University-Wide Committee on Teaching and Faculty Development Charge

The University Committee on Teaching and Faculty Development (UCTFD) provides leadership and advocacy for programming that supports faculty development and teaching excellence across all schools, and seeks to coordinate those efforts in support of fulfilling the educational vision and mission of Tufts overall and of its individual schools.

The UCTFD is overseen by the Vice Provost for Education, who appoints the chair of the committee for a X year term, and approves the appointment of a rotating co-chair from one of the schools to a two-year term. Committee membership includes representatives from across all Tufts schools and includes academic deans, faculty, and staff appointed by the school Deans or Directors as representatives of their school’s initiatives, the dean for undergraduate education, the Director of CELT, a representative from IRLI, and representatives from other institutional offices that support faculty in their academic work, and Educational Technology Services / TTS.

Through cross school collaboration and engagement, the UCTFD seeks to align faculty development activities around teaching and professional development services within and across schools and works toward shared cross-school goals developed in the Committee. These goals may emerge from institutional survey data, gap analysis, or other forms of information gathering and analysis by the UCTFD. These goals will also inform and be informed by the work of the Office of the Provost, the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) and Educational Technology Services (ETS).

The UCTFD meets monthly throughout the academic year to address topics that incorporate best practices in teaching, learning and faculty development both within and outside of Tufts, and the alignment of activities in support of the educational mission, vision and priorities of Tufts and its schools. Activities assumed by the Committee include:

• Reviewing educational proposals submitted to the Springboard Awards and recommending proposals for those awards;
• Engaging in the planning of an annual University-wide spring teaching conference that rotates between Boston, Medford and Grafton campuses;
• Sharing information about local educational and faculty development initiatives, policies, practices and challenges with the intent to align where possible and learn across the schools;
• Identifying available resources or gaps in resources that should be addressed, and exploring the potential for shared programming across schools;
• Sharing perspectives and approaches to emerging challenges and opportunities on the higher education landscape in order to stay on the cutting edge of education.

The UCTFD Chair and Co-Chair provide a brief annual written report on UCTFD activities and summarize each school’s progress and needs for educational and faculty development. In this way, the Provost and Vice Provost for Education are kept informed about educational and faculty development university-wide, and how the Office of the Provost can be of support.

Charge originally written on March 12, 1997 by June Aprille, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs; revised on March 12, 2007 and March 12, 2009 by Mary Y. Lee, Associate Provost

Charge updated May 15  2024 by the UCTFD Committee and Co-Chairs Annie Soisson, Sarah Herchel and Tim Griffin