Insight Forum: Findings and Next Steps
In 2025 we launched the Faculty Insight Forum as a listening initiative to surface priorities for our work as teacher-scholars under the Block Plan. The goal was to turn candid small-group conversations into actionable, campus-wide improvements that strengthen research, teaching, faculty leadership and the support systems around them.
Across ten forums, 76 faculty from 28 of 32 departments participated, reflecting on four shared questions about priorities, flexibility, research continuity, and support systems. Themes were consistent: the investment in teaching, the need for career-long and role-based flexibility, the importance of time for research, the uneven burden of service, and the value of internal institutional funding support.
This page shares the findings at a glance and—more importantly—what we will start to do in 2025-26 to support faculty priorities, and planning and review for areas of priority that will engage shared governance and strategic study.
Findings at a Glance
Forum Questions
Discussions were guided by four questions:
- How do you currently balance teaching, research, and service responsibilities? What aspect of these roles do you see as most vital to fulfilling our mission and which feel most challenging or burdensome?
- If you could reimagine your professional responsibilities, what changes would allow you to devote more time to what you find most impactful for students, whether that’s teaching, research, or service?
- What strategies or structural changes could help you engage more deeply with research, especially in the context of maintaining continuity during busy teaching or service periods?
- What kinds of support, resources, or institutional changes would help reduce strain and enhance your sense of accomplishment and impact in your professional role?
Analysis and Findings
A mixed-methods analysis of transcripts revealed a consistent pattern. While discussions were professional, the underlying sentiment was predominantly negative (7 of 10 forums), with the top prevalent emotions of fear (towards being “maxed out”) and joy (from teaching and research). The full report and PowerPoint presentation are linked at the bottom of this page.
Four key themes emerged
- Teaching is the Priority, Service is the Burden: Faculty see teaching as their most rewarding and vital work but find that unpredictable and inequitable service loads create significant strain, described as a “death by 1,000 paper cuts” that displaces critical time for research.
- Desire for Professional Flexibility: A strong consensus exists for moving away from a rigid, “one-size-fits-all” model toward flexible professional roles that can evolve throughout a faculty member's changing career.
- Research Requires Uninterrupted Time: The demanding and fragmented nature of the Block Plan makes it difficult to find the predictable, uninterrupted time necessary to sustain a meaningful research agenda, leading to significant frustration.
- Need for Better Support Systems: Faculty voiced a critical need for improved administrative support, greater institutional transparency, and more equitable systems for distributing workload and resources.
Next Steps
The rich feedback from the Spring 2025 Insight Forums—together with recommendations from Project 2024—shapes a focused set of next steps for 2025-26 and beyond. For the full picture, see the Academic Dean of the Faculty Strategic Plan, a part of the all-college set of priorities and strategic plans. Highlights follow.
What we will start doing in 2025-26
Flexibility: Expand Time for Scholarship
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Teaching-release blocks (pilot):
The Office of the Dean of the Faculty will launch a two-year pilot to award 30 release blocks across 2025-26 and 2026-27. The two-year pilot will provide an immediate increase in flexibility, allowing a study of its positive impacts (research progress, scholarly community) and costs (course availability and curriculum impact). This pilot provides time for a broader study of how the college can move to a 5-unit teaching load from the current 6-unit teaching load.
Strengthen Research Support
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External grant support→Strengthening external grants community: Enhance communication and support to all faculty for grant seeking and application. Share external funding opportunities and other timely notifications through more regular announcements to faculty. See the new Fall 2025 External Grants Discussion Groups.
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External grant support→Post-award grant support: Bolster post-award administrative staffing support from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.
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Public scholarship grant: Continue the Summer 2025 public scholarship grants to recognize community-facing, field-based, and translational work to increase academic visibility.
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Multi-year internal grants for research continuity: pilot a limited number of multi-year (2-year) internal awards so faculty can plan sustained student collaboration with predictable support across summers and blocks.
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Increase academic visibility: The Office of the Dean of the Faculty will partner with Communications and Marketing to improve the content generation and sharing strategy for both internal and external audiences. The Crown Center will also create professional media training development opportunities.
What we will start studying and planning in 2025-26
Flexibility: Expand Time for Scholarship
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Reexamine Sabbatical Accrual: Study budget-neutral alternatives to the 6-year → 0.5-year model. Charge a working group (with FEC, Chairs, and other faculty members) to bring options that increase vertical flexibility (shifting emphasis at different career stages) and horizontal flexibility (recognizing that one size does not fit all).
Supporting Rebalancing Teaching, Scholarship, Service and Leadership
- Study a 5-unit teaching load: Beginning in Spring 2026, engage shared governance and collaboration to analyze scenarios for moving from 6 to 5 units, with attention to student access, curricular integrity, staffing/budget impacts, and equity in service and advising—so faculty can sustain high-quality teaching and scholarship.
- Clarify promotion evaluation to match our values (Handbook update with FEC): Make explicit the institutional value of both visible and “hidden” service—including assigned committees, chairing, mentoring and advising, program building, and community engagement. Affirm a flexible, sustainable balance of teaching, scholarship, and service across the post-tenure career arc.
Bolster Administrative Support
- Improve processes: The Office of the Dean of the Faculty will examine how to implement a process for compiling major review and promotion files that uses automation to improve accuracy, efficiency, and ease of use for the candidate, chair, and administrative assistant.
2025 Faculty Forum Full Report
STRATEGIC PLANNING
