Task Force Summary
Institutional Research and Accreditation Council
2002 – 03

 

Name of Task Force:  Faculty Issues
Chair of Task Force:  David Hartman

Members:  Jack Davis, Judith Forney, Richard Harris, Nancy McCray, Grant Miles, Philip Turner, Hans Hendley 

Task Force 2 had the following charge:

1.  How should student/faculty ratios be defined (and what is the appropriate teaching load for UNT faculty)?

2.  What future roles should faculty play?

3.  How can UNT utilize new models of instruction to improve the educational experience?

The Task Force has met three times and discussed each question to one degree or another.  To date these discussions have created more questions then answers.  The Task Force recognizes that the answers do not come easily and will, to some degree, unfold over the years as we experience change, opportunities, and restraints.  Discussed below are questions and topics that have developed through the discussion of the committee.  We will continue deliberations to further explicate them and suggest strategies for further exploration.

1.  How should student/faculty ratios be defined (and What is the appropriate teaching load for UNT faculty)?

The question of student/faculty ratios has not been discussed in depth except to acknowledge that student/faculty ratios serve at least two purposes at UNT.  The first is as one tool that helps us understand the instructional load that faculty members carry and helps us understand the differential contributions that are made by individual faculty to the instructional process.  The second is the recognition that student/faculty ratios have public relations value and are helpful to parents and students in deciding their choice of university.  The committee also discussed that as higher education changes it is more and more difficult to define what a faculty member is.  Increasingly new configurations of the faculty role emerge and new permutations develop, dependent on discipline and mode of instruction.  The Task Force recommends discussion of these changes and the development of a clearer definition (or definitions) of what a faculty member is at UNT.

Appropriate teaching loads have also been discussed.  The Task Force invited Johnetta Hudson, Chair of the Faculty Senate committee that is investigating faculty workload to attend our meetings.  The Task Force reviewed the questionnaire that this committee has distributed to faculty and believe that it will provide good data to better understand the faculty workload issue.  The Task Force however believes that historical trends and resource issues have also impacted teaching loads across campus.  As the university begins to assess its changing role the Task Force believes strongly that an analysis of teaching loads across campus be initiated and that categories be established, on some basis, that rationalize and better understand teaching loads.  It is understood  that teaching loads can and should vary across disciplines and between faculty members but there should be a well understood rationale that underlies such differences.  The Task Force proposes the collection of data and an analysis of faculty teaching loads be initiated in the near future.

  2.  What future roles should faculty play?

It is difficult to envision the role that faculty should play in a dramatically changing university environment.  This difficulty is exacerbated when there is little clarity in the vision and mission of the university.  According to Duderstadt, (www.nap.edu/issues/16.2/duderstadt.htm) for a variety of reasons, the social contract between universities and U.S. society, best represented by the government-university research partnership, may need to change.  The reasons revolve primarily around the perceived need to reduce or reallocate Federal expenditures.  He further suggests that a model for the future is the land-grant model.  But instead of  “natural resources” as the target to be protected under this model the attention should shift from land to learning.  Thus he proposes a “learn-grant” model “designed to develop human resources as its top priority along with the infrastructure necessary to sustain a knowledge driven society.  This new model would seek to expand the base and build capacity to develop and sustain knowledge.  He believes that the university will be transformed, his question is in what direction and by whom.  He wisely proposes that this change come from within the academy.  It is also recognized that incentives must be developed to ensure that positive results are achieved as roles change (Also applicable in 3 below).  The Task Force recommends that the university engage in a study that would result in recommendations that develop policies and incentives that recognize that faculty roles are different from discipline to discipline and from faculty member to faculty member within disciplines.  And, if this is true, that there is an increasing need for flexibility and accountability at the lowest possible level in the university hierarchy, in order to insure maximum results from resources expended.

According to a variety of sources colleges and universities are increasingly resorting to the use of part time faculty and contract full timers.  According to the Chronicle of Higher Education 43 percent of the faculty at colleges and universities are part time faculty (www.chronicle.com/egi2-bin/printable.cgi).  We also know that part time faculty can be employed differently and strategically in positive ways.  However, the use of part time faculty is not usually strategic but rather is a result of inadequate resources, thus diminishing their ultimate value. The Task Force proposes that a study be initiated that defines, describes, and enumerates the use of part-time faculty at UNT.  The results of this study could provide data and information that would be useful in understanding and employing part time faculty in the most appropriate ways.