LEARNING COMMUNITY
Student Services College students over the next decade will continue to reflect greater variation in the quality of their academic preparation. Thus, it is likely that more students will find special challenges in meeting the demands of the college experience. We will need to provide a wide range of support services to assist all students with academic planning and class work and their personal growth, and help them navigate the financial challenges of being a student. Recommendation: The university should strengthen academic planning and learning resources for all students, as well as student services that are increasingly effective, efficient and easily accessible.
Faculty leadership Where faculty engagement in the university’s life and its structures of governance is nourished and honored, the university is strengthened in both its mission and its leadership. Indeed, it should be abundantly clear to newly hired faculty that their entrance into the professorate at this university is distinguished by the responsibility to serve students, faculty colleagues and the institution – not one or two, but all three. Recommendation: The university should strengthen faculty culture and shared governance through development programs which introduce new faculty, chairs and deans to the history and processes of faculty governance and to the culture of faculty life at the university.
Faculty professional Development As a university that focuses on the powerful relationship between professors and students, PLU gives pride of place to the art and skill of teaching. The fabric of the academic culture is strengthened and a genuine love of teaching is fostered when faculty are supported in this essential relationship with students and when the university assesses the quality of teaching with the aim of continued improvement. Indeed, where the relationship between professor and students is honored and sustained through programmatic attention to this central dimension of faculty life, the university’s life and its capacity to draw high-achieving students and retain excellent teachers is increased. Recommendation: The university should further develop the organization, promotion and assessment of workshops, seminars,
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