Running head: FACULTY PERSPECTIVE 1

A Stakeholder’s Perspective: Faculty Perspective

Hannah M. Modic

Kent State University

12/02/2019
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A Stakeholder’s Perspective: Faculty Perspective

The faculty collaboration proposal is a great plan on paper, but it is important to

understand the perspectives of stakeholders from both sides. For this project, Professor Paar

Conroy is the faculty stakeholder chosen to share her perspective and input. Professor Paar

Conroy offered valuable information to further my collaboration idea.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Proposal

The first part of the interview consisted of asking Professor Paar Conroy what she felt

were the strengths and weaknesses of my proposal. After explaining my proposal, Professor Paar

Conroy provided her thoughts and ideas.

Strengths

Professor Paar Conroy found my idea to be interesting and beneficial to faculty,

administration, and student life. She thought that a strength of my proposal was that it would

allow students to see their professors outside of the classroom and realize that they are normal

people. Additionally, she thought that this would be beneficial to the faculty members to see

their students outside of the classroom. Lastly, Professor Paar Conroy thought that this proposal

would better connect academic and student affairs by starting to build the bridge between faculty

and administration.

Weaknesses

Professor Paar Conroy found that my proposal could come up short if things were not

thoroughly defined and developed. She believes that a weakness could be that faculty might not

want to participate in the collaboration due to time and money constraints. As a full-time non-

tenure track faculty member, Professor Paar is required to teach a set number of classes each

semester. If she were to take on this collaboration program, she would struggle to find the time
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and motivation to participate. She suggested that this collaboration be compensable to faculty

members that volunteer. Additionally, she suggested that the proposal should include how this

would affect different types of faculty members and how the time limitation could be solved. For

example, she suggested that a person in her position should be able to drop a course load in order

to participate in the collaboration program.

Faculty Mission and Goals

Professor Paar Conroy believes that this proposal would support the mission and goals of

faculty members. First, this would support the responsibilities of a faculty member. Participating

in this type of collaboration program would fulfill a portion of a faculty member’s service

requirement. Although Kent State University does not focus on this requirement, it is still part of

a faculty member’s responsibility. Secondly, Professor Paar Conroy believes that this proposal

supports a faculty member’s mission and goals because any way that a professor can connect

with students outside of the classroom is beneficial. This helps to better a student’s education

because they are able to form relationships with their professors and therefore feel more

confident in the classroom.

Foreseen Challenges

Professor Paar Conroy expressed a few challenges that she foresees in enacting this

collaboration at Kent State University. The main challenge is whether faculty will be expected to

volunteer or will be compensated for their participation. This challenge would need to be worked

out at the administrative level at the university. Another foreseen challenge is that faculty

members will be taken away from their teaching program to participate in the collaboration. One

suggestion that was given was to focus on disciplines that have larger programs. For example,

the biology program has more faculty than the paralegal studies program.
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Offered Advice

Professor Paar Conroy offered multiple pieces of advice to help make the proposal a

reality. First, she suggested to research and determine who the decision-makers are for this type

of collaboration. After finding this information, she advised that I connect with those people and

ask for their input. She discussed that I should ask for suggestions from these individuals but to

still be the original author of the proposal. Next, she advised to break down the proposal into

smaller groups and figure out the proposal timeline. Lastly, she suggested presenting my

proposal in a strategic and detailed way. These suggestions will improve the possibility of

implementation.