The second "Campus Conversations" of the academic year will be held on Monday, Nov. 7, in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center Rotunda at 4 p.m.

The topic of the "Conversations" will be "Teaching." The event will be moderated by Faculty Senate Chair Fred Harris and will feature President Marc Johnson and Provost Kevin Carman.

Harris said the topic should provide plenty of discussion topics. He noted that faculty has wondered about the connection between the University's goal of reaching the Carnegie Classification of "R-1" or "High Research" university, which would seem to emphasize research, while also stressing excellence in teaching. Can the two goals be mutually inclusive? And, if excellence in teaching is to be emphasized in the future as the University ascends to "High Research" status, how should it measured?

Harris said other discussion topics could focus on teaching evaluations and the role evaluative processes play in helping faculty improve in-class performance.

Also, Harris said faculty have indicated an interest in learning more about the online course designed by the Association of College and University Educators (ACCUE) that has been implemented by Carman in an effort to ingrain more of the "best practices" that are associated with effective teaching and promote student success. The administration is gathering feedback from participants to decide if the University will bring this resource fully on board next fall.

Harris said the discussion of teaching comes at an opportune time, as the University is in the midst of hiring 400 new faculty members over the next few years. By fall 2017, 166 of the new 400 faculty positions will have been added.

"As we bring in more people, we need to remind them that teaching is important at our University," Harris said.