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Re: Lab/lecture ratio



We, in the sciences, have been fighting this issue at my institution for the
entire 24 years that I've been teaching here. We have finally managed to
work our way up to the point where we are compensated for teaching labs at
0.72 credits per contact hour versus 1 credit per contact hour for lectures.
Since our science labs are all 1 credit (2 contact hours), we get paid 1.44
credits for teaching a lab versus 3.0 credits for teaching a 3.0 credit
lecture. The inequity of this is not apparent or perhaps not important to
the administration and when contracts are negotiated, the concerns the
larger number of non-science faculty always seem to take precedence.

I wish Peter and Tina the best of luck and I too recommend the AAPT
guidelines. My impression, however, is that it is probably more common for
lab hours to be worth less than lecture hours rather than more. I strongly
disagree with this, and have argued this point based on my experience in
conducting both labs and lectures. Unfortunately, I think that the outcome
has much to do with the general attitude of the administration and whether
their fundamental concern is for "quality" or "low-cost" education.

At our institution we (in the sciences) have a related problem that I would
like to take this opportunity to rant about. It concerns what we refer to
here as "directed study". This is a mechanism which allows us to teach a
low-enrollment class for reduced compensation, generally as a favor to a few
students who need a course which would otherwise be cancelled due to low
enrollment. The compensation for a "directed study" is calculated as 1
credit plus 0.2 credits for each student. Thus for a class of 4 students,
one would be paid for 1.8 credits, etc. Our problem is that the
administration will pay for the lecture portion of a class, but not the lab.
In other words, a (3 cr) class of say 10 students plus the (1 cr) lab that
accompanies that class would be paid at a rate of 4.44 credits. However, a
"directed study" for 4 students would warrant only 1.8 credits (0 for the
lab). The difference in workload is minimal, since at our level, a "directed
study" is conducted in essentially the same fashion as a regular course
(just fewer people). Obviously a lab conducted for 4 people requires much
the same effort as one conducted for 10 or 12.

What I would like to know is if anyone has ever encountered a situation
similar to this. Also, any suggestions would be appreciated - beyond the
obvious "don't do directed studies". I'm in the process of contesting this
with our current administration, but I suspect that the only solution for us
will be to attempt to get the contract language changed, and again in view
of the small number of science faculty, I don't anticipate this happening.

Gordon Johnson
Westmoreland County Community College
Youngwood, PA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Schoch" <pschoch@NAC.NET>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 12:50 PM
Subject: Lab/lecture ratio


It's that ime again at my institution when we must begin negotiating a
new contract.

Some time ago there was a white paper (I believe) that argued for equal
compensation for lecture and lab. It stressed the importance of why we
need to have our students do lab, etc.

I'd like to use this to try and argue for more lab compensation. Does
anyone remember that document, and know how I might get a copy?

Thanks,
Peter Schoch
Sussex County Community College