ABSTRACT
Institutions of all types attend to their educational missions, but at a research university, the focus on good teaching feels countercultural. Teaching centers on research university campuses face unique challenges as they work to fulfill their mission of improving teaching and student learning. Institutional requests for faculty development programs that sponsor or support pedagogical innovations in general education, blended and online learning, first-year seminars, learning and teaching commons, and new classroom spaces have mushroomed over the last few years. The instructional consultants at the Schreyer Institute have implemented a variety of methods to increase faculty awareness and use of services. A key factor in the success of SciFri is building trust and community among faculty, all of whom are time-poor and overcommitted but care deeply about teaching. The common thread running through these narratives is the creativity and adaptability needed to make a teaching center flourish at a research university.
