Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu 
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, has added more resources for adjunct faculty who are unfamiliar with the university by incorporating an online Adjunct Academy into the orientation process.
            “We have two goals,” said SSU Provost Dave Todt. “First, we want to provide our adjunct faculty a way to know Shawnee State better and have resources and support available to them. The second goal is to increase the pool of adjuncts with qualified high school teachers to teach a dual credit class to seniors at their high schools.”
            The first meeting with 120 adjuncts began on Tuesday, Aug. 11 with a dinner, academy overview and introduction to SSU resources, procedures, reporting and various other services. A new “Shawnee State University Adjunct Faculty Handbook” was given out to the adjuncts with information and resources.
            The course is a six-week series of topics and readings on using technology to teach, recent cognitive psychology research on how students learn, and recent theories on encouraging student motivation.
            “It is not a required course, but we hope all adjuncts will take advantage of the resources,” Todt Said.
            The Adjunct Academy classes are intended to help the adjuncts deal with different types of students in the classrooms and increase awareness of teaching resources and support systems available to them at the university.
            “It’s a way for adjuncts to communicate with each other and to find information online easily as well as a professional development experience,” said Darrell Rudmann, assistant professor psychology and interim associate provost.
            Adjuncts taking the course will have a forum for sharing ideas and asking questions about teaching in general at Shawnee State. University training will be included in the academy on topics such as sexual harassment, emergency procedures and using technology.
            “This is a pilot project in a sense and we will learn from it,” Todt said.