired on by the University in May, said she's excited for the fall semester to begin. Rivkin was born in Russia and grew up in San Jose, California. She got a Ph.D. in psychology at Berkeley and did her post-doctorate research on HIV prevention. She'll be teaching a class in the Ph.D. program in community psychology, as well as General Psychology and Research Methods in Psychology in the undergraduate program.

"I came to Alaska a year ago and fell in love with it," Rivkin said. "Then I learned about [UAA's] Ph.D. program in community psychology. The program really fits with my philosophy. I want to become more involved in community psychology."

The orientation day required for new faculty was followed by three days of optional workshops hosted by the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, meant to prepare tenure-track professors for the classroom.

"The workshops caused me to think about how I've been doing things traditionally, and ways to do that differently," said Rivkin after attending two days of workshops. "They also gave me information on things that are critical in gaining tenure, and ways to integrate the different aspects of your workload."

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