Priorities and Initiatives
Clemson University's Faculty Affairs is committed to fostering a collaborative and supportive environment for academic professionals through a variety of priorities and initiatives. The team within Faculty Affairs works in partnership with dedicated individuals from campus units, offices, and external organizations to sponsor and co-sponsor activities like those listed below. The Faculty Affairs Annual Report provides further details on these efforts. Key initiatives for 2024-2026 include the Strategic Compensation Task Force and the Faculty Review Alignment Task Force; focused support for faculty success through councils and committees; and academic leader development programs.
Atlantic Coast Conference - Academic Leaders Network
The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Academic Leadership Network (ACC-ALN), sponsored by the ACC’s Academic Consortium, aims to enhance cross-institutional networking and collaboration among academic leaders while building leadership capacity. The program supplements existing campus initiatives by offering unique learning opportunities that no single university can provide alone. Up to five administrative faculty members participate in this premier professional development program each year.
Organization of Academic Department Chairs (OADC)
The Organization of Academic Department Chairs (OADC) has been in existence for over 10 years and continues to be a critical link between senior leaders, implementation and adjustment of processes and operations supporting institution-level priorities, and collective navigation of opportunities and challenges. OADC focuses on matters and processes supporting academic department chairs, school directors, and division chairs as they perform their leadership responsibilities and aspirations to enrich the experiences and opportunities of their academic units close to practice and grow as individual academic leaders. OADC is also an important conduit for implementing policies from Faculty Senate, best practices in reviews, finances and budgeting, changes in undergraduate and graduate learning experiences and support, and research…among many other key responsibilities across academic affairs that help our academic units thrive close to practice.
Regular meetings on strategic timely topics: The OADC meets regularly at least once a month. The agendas of these meetings are designed and coordinated by Faculty Affairs with input from and in collaboration with department chairs, school directors, division chairs, associate deans, deans, associate provosts, academic associate/assistant vice presidents, faculty senate, and non-academic affairs partners across the university. The meetings are run by a rotating ‘Chair of Chairs' that rotates among colleges every year. The ‘Chair of Chairs' is an important partner in designing the agendas and other content of OADC meetings.
Annual OADC Academic Leaders Retreat on University Strategic Priorities: Centering on the academic department ‘locus of authority', the OADC hosts an annual retreat that includes college and career stage gathering time and presentations with deep-dive overviews on the strategic priorities from leaders across the university. The major goal of this retreat is to be able to tie all operations and timely topics, implementations, and decision-making points throughout the academic year back to the higher-level goals set as strategic priorities. Another goal is to help all leaders that support the department ‘locus of authority' contribute and learn together how to best facilitate the operations and priority-setting of the college and departments for the academic year. As such, all academic leaders are warmly invited and are engaged participants in this retreat.
Regular OADC workshops: Faculty Affairs assembles the OADC and partners as relevant for other annual workshops, including a Fall TPR Mini Workshop with all colleges together on implementation of faculty review workflows and a Spring TPR Roadshow, a college-by-college meeting connecting most recent and new faculty review leaders to holistically discuss faculty reviews, including priorities and revisions based on changes in the Faculty Manual.
Clemson Chair Academy
The Clemson Chair Academy is a leadership development community aimed at enhancing leadership awareness for department chairs at any career stage. Sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Academy offers programs and activities led by institutional and external partners to promote leadership growth and academic excellence. The New Chair Onboarding program, a nine-month initiative, focuses on foundational topics and inter-college collaborations to prepare new department chairs for their roles.
Task Forces and Commissions
Alignment of Faculty Reviews (AFR) Task Force
Effective faculty reviews are essential to maintaining a high standard of teaching, research and service at Clemson University. These evaluations provide meaningful feedback that supports professional growth, recognizes achievement and ensures accountability. When conducted thoughtfully and fairly, faculty reviews foster a culture of continuous improvement, align individual goals with institutional missions and help identify opportunities for development and support. The Faculty Affairs "Alignment of Faculty Reviews" Task Force is charged with making recommendations for a robust and efficient review process that contributes to faculty satisfaction and the overall success of the institution.
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AFR Task Force Charge
Phase 1
Examine calendars, materials and rubrics for the various Clemson University faculty reviews to identify opportunities for reducing redundancies and workloads, increasing consistency across reviews, and improving faculty mentoring and support.
Anticipated Deliverables: Report, presentation to Senior Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs that includes proposed outlines/scenarios for the following review processes and decisions: 1) annual reviews, 2) merit reviews, 3) reappointment reviews and 4) promotion and tenure reviews
Phase 2
Review the Phase 1 Report and perform gap analysis (consulting with stakeholder groups as needed)
Phase 3
TBD
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AFR Task Force Members
Phase 1 Members
- Dina Battisto (Architecture, Art and Construction)
- Michelle Cook (Education)
- Brian Dean (Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences)
- Lauren Duffy (Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences)
- Carlos Garcia (Science)
- Erin Goss (Arts and Humanities)
- Anne Grant (Libraries)
- Tania Houjeiry (Science)
- Elysse Newman (Architecture, Art and Construction)
- Danny Weathers (Business, Task Force Chair)
- Josh Barnes (Office of Institutional Excellence)
Phase 2 Members
- TBD
Phase 3 Members
- TBD
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AFR Task Force Timeline
Phase 1
- Dates: October 2024 – March 1, 2025
- Task Force deliberates, meets, submits a report and provides a presentation.
Phase 2
- Dates: Approximately March 15, 2025 – August 15, 2025
- The report is reviewed by Faculty Affairs and content and process stakeholders.
- April 2, 2025, Meeting of selected college/unit administrators for input.
Phase 3
- Dates: Anticipating to be August 15, 2025 – December 31, 2025
Reporting and Recognizing Faculty Service Task Force
The "Reporting and Recognizing Faculty Service" Task Force is charged with providing academic units with strategies and tools to better define, measure, evaluate and recognize the service component of the faculty workload.
Councils and Committees
Faculty Affairs Systems Advisory Council
Launching May 2025
This Council provides input and feedback to Faculty Systems Administrators to improve faculty activity reporting, student opinion of instruction systems, and certain aspects of personnel actions involving faculty.
Faculty Affairs Advisory Council
Launching soon
Programs and Projects
Selected Faculty Affairs programming and projects are listed below.
TPR Education and Support
(Roadshow and Admin Meeting)
Programming that provides information and gathers feedback and input related to certain aspects of the Tenure, Promotion, and Reappointment Process. Information regarding these events is made available through internal communication systems. Inquiries can be directed to facultyaffairs@clemson.edu
Educational Sessions with College Liaisons to Faculty Affairs
Programming that provides dean-appointed liaisons with opportunities to ask questions and discuss timely topics.
Sabbaticals
A program that provides an opportunity for Clemson University faculty to continue their professional growth and development. Learn more about the available Sabbatical resources.
Family Support and Accommodation Plan (FSAP)
A program designed to allow faculty members to request a modification of work duties for a specific time period. Read additional details about the Family Support and Accommodation Plan.
