Prof. Cara Cunningham Warren, Chair
Prof. Margaret Costello
Prof. Jelani Jefferson Exum
Prof. Jacqueline Hand (Winter)
Assoc. Dean Richard Broughton, ex officio
Professional Development Committee
The Professional Development Committee facilitates the professional success of faculty members by creating an environment that encourages scholarship expressed in publication and in presentations both within the law school and nationally and assist faculty members in improving their teaching skills. The Committee also investigates how institutional racism impacts our faculty and identifies steps to eradicate the impact.
For 2020-21 the Committee will:
1. Investigate how institutional racism impacts our faculty and identify steps to eradicate the impact.
2. Work with Associate Dean Broughton to present workshops on teaching.
3. Oversee adjunct faculty, in coordination with Dean Broughton, including including arranging classroom visits by full-time faculty and considering the creation of a mentoring program..
4. Work with the Diversity and Orientation Committees to ensure the law school holds yearly education sessions on diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency for faculty, administrators, and staff.
5. Make recommendations to the Dean on applications for sabbaticals under the law school’s Sabbatical Leave Policy.
6. Ensure that the Mentorship Policy requirements are met for assignment of individual mentors and engagement in collective mentorship opportunities.
7. Consider and recommend to the faculty whether to make summer grants presumptive for those who are pre-tenure.
8. Consider and recommend to the faculty whether faculty should be able to get reimbursed, as part of travel expenses, for childcare and adult care expenses incurred while attending an academic conference, workshop, retreat, or continuing education. The UDMPU (University/McNichols Faculty contract) permits this:
Per section 11.6 of the UDMPU agreement, the [Faculty Research and Professional Development] funds can be used for the following purposes, including but not limited to:
(a) travel costs and registration fees for academic conferences, workshops, retreats, and continuing education;
(b) membership in professional organizations;
(c) assistance with fees for appropriate trade or academic publishing in which financial subsidy is required as a condition for the publication of the results of the employee's scholarly research;
(d) relevant scholarly publications;
(e) fees to gain access to scholarly publications, such as inter-library loans, etc.; and
(f) childcare and adult care expenses during the dates of attendance at an academic conference, workshop, retreat or continuing education. Covered expenses include, for example: daycare expenses at the site of the meeting; extra daycare expenses at home incurred because the primary caregiver was attending the meeting; and travel expenses incurred in bringing a caregiver (or family member acting as a caregiver) to the employee's home to care for the adult or child.