Course Goals

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Welcome to GS 650 Preparing Future
Faculty Fall 2009
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Facilitating Instructor Morris A. Grubbs,
Ph.D. The Graduate School, 103 Gillis 859.257.9725
morris.grubbs_at_uky.edu Graduate Assistant Josh
Hale (German and EPE Depts.) Graduate Assistant
in The Graduate School 859.257.1759
jlhale7_at_email.uky.edu
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Your Tour Guide?Morris A. Grubbs

• Ph.D. in English from U.K.
• Fields of Interest The short story as an
  international genre literature of the American
  South Preparing Future Faculty
• Books Home and Beyond An Anthology of Kentucky
  Short Stories (UP of Kentucky, 2001) and
  Conversations with Wendell Berry (UP of
  Mississippi, 2007)
• TA at W.K.U. (1988-90) and U.K. (1990-1996)
• Assistant Professor at Lindsey Wilson College
  (1997-2004)
• Associate Professor at Lindsey Wilson College
  (2004-2007)
• Director of Graduate Student Professional
  Development at U.K. (2007-present)
• Usually teach one undergraduate course per
  semester here at U.K.

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On the PFF tour this semester . . .

• Lindsey, Bobby Lee
• Liu, Lisa
• Metta, Haritha
• Murphy, Daniel Joseph
• Purohit, Sudhaunshu Shrikant
• Sims, Meredith Erin
• Solka, Anna Milena
• Soman, Sony
• Sreeramoju, Mahendra Kumar
• Trenkamp, Stacy Lynn
• Wasarhaley, Nesa E
• Wells, Kevin Daniel
• Yeager, Jill Elaine
• You, Yu

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GS 650 Agenda 8/31/09 Student profile/contact
info sheets Syllabus highlights PFF slides from
national PowerPoint Overview of Institutional
Types What Colleges and Universities Want in
New Faculty Faculty Life and Work Survey
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Course Goals

• GS 650 is designed to assist you in
• determining whether a Higher Education faculty
  position is a desirable personal and
  professional goal
• determining the qualities that characterize
  successful college faculty
• determining the characteristics of the various
  types of institutions of higher learning
• identifying the variety of expectations that
  prevail in the different types of institutions
  and
• developing the requisite skills for obtaining a
  faculty position at the institutional type of
  your choice.

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What GS 650 probably will not do

• Help improve your skills as a classroom teacher.
  To improve your pedagogical skills, consider
  taking GS 610 College Teaching (a one credit
  hour course usually taught by Bill Burke or David
  Sacks in fall semesters). Some departments also
  offer in-house teaching courses and workshops.

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Panel Topics

• Panels are organized by institutional type
  (Research University, State Comprehensive
  University, Independent or Private Liberal Arts
  College, and Community College) and will address
  the following
• Teaching
• Advising (and/or mentoring)
• Faculty governance and service (to dept.,
  institution, community, discipline)
• Research/Scholarship
• Promotion and tenure

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Responses to visitor/panel discussions
You will write and submit an approximately
two-page (typed, double-spaced) response to three
of our visitor/panel discussions (ones of your
choosing, at least one of which should be before
midterm). Responses are due within two weeks
following the respective visitor/panel
discussion.  Response prompts may include the
following  What did you find most interesting
about the discussion?  What did you learn that
was most surprising or that challenged your
pre-conceived notions?  Was there a central theme
or message that emerged in the discussion?  If a
panel discussion, what threads of institutional
commonality emerged?  What institutional
differencesstark and/or subtledid you notice? 
Did the discussion affirm what you learned in any
of the readings or from previous visitors? 
Did anything in the discussion help clarify your
career goals?  
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Responses to assigned readings
The course texts, The Academics Handbook and
The Academic Job Search Handbook, are meant for
you to keep and consult on your journey into and
through faculty life and work.  Because of
our schedule of visitors and panelists, we
usually will not have time to discuss the
readings in class, so you will need to rely on
your independent analysis and assessment of
them.  You will write and submit an approximately
two-page response (typed, double-spaced) to at
least one of the readings assigned for two of the
classes of your choosing.  Responses are due at
the beginning of the class period designated for
the reading. Your response should begin with
a concise overview of the major points and
proceed to describe what you found
most interesting or valuable and why.  Mainly,
your response should demonstrate a critical and
thoughtful engagement with the text.     
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Grading of Responses
Responses to visitor/panels and assigned readings
are graded on the basis of (1) on-time completion
and submission of the assignment--25 (2)
thoroughness and compliance with length
expectation--25 (3) quality and specificity of
ideas--25 and (4) strength of written
expression--25. A 10-point scale will be used
to score the five responses.
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Job Application Letter
Near the end of the course, you will write and
submit a letter of application of no more than
two pages, typed, single-spaced, to a faculty
position advertised in one of the venues
discussed in class (or a discipline-specific
venue).  Your application letter must be
accompanied by the job announcement/description.
Expectations and grading criteria will
be discussed in class. 
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Faculty shadowing report
You are required to seek and enlist a faculty
member at another institution in your discipline
or related field to serve as a PFF mentor during
our course.  The type of institution and the
location are up to you, within the bounds of your
mobility.  If you are already convinced that you
want to teach at a particular type of
institution, you may choose that type (keep in
mind, however, that if the preferred type is the
research university, you will need to consider if
it is practical for you to travel to another
research university for shadowing).  If you are
not certain and want to explore options, choose
an institution that intrigues you.  You will
arrange to spend at least one full day with
your PFF mentor and write a report (of
approximately five pages, typed, double spaced)
on your onsite observations and experiences. 
Your report, due the last week of class, may also
draw comparisons with what you have learned from
the visitors/panelists and readings.  Grading
criteria for this assignment are the same as for
the written responses.