By Paul Steeno
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Most professors within the UW-Wisconsin system will likely have to deal with a state-mandated expanded course load next school year.
At UW Green Bay, most professors would go from teaching 21 credit hours during the year (three one semester and four during the other) to 24 credit hours (four each semester). This equates to one extra class.
It may not sound like a lot, but professors said it’s significant.
“In general, it takes about three hours of preparation for each one hour of class time,” said UW Green Bay Democracy & Justice Studies chairperson and AFT-Wisconsin president Jon Shelton. “Writing lectures, grading, meeting with students in your office.”
Shelton also points out that professors do extensive research in their field, help develop curriculum in their departments, lead students through independent study projects among a variety of other university-related activities in addition to teaching classes.
helton said he worries that the additional course load could impact the quality of instruction simply because they would be stretched so thin.
“The faculty runs the university, so when you basically say that by law they have to teach another class, it makes it very difficult to do all the other things that we do on campus,” Shelton said.
UW Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander said he’s been thinking a lot about the best way to make the transition to the larger course load smooth for instructors. Over the summer, Alexander wrote a note to faculty and staff with the framework of a plan for how he thinks the university should approach these and other changes in the higher education world.
He said to help mitigate the impact of the expanded course load, he hopes to designate some faculty as research-focused and allow them to teach fewer courses. He said administrators would work closely with department and faculty leaders to help determine which professors qualify for this category.
These professors would teach 18 credit hours per year (three classes each semester).
“I stand by the idea that we should be looking at and rewarding faculty who are doing great research,” Alexander said. “If someone is doing exceptional research, let’s make sure they have the space to do that.”
Shelton said it’s problematic to pick and choose which professors are doing research worthy of having a lower course load. He said he doesn’t think the university should devalue anybody’s research.
He also has concerns about the changes the chancellor has proposed to the process for picking department directors. He likes the current way of having a full-time faculty member who also teaches within the department to have that position. The chancellor would like administrators to pick the department directors. That person’s primary focus would be on administrative duties, and they would only have to teach a few classes
“You’re going to have people who aren’t experts in that field making decisions about curriculum, and that could be really bad for students,” Shelton said. “Folks who aren’t in that field can’t make those decisions, so it’s important for the chair to be within that department because then they’re going to be accountable to the faculty and make decisions in the interest of the students they’re serving.”
“I think if you’re going to have administration, you give the people space to actually do the administration,” said Alexander, adding that he wants instructors to focus on teaching and not the administrative duties associated with this position.
Shelton has started a petition opposing some of Alexander’s ideas. It has over 200 signatures. It asks for the following things:
- Retract the plan entirely to replace chairs with unaccountable directors.
- Negotiate with faculty and staff to reduce course caps so that the 14% increase in workload is mitigated by lower class sizes.
- Negotiate with faculty and staff so that high-impact, individualized instruction efforts (such as independent study courses and/or student research projects), which many faculty have undertaken for years without explicit recognition, are accounted for when computing teaching loads.
- Offer any course reassignments for research and service (as allowed by state law) through a democratic process that puts faculty and staff in charge of determining how best to offer these reassignments.
“We’re going to look to support our faculty in the best way possible to serve our students and do the great research and community service and make that work with whatever system we end up having,” said Chancellor Alexander. “I think I want people to know that this university is willing to adapt to meet the moment.”
“This really feels like a solution in search of a problem, all of us are asking what the problem here right?” said Shelton.
Source: UW-Green Bay prepares for likely higher course workload for professors