CAFE PROGRAMS & OPPORTUNITIES
Blackwell Talks
Faculty Preferences for Resources and Teaching in Honors
Scholars: Adrienne Sudbury and Kevin Schattenkirk-Harbaugh
When: September 28, 12:00-12:50
Where: Virginia Room
Light lunch provided.
Developmental Advising
Facilitator: Dr. Renee Gutiérrez
When: September 29, 2026, 3:30-5:00 pm
Where: Allen 308
Register: https://businesslongwood.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_40fQKthjxHw47X0
Are you new to advising? Are you looking for a theory refresher, or a reminder tour of Longwood’s technology for advising? Join CAFE’s workshop where you’ll meet to get information, discuss advising case studies, and look at what DegreeWorks and myLongwood can do for you.
Saving for Retirement
When: October 20, 3:30-5:00 pm
Where: CAFE Classroom, Allen 308
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/jTp9kXwkd1RHrtV69
Have you put off saving for retirement, or are you wondering if you have done everything you can? Join CAFE as we host AJ Sanfratelli, a financial expert who has worked for years with working folks looking to develop a nest egg for retirement. Faculty in all career stages are welcome to attend.
What Is “Significant Learning” in the Age of AI? A Faculty Learning Community
Hosted by: Alecia Blackwood and Jacob Dolence
Dates: Friday, November 6 and Friday, November 13 (Spring 2027 dates TBD)
Time: 1:00–2:15 PM
Location: Allen 308
Format: Hybrid
Sign up at https://bit.ly/4iPQD53
Join us for a CAFE Faculty Learning Community focused on exploring what significant learning looks like in the age of AI. Using Dee Fink’s Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses as our anchor text, we will read, reflect, and think together about how emerging technologies are reshaping course design, teaching, and learning and what thoughtful, learning-centered AI pedagogy can look like across disciplines. Our focus will remain on the learning: What do we want students to know, do, connect, and carry with them beyond our courses? How might AI support those goals? Where might it complicate or undermine them? And how can our pedagogical choices help students engage with AI critically, ethically, and purposefully? Together, we will explore how principles of significant learning can inform decisions about whether, when, why, and how to use AI in our teaching, keeping learning goals and pedagogical purpose at the center.
Participants will leave with a redesigned or newly developed course, feedback from colleagues across disciplines, and a clearer sense of whether, when, why, and how AI fits within their teaching and when it does not. Faculty from all disciplines are welcome. No AI expertise is needed: just curiosity, conversation, and a willingness to rethink teaching and learning together.
FOCUSED WORK SESSIONS
Pomodoros: Focused Work Sessions
Join CAFE for Pomodoro sessions again this semester. All faculty and staff are welcome. The sessions use a focused cycle: set a goal, work towards it for 25 minutes, and then take a five-minute break. You will repeat the cycle three times. Choose the session that fits your needs and attend when you are able.
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Wonderful Women @ Work with Sarah Tanner-Anderson--your ACE VA Women’s Network co-institutional representative Join women faculty and staff for a welcoming, focused work session that provides dedicated time to make progress on the work that matters most to you. |
Mondays@ 8:30-10:00 am @ https://longwood-edu.zoom.us/my/tannerandersonsl
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Focused Work Pomodoro with Pam Tracy A focused work session where faculty and staff can set aside time to make progress on the work that matters most to them. |
Wednesdays 9:00-10:30 am @ https://longwood-edu.zoom.us/my/tracypj |
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Research Pomodoro with Renee Gutiérrez Join fellow faculty for a session dedicated to making progress on your research, whether you are writing, analyzing data, reviewing literature, or working on another aspect of a research project. |
Mondays @ 3:30-5:00pm @ https://longwood-edu.zoom.us/j/98290614088?pwd=tufEbzYmPSPe0y9N0C2pHU9TdbaRx0.1 |
ACROSS CAMPUS
AI Conversations @ Greenwood Library
Mind Meets Machine: Navigating Mental Health in the Age of AI
Dr. Maureen Walls-McKay, Associate Vice President for Health & Well-Being/Director of CAPS
When: September 29, 4:00 pm
Where: Library 209
Authors Reading Series with Reception and Author Meet & Greet
Author Steven Leyva
Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 7 pm, Allen 101
Contact Dr. Mary Carroll-Hackett @ carrollhackettma@longwood.edu with any questions.
Bring the Author Reading Series into your course! Encourage your students to attend and use the editable reflection assignment to help them connect the experience to your course content and learning goals. Go to https://solomon.longwood.edu/cafe/upcoming-events-2026-2027/ to download the reflection assignment.
Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace, Scalawag, Poetry, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor, and former co-director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.
Midterm Elections 2026: Fostering Civic Engagement in a Polarized Climate Webinar
When: Thursday, October 1, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Where: Allen 308
Register here: https://forms.gle/CRx7hhBrX1apurTi9
Contact Kris Paal @ paalkm@longwood.edu for more information
The Constructive Dialogue Institute is hosting a free webinar exploring how campuses can use the midterm elections as an opportunity to foster meaningful conversations about civic engagement. Participants will explore what is shaping student attitudes toward the midterms, barriers to civic engagement, and strategies for developing election programming that builds trust, connection, and engagement. CAFE and the CommonTies Collaborative will host a live viewing of the webinar.
Wonderful Women @ Walk
with Sarah Tanner-Anderson and Pam Tracy, your ACE VA Women’s Network co-institutional representatives!
Looking for an opportunity to connect with other women leaders across campus? Join us for a “walk and talk” hour to get some fresh air, network with others, and log some steps! There are three opportunities to engage this fall, and we would love to see you at any – or all – of our walks. Lace up on September 29, October 27, and/or December 1 from 8:30-9:30. Please sign up here: Wonderful Women @ Walk – Fill out form
We will meet at the fountain behind Rotunda on Beale Plaza to get started!
7 Habits
When: Thursday and Friday, October 22 & 23; you need to commit to both days.
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. each day
Where: Moton Museum
Facilitators: Certified Longwood University faculty and staff facilitators
Register here: https://forms.gle/689ShdMnUDQrKxX87
Have you ever wondered… How do highly effective people prioritize what truly matters?
What habits help leaders manage change and build trust?
How can I align my daily decisions with my long-term values?
If these questions resonate with you, we invite you to join your colleagues for the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® Signature Program. During this interactive two-day program, you’ll explore principles of effectiveness, strengthen both personal and professional leadership, and develop practical tools to improve communication, teamwork, and productivity. Sponsored by Longwood’s SNVC Leadership Institute, the program is free for all Longwood University and Hampden-Sydney College faculty and staff.
Your participation in this program is an investment in yourself—and in the campus community. By learning and practicing the 7 Habits together, we create a shared language of effectiveness that strengthens both individual growth and collective success.
SYNC YOUR CALENDARS: 2026-2027 CAFE SIGNATURE PROGRAMS
Pre-Semester Pedagogy Series January 6-7, 2027
Faculty Well-Being Month April 2027
2027 Teaching and Learning Institute May 18, 2027