Accountability Program
Based on the highly successful faculty success program sponsored by the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), the UD Faculty Accountability Program will create supportive communities where faculty members will be challenged and celebrated in their respective journeys to become more productive scholars. These groups of no more than four professors and a coach will meet for an hour every week during the fall semester to set writing goals, report on progress, and discuss effective strategies for navigating some of the challenges of academia. All of the coaches are members of the UD faculty who have participated in the NCFDD Faculty Success Program.
Are you a faculty member who would like to build greater accountability and stay on task with your writing this semester?
If so, you may be interested in participating in a Write-on-Site group. Write-on-site is simple: you show up at the designated time and place, you settle in, and you work for whatever time period you’ve promised yourself. Participants in various write-on-sites for the last few years have reported the importance of adding this routine to their weekly schedule as well as the value of Write-on-Sites in helping guard and protect the time they dedicate to writing each day. If you would like to join a Write-on-Site, just bring your laptop or whatever writing materials you need, look for the host, sit down, and get started. You can come for as much or as little of the writing time as you choose and can come and go as you please. This is an open invitation to any faculty member who wants to set up on-campus writing time and have added personal accountability.
If you have any questions, please contact Jen Saylor.
About the Program
The UD Faculty Accountability Program is a locally-focused program that emerged out of the University of Delaware’s institutional membership in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. Sponsored through the office of the Vice Provost for Diversity, this program’s primary goals are to
- Increase awareness and use of resources available through UD’s institutional membership in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity
- Create supportive communities that enhance faculty productivity and satisfaction
- Connect faculty members who have been through the NCFDD’s signature program, its Faculty Success Program bootcamp to one another
- Build mentoring networks and pathways as faculty develop their careers here at UD
First developed and launched by Tiffany Gill in 2014 and sponsored by the Vice Provost for Diversity, the UDFAP program has served more than 50 faculty members in small accountability groups and scores more through write-on-site offerings.
Building Local Engagement and Faculty Development
The UDFAP focuses on maximizing our institutional membership in the NCFDD as a means of increasing faculty productivity, creating healthy work-life balance, and building supportive communities here on campus.
The centerpiece of this program is the UD Faculty Accountability Program Small Groups. These small groups are led by a mentor who has participated in the NCFDD Faculty Success Program bootcamp. Small group members set weekly productivity goals, track their daily efforts on these goals, and meet weekly to share strategies for maintaining focus on their goals and progress.
“In the Faculty Accountability Program I was encouraged to write for thirty minutes every day. This, in addition to weekly interaction with other faculty implementing strategic semester plans, shows me how grain by grain I can realize that loaf — my career goals in academia. The program brings out the truth in learning the way from those who have been there.”
–Adebanjo Oriade, Physics and Astronomy
An ongoing initiative coordinated through this office are Write-on-Sites. Write-on-sites are simple: people show up at the designated time and space, and everyone writes. Writing together can provide accountability, cultivate a writing community and create collective writing energy! You can come for as much or as little of the writing time as you choose and can come and go as you please. The Write-on-Site Coordinator for Fall 2016 is Jungeun Park.
“You can be surprisingly productive in 20 minutes and can keep your research/writing moving along by carving out small chunks of time for it each day. It is fun and motivating to write alongside other people, even if you’re engaged in totally unrelated endeavors.”
–Eve Buckley, History
Weekly Planning Meeting, held every Friday at 3 p.m. in the Faculty Commons, gives participants an opportunity to assess the demands of the upcoming week, schedule and prioritize writing goals, and ensure that you are meeting your highest priority tasks. To learn more about weekly plans and how this simple strategy can maximize your productivity, check out the NCFDD’s core curriculum webinar, “Aligning Your Time With Your Priorities”.
“Best resource so far: Strategic Plan + Weekly Plan!” –Steve Amendum, School of Education
What else can we do? We are also looking for ways to sponsor faculty members’ supportive engagement around writing and to identify opportunities for utilizing NCFDD resources together with other faculty. We love to hear your ideas about ways that we might offer additional opportunities to gather, support writing/research/teaching productivity and faculty success and community-building here at UD.
What Are the Benefits of UD’s Institutional Membership with NCFDD?
All UD faculty, postdocs and graduate students are eligible to register for NCFDD and utilize their free member resources. Through UD’s NCFDD Institutional Membership, a wide array of resources are available, completely free of charge, to you! Faculty who have participated in NCFDD programs and engaged with the resources on its site have reported a wide range of benefits. Consider checking out the following by exploring the NCFDD’s website:
- The Weekly Monday Motivator
- Monthly core curriculum webinars
- Monthly guest expert webinars
- Access to Multi-Week Courses
- Video recordings of webinars so members can learn at their convenience
- Private Discussion Forum for peer-mentoring & problem-solving
- Monthly accountability buddy match
- Moderated monthly writing challenges
- Access to the Career Center where members can post and search job listings
- Access to the Member Library, which includes past webinar materials, referrals, and readings
Opportunities to participate in new classes or workshops occur throughout the year and past sessions are archived on the site. NCFDD offers two virtual writing “boot camps” three times a year. The 15-week Faculty Success Program is intended for faculty members and the 12-week Dissertation Success Program is intended for doctoral students. UD regularly funds a limited number of fellowships for people to participate in these programs; in the last five years almost 70 UD faculty have gone through the NCFDD bootcamp. Invitations to apply for funding are announced through the Vice Provost for Diversity’s office. If you have questions or would like more information, contact the Vice Provost for Diversity at vpd@udel.edu.
Are you a faculty member, postdoc, or graduate student at UD?
Follow these instructions if you are a faculty member, postdoc, or graduate student at UD, to access NCFDD resources—all free of charge as part of our institutional membership.
