Staff HR Policy D-753.00
Institutional Effectiveness Criterion: Culture

Professional Development Policy

The professional development program at NMC exists for the following purposes:

1. To raise the scholarly, scientific, aesthetic, and professional accomplishments of faculty and staff.
2. To allow faculty and staff to keep up with the rapidly changing levels of knowledge and applied technology in their fields of instruction or activity.
3. To make possible the sharing with one's colleagues of ideas, knowledge, and skills gained in the professional development program experiences.
4. To bring to the classroom improved teaching that has been stimulated by more recently informed instruction.
5. To allow the teacher to return to the classroom as a student to gain a better understanding of the teaching and learning experience from the student's perspective.
6. To give form to the idea that the good teacher is a student, a researcher, an artist, a direct contributor in the dynamics of unearthing new truth and, as such, a role model to be imitated.
7. To serve as evidence to current or prospective faculty and staff that the College is interested in quality, that it regards scholarship and excellence in teaching with more than ordinary interest, and that it is willing to provide a practical means by which faculty and staff members might take advantage of important and unique opportunities to develop he knowledge and skills relevant to their areas of expertise.
8. To increase the ability of the College to accomplish its mission and goals by adding to the knowledge and skills of its members.
9. To compensate for the relative isolation of Traverse City from major universities and centers of learning by encouraging faculty and staff to leave the area, if necessary, in order to study at those places where the latest knowledge and technology can be learned and the most current skills can be acquired and practiced.
10. To provide for leaves when the offerings most needed by faculty members are available, many of which are available and may be taken only during the off term.
11. To provide the College with the means to retrain its faculty and staff should that become necessary.
12. To add to the prestige of the College by adding to the prestige of its members.
    The professional development program is flexible enough to meet the needs of the College and the faculty and staff members; varied enough in its choices to allow members of the College community to take advantage of opportunities when and where they become available; open to all its members, even the newest; and generous enough to make possible the accomplishment of the professional development goals of faculty and staff members. 
    The Director of Human Resources, in conjunction with the appropriate faculty and staff, is responsible for the development and publication of any procedures or guidelines which may be necessary to effectively administer this policy.

If any provision(s) of this policy or set of bylaws conflicts with laws applicable to Northwestern Michigan College, including the Community College Act of 1966, the Freedom of Information Act, or the Open Meetings Act, as each may be amended from time to time, such laws shall control and supersede such provision(s).