From the Nominator

"We launched Faculty at Home (F@H), a branded, participatory, digital series that integrates academic scholarship across disciplines of Middlebury College and its graduate programs. F@H has attracted an audience from all over the globe, including college parents and alumni from all programs. The series is a unique model for Middlebury and has been spotlighted as one of the silver linings of the pandemic.  

After the pandemic shut down events and general opportunities to be together in 2020, two faculty members expressed interest in spotlighting the academic expertise of their colleagues who had all lost traditional avenues to share their scholarship. Advancement staff were looking for new ways to offer content-rich programming for alumni engagement. The provost's office helped make the connections and by April we had a team in place. The F@H team is composed of faculty leads, advancement (alumni, communications, special events, operations), provost's office, and media services.     

Meeting regularly, the team determined goals, deliberated on a name, engaged feedback from the alumni board, and built the infrastructure. We launched a homepage for upcoming events and recordings of past webinars. We designed branding for communications and developed and implemented an integrated communications plan for promotion. We finalized a format to keep the audience’s attention and encourage audience participation in both pre-talk online chat and Q&A, all within the Zoom framework.  

We have seen a fivefold increase in engagement over in-person faculty events. We have grown and sustained constituent interest."

From the Judges

This program highlighted the importance of strong faculty relationships and collaboration across campus areas. It provides an opportunity to highlight faculty while also educating faculty on the importance of their involvement in alumni and prospective student engagement.