Faculty and staff gathered at the Hyatt Regency Austin Hotel on September 29 for the college’s annual General Assembly. Following a State of the College address and keynote presentation by Dr. Alison Kadlec, Senior Vice President and Director of Higher Education & Workforce Engagement at Public Agenda, faculty and staff participated in afternoon work sessions.

View the recorded livestream of the General Assembly morning presentation.  

Dialogue on ACC Faculty Core Values

During the breakout session for full-time and adjunct faculty, attendees discussed core values and passions and developed new ways of guiding faculty experience at ACC. More than 60 faculty participated. Missi Patterson, assistant dean of faculty development and professor of Psychology, and Tobin Quereau, professor in Student Development, facilitated the session.

A “living” document with the faculty core values statement was presented. The first draft of the values statement was developed by a team of ACC faculty at a symposium held July 6 through July 8. It has been edited by faculty during 11 campus dialogue sessions in September 2017.

Why do faculty cores value matter? The final values outlined in the statement are going to be used for job descriptions, implemented into portfolios and evaluation, and in the future, will be inherent to ACC faculty culture.

Faculty gathered in small groups for discussion. Participants discussed how to best support students, the community, and work with administrators to connect and give feedback. An initial consensus check was conducted to gauge the support of each value.

The first question proposed asked, “What are your values? As an educator?”

“I value growth and learning. I have to grow and learn. The students have to grow and learn,” says Samantha Ackers, adjunct professor of English.   

“I want to create value for students,” says Margarita Burciaga, adjunct associate professor.

The Full-Time Faculty Senate and the Adjunct Faculty Association are leading the development of the values and ask for help from all faculty to improve the document as it moves toward its final stages.

“I hope the momentum goes beyond this room because this is critical,” says Jessica (Skye) Howell, Adjunct, Assistant Professor of Student Development.

Tags: faculty core values, General Assembly