Last week, the Office of Faculty Affairs (OFA) hosted its annual New Faculty Orientation for the campus’s latest cohort of new tenure-track and instructor-track faculty members.
CU Boulder welcomed 95 new faculty members who are starting this semester, along with 10 more who are starting in the spring of 2021. With previous affiliations at some of the world’s most reputable institutions—such as NASA, the Harvard Medical School, National University of Singapore and Humboldt University of Berlin—the new faculty members bring to CU Boulder expertise and perspectives in fields ranging from bioinspired robotics to indigenous religious traditions, from Vikings to the dynamics of climate variability and change.
Chancellor Phil DiStefano and Provost Russ Moore offered opening remarks at the virtual orientation on Aug. 17 and emphasized the importance of building community, fostering resiliency and demonstrating humanity in the face of the current health crisis.
“The key to our success at CU Boulder is a commitment to innovation—constantly inventing new ways to make things work, working together and always putting our students first,” said Moore. Moore also said that his goals for the new faculty were for them to be the best researchers in the country, the best teachers in the country and to make sure our service has a direct impact on our state, the nation and the world.
The new faculty listened to and participated in sessions on the following themes: CU Boulder’s mission as a public institution for the public good; the campus’s actions surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion; and mentoring and teaching at CU.
“What made this event special was the CU community—current faculty, staff and leaders—taking the time to share their knowledge, come together and welcome new faculty virtually, as we had to do during this unprecedented time,” said Michele Moses, vice provost for faculty affairs. “As our new faculty begin their journeys here at CU Boulder, it is so important that they feel at home here—valued, supported and loved.”
The New Faculty Orientation is an annual event organized by OFA, intended to broadly introduce the new faculty to the various support resources on campus. This year, the orientation program has been expanded to include a Canvas site for new faculty, a who’s who of new faculty and an extended orientation series called Thriving at CU, which features workshops and sessions on faculty-related topics such as teaching, mentoring, academic freedom and shared governance.
For more information, contact Faculty Affairs.
