April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). SAAM is a national campaign that raises awareness and promotes education about sexual harassment, sexual violence, and how to prevent it. The Office of Gender Equity and Title IX encourages all employees to show your support for SAAM by completing your annual Beyond Compliance Training. 
Register here for the next Let’s Talk Title IX prevention course scheduled for April 11, from 2 - 3 p.m., or scan the enclosed QR code. This course counts as 1 hour of Beyond Compliance training. To stay up to date on other Title IX prevention programming and for information on how to report incidents, visit the Gender Equity and Title IX Instagram account.
April LinkedIn Learning Resource Toolkit
Spring is breaking through the cold and flowers will soon begin to bloom. It's also a time for learners to start learning. With that in mind, consider the April LinkedIn Learning Resource Toolkit, where you will find the April learning challenge, seasonal promotional ideas for April Fool’s Day and Earth Day, information about upcoming webinars, as well as new features coming to LinkedIn Learning!
The Virtual Gratitude Graffiti Project Launches Today, April 4
Practicing gratitude is one of the most reliable methods for increasing positivity and life satisfaction. For the sixth consecutive year, Kent State will participate in the Gratitude Graffiti Project, a practice of purposeful reflection and appreciation expressed through interactive art. The first three years consisted of poster boards filled of colorful post-it notes with sentiments of gratitude, as well as window displays reflecting window chalk expressions of thankfulness across all KSU campuses. In 2020, Gratitude Graffiti went virtual, and we continue that this year during the month of April.
The 2022 Gratitude Graffiti Project officially launches today, April 4! All employees are encouraged to add electronic sticky notes with messages of gratitude to our shared online Gratitude Boards. To get started, visit the Week 1 Gratitude Board, read and enjoy the contributions of others, then add your own note.
To add a message, click on a colored sticky note icon in the top right corner. Type your message of gratitude and format it as you wish. Next, choose a location for your sticky note. The board goes beyond what the screen initially displays. Use the grid in the bottom right corner to navigate around the board.
There will be a new board and prompt each week. Bookmark the Gratitude Graffiti landing page and stay tuned to your weekly Employee Wellness emails for links to each week's board. With questions about Gratitude Graffiti or other wellness offerings for faculty and staff, contact Employee Wellness at 330-672-0392, or wellness@kent.edu.
Get Acquainted with SPIN KSU eBike and eScooter Program
Employee Wellness is pleased to invite you to its FIRST in-person lunch and learn since early 2020! Outdoor activities will also be offered this spring, two of which will be in-person events centered on SPIN KSU.
Lunch & Learn: Get Acquainted with SPIN eBikes and eScooters, April 6, noon - 1 p.m.*
Kent State University partnered with SPIN to provide shared eBikes and eScooters, which became available last month on the Kent Campus and within the City of Kent for use by faculty, staff, students, and the community.
Join Employee Wellness and representatives from SPIN to learn all about this new program, including how to download and use the SPIN app, how to check-out, use, and return an eBike or eScooter, pricing structure, safety considerations, and more. A light lunch will be provided. Register for the lunch & learn.
*Please note this fast-approaching date and register by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 4.
Lunchtime Bike/Scooter Ride, April 20, noon - 1 p.m.
Check out an eBike or eScooter through the SPIN program or bring your bike from home for this group ride. A representative from SPIN will lead the group on a 30-minute ride around the Kent campus and surrounding community. Register for the ride.
Both events are open to all employees and are worth 10 points toward Tier 2 of the wellness rewards program.
For questions related to these events or other wellness offerings for faculty and staff, please contact Employee Wellness at wellness@kent.edu, or 330-672-0392.
Become a Collaborator: Design Innovation Offers Weekly Orientations
Spaces in the Design Innovation Hub are open to the Kent State Community, including students and employees. Attending one of the weekly DI Hub Orientations is the first step to gaining access to the DI Hub facilities.
Whether you are ready to become a collaborator or just curious to learn more, consider a one-hour orientation session to tour the DI Hub and gain information on the ecosystem, equipment and access. Learn more and register to attend.
Performance Evaluations Approaching
Performance evaluations for classified and unclassified employees will take place from April 15 through June 30, 2022.
As a reminder, access is available to the performance log that employees and supervisors can use throughout the year to record personal accomplishments, training and discussions.
Two webinars will be available for supervisors and managers. The first, "Navigating the Online Evaluation Process," will familiarize evaluators with the online assessment tool. The second webinar, "Assessing and Improving the Performance of Others," is a webinar for new managers and supervisors regarding how to evaluate employees.
Below are the registration links for the Performance Evaluation webinars:
Assessing and Improving the Performance of Others (BC 1 hr) March 29, 2022, 2 - 3 p.m.
Navigating the Online Performance Evaluation System March 30, 2022, 10 - 11 a.m.
Assessing and Improving the Performance of Others (BC 1 hr) May 19, 2022, 10 - 11 a.m.
Navigating the Online Performance Evaluation System May 12, 2022, 2 - 3 p.m.
Information, Training Aids and Supervisor Manuals are located on the Human Resources Performance Evaluation website. If you have any questions, please call Karen Watson at 330-672-4636 or email kswatson@kent.edu.
For All Full-time Tenure-track and Non-tenure-track Faculty - COACHE Survey Closes Soon
Last week, full-time faculty were invited to participate in a survey of faculty job satisfaction. Although there are many surveys that faculty are asked to complete, this one is unique because it was designed entirely to examine current job satisfaction compared to faculty at peer institutions. This survey research is part of a national program called the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), which has been operating from the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 2003.
Other climate studies conducted at Kent State have focused on all faculty, students, and staff. In contrast, COACHE specifically focuses on faculty themes including, but not limited to, department engagement, mentoring, research, shared governance and tenure and promotion.
Participation entails completing a 25-minute, web-based survey; a unique link to the survey is emailed to faculty directly from COACHE. To protect confidentiality and guarantee that the results of this survey cannot influence personnel decisions about individual faculty members, institutional research staff will disseminate survey results only with data aggregated in cells of five respondents or more, so that individual faculty and individual departments cannot be identified.
We welcome this opportunity to learn from an independent, research-driven, comparative study. Faculty views are especially important as Kent State University strives to attract and retain the best and brightest scholars and teachers and increase the satisfaction of all faculty. We believe that Kent State has the potential to be one of the best places for scholars to work, and with your help we can learn how best to support that goal. However, data from the COACHE study will be meaningful only if we have broad participation.
Thank you in advance for helping us through your participation in this study.
If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Dr. Susan Perry, Assistant Provost, Accreditation, Assessment and Learning at sperry31@kent.edu or 330-672-3931, or COACHE at coachefaculty@abtassociates.com.