Policy

A Professional Development Plan (PDP) is prepared annually by each regular faculty member, as described in the Faculty Handbook. It details how skills and professional competencies will be maintained and increased in the upcoming academic year. It also provides the basis for requests for funding of various types of faculty development activities such as travel to professional conferences, support for research equipment, and seed grants for research or curriculum development projects.

The PDP is the main instrument of understanding between the faculty member and their department, college, and university as to the faculty member’s professional activities and growth and the university’s expectations for teaching, service, and scholarship. The PDP must be tightly linked to the promotion and review criteria for reappointment with overt and specific reference to departmental criteria as well as annual teaching assignments. Each item presented in the PDP must be considered in the light of practicality and probability of success. Unsecured resources or unapproved projects must be cautiously incorporated, as failure to achieve specific items in the PDP cannot be excused because of lack of funding or inability to secure regulatory or administrative approval. It is also understood that unexpected opportunities or setbacks are part of professional development, and the annual review of the previous year’s PDP needs to take changes into account.

The Professional Development Plan should not be an onerous burden for the faculty, but should serve as a planning tool that faculty and administrators can use to work together to enhance the qualifications of each faculty member.

Both the annual Professional Development Plans and the progress reports will be made available to members of the department and submitted to the departmental and college faculty reappointment and promotion review committees as part of the faculty member’s review portfolio.

A new contract or renewal of contract letter will not be issued without a current PDP meeting at least the minimum guidelines described below.

Procedure

The Professional Development Plan is prepared in consultation with your supervising Department Chair(s). This annual plan (including a progress report) is prepared and made available in compliance with the bylaws for the faculty assembly of the college or college procedures and policies, as appropriate. At a minimum, though, the following guidelines must apply:

a. The plan (1–2 pages, unless otherwise mandated by college accreditation requirements) clearly details the teaching, scholarly, service, creative, and other activities the faculty member will use to maintain and increase their skills and professional activities in the upcoming academic year, as well as the resources necessary for achieving these goals and plans for how to acquire those resources. In that way, it provides the basis for requests for funding of various types of faculty development activities such as travel to professional conferences, support for research equipment, and seed grants for research or curriculum development projects. These Professional Development Plans will be an integral part of the reappointment procedure.

b. Evidence of consultation with the department chair is provided and confirmed by signature. The department chair will review and sign off on the plan as acceptable and sufficient or unacceptable and deficient and will forward a copy of the plan to the college dean. The department chair will also include a brief written response, which will only be made available to the faculty member and the dean.

c. Professional Development Plans and subsequent progress reports are submitted to the department chair by the end of February.

d. In the case of department chairs, Professional Development Plans should be submitted to, and evaluated by, the appropriate college dean.

Assistant and associate deans with teaching responsibilities should submit a Professional Development Plan to the chair of their home department. That plan should detail their teaching, goals (and, where relevant, their scholarly and non-administrative service goals) for the coming year and should follow the same procedure described above. The plan should represent that portion of the assistant or associate dean’s workload that is not taken up with administrative duties.