Faculty workload
In June 2023, the Provost sent a memo to deans stating that “the expected workload for tenure-track faculty on nine-month appointment is 50% instruction, 45% research, and 5% service,” charging deans with benchmarking peer institutions if they wished to deviate from that workload, and sending him a memo detailing standard workload for all faculty tracks.
The dean and associate deans collected workload data from 25 of the top public institutions per U.S. News and World Report rankings through personal contacts with deans and associate deans. Faculty Senate facilitated the process of gathering input about workload from faculty in both tenure-track and clinical roles, and input was discussed by the Faculty Senate, by department heads and the cabinet, and by the shared decision-making group. Following discussion of this input, the standard workloads agreed upon by the shared decision-making group and reported to the Provost are:
Track | Instruction | Research | Service | Other |
Tenure-track | 45% (4 courses) | 45% | 10% | |
Clinical | 78.75% (7 courses) | 0% | 10% | 11.25% |
Lecturer | 90% (8 courses) | 0% | 10% | |
| Research Scientist | 0% | 90% | 10% |
These allocations ensure equity across tracks with a 3-credit hour course being equivalent to 11.25% of workload for all tracks and all tracks having 10% service effort. The grant buy-out policy is being updated to reflect 11.25% per course.
The discussion of the workload of clinical faculty is ongoing, with a faculty committee continuing to meet to discuss the wide range of work that is done by clinical faculty across our College in an effort to develop some shared understanding of what clinical work means and how it can be allocated equitably. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, all clinical faculty have had the opportunity to devote one unit of their time to clinical practice, clinical scholarship, clinical service, or other clinical activities in lieu of one unit of instruction. What each individual does for that one unit of workload is decided by the faculty member and the department head based on faculty interests and program needs. There are faculty members who have additional reductions in teaching because they are budgeted for clinical patient care in a clinic or have external funding to support specific work.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the process of gathering data, analyzing it, and making recommendations about workload.