About Us
Our Mission
Professional Growth & Development
The university invests in comprehensive support at all career stages, ensuring faculty have access to development opportunities, leadership training, and resources for success.
Recognition & Well-Being
By valuing work-life balance, celebrating achievements, and fostering a welcoming workplace, UTRGV creates an environment where faculty feel supported and motivated.
Transparency
Streamlined systems and clear policies promote fairness, clarity, and trust, enabling faculty to thrive and focus on achievements and meaningful contributions.
Collaboration & Communication
The structure encourages building bridges and robust communication, ensuring faculty are connected, informed, and able to collaborate across disciplines
Achieving faculty success requires integrating our institutional mission and values, resulting in a holistic approach to our operational design. Evaluating a faculty’s life cycle at the institution, with the recognition that development is not mutually exclusive from policy or how we recognize achievements. Our 360 model enables us to create programming that is intentional about what we do at the institution, ensuring faculty have agency in their work and are recognized for it. Each quadrant informs the other culminating in intentional faculty programming. By integrating these core components into every aspect of our operations, OFA delivers a true 360-degree model—one that empowers faculty, recognizes their achievements, supports their growth, and ensures their well-being. This comprehensive approach drives both individual and collective success, advancing the university’s mission and student success.
To get the job done, the OFA team comprises nine dedicated professionals. They collaborate seamlessly to bring our mission and values to life. Drawing on a wide range of expertise, team members work together to design and implement programs, coordinate initiatives, and create resources that directly support faculty at every career stage. By fostering open communication, leveraging individual strengths, and prioritizing shared goals, our team ensures that each component of our 360-degree operational model is executed with intention and excellence. This united approach allows us to deliver holistic support, celebrate achievements, and drive continuous improvement—ultimately advancing faculty success and the broader mission of the university.
Our office structure comprises three internal units: faculty affairs, faculty systems, and faculty success. Each group is composed of cross-trained professionals who work collaboratively to ensure comprehensive support for all faculty members. The Faculty Affairs unit manages faculty policies, reviews, analytics, employment actions, HR liaison duties, compliance, faculty files, reports, separations, grievances, and faculty recruitment. Faculty Systems focuses on faculty institutional procedures, communications and marketing, faculty system tools, course evaluations, syllabus management, IT liaison responsibilities, and events. Faculty Success focuses on awards, workshops, communities of practice, institutional development memberships, new faculty convocation, leadership development, events, faculty review, tenure, and promotion. Together, these teams embody a seamless, integrated approach to faculty support, reflecting the office’s commitment to holistic service and operational excellence.
Our Team Principles
- Holistic Support: We provide comprehensive resources and guidance, from onboarding to retirement, ensuring their personal and professional needs are met.
- Continuous Feedback: We provide regular communication and feedback loops keeping faculty informed, engaged, and connected.
- Collaborative Culture: We build bridges and encourage cross-institutional collaboration, making sure faculty are part of a unified, supportive community.
Each group is cross-trained and works seamlessly togther, which brings several key results benefitting faculty and the institution.
Comprehensive Support for Faculty
By having specialized units that are also cross-trained, the team ensures that faculty receive holistic support. No matter the issue-whether it's related to policy, systems, or professional development-faculty can access knowledgeable support without being redirected or facing gaps in service.
Streamlined Processes and Communication
Collaboration between units mean that processes (like employment actions, compliance, course evaluations, and events) are managed efficiently. Faculty don't have to navigate complex bureaucracies; instead they benefit from coordinated efforts that reduce redundancy and confusion.
Enhanced Innovation and Responsiveness
Cross-training allows team members to share insights and best practices across units. This fosters innovation, as ideas from one area (e.g. faculty success workshops) can inform improvements in another (e.g. policy updates or system tools).
Consistent Faculty Experience
With seamless collaboration, faculty experience consistent support throughout their career lifecycle- from onboarding and development to evaluation and recognition. This continuity helps build trust and engagement within the faculty community.
Agility in Addressing Challenges
When challenges arise the integrated team can quickly mobilize resources and expertise from across units to respond effectively.
Bridging Our Campus Community
OFA made an intentional effort to be present and available at both campuses to accomodate and improve our responsiveness to our faculty.
The organizational design of OFA ensures that faculty benefit from a unified, responsive, and innovative support system. This not only enhances individual faculty success, but also strengthens the university's mission and community as a whole.