CHARTER

Preamble
CATLS provides faculty with the structure, support, and environment for development, advancement and renewal to generate innovative and critical conversations and activities focusing on teaching, learning, and scholarship.   The cumulative purpose of CATLS is to be a catalyst that integrates current and new activities in order to create a center for UMass Dartmouth's intellectual life.   CATLS also works to promote a vibrant, dynamic community of scholars/teachers who generate critical analysis and knowledge about teaching, learning, and scholarship across the disciplines.

Mission
CATLS supports the professorate in their efforts to advance their teaching, scholarship, and service through the creation of an infrastructure for cross-disciplinary conversations and the coordination of programs that generate innovative and critical intellectual discourse.

Objectives
CATLS will:

• Coordinate conversations, activities, and programs that generate innovative and critical intellectual discourse within the UMass Dartmouth community.
• Facilitate conversations and activities, as well as collaborative efforts, that develop teaching, learning, and scholarship initiatives on campus.  
• Connect the academic community to regional, national, and international initiatives regarding teaching, learning, and scholarship.
• Assess current campus offerings in order to support and identify gaps in opportunities and resources.
• Create and/or coordinate new opportunities for faculty development to fill gaps.
• Provide resources to faculty to support faculty development throughout a faculty member's career.
• Provide opportunities for and information about events in diverse formats (i.e. web site; newsletter; symposia; campus surveys and focus groups) that foster cross-disciplinary collaborations and conversation regarding teaching, learning, and scholarship.  
• Provide ways for the faculty to share the results of their work with the UMass Dartmouth community and beyond.
• Assess the effectiveness of the CATLS Advisory Committee and its charter in accomplishing its stated missions and objectives.