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Published on Leave a comment on November Opportunities at CAT+FD

As November arrives, I want to acknowledge both the richness and the intensity of this time in our academic lives. As faculty, we are juggling advising appointments, planning final projects, responding to crises both small and large, and somehow still finding ways to support our students through their own unique challenges. This month, CAT+FD offers spaces designed specifically for this moment: quiet writing time, conversations about AI and pedagogy, opportunities for mindfulness, and collaborative problem-solving with colleagues who understand exactly what you're experiencing.

I also want to remind you that professional development isn't just another item on your to-do list. It's one of the most generous things you can do for yourself during a demanding season. Whether you drop in for twenty minutes of the AI session between classes, join your colleagues for writing or meditation, or simply show up to a brown bag to remember you're not alone in this work, these gatherings are here to support you.

For any event below, click on the link for more information. Some events require registration. You can find all of our upcoming events on the CAT+FD Calendar. If you want to learn about other ways to keep up with everything happening at CAT+FD, check out this post on the CAT Food Blog: CAT+FD Event Information, Served Up Your Way.

WEEKLY OPPORTUNITIES

  • Coffee & Chat, every Monday, 10:00-11:00: Faculty can spend some time with members of the CAT+FD staff in our Conference Room for refreshments and conversation.
  • Walking Club, every Tuesday & Thursday, 8:30-9:00: All members of the Xavier community are invited to gather outside the Fitness Center to get in some steps together.
  • Quarter of Quiet, every Wednesday, 2:00-2:15: Members of the Xavier community are welcome in the Chapel's Meditation Room for 15 minutes of unguided contemplation. 

NOVEMBER OPPORTUNITIES

  • Fall Faculty Writing Group Lunch, November 03 at 11:00 AM, Mellon Seminar Room
    Each Monday, the Xavier Faculty Writing Group gathers in the Mellon Seminar Room to dedicate one hour of sustained writing. During this time, each member works on their individual writing project in silent fellowship with other group members. This gentle accountability serves as an effective means of motivating faculty to maintain progress on their scholarly work without feeling as if there are competing priorities that should take precedence.
  • Advanced Zoom Workshop: Breakout Rooms & Enhanced Features, November 05 at 2:00 PM, Mellon Seminar Room
    This hands-on workshop is designed to help participants master Zoom's advanced meeting tools. This session will cover essential techniques for creating more interactive and engaging virtual sessions, including how to effectively use breakout rooms to facilitate small group discussions and collaborative work. This workshop is limited to members of the Office of Student Affairs in the College of Pharmacy.
  • SERG (Science Education Research Group), November 05 at 3:30 PM, NCF 568
    Join faculty from across disciplines for an informal discussion focused on teaching and learning. Each monthly SERG meeting provides an open space to share questions, concerns, and suggestions about pedagogy with colleagues in a supportive, multidisciplinary environment. Topics are participant-driven. Whether you're exploring new teaching methods, facing classroom challenges, or want to share successful strategies, all faculty are welcome. Registration is not required.
  • Faculty Portfolio Working Group, November 06 at 1:15 PM, Online
    Members of this year's Faculty Portfolio Working Group meet to discuss their monthly assignments and progress. This closed working group supports faculty in creating online portfolios that document the breadth of their academic work. Now in its third decade, the group evolved from the original 1994 Course Portfolio Working Group to its current focus on comprehensive faculty portfolios.
  • Fall Faculty Writing Group Lunch, November 10 at 11:00 AM, Mellon Seminar Room
    Each Monday, the Xavier Faculty Writing Group gathers in the Mellon Seminar Room to dedicate one hour of sustained writing. During this time, each member works on their individual writing project in silent fellowship with other group members. This gentle accountability serves as an effective means of motivating faculty to maintain progress on their scholarly work without feeling as if there are competing priorities that should take precedence.
  • Deep Dive: AI Drop-ins, November 11 at 1:15 PM, Mellon Seminar Room
    NOT another AI Roundtable! Unlike traditional workshops, this drop-in format is designed around your specific questions, challenges, and curiosities about AI. Come and go as your schedule allows during our two-hour window. Whether you have 20 minutes between classes or can stay for the full session, you'll find targeted support for your AI-related interests. This collaborative format allows for deeper, more personalized discussions than traditional workshop Q&As. Registration is preferred, but NOT required.
  • Part-time Faculty Brown Bag, November 11 at 3:00 PM, Online
    All part-time faculty are encouraged to attend this virtual meeting to discuss end-of-semester tasks and challenges. 
  • Fall Faculty Writing Group Lunch, November 17 at 11:00 AM, Mellon Seminar Room
    Each Monday, the Xavier Faculty Writing Group gathers in the Mellon Seminar Room to dedicate one hour of sustained writing. During this time, each member works on their individual writing project in silent fellowship with other group members. This gentle accountability serves as an effective means of motivating faculty to maintain progress on their scholarly work without feeling as if there are competing priorities that should take precedence.
  • Fall Faculty Book Club, November 17 at 5:00 PM, Mellon Seminar Room
    The Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development hosts an annual Fall Faculty Book Club. This professional development initiative brings together a small cohort of faculty to read and discuss a carefully selected book focused on teaching, learning, and higher education pedagogy. For our 18th year, we are reading The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI by Tricia Bertram Gallant and David A. Rettinger.
  • Faculty Portfolio Working Group, November 18 at 11:00 AM, Online
    Members of this year's Faculty Portfolio Working Group meet to discuss their monthly assignments and progress. This closed working group supports faculty in creating online portfolios that document the breadth of their academic work. Now in its third decade, the group evolved from the original 1994 Course Portfolio Working Group to its current focus on comprehensive faculty portfolios.
  • End-of-Semester Mindfulness Check-in, November 19 at 1:00 PM, CAT+FD Conference Room
    Do you have a regular practice of meditation, contemplation, or something else that feeds your soul? If not, would you like to cultivate one? Mindfulness supports our teaching and learning as university professionals. It also promotes the success and well-being of students, and it makes all of us more effective instruments of Xavier’s mission. Faculty, staff, and students are welcome.
  • New Faculty Brown Bag, November 20 at 12:15 PM, Mellon Seminar Room
    This year's cohort of of first-year faculty will meet to discuss successes and challenged during their first semester teaching at Xavier and will learn about faculty updates and Interfolio. 
  • Fall Faculty Writing Group Lunch, November 24 at 11:00 AM, Mellon Seminar Room
    Each Monday, the Xavier Faculty Writing Group gathers in the Mellon Seminar Room to dedicate one hour of sustained writing. During this time, each member works on their individual writing project in silent fellowship with other group members. This gentle accountability serves as an effective means of motivating faculty to maintain progress on their scholarly work without feeling as if there are competing priorities that should take precedence.

OUTSIDE OPPORTUNITIES

CAT+FD is not a sponsor of any of the following. These links are provided to share additional professional development activities. 

  • 8th Annual Sparking Success Faculty Development Conference, Tulane University, January 7-8, 2026. Tulane University’s Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) invites proposals for interactive breakout sessions for the 8th Annual Sparking Success to be held Thursday, January 8, 2026. Sparking Success encourages faculty, staff, and graduate and professional students to come together, build community, and find inspiration for enhancing our lives on campus.
  • AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (CLASS 2026), Tucson, AZ, April 16-18, 2026.The theme for this year's AAC&U CLASS conference is "courageous care" in recognition "that transformative education emerges when institutions genuinely prioritize student and educator learning, well-being, belonging, and success." The conference takes place from April 16 to 18 and can be attended in person  or online.
  • 4th Annual Teaching and Learning with AI Conference, University of Central Florida, June 11-13, 2026. The call for proposals is now open for the 4th annual Teaching and Learning with AI: A Sharing Conference Between Educational Practitioners, hosted by the University of Central Florida. This in-person event will bring together instructors, higher education professionals, researchers, librarians, and policymakers to discuss best practices and the use of AI in classrooms and across campuses, colleges, and universities.
  • Brightspace D2L Academy. The D2L Academy is a version of Brightspace available to all members of the Brightspace Community where you'll find Premium (paid) content like Certificate and Subscription Training Courses, as well as FREE Courses, Downloads and Teaching Tools. The D2L Academy is also where you can connect with Brightspace Guided Training, and the Product Idea Exchange (PIE).

Published on Leave a comment on CAT News: January 2015

CAT XX 1994-2014 Sustainability

Celebrating Twenty Years

This spring, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) continues to mark its 20th anniversary year. Since its inception in 1994, CAT has existed to fulfill its mission “to advance the art and science of teaching and learning” and has enjoyed broad faculty participation in its services and activities. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, CAT staff have planned a series of special events, including a gala on February 3rd, at which we will recognize faculty who have served over the years, and announce our new plans and initiatives for the future.

CAT has been able to sustain its initiatives and offerings over two decades by evolving with the times to meet faculty needs. In celebration of this success, CAT staff have organized their offerings around the theme of Sustainability — exploring issues related to sustainability in the curriculum as well as sustaining the whole faculty member across all areas of responsibility.

Over the past several months, CAT has explored ways to expand its services (and ultimately its mission) in supporting the faculty member in all areas of responsibility – Teaching, Scholarship, and Service – utilizing a teacher-scholar model based on comprehensive faculty development. To this end, CAT put together a team with a representative from each Division to explore an expansion of its mission/values/programs that takes a holistic approach to developing the faculty member. The report from this group proposes some bold changes for CAT and is currently under consideration by the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Programming

In the fall we organized our Eighth Annual Fall Faculty Book Club. In keeping with our Sustainability theme, members discussed Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect by David W. Orr.

CAT has a full calendar of activities scheduled for the spring semester that can be viewed on our website. We are offering a slate of workshops this semester on topics including mentoring, teaching with technology, developing a personal vision and many others.

As part of our continuing series, "Contemplation & Conversation," CAT is sponsoring a series of meetings in the Meditation Room of the St. Katharine Drexel Chapel. These sessions are intended to support faculty well-being and open up a dialog about contemplative pedagogy.

Programs for New Faculty

In the fall, we welcomed twelve new faculty members to Xavier University. Throughout the academic year, we host monthly brown bags for this group, discussing topics such as teaching at an HBCU, getting grants, and creating effective assignments. The New Faculty mentoring program is also underway. Dr. Stassi DiMaggio (Chemistry) continues to serve as faculty in residence, working closely with new faculty in their transition to Xavier's culture of excellence in teaching, scholarship, service and collegiality.

Grants

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching is honored to receive a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. The grant, entitled CAT Turns XX: Sustainability for Teachers-Scholars, will provide continued support for our Faculty Communities of Teaching Scholars initiative as well as establish a Contemplative Pedagogy Working Group. The grant will also support new scholarship-related initiatives offered through CAT.

In early January, CAT submitted a proposal for a $944,000 Cyberlearning and Future Technologies grant to the National Science Foundation.

Staff News

Mr. Bart Everson (Media Artist, CAT) attended the annual conference of the International Digital Media and Arts Association at Utah Valley University in November.

Ms. Janice Florent (Technology Coordinator, CAT) attended the Bb World, UB Tech, and InfoComm conferences this past summer.

Dr. Elizabeth Yost Hammer (Director, CAT) led a workshop on Active Learning and participated in a panel on Trends in Higher Education at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Columbia.

Dr. Karen Nichols (Distance Education Coordinator) attended for the first time the annual POD (Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education) conference in Dallas in October.

Published on Leave a comment on CAT News: September 2014

CAT XX 1994-2014 Sustainability

This fall, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) is marking its 20th anniversary. Since its inception in 1994, CAT has existed to fulfill its mission “to advance the art and science of teaching and learning” and has enjoyed broad faculty participation in its services and activities. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, CAT staff have planned a series of special events, beginning with a Kick-Off Social Hour which was held on Thursday, September 4th. and only slightly upstaged by the Dr. Francis' retirement announcement earlier in the day.

CAT has been able to sustain its initiatives and offerings over two decades by evolving with the times to meet faculty needs. And this year, CAT staff have organized their offerings around the theme of Sustainability — exploring issues related to sustainability in the curriculum as well as sustaining the whole faculty member across all areas of responsibility.

In celebration of its 20th year, CAT is exploring ways to expand its services (and ultimately its mission) in supporting the faculty member in all areas of responsibility – Teaching, Scholarship, and Service – utilizing a teacher-scholar model based on comprehensive faculty development. To this end, CAT is in the process of putting together a team from its faculty advisory board to explore an expansion of its mission/values/programs (already affectionately called the MVPs) that takes a holistic approach to developing the faculty member.

In addition, at New Faculty Orientation we welcomed twelve new faculty members to Xavier University. We hosted a day and a half orientation to introduce faculty to Xavier resources. Throughout the academic year, we will host monthly brown bags for this group, discussing topics such as teaching at an HBCU, getting grants, and creating effective assignments. The New Faculty mentoring program is also underway.

P.S. Our 2014 Annual Report is now available.