New Faculty Program

All new tenure-track, clinical/teaching/practice, research, and associated faculty from all Ohio State campuses are encouraged and welcome to attend New Faculty Orientation. This includes those new to the faculty role and those new to Ohio State.

Registration for New Faculty Orientation is required. An email with details about the event will be sent to all registered participants in the weeks prior to New Faculty Orientation. 

New Faculty Orientation will be held in the Ohio Union. Several parking and travel options are available for NFO attendees:

• visit CampusParc to purchase a parking pass

  • If you have purchased a parking permit, you will park at the Ohio Union North or South Garage

  • If you have not purchased a parking permit, you will park at the Ohio Union South Garage

• the Campus Area Bus Service (CABS) is a free transit service provided by The Ohio State University Transportation and Traffic Management. CABS is dedicated to providing clean, reliable, and hassle-free transportation on and around Ohio State’s Columbus Campus

• the Central Ohio Transportation Authority (COTA) offers discounted fares to Ohio State faculty, staff, and students

• the Columbus area, including Ohio State, is a bike-friendly community. You may choose to find street parking around the campus area and bike to NFO

Although not required, all new tenure-track, clinical/teaching/practice, research, and associated faculty from all Ohio State campuses are strongly encouraged to attend New Faculty Orientation.

The Office of Academic Affairs will provide live captioning for events during orientation. If you require other accommodations such as interpretation to participate in orientation, please contact the OAA digital accessibility coordinator at admin-oaadac@osu.edu or indicate your needs during registration. Requests made 10 days prior to the event will generally allow seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

New faculty should reach out to their department chair (or dean/director of regional campuses) with questions about department and college orientations. New Faculty Orientation is meant to complement any unit-level orientation programming.

OAA’s New Faculty Orientation provides an overview of resources available to all new faculty across the university. College and department orientations will give new faculty more unit-specific and procedural information. 

The Office of Academic Affairs is principally responsible for New Faculty Orientation although the event comes together through the invaluable work of many different offices, chiefly the Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning. OAA thanks the members of the NFO planning committee for their work in planning this year’s event, including: 

• Helen Malone 
  Vice Provost for Academic Policy and Faculty Resources  
  Office of Academic Affairs 
• Kay Halasek  
  Director, Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning
• Stephen Begala
  Digital Communications Strategist, Office of Academic Affairs
• Jody Poth
  Program Director, Programs and Partnerships, Office of Academic Affairs
• Jason Homan
  Program Coordinator, Events and Programs, Office of Academic Affairs 
• Jo’Vanna Zanders
  Executive Assistant, Office of Academic Affairs

The New Faculty Workshops will occur in the spring, from January through April, and focus primarily on promotion and tenure processes, particularly relating to documenting your teaching, mentoring, research, and service. These sessions offer faculty a chance to focus on individual aspects of faculty life through interaction with leaders and experts from across campus. Additional information about this workshop series will be communicated to new faculty at a later date.

The Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) offers workshops throughout the year that focus primarily on teaching and instructional practices and mentoring resources for faculty. New faculty are encouraged to take advantage of ITL offerings throughout their teaching practice at Ohio State.  Additional information about ITL programming can be found on the ITL website.

The year-long FIT Program comprises both FIT mentoring cohorts and customized programming for new faculty to support them in their teaching roles at Ohio State. FIT mentoring cohorts of three to four new faculty members are led by experienced faculty at the university, all of whom are seasoned—and recognized—teachers and mentors. Cohorts typically meet monthly throughout the academic year.