The staff of Pat Conrad's laboratory in Vet Med 3A at the University of California School, Davis of Veterinary Medicine.
Goal 6: Recruit, retain and cultivate excellent and productive faculty and staff.
The School’s education, research, service and outreach programs are dependent upon the quality and commitment of its faculty and staff. The recruitment, retention and cultivation of outstanding faculty and staff are the key to the School’s on-going success. Concerted efforts to support our current team members and recruit new faculty and staff will require resources, streamlining of processes, improved communications, and investments in educational and training to ensure our team is kept abreast of new techniques and skills.
- Recruit faculty as needed to support strategic initiatives and for succession planning.
- Provide a supportive environment to foster faculty and staff success.
Current Actions
In support of our strategic goal to recruit, retain and cultivate an excellent faculty we are investing in our current faculty members by sending them to education and leadership conferences. Through these experiences they will further develop their ability to lead program initiatives, promote multi-disciplinary interactions and meet the distinctive learning needs of veterinary students. In the summer of 2012, several faculty members will be attending programs about leadership, educational methodologies, outcomes assessment and more. For more info check out “Investing in our Future Leaders” at: https://secure.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/admin/default.cfm?page=deans_reports_updates
To kick off the strategic planning activity a leadership retreat was held in May for the Strategic Planning Implementation Team. Participants discussed leadership and communication strategies, team building, networking, and characteristics of highly functional teams. Dean Lairmore discussed the roles and responsibilities of the strategy champions and administrative liaisons and the communications and reporting expectations. An additional session was held in June for team members unable to participate in the May retreat. Additional leadership training opportunities will be developed for this group and the School’s broader leadership team members in the future.
The implementation of the School’s new curriculum has resulted in some significant changes in the traditional instructional roles and responsibilities of the faculty. These changes include the assignment of some faculty as leaders overseeing team-taught curricular blocks, and the utilization of other faculty as “facilitators” in small group learning sessions with students. In order to support our faculty (Goal 6.2) and ensure that their teaching effort is being evaluated and recorded properly, a task force has been appointed by the Executive Committee to clearly define the roles and expectations of block leaders, lecturers and facilitators. The task force has been asked to submit their final report by December 31, 2012.
Maintaining a balance between multiple work-related demands on time with personal responsibilities is a significant challenge for both faculty and staff in academic institutions. An initial effort for the SVM strategic goal 6.2 will be to develop a SVM work life balance web site. This web site will provide quick links to UCOP and UCD web sites allowing SVM employees to rapidly access information on childcare services, eldercare, leave policies and other ways to better integrate work with personal life. Additional links to external sites from other universities with unique resources will also be provided in an easy to navigate format. While this new web site is under construction, SVM employees can locate UCD resources through the following links:
Faculty Information: http://www.ucdavis.edu/faculty/index.html
Staff Information: http://www.ucdavis.edu/staff/health-and-family.html
UC Davis WorkLife: http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/worklife-wellness
