The Center for Faculty Excellence and Innovation is having its grand opening for its new location on September 21, 2015 at 2PM in Suite 173 of Gee Library where it hopes to expand to grow and reach more faculty.

Led by Dr. Julie McElhany, the Center for Faculty Excellence and Innovation (CFE) is “striving to be the One Stop Shop for faculty,” according to McElhany. CFEI provides many different services for the over 330 faculty members of Texas A&M University-Commerce and its mission includes teaching and learning, scholarship, and service. Typical services that can be found at the CFEI is help with Pearson learning and eCollege course development, help with research and publishing in hopes of tenured promotion, and help with course technology development. McElhany says that while many faculty are educated in their specific discipline they may not necessarily know how to teach different types of student learners and the CFEI is here to help them.

McElhany also hopes to see the involvement of faculty within the center grow. Having faculty collaborate and teach other faculty could be beneficial to both parties. The CFEI also has collaborative spaces and technology specifically for faculty to come together and get away from their office to help each other and learn together. The importance of a center like this is undeniable to McElhany. She believes that after hiring a new faculty member, the CFEI has a responsibility to assist them in their success. If faculty are having trouble performing up to par students are prone to have the same issues. The CFEI is on campus to help avoid those situations.

The Grand Opening will kick off with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony with remarks from Dr. Julie McElhany, Dr. Adolfo Benavides, and Dr. Dan Jones that will be followed with a wine and cheese reception. That will then kick off a weeklong celebration which will include many short twenty minute informative sessions for faculty to attend throughout the week. These sessions include speed sessions (many that are faculty led), some DIY clinics, and a couple of technology innovation sessions to help faculty see all that the center has to offer. Attending at least six of these sessions will get faculty entered into a drawing for an Apple watch and an iPad mini.