Published on Oct. 28, 2022

Updated on Oct. 31, 2022

Dear Colleagues,

As of Oct 28, 2022, we have recruited 32 new faculty via MizzouForward! Learn more about your new colleagues. As we welcome these faculty to MU, we also continue to expand initiatives to support faculty who are already here and who serve our university with dedication. This newsletter summarizes the initiatives we have introduced to support faculty. While some programs have been in place for a while, we have expanded our investment in these programs and added new programs to support faculty across all disciplines and at all career stages.

Our faculty support programs focus on building community. New cohort programs offered in small, community groups include the Mid-Career Research Development Fellows, the Arts and Humanities Fellows, and the Provost Leadership Program. New to New Faculty Orientation this year was mentoring opportunities in small, interdisciplinary cohorts. Approximately 50 new faculty members opted to participate in a year-long cohort. Additionally, The Office of the Provost and the Division of Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity are working together to establish the next iteration of The Huddle, which is a program and communal space on campus to cultivate a sense of belonging for junior faculty of color. All of these programs give faculty the chance to build connections to other faculty while receiving support to meet their research, teaching, or leadership goals.

Although cohorts provide one way of getting the support faculty need, we recognize certain projects at specific stages simply require more time. For those cases, we offer course releases through the Provost Great Books Program and the Highly-Prestigious External Award Program. Both of these programs require that faculty are fairly far along in their journey to writing a book or applying for a major national award. These programs are meant to provide the extra time needed to cross the finish line.

In order to make all of these programs run, the Office of the Provost partners with offices across campus, all of whom also host a number of important programs. For instance, the Division of Research, Innovation, and Impact partners with us on some of these programs and also offers the Early Career Research Development Fellows Program and the MU CAREER Club, which focuses on obtaining NSF CAREER awards. In collaboration with our Graduate School, we also offer support to faculty as they mentor graduate students, undergraduate students, and researchers. The sixth cohort of Mentoring at Mizzou, a faculty mentoring program developed with the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research’s (CIMER) Entering Mentoring curricula, is taking place this semester. In September, CIMER trained approximately 30 Mizzou faculty, staff, and administrators. 

Read descriptions of these programs here, or click the faculty development tab on the Office of the Provost website. As always, we welcome your suggestions on ways to enhance faculty support.

I also want to share the resolution passed by the Graduate Faculty Senate, and I encourage faculty to be flexible about attendance and assignments on election day, Nov. 8, 2022. 

Latha Ramchand, PhD

Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs