PFF Participation Tiers

UC's Preparing Future Faculty program offers three participation tiers to students. Each tier has requirements that students must complete in order to exit the program or advance to the next tier. Student progress is calculated utilizing activity points. Students receive activity points for participating in PFF activities. Once a student completes their desired tier, he/she/they will receive a decorative certificate and a signed letter of completion, outlining the tier requirements. Students must complete the application process prior to starting tier progress, and students must complete an exit survey in order to complete a tier. Students can request the exit survey from the program coordinator at gradpff@uc.edu. 

Student progress within PFF tiers is calculated through activity points. Students accumulate activity points by participating in PFF activities. Following participation in the activity, students must complete and submit an activity log to gradpff@uc.edu. Failure to do so will result in the omission of the completed activity from your PFF progress record. Activity logs must be completed and submitted within one month of the PFF activity date. Find a summary of PFF events and the correlated activity point values below. 

The following activities are worth five activity points:

• Participate in a PFF reading group
• Lead or Co-Lead a PFF reading group
• Attend a PFF-approved workshop 
• Join a PFF Coffee Hour
• Attend a PFF panel
• Certain workshops or other opportunities may be eligible for additional points as determined by the program coordinator                        

The following activities are worth fifteen activity points:

• Take and pass the Teaching Effectiveness course
• Take and pass the Academic Job Search course

The following are summaries of the three participation tiers offered by PFF. Each tier has different requirements and requires different levels of student involvement. All students must progress through the tiers, beginning with the PFF Participant tier. 

All admitted students start out in the Bronze Tier. This is the first tier and could be ideal for students with limited time or who are interested in seeing what PFF is all about. The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for students to complete the tier or advance to the next tier:

• Complete 15 total activity points
• Participate in one PFF reading group (5 pts)
• Attend one PFF-approved workshop or panel (5 pts)
• Attend one PFF coffee hour (5 pts)

The Silver Tier is the intermediate tier available through PFF. Students particularly interested in leading PFF opportunities could benefit from completing this tier. The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for students to complete the PFF Fellow tier or advance to the next tier:

• Complete 30 total activity points
• Complete the PFF Bronze Tier
• Lead or Co-Lead one PFF reading group (5 pts)
• Attend two of the following opportunities in any combination: (10 pts)
• Reading Groups
• Workshops
• Panels
• Coffee Hours

The Gold Tier is the most intensive tier available through PFF. Students interested in completing the PFF coursework could benefit from completing this tier. The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for students to complete the PFF Gold Tier:

• Complete 60 total activity points
• Complete the PFF Silver Tier
• Lead or Co-Lead one PFF reading group (two groups cumulatively) (5 pts)
• Attend two of the following opportunities in any combination: (10 pts)
• Reading Groups
• Workshops
• Panels
• Coffee Hours
• Pass one of the PFF courses, Teaching Effectiveness or the Academic Job Search (15 pts)