CSU and the College of Liberal Arts recognize the profound impact that Continuing, Contract, and Adjunct Faculty (CCAF) have across the University, particularly through their involvement in the All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC).

Funding from the College of Liberal Arts has provided the opportunity for CLA to host the fifth annual professional development conference, “Faculty Success is Student Success: College of Liberal Arts Professional Development Conference.” This conference has consistently shown positive results. For example, our SU23 cohort reported increased confidence in AUCC curriculum, increased confidence in FFW initiative, increased likelihood of making changes to pedagogical practice, and nearly 70% of participants attended sessions on inclusive pedagogy and reported that they were likely to make changes to their teaching practice as a result. These 52 faculty taught 191 sections with 4251 unique students in online, graduate, undergraduate, and RI courses in the Fall. Among these, 28% (1,206 students) were a part of the first time cohort.

The theme of this year's conference is Sharing and Sustaining Joy. Centering joy in teaching enables us to focus on community-building and the learning process at a time when these connections are urgent for both faculty and students. By choosing what joy-centered pedagogy expert Eileen Vogl Camfield calls “vigor over rigor” we can build a more joyful classroom experience that is grounded neither in the erasure of struggles nor in toxic positivity. This conference will bring together leaders in the College of Liberal Arts and The Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) to learn from each other and build our professional expertise around student success planning for joy in our classrooms as a source of resiliency, engagement, and a sense of belonging for our students and ourselves.