UCDALI News
University of Colorado Denver Association of Lecturers and Instructors
If you are a CU Denver Lecturer, Instructor, or Clinical Teaching Faculty, then you are one of us!
For more information click here: UCDALI Webpage
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"What is UCDALI doing for you?"
October 17th, 11:00 -2:00
The Discovery Wall in the Auraria Library
Come and join us for lunch and a great discussion on how we are addressing the needs of all Lecturers, Instructors, Sr. Instructors, and CTT Faculty on our campus.
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"Lecturers Point of Contact Lunch"
September 26th, 11:300 - 1:30
Chancellor's Conf. Room, LSC
In an effort to increase communication with the lecturers on our campus, we have set up the lecturers point of contact group. This group is made up of individuals who are in regular direct communication with lecturers. We will be holding a lunch to discuss our strategic plan for the upcoming year. For more information please email Lee Potter at Lee.potter@ucdenver.edu
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A Message from the UCDALI President
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Hello Instructional Faculty Colleagues,
So many times I have heard, “UC-What? UCDALI? What is that, and does it have anything to do with melting clocks?” It’s a fair question, since the name of our association doesn’t inform you, on its own, of who we are or what we do. To tell people that it stands for the “University of Colorado Denver Association of Lecturers and Instructors” helps, but it still doesn’t communicate our core Values, Mission, or Vision. You still might not know what UCDALI does, or how hard it is working on your behalf.
As a kick-off to this academic year, and to my third year as the Association’s president, all of the Executive Committee members took part in a retreat before the semester started to revisit and redefine our core identity and purpose. We took a moment to step back from the many issues and projects we are attending to, and we reflected on our
- Values -Who have we been, and who are we today?
- Mission - Why do we exist, and what are the main purposes and goals of the Association?
- Vision –What are the main tasks we have to complete to achieve that mission?
In answer to #1, UCDALI is you. If you are a Lecturer, Instructor, Senior Instructor, or Clinical Teaching Track Professor of any rank, you are automatically a member of UCDALI. Together, we make up approximately two-thirds of the teaching force on our campus. On behalf of all of UCDALI, an Executive Committee meets many times throughout the year to highlight and address the unique needs of our community. This core group is made up of actively engaged, well-connected, and knowledgeable Instructional Faculty (along with some tenured faculty) from across our campus.
This leads us to #2. Our main purpose is to provide a voice for all of us. In serving you, UCDALI has three main goals: to provide and ensure representation, advancement, and community. Our members are dedicated to active participation in shared governance, and several amongst us serve on College, Campus, and System-wide committees tasked with representing the interests of all faculty. We have several ongoing projects that push for the professionalization of Instruction/Teaching, including a Lecturers’ Ad Hoc Committee proposing positive change for our part-time adjunct members, along with proposals for increased access to professional development supports tailored to our distinct needs and constraints. Finally, we believe that we, as Instructional Faculty, are the heart of our university community, and, as UCDALI, we are a welcoming, inclusive, supportive community of professionals building relationships between ourselves, our colleagues throughout the University, and our students.
Finally, UCDALI’s main function in service of its mission continues as it has for over two decades. We work with stakeholders and administrators to negotiate positive change in collaborative, constructive, impactful ways. We work as necessary and equal partners to advance the role of all CU Faculty, and CU Denver Instructional Faculty in particular, in matters of administrative and governing policy.
The prominent visibility and respected voice of UCDALI is automatically yours. We are eager to connect with you so that we can share our wealth of knowledge with you and represent your own thoughts and attitudes and experiences in all discussions. You can connect with us in whatever manner works into your busy schedules. We have this, the Newsletter, with its informative content that will be delivered to your Inbox once every semester. We have the Bridge Network, which will keep you more directly informed of our meetings, proceedings, and events, if you choose to join it. You can even act as a Bridge Network Liaison to more actively represent AND inform your own school or college. Finally, our UCDALI website is continuing to evolve and will provide more information about us and links to relevant information.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about UCDALI. Please note that our Fall lunch event is on October 17th, at the Auraria Library’s Discovery Wall, from 11:00 – 2:00. There, we will fill you in on upcoming grant opportunities, and the important current issues, proposals, and policy changes that affect you as a CU Denver Instructional Faculty member. Come have lunch, and visit with your colleagues. We would love to see you, even if just for a moment.
Sincerely,
Vivian Shyu
President of UCDALI
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Faculty Featurette: Naomi Wahls
This month we had the privilege of interviewing Naomi Wahls who is a Lecturer for First Year Seminar for the Bachelor of International Studies.
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You have a wide range in both your education & professional interests. Tell us how your background in international studies, learning technologies & Spanish work together in your First Year Seminar course.
I really enjoyed the BA International Studies, Spanish Masters, and MA - Information and Learning Technologies (ILT) programs here at UCD, which included several short study abroad programs and lead me to propose the new First Year Seminar course: Global Competence through Intercultural Learning with a three-week virtual exchange. During the first week, students introduce themselves to each other and small groups are formed. The following two weeks the students work in their new small group with peers across the globe. In one activity, the students will create a video tour of a place in their own city and then share it with their small group. Because of my interest in online education and the MA-ILT program, I initiated a few virtual exchanges here in Colorado, and this semester, the students will be meeting their peers in Japan, Peru, Mexico, Budapest, and the Netherlands.
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You are currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Intercultural Collaborative Open Learning through the Open Universiteit, Netherlands. What led you to choose their program?
I was unaware of the program until I met a group of scholars at a conference who are from Leiden University in the Netherlands and talked about the two Dutch Ph.D. models: unpaid external Ph.D. candidacy and paid positions based in the Netherlands where applicants apply to become a Ph.D. candidate. Their open educational practices amazed me. The program cost was similar to a program with a stipend or scholarship. Additionally the independent external Ph.D. program focuses on research studies and academic writing, which is attractive to me. For more information about external Ph.D. candidacy, see the Open Universiteit Ph.D. opportunities page.
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Instructional Faculty in Research and News
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Instructional Faculty in the Research
"Shared governance among the new majority: Non-tenure track faculty eligibility for election to university faculty senates."
Jones, W. A., Hutchens, N. H., Hulbert, A., Lewis, W. D., & Brown, D. M. (2017).
Innovative Higher Education, 42(5-6), 505-519
"Non-tenure track faculty members (NTTF) constitute what has been referred to by scholars as the new faculty majority. The growing numbers of NTTF have led to debates about the role they should play in shared governance. Currently, however, an overall lack of empirical knowledge exists regarding the status of their involvement in institutional governance. Using data from highest research activity doctoral universities, this study investigated current standards related to NTTF eligibility for election to institution-wide faculty senates. We also explored what these faculty governance standards and criteria reveal about the status and position of NTTF within the professoriate.”
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Instructional Faculty in the News
"The Pernicious Silencing of the Adjunct Faculty"
by Eva Swindler
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 64, Issue 12, p. A29, 17 Nov 2017
“The issues of justice surrounding adjunct employment in higher education affect not only adjuncts themselves but also other contingent faculty members who are on short-term contracts with low pay and minimal long-term prospects. Any college or university that hires large numbers of faculty members to work under those conditions also changes its relationship to justice. But what is rarely discussed is how the widespread use of adjuncts also affects justice in the larger society.”
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