Welcome Back!

Faculty Focus will begin publishing monthly on the second Tuesday of each month during the 2017-2018 academic year, beginning Sept. 12. For questions or comments about Faculty Focus, contact Beverly Clark, beverly.clark@emory.edu, Director of Communications for Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

Upcoming Deadlines

Year-End Close

Emory's fiscal year ends on August 31st. Closing the books each fiscal year is a process that requires coordination between the schools and the Controller's Office. Full details are available on the Univeristy Finance website in the News and Events section. Below are three important finance deadline dates for departments:

• FY17 First Close:  Monday, Sept. 11
• FY17 Second Close:  Thursday, Sept. 21
• FY17 Final Close:  Saturday, Sept. 30

Registrar and Department Room Scheduling

The Outlook calendars for rooms will become "read-only" on Aug. 23. This will not affect anyone's personal calendar, just the room calendars. From that point on, all room scheduling must be scheduled using 25Live. Room information, including schedules, pictures, and features, is available at http://www.registrar.emory.edu/faculty-staff/classroom-scheduling/index.html. The site is continually updated by the Registrar’s Office and reflects current reservations.

Final Reminder: Canvas Migration

All faculty must migrate their course materials into Canvas. The University’s Blackboard license will expire Aug. 31 and all material currently stored on Blackboard will no longer be available. After Aug. 31, 2017, there will be no way to recover deleted or un-exported data from Blackboard. Information on how to export materials to Canvas can be found at http://it.emory.edu/canvas/training/blackboard-export.html. Training classes also are available; visit http://it.emory.edu/canvas/training/index.html.

Learn more about grant funding support

Representatives from the Emory College Office of Research Funding Support and other university offices are available to meet with departments interested in increasing grant funding for research, student/postdoc support, and pedagogy. Tiffany Worboy (Associate Director, Foundation Relations), Kady Weingart (Director, Colleges and Professional Schools RAS) and Ron Calabrese (College Senior Associate Dean for Research), are available to visit your department during a faculty meeting or other prearranged time.

They can explain how Foundation Relations, Research Administration, and Emory College administration can help you identify funders, navigate foundations, prepare budgets and submit proposals, and obtain supporting commitments from the College to fund your research, research training, or pedagogical efforts. Contact Ron Calabrese (biolrc@emory.edu) to arrange a time for a visit.

New Tenure and Promotion Guidelines

The revised “Principles and Procedures for Tenure and Promotion in Emory College of Arts and Sciences,” went into effect on Aug. 1. The changes to this document were discussed extensively last year in several forums, including the College faculty senate, open meetings of the full faculty, and meetings of department chairs. Most notably, the revision requires a standard of “excellent” in both research and teaching for promotion to the rank of Associate Professor or full Professor.

Assistant professors who have completed their pre-tenure review (previously called the “fourth-year review”) before August 1, 2017, will be reviewed for promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, with tenure, under the earlier version of the guidelines. Both the new and previous guidelines are available online on the College website; a hard copy of the new policy will also be sent to tenure-track faculty.

Public Scholarship Opportunities

Workshop: Talking to the Media About Science

The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE), in partnership with the Rollins School of Public Health, will host a public scholarship workshop for faculty on “Talking to the Media about Science,” at Noon, Wednesday, Oct. 4 in the Rita Anne Collins Room of the Rollins School of Public Health. Two University communications professionals skilled in media training for scientists and two scientists who have looked closely at how science is represented in the media will offer their best advice for researchers speaking publicly about their work through the news.

Panelists include:

• Myra Oviatt, Director of Communications, Rollins School of Public Health
• Carol Clark, Senior Science Writer, University Communications
• Cecile Janssens, Professor of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
• Scott Lilienfeld, Professor of Psychology, Emory College of Arts and Sciences

Brown Bag Seminar: Digital Publishing

Sarah McKee, senior associate director of publishing at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, will give a presentation on Emory’s Digital Publishing in Humanities initiative with Anandi Silva Knuppel and Yang Li from the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, Thursday, Sept. 7, 12:30-2:30 p.m., in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library. They will also provide examples of digital publishing projects from Emory and elsewhere.

“What Is Your Project?”: A Workshop Series in Scholarly Project Formation

Co-presented by CFDE and the Fox Center’s Digital Humanities Publishing Project, the first workshop in a yearlong series on scholarly projects and digital publication takes place Sept.18, Noon-3 p.m. in the Center for Ethics, Room 102, with featured speaker Cheryl Ball, associate professor of digital publishing studies at the University of West Virginia. She will give a one-hour talk followed by a two-hour workshop focused on developing a research question within a digital environment. Lunch will be served. Email Sarah McKee, sarah.mckee2@emory.edu, to register for the workshop.

Decatur Book Festival Sept. 1-3

Several faculty and staff from Emory College of Arts and Sciences will be featured at the 2017 AJC-Decatur Book Festival Sept. 1-3. In addition to authors who will speak and read from their books as part of the festival program, Emory faculty and staff will participate on several panels and presentations. More details can be found here on the CFDE website.

Development and Alumni Opportunities for Faculty

The Emory College Development and Alumni Relations office has launched the Alumni Field Trip Series, a program where faculty lead field trips for College alumni in Atlanta. These programs are an opportunity for faculty to highlight current research or projects, apply areas of expertise within a local setting, and to represent your department to the alumni community. Alumni are able to engage with faculty while experiencing a local destination in Atlanta through an academic lens.

Faculty interested in developing an Alumni Field Trip may contact Daniel Ledford, Associate Director of Alumni Relations, at daniel.ledford@emory.edu or 404-712-9416, for more information. Upcoming sessions include Insects, Disease & Microscopes with biology associate professor Jaap de Roode, and Photography + Ethnography at the High Museum with anthropology assistant professor Jenny Chio.

Emory College Website Updates

Website Training for College Departments

The Emory College Office of Communications will hold several basic Cascade web training sessions this fall for staff and faculty who maintain department websites. These sessions are especially good for people new to website work or who need a refresher.

Cascade Basic Training for Beginners

• Sept. 7, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
• Oct. 11, 1 – 3 p.m.
• Nov. 8, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
• Dec. 4, 1 – 3 p.m.

All classes take place in Room 314, Woodruff Library, Electronic Classroom (across from the Jones Room). Register for the class on the Emory College Office of Communications website. Contact senior web producer Jill Hennecy with any questions about the training.

Get Rid of Your Website ROT

The Emory College Office of Communications will hold a workshop on “Conducting a ROT Analysis” Sept. 13, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. in Room 314, Woodruff Library, Electronic Classroom (across from the Jones Room).

In anticipation of new web templates for Emory College departments and programs next spring, the Emory College Communications Office encourages all departments to conduct a ROT Analysis this fall before transferring their sites into the new template next year. A ROT analysis is a survey of your site that helps identify Redundant, Outdated or Trivial content. This session will address what a ROT analysis entails, how to conduct one, a checklist for tasks, and actions to take based on the outcome. Register for the class on the Emory College Office of Communications website.