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Re: Teaching loads

Welcome to the community college system! Our faculty are constrained by the
similar teaching load that varies in its interpretation in order to fit the
fiscal needs of the College but basically boils down to the same 18-21
hours per week number. Also, (like every public, two-year school on the
face of the earth I suspect) we have a criminal reliance on adjunct
faculty. Be that as it may, I will offer these insights.

With regards to Accrediting agencies (such as Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools) their ultimate power is in the theoretical
possibility of denying or suspending accreditation which leads to very
serious problems in transfer, financial aid and credibility issues (and
probably serious trouble from whatever governmental bodies affect you).
Generally such agencies do not get quite as specific as mandating a
particular teaching load for faculty but they certainly have more general
things to say about faculty being loaded appropriately. It wouldn't take
much web surfing to get their requirements verbatim.

Arguably, two year College faculty are not in the business of research but
of teaching and that in fact "justifies" an administration's lack of
support. Practically, I think all faculty need to engage to some degree in
some scholarly work in order to be useful teachers. I will say though, that
my experience has been that what you can get in terms of funding, release
time and other things you have mention depends most on the politics of the
College. When the things you want to do or have resonate with an
administrator's (or group of administrator's) ideas about what's hot they
are more likely to happen. This is not to say you do what they think is
important as much as you make want you want sound like what they think is
important. It is a slippery world I'm afraid.




At 03:14 PM 10/31/2001 -0500, you wrote:
> From: Mariam Dittman <mdittman@GPC.PEACHNET.EDU>
>
> My college (public 2 year transfer institution) is looking at workload
> again. I would like to know what your work loads are so that I can get a
> feel for what is common and/or acceptable. Specifically what are the
> expectations for teaching lectures & labs and what are the expectations for
> service and professional development?
>
Catawba Valley Community College's (an open-door public two-year community
college) "official" teaching load is 18-21 contact hours per week, which
is professionally unacceptable. Faculty in certain areas (namely Allied
Health) get a reduced load because of the way they interpret their
accreditation requirements. Administration buys it. Forget research -- it
doesn't exist here.

This huge load effectively prevents instructors from giving detailed
attention to any one course. This load includes lectures and labs. As for
professional development, my institution has no clue as to what it is.
They think learning how to drive Microsoft Word (which I don't use by the
way...) constitutes professional development. Basically, if it requires no
institutional funding then it's acceptable. Funding is given on a very
spotty basis (e.g. "Well you attended this AAPT meeting last year why do
you need to go again this year?").

Our math faculty routinely have to teach 21+ hours, as much as 25 some
semesters. More than 50% of our math and science classes are taught by
part-time faculty, a dismal statistic if you ask me. It's possible to get
a degree from this school and never even meet a full-time faculty member.
Yet our administration will not allow us to turn students away simply
because we don't have the fiscal, personnel, and physical resources to
accomodate them.

I should also point out that recently SACS (Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools) recently required one of our neighboring community
colleges to adopt a 15 contact hour teaching load. Given how our own
administration worships the ground SACS walks on, I don't know why they
haven't fallen all over themselves reducing our teaching load to 15 hours
too. Our teaching loads are supposedly tied to budgeting issues, but in my
9.5 years of teaching no one here as ever been able to explain to me where
the numbers "18-21 contact hours" came from. I strongly suspect no one
actually knows.

Not to change the topic, but how is it that SACS and other similar
agencies have so much authority over schools when they're simply outside
agencies with no direct contact with the schools? When preparing for a
visit from SACS, our administrators effectively prevent certain faculty
and staff members from having any contact with the visiting committee
members. Gee...I wonder why?

Sorry to sound so negative on this issue, but that's the way it is here.
I'm actively seeking employment elsewhere.


Cheers,
Joe

CVAC Home Page <http://users.vnet.net/heafnerj/cvac.html>
My Book <http://www.willbell.com/new/fundephcomp.htm>
My Home Page <http://users.vnet.net/heafnerj/>
Please -- no Microsoft attachments. They're a security risk.

Allen Shotwell
Chair, Science and Math
Ivy Tech State College
Terre Haute, IN USA