Hamilton Sees Two Posts She Holds United Within Academic Affairs

INDIANAPOLIS – Some might look at Sharon Hamilton and see two hats, one for each of two posts she holds at IUPUI.

But Hamilton, who heads the Office for Professional Development and was appointed Associate Vice Chancellor(AVC) for Academic Affairs, says she believes the two jobs go hand-in-hand.

“I see the two areas of responsibility united within academic affairs,” she said.

Hamilton is also Associate Dean of the Faculties and Chancellor’s Professor of English. Hamilton still leads the work of the Center for Integrating Learning (COIL), which provides oversight for the IUPUI Principles of Undergraduate Learning through key initiatives such as the electronic student portfolio, Communities of Practice, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Themed Learning Communities. She has been a campus and national leader in teaching and learning, general education, electronic portfolios, and other vital areas of work for many years.

The Associate Vice Chancellor is in many ways a supporting role for the Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of Faculties, she said. A major priority is to provide ongoing support to the Executive Vice Chancellor in implementing his academic plan, she noted.

The Office for Professional Development, on the other hand, provides all the support it can to enhance excellence in teaching and learning at IUPUI and to enable faculty to be successful in promotion and tenure. “I see OPD helping to transform the campus and community learning environment for students and faculty, while enriching the academic life of faculty, documented through tenure and promotion and awards.”

“Our office oversees faculty life from hiring to retiring, including new faculty orientation, faculty development opportunities, advocacy, locating grant funding opportunities, campus-wide faculty awards, promotion and tenure, and opportunities for leadership,” Hamilton said. “My priority is to ensure that all of these streams of faculty life flow smoothly, and that faculty receive the support and opportunities they need for a successful career at IUPUI.”

Hamilton said she wants to transform OPD, originally conceived as a service organization, into a “culture of synergy between faculty and staff sharing expertise to improve student learning.” One initial aspect of this transformation will be to engage the OPD staff, most of whom have doctorate degrees, in providing to our stakeholders, upon whose support we are dependent, hardcore empirical evidence of the impact of OPD activities, workshops, and consultations on faculty life, teaching, student learning, and student engagement and retention. That will be accomplished, she says, through salary savings turned into research grants available to OPD staff who will collaborate with faculty and students in the research. Between five and 10 research studies this year and next year will focus on the impact of what the OPD is doing, with implications for what OPD should focus on in the future

“My academic life here at IUPUI has always focused on student learning, particularly through Principles of Undergraduate Learning and through our visionary approach to general education,” Hamilton said. “A priority is to keep student learning at the core of everything I do.”

Hamilton said she is focusing on enhancing the environments for learning at IUPUI in their broadest sense, from informal learning environments around campus to the formal learning environments in classrooms.

As a campus leader, Hamilton says her view of leadership is not someone out front – but underneath, providing as much as possible the support that is necessary.