The symposium model is a quarter-century-old innovation faculty collaborative problem solving model created by The University of Georgia to initiate faculty-led campus change. See the Morris article (available under the shared readings tab) for a two-page summary of the symposium model. Here is a two-page article that introduces the symposium model we will be using:

• Morris, L. V. (2008). Faculty Engagement in the Academy. Innovative Higher Education; New York, 33(2),
  67–69.

In the summer of 2019 the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and the Faculty Senate hosted a summer symposium. For the DU 2019 summer symposium, thirty four faculty from across campus came together for two days to engage in collective problem solving around an issue of shared concern: Creating collaborative department cultures and chairs.  This was a new kind of opportunity for faculty, one that brought together colleagues from across disciplines and ranks to discuss big ideas, possibilities, and opportunities. We gathered together with a shared purpose: Improving the lives of faculty members in their department. We know that being within a truly fair and fundamentally just collaborative depart culture and climate is among most important interventions for the quality of faculty life.  That quality of life is what predicts affective commitment to institutional goals and challenges that require innovations across boundaries and disciplines. The presence of open, fair, and transparent departmental deliberation and decision processes and a departmental leader who sees it as their primary responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the process is a necessary condition of a collaborative climate. Such a climate both requires and generates faculty commitment, belonging, and results in greater professional success and satisfaction.

Symposium Implementation Timeline