Dear Colleagues,
We hope that your classes are going smoothly. We write to bring to your attention —especially if you are new to Colgate — two institutional resources that might be of interest as you plan your teaching and/or research for this academic year.
Sylvia Ellins Fund for the Teaching and Learning of Diversity
First, if you are planning an event or attending a conference that encourages innovation of teaching and learning around issues of diversity, please consider applying for the Sylvia Ellins Fund for the Teaching and Learning of Diversity administered by the Office of Equity and Diversity (OED). Established in 2005 by Trustee Howard A. Ellins ’73, the Sylvia Ellins Fund is a permanent endowment fund created in honor of his mother Sylvia Ellins. In the past, Colgate faculty have applied for these funds for a variety of initiatives, like organizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)-related events on campus, presenting at conferences focused on DEI, and/or attending conferences on behalf of their department/program to connect with diverse networks of early career scholars as part of long-term recruitment strategies.
If you are planning to attend such a conference or organize a DEI-focused event on campus this fall or spring, and are looking for assistance with funding, please email Ani Maitra (amaitra@colgate.edu) with a with a brief description of the event for which you require funding, highlighting its connection with DEI; and a budget justifying the request for funding. This funding is, of course, limited, and the amount that the OED can offer will depend on the number of suitable requests received by the office in response to this call.
National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Membership
Second, we also wanted to remind you early in the semester of Colgate’s Institutional Membership in the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) as an excellent resource for navigating the year ahead and/or making time for your research and scholarship. As you may be aware, the NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students from more than 300 colleges and universities. Funding for Colgate’s institutional membership was provided by the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty (PDoF), as part of the PDoF’s initiatives in Colgate's Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The NCFDD’s mission is to support faculty at different stages of their careers, including but not limited to, developing research portfolios needed for tenure and promotion. We thought it would be useful for you to know that, in addition to the usual 14-Day Writing Challenge, the NCFDD will be offering special webinars this semester on a variety of topics like: strategies to make the semester productive; making conference presentations engaging; and overcoming academic perfectionism. The full list of fall 2023 events can be found on the NCFDD website. Please note that, in order to access the NCFDD’s resources, you will need to activate your personal membership. To claim your membership, please visit this page, select “Colgate University” from the drop-down list, and follow the instructions on your screen.
Finally, we wanted to alert you that, in spring 2024, the Office of the PDoF will put out a call for applications to tenured faculty members for four spots in NCFDD’s 12-week Faculty Success Program for sessions beginning in the summer of 2024.
If you have any questions about Colgate’s institutional membership in NCFDD, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email at cducomb@colgate.edu or amaitra@colgate.edu.
Sincerely,
Christian DuComb
Associate Dean of the Faculty for Faculty Recruitment and Development
Ani Maitra
Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity