The UTRGV Faculty Senate is in the process of creating a new faculty workload policy to comply with a new requirement from the University of Texas System.
The new rule asks for each UT System university to develop an individual faculty workload policy that will be officially implemented by Fall 2019.
“In November 2017, Regents’ Rule 31006 was amended to enable each academic institution to develop a workload policy designed to achieve two main goals: foster greater student success while advancing each institution’s unique mission,” according to the utsystem.edu website.
In an interview with The Rider, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Patricia McHatton said the UT System board of regents approved the formulation of a new workload policy adjusted to each university’s needs.
“UT System determined that, based on an analysis of what’s done throughout the nation and throughout other systems within Texas … that it really made sense to allow each institution to design a faculty workload policy that best aligns with the institution’s vision, mission, population, those types of things,” McHatton said.
The Faculty Workload Committee has been formed to focus on creating the new policy.
“So, what we have done is we have convened a task force, or work group, that’s comprised of faculty from throughout all of the colleges,” McHatton said. “… [It was convened] to begin to explore how do we design a workload policy that first and foremost is focused on student success and that really is designed to be equitable, to ensure that students get the courses that they need as they need them, you know, so there is a variety of different kind of, I guess, values or principles that we want to put in place as part of our new workload policy.”
The new workload policy will aim to adequately account “for the total professional effort of faculty, including research and clinical practice as well as instruction,” according to the UTRGV Faculty Workload Committee website, utrgv.edu/strategicinitiatives/workload/.
UTRGV’s existing faculty workload policy states that a minimum workload equivalent to 18 semester credit hours of instruction per academic year in organized undergraduate classes must be assigned to faculty members, according to the Faculty Workload document found in the Handbook of Operating Procedures website, utrgv.edu/hop/handbook/.
The new faculty workload policy might possibly change the minimum workload required, according to Volker Quetschke, a UTRGV associate professor of physics and astronomy, president of the Faculty Senate and member of the Faculty Workload Committee.
“Essentially, you needed permissions from upper administrations to deviate from the required nine credit hours per semester,” Quetschke said. “If you go back to UT Brownsville and UT Pan Am, there used to be even 12 credit hours [per semester] before that. So, we have actually got significant reductions after we became UTRGV.”
He said the new faculty workload policy will allow universities to be more flexible.
“After UT System changed that rule, it kind of was pushed to the universities,” Quetschke said. “This is what the workload committee is now working on: to find a way to allow the departments to still teach all needed classes but also allow the departments chairs or deans, depending on who makes the decisions, to give release time or to accommodate higher research or higher service activities to certain faculties to become more flexible.”
Asked how the new workload policy will affect UTRGV financially, he replied, “I think it is a more effective use of the money. I don’t know if it saves money in the end, but it allows the distribution of resources to be used more effectively.”
Quetschke encourages faculty to voice their opinion regarding the workload policy.
“Feel free to talk to your chairs, your associate chairs, your deans, your senators and give input,” he said.
A preliminary workload policy will be sent to President Guy Bailey toward the end of October for his approval.
In November, the final proposed faculty workload policy will be submitted to the UT System for review and approval by the executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, who will formally approve the institutional faculty workload policies by the end of January 2019, according to the utsystem.edu website.
Para la versión en español de este artículo, oprima aquí.
