These nine areas were identified in DU’s previous survey as areas in which we could improve. Click on each topic’s initiatives to learn about what steps DU has taken since that survey to begin to address these findings. We are committed to acting on the 2023 COACHE data to continue to improve faculty satisfaction and equity.
The DU Scores for each category indicate the average response options ranged from 1-5 where 5 is the most favorable. The categories below are organized beginning with areas of greatest growth potential.
COACHE Categories
Interdisciplinarity
DU SCORE
COACHE defines interdisciplinary as research collaboration within and between institutions and with off-campus partners.
More on Interdisciplinary Initiatives
- IRISE
- The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellows Program
- Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging
- Professional Research Opportunities for Faculty (PROF) Grant
IRISE, Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of Inequality, was founded in fall of 2017, with the mission to provide the necessary intellectual structure for students and faculty that facilitates the interdisciplinary teaching and learning, collaboration, research, scholarship, and creative works promoting equality in historically underrepresented communities, and develops, supports, and implements academic programs and activities that promote the advancement of historically underrepresented populations at DU.
New IRISE initiatives seek to make IRISE a community-centered fulcrum that amplifies campus expertise, marshals interdisciplinary campus resources, and creates meaningful pathways for DU to partner with non-DU leaders and organizations to challenge systems and structures that lead to racial and social inequities. IRISE 2.0 therefore seeks to equip our campus to partner with community agencies and historically marginalized groups and individuals in the collaborative production and application of knowledge leading to greater community inclusion. IRISE offers Internal grants of $10-20k over 2 years.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is an interdisciplinary approach to engaging in research regarding pedagogical and curricular design and implementation practices that impact student learning. The SoTL Faculty Fellows program launched in Fall 2023. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellowship at DU is a yearlong program that is hosted by the Office of Teaching and Learning. Collaborating primarily with the Director of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Faculty Learning Communities, the SoTL Faculty Fellow will engage in activities to explore advancing new ways of understanding and evaluating student learning, as well as increasing belonging and leadership capacity. Faculty participants will be guided through the process of undertaking SoTL project from start to finish, with feedback from and interactions with the other members of the cohort as well as the program director, which culminates in a public presentation of the completed SoTL project at the SoTL Research Symposium.
The Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging (KIHA), founded in 2016, is a multi-disciplinary institute on the University of Denver campus with a vision to improve the quality in life, wellness and community. The Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging (KIHA) brings together key strengths from around campus and the region to address growing needs here in Denver and throughout the nation. Designed to address complex problems in depth, the Institute builds on DU’s dedication to the public good by supporting research and scholarship on aging in a variety of disciplines. Lab scientists, social workers, psychologists, lawyers, education specialists, business faculty members, and others are routinely involved. The work of the Institute is truly collaborative work, leveraging the assets of the DU community in the discovery and design of knowledge and engagement across our campus and around the world.
The PROF fund is a collaborative enterprise between the Faculty Senate, the Faculty, and the Senior Vice Provost for Research. The organization of the program is grounded in a commitment to peer review as the strongest mechanism for assessing the merit of proposals across the diverse academic areas of the University. The goals of the fund are to support an increase in scholarly / creative activity by the faculty in a manner that strategically enhances the reputation of the University, and that supports increased external funding for research, scholarship and creative work. Applications from single investigators for up to $27,000 are welcomed. To support DU Impact 2025 and the university commitment to developing knowledge bridges, multidisciplinary applications from two or more eligible investigators from different departments and different disciplinary backgrounds can request up to $45,000.
Service
DU SCORE
COACHE defines service as committee work (across department, division, and university) and student advising.
More on Service Initiatives
This committee was created in Fall 2020 by Faculty Senate and was charged with strengthening equity outcomes within and across departments and units by bringing greater clarity and transparency to three-interrelated areas: (1) faculty responsibilities and expectations, (2) the decision-making processes by which department and unit heads assign faculty responsibilities and set faculty expectations, and (3) the standards by which faculty responsibilities and expectations are measured, assessed, and rewarded. Access the report of the 2021-2022 committee on the VPFA website.
Department Equity Action Planning (DEAPs) teams are a research-based approach to improving workload equity and faculty satisfaction through a collaborative, department or academic unit-based approach. DEAP cohorts participate in training on workload equity and implicit bias, create a department dashboard to catalyze conversations about workload, create and revise a department equity action plan. publicly present their work to the DU community, including academic unit stakeholders. Learn more and apply on the VPFA website.
The VPFA has brought in a range of speakers to help faculty and evaluators better represent their DEI work in their review, tenure, and/or promotion files. These include:
“Webinar for Faculty: Representing your DEI work for tenure and promotion,” “Kim Case (Virginia Commonwealth University), June 6, 2022.
“Identifying and Responding to Bias in Promotion and Tenure Decisions Workshop,” EAB, 10/6/22
Valuing DEI/Inclusive Teaching in Promotion and Tenure,” Kim Case (Virginia Commonwealth University), November 4, 2022.
Collaboration
DU SCORE
COACHE defines collaboration as faculty working together with students, peers, administrators, or other colleagues inside and outside of the institution, and with the broader community through service or outreach programs.
More on Collaboration Initiatives
In the summer of 2019, the Faculty Senate and the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs hosted a summer symposium. Thirty-four faculty from across campus came together for two days to engage in collective problem solving around an issue of shared concern: Creating collaborative department cultures and chairs. This was a new kind of opportunity for faculty, one that brought together colleagues from across disciplines and ranks to discuss big ideas, possibilities, and opportunities. We gathered together with a shared purpose: Improving the lives of faculty members in their department. We know that being within a truly fair and fundamentally just collaborative department culture and climate is among most important interventions for the quality of faculty life. That quality of life is what predicts affective commitment to institutional goals and challenges that require innovations across boundaries and disciplines. The presence of open, fair, and transparent departmental deliberation and decision processes and a departmental leader who sees it as their primary responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the process is a necessary condition of a collaborative climate. Such a climate both requires and generates faculty commitment, belonging, and results in greater professional success and satisfaction. Following the initial summer symposium, six teams formed to implement the ideas generated by faculty. Their work continues to shape faculty life at DU in six areas: Our local and global communities face complex, urgent, and persistent challenges. DU Grand Challenges is a family of programs that bring together university and community change-makers to address the most difficult and far-reaching issues facing our society today. DU Grand Challenges addresses three inter-related issues in our communities: improving daily living, increasing economic opportunity and advancing deliberation and action for the public good. DU Grand Challenges programming is made possible by a generous grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and facilitated by the Associate Vice Provost, Public Good Strategy & Research, and the Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning. In 2020, the VPFA created the position of Faculty Fellow of Mentoring Initiative, to help coordinate interdisciplinary collaboration around mentoring work around campus. In early 2022, Faculty Fellow of Mentoring Initiatives, Heather Martin convened 15 faculty-mentoring leaders from both tenure and teaching and professional series for an in-depth exploration of cross-identity mentoring at DU. The Community represented nice schools and colleges, and included three department chairs and five full professors. Over nine months, faculty explored mentoring approaches happening across DU and engaged mentoring approaches discussed in the literature that attend to intersections of gender, race, and identity. The Community is currently developing an institutional guide to mentoring best practices, while using a train-the-trainer approach to develop events, activities, and resources for use in departments and programs across campus.
Leadership
DU SCORE
COACHE defines leadership as the ability to shape the satisfaction of faculty members; to clearly articulate institutional mission and vision; to provide clear and consistent expectations for research, teaching, and service or outreach; support for research and teaching; and ability to communicate to faculty a sense that their work is valued.
More on Leadership Initiatives
Building on the work of DU Symposium and in partnership with the Chairs Advisory Board, we’ve begun to offer onboarding activities to support department chairs along with ongoing support in the form of peer-to-peer “solution seeking” clinic sessions. Chairs also meet regularly with their peer groups and with campus leadership to advance their issues. VPFA also established a fellow position to support chairs and they improve their department cultures, mentor and welcome new faculty, and grow as leaders. They also created a Chair Handbook to help support new chairs. Starting in 2020, the VPFA convened a bi-monthly meeting of associate deans with responsibilities in faculty affairs from every Academic unit in the institution. This group was invaluable in offering support and coordination during the pandemic and beyond. The Data Governance model is borrowed from the healthcare industry to help with transparency and constituent agency. Any survey that is done internally or externally that gathers data that affects constituents should allow for their voice in the process. There are three major components to the process, data governance, data analysis, and data communication. The process is iterative rather than linear. For example, as we prepare for our next COACHE survey, we can help to prepare our faculty for what’s coming on the survey (data communication), how this data intersects with other survey data we have and may gather (data analysis), communicate about what was operationalized after the last time (data communication), and who we anticipate disseminating the data being available to and in what format with what protections in place (data governance). This model and process doesn’t take away from operational duties but instead aids in the process for the benefit for our faculty. It increases trust, cultural buy-in, and leverages what we can do with efforts already in place.
Promotion
DU SCORE
COACHE defines promotion as the movement from associate professor to full professor, and strength of the policies that facilitate such movement (e.g., modified duties such as reduced teaching load; provision of workshops on sabbatical planning and other topics; shifting workloads to more teaching or more research, improved communication about timing for promotion, small grants to support mid-career faculty, etc.).
More on Promotion Initiatives
- Faculty Learning Communities
- Faculty Development
- Mentoring Initiatives
- Mid-Career Support
- National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity Institutional membership
Since Fall 2019, the VPFA has offered faculty learning communities (FLCs) to support sustainable progression towards promotion, including the “Teacher/Scholar” FLC for new faculty, and “Tools for Success,” a faculty learning community designed for teaching and professional faculty (TPF) in the assistant rank at the University of Denver.
In Winter 2021, the VPFA hiring a Director of Faculty Development and Career Advancement to help support faculty as they move through the lifecycle at DU. Along with 1-1 consultations and ongoing programming, they support VPFA faculty fellows and strategic work. VPFA professional development opportunities have recently included workshops on time management, work-life balance, burnout and thriving, project management, and strategic planning for academics. There are also regular panels on the “pathway to promotion” for TPF, and reaching Full Professor.
Across campus there has been increased attention to the importance of mentoring. This includes the established of a faculty fellow for mentoring initiatives through the VPFA, which has hosted a community of practice of mentoring leaders since Spring 2022. Mentoring is also a focal point of the DU-MERISTEM NSF implementation grant, and the 2023-2023 Community of Practice led by the Faculty Fellow for mentoring initaitives.
- The VPFA continues to expand its support for mid-career faculty. Building on two successful NCFDD events:
- Planning for Success: Prioritizing Your Research and Creating an Action Plan
- Post Promotion Pathfinders, December 2, 2021 https://duvpfa.du.edu/2021/10/mid-career-faculty-announcing-half-day-workshop-on-finding-your-way-at-the-associate-level/
We are launching a program for TPF mid-career in 2022-2023, and will launch one for TT in 2023-2024. We also offered a year long series of workshops on “Faculty Flourishing.”
In September 2019, with Impact 2025 funding, DU began a National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity Institutional membership which offers all faculty individual memberships. These asynchronous resources offer faculty training in navigating intentional career lifecycle decisions, balancing productivity, and thriving, and succeeding in promotion, tenure, and reappointment.
Department Collegiality
DU SCORE
COACHE defines collegiality as a faculty member’s cognizance of their sense of “fit” among their colleagues, their personal interactions with colleagues, whether their colleagues “pitch in” when needed, and colleague support for work/life balance.
More on Department Collegiality Initiatives
- Deliberative Decision Making (Hiring and Department Deliberations)
- Program Redesign Institute
- Faculty Learning Communities
- Professional Development
Deliberative Decision Making (DDM) is an approach to deliberation designed to promote best practices for process quality and authenticity in decision making and introduce strategies for running meetings to increase participation and equity for all participants. This approach grew out of the 2019 DU Creating Collaborative Department Cultures and Chairs Symposium.
DDM can be used in any department meeting, especially where informal interactional norms are a concern or priority. That said, it is particularly impactful in common discussion points and even contested or challenging department decisions such as:
Curricular, Policy, or Bylaw Revisions, hiring, Promotion & Tenure, and Reappointment Deliberations. “Improving Promotion and Tenure Reviews by Using a Deliberative Decision-Making Model” Virtual Training available via Academic Impressions.
The OTL piloted the Program Re-Design Institute during the 2019-20 academic year. Led collaboratively by the Director of Academic Assessment and the Director of Faculty Learning Communities, the pilot aimed to embed program assessment throughout the process of curricular renewal. Too often, assessment is treated as an after-thought to meet compliance guidelines. Alternatively, assessment that informs and supports curricular decisions can grow into an essential tool for faculty.
Adapted from Texas A&M’s Program [Re]Design model, the OTL piloted the Program Re-Design Institute in resonance with important milestones in the journey of curricular assessment and evaluation:
DU faculty who participated in the pilot began developing a strategic plan for redesigning curricula and identifying solutions for the common challenges of program assessment. Additionally, the pilot began creating connections between previously siloed processes and stakeholders:
Academic program guidelines (Office of the Registrar)
Program assessment (OTL)
Curricular re-design (individual departments).
Designed to support faculty as they navigate DU, learning communities are informal cross-disciplinary groups, facilitated and run by faculty members, that meet regularly to explore teaching topics in depth. Participants in FLCs learn from each other, investigate and assess teaching methods within a supportive cohort and reflect and become more purposeful about their current practice. Both the “Teacher Scholar” FLC for new faculty and the “Tools for Success” FLC for assistant level TPF faculty are explicitly designed to build collegial department environments as well as provide support for faculty who experiencing that sort of space.
In response to this question, we’ve offered intentional opportunities to grow as department colleagues, including:
- “A Workshop for Department Chairs: ProductivelyResolving Conflict.,” March 5th, 2021
- “Instilling Equity and Inclusion in Departmental Practices,” April 2021
- Meeting Wise ()
DU Identified Areas for Improvement
Beyond the six main COACHE categories, DU has identified three key areas for improvement following the 2019 survey. These areas include compensation, teaching, and research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Most Common Themes
Compensation
%
Of Faculty
In 2019, 28% of DU Faculty reported that compensation is one of the worst aspect of working at DU.
More on Compensation Initiatives
The University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) was established in 2021 to support the strategic allocation of funds in alignment with university strategic goals through a shared governance process. A pay equity committee was formed in 2019, and working with a consulting firm, analyzed internal pay equity. Steps to address their recommendations were put in place in Fall 2023. The methodology sub-committee was led by Markus Schneider, Associate Professor of Economics and Lisa Martinez, Professor of Sociology. We now have a model developed from this process to run each fall. Link to Chancellor Haefner & Provost Clark’s letter on the Pay Equity Committee Although there is room to grow, DU is committed to supporting TPF. During the COVID pandemic, all financial supports and clock extensions available to tenure track faculty were also applicable to TPF (https://duvpfa.du.edu/2022/05/one-year-covid-extension-amendment-provosts-letter/one-year-extension-amendment-3-18-202221/) . In addition, in Summer 2022, we raised the minimum salary for full-time appointed, multi-year contract faculty to increase fairness
Teaching
%
Of Faculty
In 2019, 13% of DU Faculty reported that teaching load is one of the worst aspects of working at DU.
More on Teaching Initiatives
The Teaching Excellence Task Force was convened in 2020, following many years of efforts, to improve course evaluation and teaching reviews for the purpose of annual reviews, promotion, and reappointment. The multi-year task force has engaged in self-study and convened working groups, as well as engaged stakeholders including the Academic Deans. This project supports the work of the Teaching Excellence Task Force and guides departments through a change process known as “Department Action Teams” (DATs). Participating departments/programs will determine ways to apply the Teaching Quality Framework and ensure three voices (self, student, peer) are reflected in teaching evaluation for annual and consequential review. The first three DATs completed their work and presented their projects in Fall 2022. The Adjunct Teaching Excellence Certificate Program (ATEC) this program provides a pathway for DU’s adjunct faculty to demonstrate their teaching skills, develop and reflect on their practice, and earn a certification of their teaching excellence. This expands DUs commitment to investing in the professional development of our adjunct series faculty who play a significant role in the student experience and in the classroom. Adjunct Faculty complete a series of curated professional development opportunities offered by the Office of Teaching and Learning, including asynchronous opportunities and activities tailored for part-time instructors. And earn a stipend upon completion. ($250). Over 60 fall have begun this program in Fall 2022. In 2020 several initiatives recommended by the Fall Logistics Task Force were centrally funded to support COVID-related challenges to teaching and learning. Recommendations were drawn from committee representatives and faculty/student surveys summarized in this report by the OTL. Initiatives represented three broad categories, 1) investments in personnel and training to build capacity, 2) direct in-class and classroom support, and 3) grants and stipends. The OTL was the beneficiary of $630,000 which provided for a centralized instructional design team, stipends for faculty participating in courses and institutes related to hyflex, online, and hybrid teaching, and honoraria for faculty who delivered specialized programming related to pandemic-era teaching pain points. Another $46,000 funded the Peer Teaching and Mentoring program which was overseen by the OTL in partnership with a faculty leader. The OTL also partnered with IT to train the students who were hired as part of the classroom assistants program ($216,000 allocated to deans for hourly pay). This program sought to provide in-class support for faculty teaching hyflex courses in fall 2020. For a full summary of this investment, see the VPFA Investing in Faculty site. See the OTL 2020 annual report (pgs 24-26) for a description of the OTL-led programs and impact. See the OTL 20-21 annual report (pg 23) for a summary of the classroom assistants program and impact.
Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activity
%
Of Faculty
In 2019, 14% of Faculty identified clarity and consistency of expectations and provision of resources and support for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity as areas in which DU needed to improve.
More on Research, Scholarship, & Creative Activity Initiatives
The ORSP offers the yearly “research breakfast” to help new faculty navigate DU’s systems and opportunities for internal and external funding. The New Faculty “Teacher Scholar” Learning Community also explores ways to prioritize research, scholarship, and creative work, while maintaining well-being. Web resources complement these and other offerings to help faculty grow in their scholarly endeavors. In 2020, the VPFA and Writing Programs collaborated to launch the Writing Accountability Group (WAG) program, which enable faculty to cultivate sustainable writing habits and meaningful, achievable goals without sacrificing teaching, relationships with colleagues, or self-care. Unlike a disciplinary writing group which might share or review content, the interdisciplinary WAG emphasizes mutual encouragement to meet goals and the embedding of scholarly work in daily practice. WAG members—who might be early-, mid-, or advanced-career faculty–enjoy access to NCFDD media resources, daily writing tools, and discussion of topics from project management to mentorship. WAG members commit to writing daily and to meeting for an hour and a half each week to share their progress (and setbacks!) Over 20 distinct WAGs have happened since the program started, with more than 100 faculty participating in this program or the accompanying “write in place” sessions. These “write in place” are opportunities to co-write alongside colleagues. In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research Pre-Award Unit In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research PI Support In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research Post-Doc Support In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research Applicant Fee Waiver In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research PROF Funding In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research Facilities In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research GRA Stipends In FY 22, DU was one of only nine universities recognized as a new Doctoral/Very High Research Technology
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Creation of a pre-award unit serving faculty for prospecting, proposal preparation, and training of new PIs and division grant managers. Staffing for multi-disciplinary large proposal writing and coordination also included.
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Expanded support for principal investigators to focus on their research by streamlining the accounting and management of awards.
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Expanded fee waiver for graduate applicants
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Increased PROF funds from $20k per award to $27k per award -- total increase in PROF award funding to $625k
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
$150k investment in research facilities and space to support research growth.
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Increased grant-funded GRA stipends 6%, mirroring GTA/GSA increase.
university (or “R1”) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining
the ranks of 137 universities currently recognized as engaging in highest research activity.
To continue to support our teacher-scholars across the university, DU announced the
following new multi-year investments in research.
Technology improvements: $65k