Faculty Fellows Program launches

engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishments, or “PERMA,” model of well-being, created by psychologist Martin Seligman.

UT also uses the CliftonStrengths framework, which is an assessment students can take through the Academic Success Center. Sally Hunter, Volunteer Experience Faculty Director, explained that UT is unique in using a classroom-based program, however.

“We wanted to make sure we had a full team of fellows to really help us think through what are the best interventions,” Hunter said. “If you look at best practices that would make the most sense for each unit, for each field, for each classroom type.”

Hunter also noted that some staff units are already using the model.

“(It’s) trying to get us to be using more consistent language,” Hunter said. “So that as a student is going from their biology class into English, and then after that they go into their theater class, the student is able to have professors and faculty members who are using the same language about how they want to support their students.”

The 18 instructors completed an online certification in PERMA in January. Now, they meet with Hunter to plan specific approaches both to fill in their colleagues and plan classroom changes that will begin fall 2023. Fellows are responsible for leading workshops, consultations and discussion in their respective departments and contributing to a resource library.

Hunter expressed that one of the ways to encourage support and equity is to provide a variety of opportunities for students to present their knowledge.

Ayres Hall, completed in 1921, is an iconic landmark rising above campus on the Hill.

Kailee Harris / The Daily Beacon

18 instructors across UT are updating teaching techniques for their classes and departments. They are the first participants in the Volunteer Experience Faculty Fellows Program, a new academic collaboration between the Office of the Provost, the Division of Student Success and the Office of Teaching and Learning Innovation.

“The goal is really just as a campus to slowly evolve our culture to where we’re all taking our own wellbeing practices,” Krystyne Savarese, assistant vice provost and chief strategist in the Division of Student Success, said.

The Division of Student Success runs programs for first-year, first-generation and veteran students among others, while the Office of Teaching and Learning provides professional development for instructors, and the Office of the Provost oversees all academic activities on campus.

After the Board of Trustees approved a new strategic vision in October 2021, the program started as part of the first of the five goals – “Cultivating the Volunteer Experience.”

A 50-member council of half faculty and half staff and students looked at different ways to address the entire campus and decided on the positive emotion,

“For example, one student might prefer to write a paper … another, different student in the same class might have a preference for doing a Google slides presentation and a third student might want to make a podcast to demonstrate the knowledge,” Hunter said.

Renee D’Elia-Zunino, distinguished lecturer in Italian studies and Faculty Fellows member, said the program was completely in line with her purpose.

“I was pleased because, in the last few years, I have been working on the insights and tools of positive psychology and redesigning my courses to focus on student motivation, self-reflection and strengths,” D’Elia-Zunino said.

Program appointments last from January through December, with additional departments being included in 2024.