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FAS Faculty Workload Committee

Please see Dean Gay’s September 29, 2022 letter to the FAS faculty, sharing the report of the FAS Faculty Workload Committee.

The FAS Faculty Workload Committee (member list here) is charged with the following:

In keeping with the goals of the FAS strategic planning process launched by Dean Gay, the FAS Faculty Workload Committee (FWC) is charged with evaluating workload expectations and distribution within and across FAS departments/areas and making recommendations to ensure greater transparency, equity, and recognition for exceptional contributions. Workload, in the context of this charge, includes service, teaching, advising, and mentoring.

Preliminary data show workload disparities within the FAS. For example, an initial analysis of Faculty Activity Report (FAR) data shows that, on average, female ladder-faculty members serve on more committees than male ladder-faculty members. In addition, the teaching, advising, and mentoring loads within departments/areas are unequally distributed.

Workload disparities have many serious consequences, including: 1) shifting work to a small group of overburdened, public-spirited colleagues, 2) lowering both the morale and research productivity of faculty carrying heavier loads, 3) motivating faculty with disproportionate loads to seek jobs at other universities, and 4) in some cases, delaying faculty retirement decisions.

Some questions the Faculty Workload Committee may wish to address include:

  • What constitutes service? How do we define and track “invisible labor”? And how should overall workload, including teaching, mentoring, advising and service, be evaluated?
  • What do we mean by equitable distribution of work? Should departmental/area, divisional/SEAS, or FAS benchmarks for service, teaching, advising, and mentoring be established or re-evaluated?
  • Does the current FAR system accurately capture faculty members’ service, teaching, advising, and mentoring activities? If not, what changes need to be made?
  • How can FAR data be more effectively shared, to increase transparency, ensure more equitable distribution of work, and support recognition of exceptional efforts? In addition to FAR, what other metrics can be used to proactively aid decision-making?
  • What forms of support and recognition are appropriate for faculty who go above and beyond?

The committee will consult with faculty and administrators across the FAS and will prepare recommendations for the FAS Dean’s consideration by the end of the academic year.