• Identify the courses the new faculty member is expected to teach.
• Provide sample syllabi and course outlines from other faculty. Provide required syllabus components.
• Discuss the potential for teaching assistants.
• Consider having the new faculty member co-teach a course with a senior faculty member.
• Discuss office hours and related departmental requirements.
• Provide links to teaching related policies.
• Share textbook and reading pack ordering resources.
• Provide links to exam schedules (faculty and staff; students).

• Encourage the new faculty member to meet with teaching assistants, if applicable.
• Assign a teaching advisor.
• Share departmental resources and support for teaching
• Provide information regarding:
  • IT services for faculty
  • ICON support
  • Instructional design
  • Instructional technology assistants
  • Digital Media Solutions
  • Learning Space Technology
  • AI policies, guidelines, and tools

• Attend the first class session of the semester to briefly and enthusiastically introduce the new faculty member to students.
• Inform the new faculty member about Center for Teaching resources and workshops and encourage participation.
• Discuss the process for annual review of teaching.

• Schedule an observation of senior colleagues in their classrooms.
• Schedule a classroom teaching observation.
• Discuss the role of the faculty member and the class within the full curriculum.
• Review effective teaching resources, including the Center for Teaching handbook and Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis.
• Discuss a formative, mid-semester evaluation of the class. The Center for Teaching offers student feedback services when appropriate.

• Inform the faculty member of the physical space and computing, lab, and other resources they can expect upon arrival; ensure that promises made during the hiring process are kept.
• Discuss expectations for research in the unit.
• Direct the new faculty member to contact the Division of Sponsored Programs (DSP) to transfer funding, if appropriate.
• Provide DSP services and contacts if the faculty member plans to apply for funding soon after arrival on campus.

• Facilitate introductions and networking within and outside of the department.
• Provide a list of research interests of departmental faculty.

• Discuss planning infrastructure for research, such as use of start-up funds.
• Clarify the level of productivity appropriate for the faculty member’s track. Note that each track has different expectations.
• Identify a research mentor within the university and encourage development of research-related relationships outside the university to support grant development and publication.
• Provide information about the book-publishing process for book disciplines.
• Share information about the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Division of Sponsored Programs.

• Identify conferences and support attendance when possible.
• Ensure departmental support commitments are carried out.
• Encourage attendance at a grant-writing workshop.
• Encourage the development of a writing plan and participation in a writing group.
• Show successful and unsuccessful grant proposals and articles, and talk about the review process.
• Involve new faculty members in group proposals to broaden research contacts and collaboration, as well as to assist them in identifying possible research extensions.

• Define service expectations, including early-career protection and the developmental arc of increased expectations post-tenure.

• Discuss strategies for handling service requests, including how to say “no” and deciding when to say “yes.”

• Introduce the new faculty member to the Faculty Senate process by attending a meeting with a senior faculty member.
• Team up with senior faculty members.
• Be aware of extra service demands placed on junior faculty and work together to set limits and avoid overburdening.

• Facilitate a real estate tour during the interview.
• Refer faculty members with partners seeking local employment to the UI Dual Career Network.
• Refer faculty members who care for children or older adults to campus resources such as UI Family Services and community resources such as schools and childcare.
• Provide links to benefit choices, payroll system, and leave policies.
• Share relocation information for communities in Greater Iowa City.
• Provide information about UI family-friendly policies, including tenure clock extension, modified duties, and domestic partner benefits.
• Share information about International Programs for international faculty members.
• Provide crisis support information for the UI 24/7 Crisis Line.

Host a home dinner party to welcome new faculty members to the community.

• Schedule an off-campus faculty retreat to welcome new faculty members, conduct departmental business, and support social connections.

• Identify senior faculty mentors who have found effective ways to have a successful academic career and a rich personal life.
• Provide information on UHR Employee Well-Being, Build a Career | Build a Life, the Employee Assistance Program, and Crisis Support.

• Refer faculty to the Iowa Faculty Onboarding site.
• Create a generic Faculty Development Plan to coordinate your role in supporting the new faculty member’s career development. This document provides ideas for sequencing your support.
• Arrange accommodations for faculty members with disabilities.
• Include departmental and campus resources in an official welcome letter, including UI Faculty Development.

• Communicate your enthusiasm for the new faculty member joining the department and show interest in their research. Refer to the “Top Ten Things New Faculty Want to Hear From Colleagues” (Sorcinelli, 2004) and make sure those themes are communicated.
• Schedule an appointment to provide an overview of the tenure and/or promotion process. Anticipate the best time of the semester for the new faculty member to receive this information.
  • Note that new faculty coming in at the associate professor rank likely need tenure and promotion information specific to their situation.

• Ensure effective mentoring for the new faculty member. This may include:
  • assignment of a formal mentor or mentors (e.g., senior departmental faculty, mentors external to the department)
  • informal support to the new faculty member to set up their own career advising network
  • resources about faculty mentoring which can be found on Office of the Provost Faculty Mentoring.
• When providing the overview of the tenure and promotion process, clearly communicate exceptions for tenure-clock extensions.

Provide examples for how to collect and maintain tenure-related documentation that is up to date and catalogued in an organized dossier. (Bensimon, et al, 2000)

• Provide new faculty members with a resource list of important campus offices, policies, and associations.
• Encourage attendance at upcoming new faculty orientation programs and support them in attending.

• Encourage attendance at collegiate and Provost Office Iowa New Faculty Orientation.
• Provide orientation to departmental meetings, committees, and decision-making processes.

• Facilitate departmental meetings in a way that supports a new faculty member’s entrance into the group. (e.g., provide background on current issues, make transparent the ways in which faculty participate in decision-making)

• Early in the first semester, take the new faculty member to lunch and informally discuss university policies and procedures, and/or other university information presented in the new faculty orientation program.
• Provide mentoring and information regarding departmentally appropriate ways to raise concerns.