Michigan State University

Member since 2003

Why did Michigan State University chose to join the CIRTL Network?              

Michigan State University (MSU), through the Graduate School (GS), agreed to be included on the initial CIRTL proposal because of two primary factors.  First, in theory it appeared that the basic concepts or pillars of CIRTL embraced many of the professional development activities already in place at MSU (e.g., Certification in College Teaching, Teaching Assistant Program) or under development (e.g., PREP [Planning, Resilience, Engagement, Professionalism]; MSU’s career and professional development model for graduate students and post-docs).  Second, Dean Klomparens had a long-standing professional relationship with Dr. Austin (Co-PI of CIRTL) and was convinced that involvement with CIRTL, if funded, would be beneficial to graduate education at MSU.  At the time the proposal was funded, the GS took the leadership on attempting to implement or expand programs to more fully meet the goals of CIRTL.  The challenge was that MSU did not have CIRTL funds for many of these improvements.  

Michigan State University’s CIRTL Network Team 

MSU’s CIRTL Network Team consists of two groups of faculty, staff, and administrators, many of whom have joint appointments with the GS.  These teams are the GS Evaluation Team and the MSU CIRTL Steering Committee.  The GS Evaluation Team (started at the time PREP was under development) is composed of GS Staff Members (under the direction of Dean Klomparens) who are responsible for developing, directing, and evaluating the career and professional development programs at MSU associated with PREP.  MSU uses PREP programs to help infuse the pillars of CIRTL into graduate education.  The Evaluation Team is composed of: Dr. J. Brockman, Dr. H. Campa, III, Dr. M. Helm, Mr. K. Johnston, Dr. T. Nunez, and Dr. J. Stoddart.  The MSU CIRTL Steering Committee is responsible for programming, directing, and evaluating the FAST (Future Academic Scholars in Teaching) Fellowship Program as well as providing guidance on implementing Network-wide programs at MSU.  The Steering Committee is composed of: Dr. H. Campa, III, Dr. D. Ebert-May, Dr. C. Fata-Hartley, Dr. J. Jackson, Mr. K. Johnston, Ms. E. Morrison, Dr. M. Urban-Lurain, Dr. C. Vergara, and Dr. S. Watts.