Faculty Success
is Student Success

College of Liberal Arts Student Success
Professional Development Conference

Faculty Success is Student Success:
College of Liberal Arts Student Success Professional Development Conference

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.

Conference Info

August 13, 2026
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Lory Student Center

Registration is closed

Conference Schedule

Workshop Descriptions

Dates and Compensation

This conference will be held on the CSU campus August 13, 2026.

CCAF attendees will be compensated with a $200 stipend.

Registration is closed. If you are interested in being added to the waitlist, please contact Annie Krieg at Annie.Krieg@colostate.edu.

Conference Schedule

Conference Resources

Sharing and Sustaining Joy

Tuesday, August 13, 2026

	Room	Topics
8:30 – 9:00 am	LSC, University Ballroom	Check in, light breakfast
9:00 – 9:45 am	LSC, University Ballroom	Introductions, with remarks from Dean Thorson
9:45 – 10:30 am	LSC, University Ballroom	Student Panel on Joy, with audience Q&A
10:30 – 10:45 am		Break
10:45 – 12:00 pm	LSC, University Ballroom	Keynote Address, David Pyle
12:00 – 12:55 pm	LSC, University Ballroom	Lunch
12:55 - 1:00 pm	--	Move to breakout rooms

Keynote: Fueling the Joy: What are we REALLY teaching when we're teaching?

Keynote Address:

The syllabus is one thing. The lesson plan is another. But what are we REALLY teaching that students will carry with them for the rest of the week - or for the rest of their lives? How much of the education experience comes from planning - and how much comes from the unspoken and the unplanned surprise? During this session, we'll talk about how to keep your energy level high, how to be open to surprise, and how we create an environment that fuels joy in the classroom. And we'll have some fun along the way.

Keynote Speaker: David Pyle

David teaches in the Arts Management and Green+Gold Interdisciplinary programs for Colorado State University. His 35-year career has been fueled by education in the arts and chemistry. David's current research interests include interdisciplinary studies in art-making and community engagement for which he was awarded the 2024 CSU Emerging Community Engagement Scholarship Award. He has piloted several student-led mural projects around campus. Prior to joining CSU, he managed consumer international brands in artist's products and served as Publisher for the largest media brands in the fine art-making and crafting categories. He’s the author of over 100 published articles on art-making materials and process as well his book, What Every Artist Needs to Know About Paints and Colors, with Krause, 2000. In 2023-25, he developed and launched a 17-part video education series for the International Art Materials Trade Association (NAMTA) - and he’s a 2026 inductee in the NAMTA Hall of Fame.

During the remainder of the conference, we invite you to choose one of three breakout sessions during each hour.

	Option 1 LSC 372-374	Option 2 Hybrid / LSC 376	Option 3 LSC 378
1:00 - 1:50 pm	Welcome to the Slow Zone, Alyson Huff	Teaching Close Reading Skills, Karen Montgomery Moore	Speak Up, Speak Out: Words Ignite, Debates Enlighten!, Pat Mahoney
2:00 - 2:50 pm	Mental Health Mindfulness in and beyond the Classroom, Aaunterria Bollinger-Deters	Sharing and Sustaining Joy by Building Relationships Between CCAF and Academic Advisors, Keri Canada, Joanna Doxey, Caitlin Kotnik, Jessie Stewart	Beyond the One-Shot: Information Literacy Integration, Monica Latham and Heather Moon
3:00 - 3:50 pm	Reimagining the University Art Museum as a Space for Teaching and Connection for All, Xinran Yuan, Suzanne Hale, Theresa McLaren	Writing to Discern: Helping Students Find Joy in Ethical AI Decisions, Leslie Davis and Annie Halseth	Doing Leadership off the Tenure Track, Elena Windsong, Connie Fellmann, Tom Conway, Annie Krieg

Workshop Descriptions

Each of our workshops is aligned with TILT’s CSU Teaching Effectiveness Framework (TEF) and can be applied towards professional development in the Teaching Effectiveness Initiative (TEI). The TEI is a voluntary professional development program that provides recognition to faculty invested in growing their teaching practice. Participants in the TEI will receive a Domain Certificate of Achievement after receiving 10 development experience units (DEU) in one domain. Each of the Faculty Success is Student Success Conference sessions is 1 DEU. For faculty to earn the DEU’s towards TEI domain certificates, they must submit a post-implementation reflection form discussing the implementation of the teaching strategies they learn during the conference.

Option 1 Breakout Sessions

Welcome to the Slow Zone

TILT TEF Alignment: Classroom Climate

Presenter(s): Alyson Huff

Description: Students’ lives get hectic and busy. They may show up in the classroom distracted and anxious. They may feel rushed to summarize skipping over details, or look for shortcuts on the ‘tldr’ assignments, in part because we unintentionally push them that way. But we can use simple writing-based techniques to help “prepare the mind for a state of learning” so students can get it out, see hope, and then be ready to focus on class. (Vidrine-Isbell, Writing, Learning, and the Happy Brain) When we slow the thought down through writing, we support student well-being and mental health (Pennebaker, Opening Up By Writing It Down). And shifts as simple as encouraging hand-written notes or journal entries, incorporating the kinesthetic pen-to-paper practice of handwriting, not typing, create wider brain connectivity beneficial to learning (Van der Weel and Van der Meer, Handwriting but not typewriting…implications for the classroom). This session shares ‘slow zone’ practices applicable in any course (private freewriting, verbatim reading with active listening, end of semester mapping reflection) which ‘force’ class to slow down, spend time digging in, and genuinely hear one another, without sacrificing learning.

Learning Objectives:

Experience what slowing down feels like
Notice the value of reflection
Believe that taking time can lead to deeper learning
Feel supported to try a learned technique next semester

Hybrid: No

Mental Health Mindfulness in and beyond the Classroom

TILT TEF Alignment: Inclusive Pedagogy

Presenter(s): Aaunterria Bollinger-Deters

Description: This session is designed to be an interactive workshop in which the presenter and session participants work together to discuss how or if mental health management is prioritized in the classroom at the college level. Through a dissection of strategies for lecture, assessment, course content, and student engagement, we will analyze social emotional skillsets that are fostered by course design and can be adapted into different disciplines. Though discussions like this often center what we as instructors can do to support students, I want to reframe this discussion to function as both an open inquiry into mental health mindfulness that facilitates social emotional wellbeing for students in and beyond the classroom as well as offering a space of transparency and support regarding how instructors manage their own
mental health needs with regard to teaching, grading, mentoring, and research. We will interrogate how instructors lead by example where mental health is concerned.

Learning Objectives:

Explore strategies for mental health mindfulness and social emotional growth within and beyond the classroom setting.
Discuss how various instructors practice mental health management for themselves and assess how to use those foundations to better connect with students regarding their own mental health awareness

Hybrid: No

Reimagining the University Art Museum as a Space for Teaching and Connection for All

TILT TEF Alignment: Instructional Strategies

Presenter(s): Dr. Leah Holz, Instructor, LLC, & Elizabeth Sink, Honors Program

Description: As a teaching museum, the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art’s mission is to invite individuals to engage with art and each other to inspire fresh perspectives and wonder. The museum is interested in becoming a more active and relevant resource for teaching and learning across the university: not only for the arts, but for faculty and students working in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and beyond. This interactive workshop invites faculty into a collaborative conversation around museum collections and upcoming exhibitions, many of which engage urgent social, historical, scientific, technological, and environmental questions that resonate far beyond art history or studio practice.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will identify potential connections between upcoming museum exhibitions and their own teaching or disciplinary interests.
Participants will identify at least one actionable way to integrate museum exhibitions, collections, or object-based, experiential learning into their 2026-27 teaching.
Participants will collaboratively generate practical ideas for engaging students with the museum through curricular activities.

Hybrid: No

Option 2 Breakout Sessions

Teaching Close Reading Skills

TILT TEF Alignment: Inclusive Pedagogy

Presenter(s): Andrew Swanson, TILT Accessibility Specialist

Description: A hybrid workshop from TILT Accessibility Specialists to prepare faculty to ensure our electronic systems and content support our community in compliance with state and federal laws and are accessible in a manner that allows everyone in our community to learn, thrive, and succeed.

Hybrid: Yes

Sharing and Sustaining Joy by Building Relationships Between CCAF and Academic Advisors

TILT TEF Alignment: Curriculum/Curricular Alignment

Presenter(s): Keri Canada, Joanna Doxey, Caitlin Kotnik, Jessie Stewart

Description: This roundtable discussion will explore how intentional collaboration between CCAF and academic advisors can strengthen both student support and faculty engagement across the institution. While faculty and advisors often work toward the same goals, their efforts can become disconnected because of differing responsibilities, communication structures, and institutional silos. This session will focus on strategies for building stronger partnerships grounded in trust, communication, and shared responsibility for student success. When professionals feel supported by one another and connected through shared purpose, they are more likely to experience engagement, fulfillment, and a stronger sense of community in their work.

Learning Objectives:

Discuss ways to create more consistent collaboration between advising and faculty, including coordinated outreach, shared student support practices, early intervention efforts, and relationship-building across departments
Share experiences, challenges, and successful practices from their own campuses while collectively identifying opportunities to build more connected systems of support
Examine how collaborative relationships between advisors and faculty contribute to a more positive institutional culture.

Hybrid: Yes

Writing to Discern: Helping Students Find Joy in Ethical AI Decisions

TILT TEF Alignment: Feedback and Assessment

Presenter(s): Leslie Davis and Annie Halseth

Description: Student voice is essential for authentic learning, yet writing assignments may focus on rubric guidelines rather than what each student has to offer. Additionally, the ease of generative AI threatens to remove what makes each student unique, even if they attempt to use it simply for sentence-level concerns rather than revising content. This workshop directly engages Sharing and Sustaining Joy by reframing one of the most fraught topics in higher education right now. Faculty exhaustion around AI is real; so is student anxiety. Writing-to-discern offers a low-stakes, high-impact pedagogical move that honors student autonomy, reduces faculty surveillance burden, and treats ethical reasoning as generative rather than punitive.

This workshop introduces participants to a writing-to-discern approach that reframes AI ethics from a compliance problem into an opportunity for self-knowledge, intellectual play, and value clarification. We’ll discuss how writing-to-discern shifts the affective register of AI conversations from policing to using AI as an object of inquiry (Basgier, 2024). Drawing on Basgier and Wilkes (2025) “unsettled middle” between AI integration and refusal and Palmquist’s (2020) writing-to-engage spectrum, participants will have an opportunity to engage in writing-to-discern and leave with concrete strategies for incorporating ethical discernment into their courses.

Learning Objectives:

Adapt at least one writing-to-discern activity from the AI Ethical Discernment Worksheet for use in a Fall 2026 course, identifying where it fits within their existing curriculum and learning outcomes
Articulate how reflective, values-based writing assignments can address AI ethics while sustaining joy and agency for both faculty and students — connecting the Teaching Effectiveness Framework's domains of inclusive learning environments and meaningful assessment

Hybrid: Yes

Option 3 Breakout Sessions

Speak Up, Speak Out: Words Ignite, Debates Enlighten!

TILT TEF Alignment: Instructional Strategies

Presenter(s): Pat Mahoney

Description: This presentation introduces attendees to the creative use of the debate format as an instructional strategy focused on enhancing student motivation in a fun, inviting, and intellectually challenging classroom climate. As a pedagogical strategy, debates foster critical thinking using a structured format that encourages students to analyze and effectively communicate complex issues from multiple perspectives. Not only do debates build confidence through the dialogic power of argumentation, but they also promote intellectual empathy and personal humility by encouraging students to recognize and respond to alternative ways of understanding today’s wicked problems. While logic, evidence-based reasoning, and experience are essential features of debates, a core educational value includes promoting collaboration (rather than just winning) around the practice of civic discourse and engagement, thus helping students become informed citizens in an age of “fake news.”

Participants will be able to evaluate debate models across the following criteria:

Their ability to engage students in analyzing issues from multiple perspectives.
Effectively gather, organize, and orally communicate evidence-based arguments.
Appropriate public speaking that presents arguments to audiences clearly and persuasively.
Promotion of active listening and evaluation of opposing viewpoints.

Hybrid: No

Beyond the One-Shot: Information Literacy Integration

TILT TEF Alignment: Instructional Strategies

Presenter(s): Monica Latham and Heather Moon

Description: This session will share practical, scalable strategies for embedding information literacy into the student experience through faculty-library partnerships. Student Success Librarians will highlight approaches such as in-person library instruction, integrating peer research mentors, library chat and reference support, and asynchronous Credo modules embedded in Canvas. Participants will leave with adaptable ideas for integrating research support into courses in ways that promote student confidence, engagement, and academic success.

Learning Objectives:

Identify multiple methods for integrating information literacy into disciplinary coursework
Describe how peer research mentors and library support services can enhance student learning and help-seeking behaviors
Explore ways to embed asynchronous information literacy instruction into Canvas courses using tools such as Credo modules
Develop at least one actionable strategy for partnering with librarians to support student research and critical thinking skills

Hybrid: No

Doing Leadership off the Tenure Track

TILT TEF Alignment: N/A

Presenter(s): Elena Windsong, Connie Fellmann, Tom Conway, Annie Krieg

Description: During this panel, we will share our variety of experiences in serving in departmental, college, and administrative leadership positions as contract faculty. We will highlight some of the advantages and joys of having teaching faculty engage in leadership. We will also discuss some of the unique challenges of leadership for CCAF. The session is intended to be a dialogue between panelists and audience members. We will share experiences including serving official leadership roles such as department Undergraduate Director and ad hoc leadership opportunities from the college. Broadly, this panel will be of interest to any CCA faculty who are currently serving in leadership capacities or who wish to pursue leadership opportunities.

Learning Objectives:

Describe and engage in conversation about the advantages and challenges of engaging in departmental/administrative leadership for those off the tenure-track
Describe and engage in conversation about the department, college, and university-levels of support (or lack of structural support) for CCAF leadership
Develop an initial roadmap and strategies for increased CCAF involvement in leadership within departments and colleges

Hybrid: No

College of Liberal Arts

Faculty Success
is Student Success

College of Liberal Arts Student Success
Professional Development Conference