(476a) Trends in Teaching-Focused Faculty in Chemical Engineering

Teaching-focused (non tenure track) faculty make up 15% - 25% of chemical engineering departments. These faculty not only teach core chemical engineering courses, they are also often the faculty in charge of ABET, serve as advisors both to students and to student groups, perform engineering educational research and lead the departments in implementing new teaching strategies. There have been recent strides to help support these faculty including creating pathways for promotion and funds to attend conferences. In addition, the educational division of AICHE has sponsored a virtual support group for chemical engineering teaching-focused faculty that meets monthly on zoom. This group of 60 faculty has discussed ways to get involved in AICHE and ASEE, ways to get involved in engineering educational research and ways to advocate for themselves at their individual institutions. This prompted the authors to create a survey to the members of the group (and beyond) in order to find ways that the faculty are currently being supported and to explore ways that this support can be extended. The purpose of this talk is to share the results on this survey and discuss ways that these faculty can be supported by their peers and institutions.