Susan Pliner
On September 11, the FCA welcomed Hobart & William Smith's Susan Pliner to campus to discuss her role as the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Her two-day visit began with a presentation and concluded September 12 when she met with a group of faculty members to discuss potential programming for a faculty center at F&M.
During her visit, Susan focused on the benefits of a combined center, or a center that houses both student and faculty programming. Some of the highlights of the Learning and Teaching Center include:
- A large, airy, open space to house all the CTL's operations located in HWS's library (central location in the library)
- Peer tutoring and teaching fellows programs
- Faculty social events
At Susan's talk on the afternoon of the 11th, there were number of excellent questions and comments posed by F&M's faculty. Here is a small sampling, with Susan's responses underneath:
- How is the participation level at HWS?
Susan said the following: "If something is timely and meaningful, attendance will be great. If it's only one or the other, or worse, both, then attendance will relatively poor." She went on to stress that the key to any successful faculty center is the creation of programming that's worthwhile and fits into the hectic schedules of the faculty members most interested in attending.
- One of the concerns expressed by an attendee was that, if F&M pursued a combined model, the possibility of giving ground to students and sacrificing faculty programming would exist.
Susan emphasized that, at HWS, faculty-specific programming truly was reserved only for faculty; a clear line of distinction exists at HWS for most programs. There is occassionally some collaboration on programs, but the student and faculty portions are largely kept separate from one another.
- Someone asked what the advantage of keeping all these services under one roof were. Is it necessarily better than having them spread out (similar to what F&M has now)?
Susan emphatically answered, "Yes." She emphasized that by keeping it all under one administrative umbrella and in one physical location, the various programs under her umbrella so a far better job collaborating on projects that otherwise would never have been attempted.
If you would like to learn more about the Learning and Teaching Center at HWS, either head on over to our HWS poster page (see right-hand column) or visit its website. If you would like to see the PowerPoint presentation Susan used during her talk, please download the file below.
