Research on effective faculty development reveals that faculty value not only the intellectual stimulation it inspires, but also the new collegial community established through diversity work. Participants also are frequently surprised to discover that faculty development activities validate good teaching and good teachers. They feel greater permission to take more risks as teachers and scholars. When faculty themselves are suddenly students again tackling unsettling new material, they reconnect in new ways to their own students' experiences. Faculty development initiatives also lead to other kinds of institutional change.
Professors begin to realize the value of a diverse student body.
They press for new hires that might expand the campus' expertise on diversity. They continue to work for curricular changes both in general education courses and in their own departmental majors programs. Faculty development is at the core of integrating diversity into the definition of educational excellence. It can be a powerful source of both individual and institutional renewal, but it requires time and serious individual and institutional commitment. The moment is upon faculty members to either make history or simply record its passage.