January 17, 2024 - Forward Momentum

Dear Colleagues,

I am excited to welcome our students back and begin the Spring Semester! This semester, we continue our focus on student retention as our top priority. You will see that there are exciting professional development opportunities for faculty, beginning with the first cohort of the Associate to Full Professor Mentor Program. We will continue to share additional opportunities for faculty as they become available.

Remember that participation rosters for full spring term courses are due this Friday. Submitting participation rosters is a requirement for Title IV funding. Thank you for all you do for our students and community.

Associate to Full Professor Mentoring Program

The Provost’s Office is offering an opportunity for faculty to join the inaugural Associate to Full Professor Mentoring Program. The program is designed to help prepare associate professors for promotion to the rank of full professor.

Participation in the Associate to Full Professor Mentoring Program is open to all associate professors interested in going up for promotion in the fall of 2024 or fall of 2025. Participation is limited to 15 faculty members, and preference will be given to those applicants who have been at the rank of associate professor for five or more years.

Faculty members in the program will receive guidance to develop goals and a timeline for promotion, understand department and college promotion procedures, and construct a promotion dossier. Participants will have the opportunity to select additional topics based on their interests. Selected faculty members will participate in quarterly meetings to discuss the process of promotion and how to overcome barriers to promotion. They will also meet monthly with an assigned mentor based on the faculty member and mentor’s schedules.

The 2024 program will run from February to October. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2024.

To apply or for more information, contact Daniel Warshawsky, Provost’s Faculty Fellow.

Faculty Intervention Dates at a Glance

*X Term — coincides with the last day for a 100% refund; look up dates

• Participation Rosters — Participation rosters are due on January 19 for full-term courses. Submission of the participation roster is required for Title IV compliance. Learn more.
   
• Progress Reports and Early Alerts — In Week 4 of the semester, you will receive only one progress report email providing a link to your class roster to issue alerts for your students who are experiencing attendance, performance (grades), technology barriers, and/or other concerns in your course.
  
  You can also issue “anytime alerts” outside of the progress reports schedule by logging into Navigate (formerly known as RAPS). Navigate is accessible through WINGS in the right-hand tab under Faculty and Advisor. When you log in, you will see a full roster of your classes and can raise an alert on individual students at any time. Learn more.
   
• Midterm Grades — Faculty may begin reporting midterm grades on Monday of the sixth week of the Spring Semester and are due by noon on the Wednesday of the eighth week of the semester. The exact dates may be found on the Academic Calendar. This allows a two-week reporting window for instructors.
  
  For additional information, please check out the Orientation and Success Programs’ faculty resource page for FAQs.

Events

The College of Graduate Programs and Honors Studies will host several events during the semester. Additional information about these events will be communicated as the dates near.

• Three Minute Thesis/Dissertation Competition: Encourage your graduate students to submit their applications by January 20.
   
• Graduate Programs Open House: February 8, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., in the Student Union’s Apollo Room.

When a Student Needs Support

Wright.edu/help is a great resource for helping students or making referrals. This site contains contact information for emergency or essential departments that can assist your students all in one location.

Have a wonderful week!

Amy Thompson, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs