The institution has a Professional Development Committee (3) comprised of faculty and staff representative of the College. This committee is charged with facilitating and supporting professional development programs and activities for the College. The respective members bring development opportunities from their areas to the committee meetings (4).

As part of the College’s commitment, professional development opportunities are held on a regular basis. At a minimum the College offers the following events each year:

In addition the College sponsored The Great Teachers Retreat for the faculty during the 2005-2006 academic year (10a). The Great Teaching Seminar movement was founded over 30 years ago as a method for allowing teachers to discover what constitutes great teaching by talking to other teachers.

Approximately half of the College’s full-time faculty attended the September 2005 event, and it is anticipated that the reminder will attend the retreat during March 2006. The September event was well received by faculty participants as evidenced in their evaluation of the seminar (10b).

The College demonstrates additional commitment to development through its new employee orientation program. Faculty orientation includes introduction to key personnel, introduction to relevant campus facilities, services, policies, and procedures. All new full- and part-time faculty receive a faculty handbook (11) and have an assigned mentor during their first year with the College. The mentor or resource person assists the new instructor with completing College forms, accessing instructional materials, developing course schedules, and other activities supporting their integration into the culture of the College (12).

The College also has in place polices and procedures that allow for faculty to request educational leave (13), with or without pay, and employee tuition exemption (14) to attend one community college system course per semester tuition free. The College also places value and demonstrates its recognition of faculty as scholars through the faculty salary plan; for each additional college degree, and in some cases certifications, a faculty member may be awarded a 5% pay raise (15).

The College has a process for annual planning, implementing, documenting, and evaluating of faculty professional development (16). This plan includes budget needs for professional development. As the College develops its budget each year an amount is designated for professional development. These monies are identified for activities that promote ongoing faculty development as teachers, scholars, and professionals and are available primarily for full-time faculty but can be awarded to part-time faculty as resources allow. These activities are identified through the College’s ongoing evaluative processes and include, but are not limited to, attendance at professional conferences and workshops, leadership programs, seminars, return-to-industry training, and other training sessions. Funding for professional development is allocated through general College funds to the program faculty in the Instruction and Student Services division. Additionally, faculty may apply for faculty upgrade allotment funds. The Professional Development Committee meets each fall to evaluate faculty development proposals and award faculty upgrade allotment funds (4).

Throughout the year each faculty member is expected to be responsible for completing and documenting professional development in accordance with the College’s faculty Professional Development Plan (17) and with oversight and input from their immediate supervisor. As stated in the faculty development plan, the college expects individual faculty members to take initiative in establishing and achieving goals for their professional development. Development encompasses, and is required in, two major areas: teaching and learning and professional engagement. Faculty are required to have a total of 12 hours of activities associated with teaching and learning and must show they are engaged in at least two professional engagement activities. The plan is designed to allow flexibility for the individual while also requiring responsibility and accountability. The plan requires that faculty complete a form reflecting on each professional development activity they participate in during the academic year.

Each spring faculty meet with their supervising dean to complete the Institutional Continuing Improvement Process (CIP), more commonly known as annual performance evaluations (18). This process begins with the faculty performing their own evaluation of job performance during the academic year. The CIP includes a component for listing and briefly summarizing the benefits of all professional development activities participated in during the year. Faculty are required to submit completed yearly professional development documentation at this time (18). A final section of the CIP (18) includes goals for the next year and should include development activities that reflect the faculty’s commitment to ongoing scholarship.

North Carolina Community College Network for Excellence in Teaching (NC-NET) (22) is an innovative state-wide initiative dedicated to improving teaching and learning through professional development. The College serves as the Western Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning as part of the NC-NET initiative.

NC-NET is designed to support high-quality teaching at the 58 community colleges in North Carolina through resources and support in six areas of practice:

In its role as the Western Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the College is responsible for the Teaching & Learning and Career & Professional Development practice areas. The College provides leadership for the creation professional development modules, facilitation of discussion forums, research of best practices, and growth of the Resource Exchange. In this capacity, the College has sponsored workshops for its faculty featuring national scholars Stephen Brookfield (developing reflective, skillful teaching), Richard Paul (critical thinking concepts) and Parker Young (legal issues in higher education).