Faculty Workload
WRIGHT
STATE UNIVERSITY STATEMENT ON FACULTY WORKLOAD
(As
approved by Academic Council June 6, 1994 and the WSU Board
of Trustees June 11, 1994)
The
mission statement of Wright State University emphasizes that
"Wright State University is a comprehensive public university
dedicated to advancing and disseminating knowledge through
the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research and professional
service. Fundamental to the university mission and central
to all disciplines are superior teaching and scholarly activity
addressing basic questions and the needs of society. Professional
service balances the commitment of the university through
applied research, technical assistance, cultural activities,
clinical services, consultation, and similar non-instructional
activities and services."
The
mission statement further asserts that as a major metropolitan
university, "Wright State University is committed to
providing leadership addressing the educational, social, and
cultural needs of the [communities it serves] and to promoting
the economic and technological development of the region through
a strong program of basic and applied research and professional
service."
In
pursuit of this mission, the University's faculty have responsibilities
that include teaching, scholarship and service; however, these
roles overlap. Faculty engage in scholarship and service activities
that are founded in the synergistic relationship between the
teaching, discovery, integration, and application of knowledge.
Faculty members perform a wide variety of activities, in a
pattern that changes from day to day and week to week. In
addition, faculty study, write and evaluate student papers
and projects at home, maintain office hours and attend meetings
on campus, and conduct research in laboratories, in libraries,
and in the field. Collectively, these activities result in
excellence in teaching, the discovery of new knowledge, and
service to our community and the nation.
At
Wright State University, undergraduate education is the heart
of our diverse teaching enterprise, the other important components
of which include two-year programs, certificate programs,
and professional and graduate courses of study. Excellence
in teaching is complemented by excellence in scholarship and
service; thus, student learning outcomes are enhanced by the
linkage of these three faculty responsibilities.
Teaching
At
Wright State University, student learning is the primary objective.
Hence, even though scholarship and service are important components
of a faculty member's responsibilities, teaching is the primary
function of the faculty. Teaching takes many forms, including
lectures, seminar discussions, individual tutorial sessions,
laboratory exercises, and other types of instruction. Whatever
the format, however, teaching entails a concerted effort to
work closely with students, to train them in the methods of
a discipline and of its substantive content, and to develop
in them the ability to analyze and to synthesize.
Teaching
necessarily involves much more than the hours spent in a classroom.
Faculty members spend considerable time reading and writing
to prepare lectures and class presentations. They design,
organize, and refine courses continuously. They gather materials
for use in the classroom and work to incorporate new instructional
technologies into their classes. Further, the teaching process
itself is sometimes open-ended. Formal lectures and discussions
may extend only as long as a class period, but individual
tutorial meetings and laboratory sessions with students frequently
last much longer.
Teaching
includes evaluating student performance and providing feedback.
Faculty members spend time creating appropriate testing material,
grading examinations, and writing commentary to students concerning
their performance on exams. In addition, faculty monitor the
success of academic programs through student outcome assessment
activities that establish and monitor overall student performance.
Teaching
also requires a great deal of time working with students to
improve their writing. The quality of all education and the
acquisition of critical thinking skills is linked in a direct
way to the amount of writing that students do. Teaching that
promotes clear and concise writing, therefore, is essential.
However, acquiring those writing skills takes extensive practice
and requires considerable faculty assistance in the form of
written and oral comments on papers and exams.
Teaching
graduate students frequently requires extensive one-on-one
activity and a particularly large expenditure of time. Mentoring
those students, sometimes on a daily basis, is an important
part of the entire teaching program, and individual attention
is especially intensive as graduate students conduct and report
their research projects that culminate in a master's thesis
or doctoral dissertation.
Similarly,
advising is intimately related to the educational process.
Faculty members spend a great deal of time outside of class
working with students in a variety of ways. They maintain
required office hours to go over course materials and respond
to questions from their students. Required office hours afford
the personal contact that is not possible in the classroom.
Faculty members also work with students in reviewing their
programs of study, meeting graduation requirements, and providing
career counseling. Without such time-consuming, face-to-face
assistance, which is part of the teaching process, students
would operate in an unacceptable vacuum in their efforts to
advance their own careers.
Moreover,
teaching requires a faculty member to devote significant effort
to maintain professional skills. If one is to remain current,
a faculty member must stay abreast of new books, follow current
discussions in professional journals, attend academic meetings,
and remain aware of new developments in the field. Fields
of study evolve rapidly and methodologies change quickly.
Scholarship
Scholarship
is a process of systematic inquiry that can include work in
the library, laboratory, or field. It can consist of developing
the design of a new study or analyzing previous studies or
collected data. Scholarship requires substantial investment
of time before significant results are produced.
Scholarship
at Wright State University is also closely connected with
the teaching process, at both the undergraduate and graduate
levels. All educators seek to communicate to students not
simply the facts, but also an understanding of how knowledge
is discovered and applied. An engineer working side-by-side
in a laboratory with a graduate student is engaged in teaching
and research at the same time, for the two cannot be separated.
Scholarship
does not detract from teaching; rather, it is an integral
part of the process. Indeed, this is the reason that our best
teachers are often our best scholars, for the same excitement
that motivates a faculty member in the laboratory or the library
leads to the best possible instruction in the classroom.
Service
The
third important component of a faculty member's responsibilities
at Wright State University is service to the university, to
the profession, and in keeping with Wright State University's
metropolitan mission, to the local, national, and global communities.
It is important to observe that many service activities also
contribute to teaching or scholarship or both. Moreover, they
are essential for the healthy functioning of the university,
for the creation and dissemination of knowledge, and for fulfilling
the university's many obligations to society.
Some
examples include university committee duties entailing academic
program development and campus governance; service to our
students and student organizations; service to national professional
societies and scholarly journals; service directed toward
enhancing the quality of life in the greater community; and
assistance to key societal institutions such as businesses,
governments, health care providers, public schools, and other
universities.
Mission
and Faculty Workload
Inherent
in the mission of Wright State University is a commitment
to teaching, scholarship, and service. These are the interactive
components of a university's commitment to excellence. For
this reason, the workload of full-time faculty includes responsibility
for teaching, scholarship, and service. The relative emphasis,
however, that is given to each of these activities for an
individual faculty member will depend on the mission and student
needs of that individual's college and department.
Some
departments offer only baccalaureate programs while others
offer both baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. The
relative emphasis between undergraduate and graduate learning
also varies among these departments, and it is expected that
the mission of these departments will define for the faculty
an appropriate combination of effort relative to teaching,
scholarship, and service.
To
serve this mission, faculty may have different responsibilities
in any given academic year. Most will spend more time in teaching,
while some will be expected to devote greater effort to scholarship
and service. In addition, the responsibilities for a faculty
member may change over time in response to changing departmental
and personal needs and expectations.
Guidelines
for Faculty Workload Policies for Colleges and Schools Engaged
in Undergraduate Education
Each
college and school engaged in undergraduate education shall
adopt a written faculty workload policy, subject to the approval
of the dean and consistent with the following principles.
A.
Wright State University and its faculty reaffirm our commitment
to excellence in teaching and the maintenance of a quality
learning environment, as specified in the WSU Faculty
Handbook .
B.
Teaching assignments and other components of a faculty member's
workload should be based on the mission of the college or
school, and the academic mission should inform both the type
and the relative balance of the individual faculty's teaching,
scholarship, and public service.
C.
Academic departments or equivalent units have diverse missions,
and there should be flexibility in the instructional efforts
among departments. Departments with different missions should
have different instructional expectations. Departments with
only baccalaureate programs should devote more effort to instruction
than those with active master's or doctoral programs.
D.
Academic departments or equivalent units with similar missions
should have similar instructional responsibilities.
E.
Within academic units, there should be flexibility in the
teaching assignments for individual faculty. Workload assignments
should serve the strengths and needs of individual faculty
and the department. In a given academic year, some faculty
may give more effort to teaching while others may devote greater
effort to research/creative activity and service.
F.
College and school faculty workload policies. A college's
or school's faculty workload policy shall specify the percent
of effort that is expected of departments relative to teaching,
scholarship, and service, in accordance with the guidelines
that follow. These guidelines do not apply to professional
efforts during personal time (e.g., vacation, non-contract
periods, time outside a normal work week) or to effort supported
by external or other special funding.
1.
Two-Year or Associate Degree Programs. Academic departments
or equivalent units engaged primarily in two-year or associate
degree programs are normally expected to devote at least eighty
percent of the total faculty workload effort in those departments
to instructional activities.
2.
Baccalaureate Departments. Academic departments or equivalent
units engaged primarily in baccalaureate programs are normally
expected to devote at least seventy percent of the total faculty
workload effort in those departments to instructional activities.
3.
Baccalaureate and Master's Departments. Academic departments
or equivalent units engaged primarily in baccalaureate and
Master's programs are normally expected to devote at least
sixty-five percent of the total faculty workload effort in
instructional activities.
4.
Baccalaureate/Master's/Doctoral Programs. Academic departments
or equivalent units engaged primarily in graduate programs
are normally expected to devote at least sixty percent of
the total faculty workload effort in those departments to
instructional activities.
G.
Faculty should maintain a schedule of posted office hours
in accordance with the college/school faculty workload policy.
Annual
Performance Appraisal
Appropriate
discussions should occur between a faculty member and the
departmental chair which will result in an understanding in
writing of the workload distribution, that is, the proportion
of effort to be expended on teaching, scholarship, and service.
This distribution of effort should be reexamined annually
and whenever a change in the faculty member's circumstances
or the department's needs suggest that such consideration
would be appropriate.
A
faculty member's annual performance appraisal and evaluation
should reflect the individual's workload expectations. In
addition, the promotion and tenure guidelines and the annual
salary increases should reward teaching, scholarship and service
in a manner which is consistent with a faculty member's responsibilities.
Implementation
This
policy shall be implemented July 1, 1994, and will be periodically
reviewed and amended as appropriate.
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