5.1

Faculty Development

The University of Virginia offers a variety of faculty development opportunities throughout the year.

The provost’s office provides a broad range of academic career development opportunities and programs to support faculty at all stages of their careers in research, teaching, and service; bias integrations and intervention trainings to provide faculty support on search committees, in the classroom, and in the larger University; and programs focused on academic leadership development. The provost’s office provides workshops, mentoring, and support to all faculty members, including department chairs and deans.

  • Each fall, the University holds an annual orientation for all new members of the faculty (including those with tenured, tenure-eligible, and tenure-ineligible appointments). This orientation provides an opportunity for new faculty members to learn about resources available to them as well as to learn about the history and culture of the University and what is expected of them as faculty. New faculty orientation also provides an opportunity to interact with other faculty and the broader University community.

  • The Leadership in Academic Matters (LAM) program equips and supports faculty to be effective leaders in diverse roles at the University.

  • Teaching Race at UVA is a place-based seminar that provides UVA faculty from any discipline with an understanding of the history of race at UVA and in Charlottesville, within a national context and equips faculty to effectively incorporate teaching about seminar content into their courses.

  • Leadership toward Racial Equity at UVA is a place-based seminar for leaders at UVA to learn about the history of race at UVA and in Charlottesville in relation to contemporary inequities in health, housing, policing, education, and economics and how they might lead toward racial equity in their contexts.

  • UVA Acts promotes preventative practices that foster equitable, vibrant spaces for working and learning at the University of Virginia through performance and dialogue.

  • Faculty writing retreats: Each summer, the Office of the Provost offers week-long writing retreats at Morven Farm, co-sponsored with faculty development programs of the Schools at UVA.

  • The University of Virginia has joined the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. This gives all UVA faculty, postdocs, and graduate students a free membership to the Center, with access to events, workshops, and other resources offering support for writing, research, balancing your life as a professional, and much more.

  • Search Committee and Promotion and Tenure Committee Bias Mitigation Workshops: Workshops are offered to all faculty search committee and promotion and tenure committee members, drawing on evidence-based social science research about the potential impact of gender, racial, and other forms of bias on evaluation of candidates and best practices to mitigate against these in committee practices.

  • Department Chair Events: The Provost’s Office offers regular leadership development events for chairs of departments from across the University to learn about practices regarding creating an inclusive departmental climate, leading effective departmental meeting, and evaluation of faculty.

Pan-University professional development opportunities are provided by the following offices: 

In addition to the above pan-University institutional support, promotion of faculty excellence takes many forms. School-level requirements and criteria, organizational culture, and expectations of faculty development and advancement differ by discipline. Support for practitioners is particularly heightened in professional schools. It is essential that the intricate work of promotion and support for faculty professional development takes place in individual schools or departments that offer their own programs and opportunities tailored to their faculty members. University faculty members are encouraged to contact their respective department chair and/or dean for information on opportunities for research funding, school-based professional development training, mentoring activities, release time for University service, and other faculty development activities.