Gathering input from faculty is Mark Potter's main focus right now as director of the Faculty Development Center. Photo by Jason Andrade

The Center for Faculty Development has a new director who has lots of ideas and plans for growing the center into the type of place that Metro State faculty will find relevant.

Mark Potter, who started Aug. 1, says that, first and foremost, he wants all faculty, including affiliates, to provide their input on what they’d like the center to become. Toward that end, he is scheduling a conference for Sept. 22-25 with a facilitator who has established faculty centers at four different institutions.

“This expert’s judgment and advice will guide us on what we want our center to be,” Potter says. “He’ll facilitate a conversation among faculty about how the center can be relevant and, ultimately, highly used.”

This focus on garnering ideas from faculty on the center’s direction is essential, according to Interim Provost Linda Curran. “I’ve already been asked who [Potter] is working for. And the answer is: the faculty,” she says. “He is already spending nearly all of his time meeting with and engaging with faculty, eliciting their ideas.”

Using his experience
In addition to speaking with faculty, Potter is giving “much thought and consideration” to how the center will devote its time and resources, using his experience as a scholar, teacher and former department chair as a benchmark. “I myself have had the experience of balancing teaching, research, advising and professional development,” says Potter, who came to Metro State after a 10-year stint at the University of Wyoming, three years as chair of the History Department.

“What Metro State has carved out is unique to Metro State, not only for teaching and learning but also for how it supports faculty in their development beyond teaching.”

Nonetheless, Potter is brimming with ideas for ways to make the center truly meaningful. In regards to teaching and learning, he’s focusing on workshops on topics such as integrating critical thinking into the classroom and how to include service learning in specific disciplines. And he sees one-on-one consultations as an opportunity for faculty to address questions and challenges in a “safe space, apart from any evaluative role.”

On the professional development side of the equation, Potter includes a policy for reassigned time, a small-grants program and grant-writing workshops among the possibilities.

“Another approach that bridges teaching and learning with faculty development is community-based research,” he says. “The center could guide faculty on how to integrate this into their courses. It can provide their students with a learning experience unlike what they attain in the classroom.”

Not lost on Potter is the role the center could play when faculty pay for performance kicks in (to read more go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/p4ppassestwv5120507.shtml).

“This is the center that can provide the resources and support for whatever changes come about because of pay for performance,” Potter says. “It can help faculty best position themselves for those new policies.”

A meet and greet and an open house
While Potter has had meetings with a number of faculty, there are still many, many more who haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet him. So Academic Affairs is hosting a meet and greet on Aug. 19, 3-4:30 p.m., in CN 301. Potter then will host an open house at the Faculty Development Center, in the Auraria Media Center, AU 14, on Sept. 9-10.