THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE

FACULTY SENATE

SENSE OF THE SENATE RESOLUTION

Statewide Faculty Database Modification Recommendations

Whereas: The Alabama State Legislature, and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education have mandated the development of a statewide faculty database, and

Whereas: Both the faculty and the administration of the University of Alabama in Huntsville have a vested interest in the content and use of this database, and

Whereas: It is assumed that the motivation to develop this database is based in part on a perceived need to exercise greater control over faculty workloads. It is apparent that some portion of the State Legislature and a segment of the public believe that many university faculty work less than the standard 40 hours per week, and

Whereas: Reporting actual contact hours in the classroom per week is necessary, but vastly underestimates actual hours of work, and

Whereas: The general public and the State Legislature understand the teaching function; however, for the most part they do not understand the academic research, funded research, professional service, university service and public service functions, and

Whereas: Any reporting system which overemphasizes hours per week of classroom instruction without adequate documentation of hours per week for these other work categories will result in a distorted report. This distortion in reporting will tend to favor teaching universities over research universities, and will favor community colleges over universities in general, and

Whereas: The current ACHE draft document presents metrics that measure in essence what is most easily measurable. This is problematic because many of these categories do not translate into hours per week of labor, and

Whereas: In industry some job analyses break down work into estimated time parameters, and

Whereas: A failure to utilize this approach may result in an interpretation of report data that simply continues to underestimate hours per week of labor in the non-teaching categories. This would tend to reinforce existing perceptions that faculty work less than 40 hours per week, rather than combating the misperception or stereotype with time based data, and

Whereas: Faculty currently submit an annual activity report and should not be burdened with additional and redundant reporting responsibility, and

Whereas: The current ACHE draft fails to account for hours per week of class preparation time and individualized student instruction, and

Whereas: The current ACHE draft fails to allow for separate categories of research, and

Whereas: The current ACHE draft fails to identify many important service activities, and

Whereas: The current ACHE draft includes categories that should not be included in this report and duplicates reporting and information available at an aggregate level, and

Whereas: The UAH Faculty Senate, through the Senate Personnel Committee is the appropriate university level faculty organization for submitting recommendations regarding this database, the following recommendations are submitted for consideration.

Therefore, be it resolved that:

The Faculty Senate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville recommends the following modifications to the ACHE Draft Document for the Statewide Faculty Database.

    1. It is imperative that the reporting system accurately present estimates of hours per week of work in each category.

    2. Based on the fact that there are fundamental differences between research universities, four-year teaching institutions, and community colleges, a separate reporting format may be necessary for institutions in each of these three categories.

    3. We should follow one industry model for job analyses and translate work activities into estimated hours per week of labor in each category.

    4. The department chair or center director should provide input for the database on an annual basis. This information will be obtained in part from the annual activity report, and secondly, through the observations of the department chair. This may require some questioning on the part of the chair or director to obtain estimates for reporting categories. Since this is not self-reported time estimates, but rather estimates based on supervisory observation; the validity of the data reported should be higher.

    5. In addition to the measures of instructional productivity included in the ACHE draft, it is proposed that hours per week of class preparation time and individualized student instruction should be estimated and reported by the department chair. This should allow for variability based on the level and nature of the course. It will also adjust for new course preparations, course revisions, and courses delivered through distance education.

    6. Funded research and academic (unfunded) research (or other creative work) should be reported as separate categories. The current ACHE draft accounts for numbers of publications, dollars in funded research, etc. In addition to these measures it is proposed that the department chair or center director report approximations of average hours per week in each category.

    7. Professional service, university service, and public service should be reported as separate categories. In addition to the listing of activities that the chair or director may obtain from the annual activity report, time estimates (in mean hours per week) should be reported in each of these three categories. A simple solution for identifying important service activities is to transfer the listing of activities noted in the activity report to the general categories of service on a revised reporting document.

    8. Information that exists at the university level should be reported separately rather than instituting redundant reporting. Information such as age, gender, race, etc. should not be reported for each individual faculty. This information is available at an aggregate level.

Let it be further resolved that:

This Sense of the Senate Resolution from the Faculty Senate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville be spread upon the permanent minutes of the Faculty Senate and should be distributed to President Franz, Provost McManus, Chancellor Meredith, ACHE and ACUFP.