Theme 2

Theme 2: Faculty and Staff Support for University Success

• Learning through faculty and student research; developing the scholar/practitioner
• Support for teaching excellence and innovation
• Recruitment, retention and on-going education for a diverse faculty and staff
• Generating external resources in support of faculty, student and staff development

Research Questions: We start with a general question that is easy to formulate, although exceptionally difficult to answer: How do we reliably and with validity measure the effect of our academic programs—the professors, curriculum and culture—on learners?

• What impact does a research experience have on a student's engagement in learning? Assuming that the experience has positive impact, is it feasible to expand opportunities to more students? How can we attract resources to sustain these efforts?
• How will the new Ed.D. program impact other programs?
• To what degree will the Faculty Research Fellows program affect faculty perceptions of the University’s support for their research activities?
• Do activities through CIELO have a sustained impact?
• How do staff contribute in traditional and non-traditional ways to University success? How do we recognize and reward staff accomplishments?
• Has collaboration between ExL and other units produced viable distance education programs?
• How does CSUN support the use of technology as it contributes to faculty, staff and student success?
• How does the Library facilitate faculty and student research and success?

Finally, we will ask two key questions for each of these areas:

• What evidence do we have of support and impact?
• How are such programs scaleable and sustainable?