The CTLA sponsors Community Friday luncheon learning opportunities during the fall and spring semesters. These events are designed to give faculty and staff the chance to enjoy lunch with colleagues, learn from presenters, and engage in conversation and reflection. Topics for discussion will focus on pedagogy, teaching and learning, faculty development, and student success. Announcements are sent out on a weekly basis with a request for RSVPs and lunch options. Unless otherwise noted, Community Fridays take place from noon to 1 p.m. in Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room A1231, with lunch service beginning at 11:45 a.m.
Fall 2025 Community Friday Schedule
For the first Community Friday of the semester, please join us for an opportunity to hear from Ruth Feingold, our new Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College. Dean Feingold will share life lessons about who she is, what values she brings to the work place, and what she has learned from her experiences at different liberal arts institutions.
This event will be held in JRC 101
On Friday, September 5th, we welcome members from the Presidential Task Force on Evaluating Teaching Excellence who will discuss the new ƽ protocols on Peer Observation of Teaching. After providing some background on the mission and work completed by this Presidential Task Force, Paul Hutchison, Nicole Eikmeier, Liz Queathem, and Susan Ferguson will discuss the process, research, and findings about the important roles peer observation can have in a reflective and evaluative teaching practice. In addition to some group activities at the tables, we invite our audience to think about how we can change ƽ's teaching culture to be more mutual and thoughtful in developing and evaluating teaching at all stages of an academic career.
Note the following:
- Please arrive early if possible. The lunch buffet will open at 11:45 a.m. in the multipurpose room.
- Remember to bring and use your reusable flatware to cut down on plastic waste. If you do not have a set, the CTLA will have extras available to distribute at this event.
For information about future Community Fridays, please visit the CLTA website at Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.
Jon Andelson and Todd Armstrong will give a brief presentation about the ƽ Garden. They will describe the ƽ Garden’s history, share more recent developments from this past summer, and offer ideas about how the garden might evolve in the future. They will highlight the diverse ways the garden has benefited the College and greater ƽ community, as well as provide examples of how it has been used in teaching across the liberal arts. We hope you will join us on September 12th for this important acknowledgment and discussion of a treasured College resource.
Georgia Dentel worked at ƽ between 1960 and 2001 in various capacities planning campus activities and public events, helping generations of students to plan concerts, films, and other events on campus. She was a legendary presence for many ƽians and particularly well-known in the music industry, as she was the guiding force who helped bring to campus musical acts including Bruce Springsteen, Nina Simone, BB King, Jefferson Airplane, Pete Seeger, and many more.
Community Friday on September 19th will introduce Georgia Dentel's story with an eye towards what she teaches us about the power of student, faculty, staff, and alumni collaboration at ƽ. Professor of History Sarah Purcell '92 will be joined by six of her MAP students in this interactive session. Explore together what lessons from ƽ's past might teach us for today.
At this week's Community Friday we are welcoming presenters from ƽ’s AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum Team: Andi Tracy, Gina Donovan, Fernanda Eliott, Kristen Nichols-Besel, Peter-Michael Osera, Shanshan Rodriguez, Erik Simpson, and Autumn Wilke
ChatGPT was released for public use in late 2022 and has since been joined by many other large language models (LLMs) and generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. The widespread use of AI and its integration into other tools have raised questions from the practical to the ethical to the existential --- and we need to talk about it!
This discussion-based Community Friday will provide a brief overview of groups that have been formally tasked with addressing work with AI at ƽ, both in and out of the classroom. We will provide an opportunity for you to share what your current thinking is about generative AI, what you are (or are not) doing related to it in your classes, and what kind of support you want and need this year related to AI use in academic spaces.
Queer and trans pedagogies are teaching methodologies that decenter and disrupt the norms of gender, sexuality, and power to imagine further possibilities for inclusive and open learning, being, and working together.
Please join us on October 3rd for a candid conversation on what queer and trans pedagogy looks like, how it can be applied to a variety of courses and disciplines, and how we can (re)approach it in our current political moment.
Guiding the conversation will be a panel discussion among queer and trans studies scholars: Associate Professor of Spanish John Petrus (he/him), Assistant Professor of History and American Studies Jordan Reznick (they/them; he/him), and Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and English stef torralba (they/them); moderated by Micho Adler (they/xe/he) Assistant Director of Intercultural Affairs, LGBTQIA+ Student Specialist.
This event is generously sponsored by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s Stonewall Resource Center in recognition of National LGBTQ History Month.
On October 10 we welcome facilitators Mark Peltz, Daniel and Patricia Jipp Finkelman Dean, Center for Careers, Life, and Service; David Harrison, professor of French; and Joyce Stern, dean for student success and academic advising.
What are the realities for ƽ students looking for a job after graduation? What do employers actually want from college graduates? Drawing from the work of a summer workshop on advising the “career-anxious student,” we plan to share the latest data about career preparedness and the job market. We also will discuss how faculty and staff can better prepare students for the transition to post-graduation.
The CTLA thanks the Center for Careers, Life, and Service and the Academic Success Center for their generous support of this event.
Please join Brigittine French, Assistant Vice President of Global Education, Dan Reynolds, Professor of German Studies, and Lynn Stafford, Assistant Director of Partnerships and Collaborations, to learn more about the Institute For Global Engagement (IGE)-sponsored Faculty-Staff Development Seminar application history, process, and potential benefits.
In brief, with generous support from donor funds, IGE will be inviting faculty and staff to submit preliminary proposals for a faculty and staff seminar to be held Spring ‘27 that will include group travel to a specific site or set of sites in Summer ‘27 with follow-up activities upon return to campus. This inaugural IGE seminar, the first to include both faculty and staff in an open call, is a collective opportunity to imagine, advance, and engage the world meaningfully with colleagues in sustained dialogue and through site-based engagement (domestic and/or international) from global perspectives. Specific topics, ideas, and locations are open for consideration as long as they are in alignment with the committed priorities of ƽ.
The CTLA thanks the Institute For Global Engagement for their generous support of this event.
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details forthcoming. This event will be held in JRC 101.
details forthcoming
details forthcoming
details forthcoming