Letter to Faculty

August 19, 2008

On behalf of the faculty and staff of Behrend College, I want to congratulate you on your appointment to the faculty of Penn State University.

At Behrend we’re proud of the reputation we have developed for teaching excellence and we want to provide you with the support necessary to continue in this tradition.  This teaching handbook has been designed to assist you in performing your teaching duties and supporting students in their learning.  In addition to the information in this book, the school directors, faculty members, and staff members throughout the college are willing to help you or to answer any questions that might come up.

The Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies exists specifically to help faculty members be excellent teachers.  Qi Dunsworth, director of the Center, is prepared to help members of the faculty.  Feel free to visit Qi at her South Cottage office if you want to talk about pedagogy, specific classroom teaching techniques, or ways to enhance student learning with technology.

I hope that you find this handbook to be a useful tool in meeting the goals for your classes.  You can find a version of this document at www.pserie.psu.edu/faculty/academics/facultyhandbook.htm.  Two other documents, the University Faculty Handbook (http://www.psu.edu/dept/vprov/pdfs/pt_faculty_handbook.pdf) and the University Faculty Senate Policies for Students, (http://www.psu.edu/ufs/policies/index.html) are also valuable information resources.

Please feel free to forward any comments or suggestions that you may have.  In the meanwhile, I wish you a productive first semester at Penn State Behrend.

David Christiansen
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Academic Administration
djc21@psu.edu
898-6160