During a sunny week in mid-August, Yale welcomed to its community over seventy new faculty members in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the professional schools, as well as their spouses, partners, and families, and introduced the newcomers to the many resources that will help them to thrive at Yale. The incoming FAS scholars range from freshly minted Ph.D.s to senior faculty members and arrive with an astounding array of research interests: a scholar of the intersection of race, medicine, and markets; a specialist in Native American literatures, poetry, and poetics; a historian of medicine in the British slave trade; an art historian focusing on the cross-cultural study of early modern Africa and Latin America; and a professor of statistics and data science examining fairness and diversity in machine learning and artificial intelligence, to mention just a few.
A pre-orientation program held in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) familiarized new faculty members with Yale’s collections and the array of services provided by the University Library, as well as with the campus’s teaching spaces and classroom technology. The faculty also learned about resources for external research funding and, from the university’s communications specialists in the Office of Public Affairs & Communications, about how to present themselves and their research to the media. Participants even had the chance to engage in a mock television interview about their work, with a lively audience of new colleagues cheering them on (a takeaway: keep the message positive, focused, and brief).
Over the two days of the main orientation program, the FAS divisional deans introduced the faculty to a range of current and future initiatives at Yale. Program leaders shared their knowledge of the wealth of resources, including the art galleries, the Peabody Museum, the Title IX office, and the Yale Farm, available to support faculty members in their research and teaching.
The second day was devoted to teaching, including how to manage “shopping period,” the initial weeks of the semester that befuddle recent and long-time faculty alike. Alka Menon, a new assistant professor of sociology, appreciated engaging in orientation together with more senior professors, whose experiences elsewhere served “as a useful counterpoint to thinking about what to expect.” Menon found the “Teaching at Yale” session “especially helpful as a crash course in what makes Yale special.”
In a session entitled “The Unspoken Curriculum,” staff from the CTL urged all new faculty members to attend to inclusion and diversity as an essential element of their ongoing scholarly practice and discussed practical strategies for doing so. In smaller groups facilitated by veteran Yale professors, the new faculty generated additional questions, among them the issue of ideological diversity in the classroom and on campus. In lifecycle break-out sessions, younger scholars met with divisional deans while new senior faculty members were encouraged to bring the wisdom gleaned from teaching at other institutions to bear in their work at Yale.
Alanna Hickey, who joins the English department as assistant professor, found the orientation “incredibly helpful for practical reasons,” especially the session covering the tenure process with Divisional Dean for Humanities Amy Hungerford and, to her surprise, the session on framing research for the media. Hickey noted that, compared with colleagues beginning elsewhere without much orientation, “I feel I have a much better understanding of life across Yale and am better prepared to start my career here.”
New faculty members were not the only ones to enjoy a warm reception. Spouses and partners of incoming scholars became acquainted as they were given helpful advice on everything from grocery stores and dog parks to Yale Health services and work opportunities.
Sarah Cussler, partner of incoming Dean of Science and Professor of Mathematics Jeff Brock, found the two-day orientation for spouses, partners, and families to be “novel in concept and truly thoughtful in its delivery.” Moving inevitably involves disruption and goodbyes so, Cussler noted, “it was both a pleasure and a surprise to be so welcomed by the Yale community.”
Recruiters from the Yale Human Resources team met individually with participants to discuss job openings. Families bonded as they undertook a brisk walking tour of campus and downtown (though some tour-goers rode in strollers!) and as they explored the stunning collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
Cussler felt “truly celebratory” by the time the group reconvened with their faculty spouses and partners at the Yale Farm for pizza. Menon agreed, noting that she was “particularly enchanted by the closing social” as “a great way to meet scholars across disciplines” and suggesting that the farm “may indeed boast the best pizza in New Haven.” While scholars new to Yale strengthened connections made over the past few days and introduced partners and family members, children played on the grassy hill above the farm and begged their parents for playdates with newfound friends. As the week drew to a close, a community began to come together.