Tbers, At the last TB we talked about faculty workload. Below, Dr. Michael Siegel, former professor and chair of Psychology at SUNY Oneonta shares his ideas about faculty workload. Please read his post and think about some of the ideas he presents for discussion at our next meeting which will be March 8th at 8 am in Morris Hall. Thanks, Jim Greenberg Faculty Workload Michael H. Siegel I present the following as a series of opinions and suggestions, but I confess to almost complete uncertainty about their wisdom and trust you who will read this to add your suggestions to it and suggest other points of view. I will have succeeded in doing what I have tried to do if some people who care about higher education will read this and offer their ideas. I am not unaware that each of the ideas presented below come with negative as well as positive consequences and believe that these should be discussed by those whose lives would be affected by them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------ Major points 1. Lack of clarity about faculty workload 2. Details on workload 3. Concerns over stress levels of new faculty 4. Suggestions to help new faculty A. Reduced teaching load after initial hire B. Establishing meaningful mentoring system C. Generation of Center for Teaching Excellence D. Some suggested books for faculty new to teaching. Just ask someone who is not connected to higher education their idea of how hard college teachers work. You will likely hear something like ³There isnıt a more spoiled bunch, a bigger group of losers who think they work hard when they work hardly at all. How hard is it to work nine or twelve hours a week, after all?² Present such a view to some of the new faculty hires and you might get either a blank stare or a hostile one. Certainly it is true that most college departments have either a twelve or a nine hour teaching load, but that certainly does not begin to define what the workload is for faculty nor does it illuminate just how very difficult breaking into teaching is for a first time college instructor. Janet Nepkie, a professor in the Music Department at SUCO, believes that the reason for such harsh judgments exist in the general population is that we, in higher education, have done such a poor job of explaining what we do. She also has detailed an extensive listing of what a workload consists. Much of what I write in the next few paragraphs is derived from her. What is it that faculty do beyond meeting classes for nine or even twelve hours per week? All faculty must spend time designing and planning each of their courses and preparing for every class. This is not trivial. Designing a new course can take weeks prior to the start of the semester and each class may well require several hours of preparation involving reading a variety of texts and journal reports, consulting with colleagues at other colleges and universities by phone, letter or e-mail and finally, and certainly not insignificantly, thought lots and lots of thought. Beyond this faculty must produce and grade examinations and, perhaps even more daunting, assign and grade papers and insure that the papers are not plagiarized. These jobs are likely to be far more time consuming and difficult for brand new faculty than veterans, although there is a lot of work in either case. In addition to time in class and time to prepare for class, faculty are must also advise students. This is generally not limited to formally required office hours but may well involve commitments throughout the day and evening electronically. The quality of this activity may make the difference in the success of students and its importance cannot be over-emphasized. In addition, each faculty member is expected to be a part of several different communities. A college or university works only if faculty are involved in departmental committees and governance; in college-wide committees and governance, and with the townıs community. Each of these three activities is both important and time consuming. Many faculty are also heavily involved with student clubs, honor societies and professional societies from their own disciplines. Many new faculty also want their own research programs. In fact one of the most severe frustrations of new faculty is their inability to find adequate time to do a quality teaching job and do the research needed to generate papers and presentations viewed as required for their advancement. Many new faculty even have difficulty finding time to finish writing their completed dissertations for publication or presentation. Responding to pressures to be not simply acceptable but excellent in these activities is hard. No doubt as new faculty gain experience they learn some short cuts; they get to know the system in the department and on their campus; in short, they learn the ropes and things become easier. If early problems are not addressed the following conclusions are likely: discouragement and further increasing anxiety and decreasing motivation; poorer teaching performance resulting in poorer courses in turn resulting in negative student outcomes ranging from lack of learning to increase rate of transfer; a higher turnover and a reduced coherence among faculty; hence, a poorer college. Can something be done to help? Is a college doomed to exhaust its supply of new faculty and replace them with tired, worn-out, burned-out relics? One partial solution may already be at hand. The union has negotiated a reduced teaching load for those faculty involved in more demanding efforts. This has been interpreted as heavy research demand, designing a new course, or excessive committee work. I believe that a strong case could be made that the very fact that a new faculty member is new to teaching on his or her own, not familiar with his or her department, does not the way around the intricate network that is the college, that all of these obvious deficiencies should permit the automatic reduction of the teaching load by one course for the first year. Such a reduction, while not a cure, would surely help. Just as important, if not more important, is the required use of a realistic mentoring program. An experienced and concerned veteran faculty member make the new faculty memberıs initial year a positive rather than a negative experience. Frequent contacts, a genuine interest would encourage honest questions rather than unhelpful silence and a determination to do it all oneself. Such arrangements certainly can prove beneficial to both the member mentored and the mentor. So, for example, if the new faculty member finds that she is spending a lot of time in the first couple of days of the semester with the mechanics of adding new and replacing those students dropping or not showing up, an older hand could suggest ways to bring the newer students up to speed more quickly, could suggest ways to produce a better prospectus for the course, could suggest a variety of short cuts that would preserve course quality but save wasted time. One note of caution. The motives of some prospective mentors may be questionable. Some faculty may have more of a need to satisfy their own ego needs to impress a younger faculty member with their own knowledge than their honest desire to help someone who needs help. It would, therefore, probably be a good idea to have the new faculty member choose a mentor after he or she has gotten to know a few of the faculty who have been around a while. If that is done, a temporary mentor would have to be assigned by the department chair during the interim. New faculty could be encouraged to take advantage of special workshops of particular interest to them. They might also be encouraged to attend some recurring groups such as, for example, The Teaching Breakfast. They could be encouraged to speak to many of the older faculty not just in their own departments, but in other departments as well. They can explain to their chair what they need to make their teaching and their lives better. The suggestions in the above paragraph, while positive, are not by themselves enough. The following two suggestions together with others I have made and still others to be suggested, could make a real difference. First, I recommend that each new faculty member and any other faculty member who wishes one be given a copy of a book on effective teaching. There are a host of such available and many different colleges and universities have a practice of providing such assistance. At the close of this note I list a few of these books. Second, and most important, I hope that the faculty will act to have a new and a truly faculty-oriented Center for Teaching Excellence established. I fully realize that a teaching center was established several years ago and it was closed after a year or two. A new center would stand a better chance of succeeding if it was set up through faculty initiative. Clearly, such a center must be directed by a person knowledgeable in faculty development and committed to helping to meet the needs of faculty. Suggested list of excellent books for the new faculty member. The Missing Professor by Tom Jones What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Baine. Tools for Teaching by Barbara Davis Discussion as a Way of Teaching by Stephen Brookfield Beyond Discipline by Alfie Kohn Teaching Tips by Wilbert McKeachie A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education by Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall Teaching with Style by Tony Grasha Teaching for Quality Learning by Biggs The Skillful teacher by Stephen Brookfield Preparing to Teach by Graham Gibbs and Trevor Habeshaw The Way of the Teacher by J. M. Haile The Joy of Teaching, by Peter Filene A handbook for adjunct/part-time faculty and teachers of adults. By D. Greive Mr. James B. Greenberg Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center Milne Library SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820 email: [log in to unmask] phone: 607-436-2701 fax: 607-436-3081 IM: oneontatltc "Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"