Faculty Workloads, Stipends, Special Projects, Mentorship,
and Support for Grant Writing Task Force
- 1. What faculty teaching, research, and service activities have been given stipends/reassigned by COE over the past 3 years?
- We utilized information from Fall 2011 – Fall 2012
Teaching:
- Faculty report percentage assignments for teaching ranging from 30-100% (data include instructors and tenured faculty).
- Workload percentages allow for 30-80% teaching for tenured faculty (per Provost policy).
- No written evidence of overload compensation, anecdotal evidence contradicted written evidence.
- Comparison of written and anecdotal evidence revealed differences in teaching assignments.
- No teaching workload was provided for teachers at Greenwood.
- No workload policy was found for Greenwood.
- Program Coordinators have the option of being paid a stipend or choosing reassigned time. $1,800 -$3600 per year, including summer.
- Per course per semester for 3 credits would =$2700 per semester/$5400 for 2 semesters.
- Anecdotal information indicates this is a perceived inequity for Program Coordinators.
Research:
- Faculty report percentage assignments for research ranging from 0-40% (data include instructors and tenured faculty).
- Workload percentages allow for 10-60% research for tenured faculty (per Provost policy).
- Reports did not include information on whether or not faculty are research active or not based on TLE.
- A few faculty are receiving stipends for grant work.
Service:
- Faculty report percentage assignments for service ranging from 0-40% (data include instructors and tenured faculty).
- Workload percentages allow for 5-20% service for tenured faculty. (per Provost policy)
- No evidence from documents that faculty are receiving reassigned time for service.
Grant writing and Mentorship:
- There is no evidence from documents that faculty are receiving reassigned time for grant writing or mentorship.
- Anecdotal evidence shows that some faculty have received reassigned time for grant writing
2. Have stipends/reassigned time been provided to faculty across COE departments on a fair and equitable basis over the past 3 years? Why or why not?
- Given the inconsistency in the information reported we are unable to determine.
- Anecdotal evidence stated a lack of inequity.
3. Which faculty assignments are most critical to the mission of the department, college and university?
- Given the university’s mission of creating educated persons and the college’s mission of creating a legacy of learning, the central mission of the faculty in the College of Education is teaching.
- Teaching is the central core of faculty work.
- Research contributes to the faculty members’ knowledge, which contributes to the knowledge of the students. Therefore, research is secondary to teaching.
- Service supports the work of the department, college, university, and profession. Therefore, service is tertiary to teaching and research.
- See visual below
4. Other than stipends and reassigned time, what types of faculty supports for extra work might be considered?
- Increase travel money
- Increase Graduate Assistant support
- Provide additional work study students
- Improve office furniture and space
- Provide an ergonomic study on furniture/space
- Provide mentorship for new faculty
- Increase fee waivers for faculty who send their children to Greenwood
- Increase fee waivers for MSU classes
- Increase fee waiver for non-credit offerings
- Increase wellness benefit such as recreation center memberships for family (or YMCA family membership on Jefferson)
5. What recommendations should be considered by the COE Leadership Council and Budget Committee?:
- Require all departments to develop a clear policy on what is research active as defined by Provost Policy. Research active faculty can utilize a 9 hour TLE per semester.
- Improve workload reporting:
- Include research active column when workload assignments are reported.
- Separate non tenured faculty from tenured faculty.
- Develop a consistent form for all departments.
- Include reassigned time for stipends, service, grant writing, and/or mentorship in departmental reports.
- Design and implement a standard form for reporting Program Coordinator duties at the college level.
- Charge COE GPAC to create such a form.
- Utilize the information from this form to determine coordinator stipends or reassigned time.
- Consider faculty activities outside of teaching, research and service in terms of their relevance to the central mission of teaching.
- Require a strong rationale for such activities when considering stipends or reassigned time.
- Consider faculty support for extra work, such as those identified in question 4.
Committee Members: Kim Roam (CEFS, Chair), Deanne Camp (RFT), Cindy MacGregor (CLSE), Diana Milburn (GLS)