GOT TIME? 

On Thursday, December 3 MSP will hold an All-Member Luncheon to discuss faculty workload and its impact on faculty and librarian life.  Please come to the Campus Center Amherst Room (10^th floor) at Noon and bring your ideas, concerns and experience to help formulate policies around faculty workload, including the balance among teaching, service, and research.  Please RSVP now (by reply email or phone – 545-2206) to reserve your spot.

The trend is clear.  Faculty and librarians on this campus are being asked to do more with less.  It is time to pause and carefully consider how this trend is affecting the UMass mission, UMass students, and faculty/librarian careers. 

In the past year, MSP members have been asked to:

• Offer 1 credit seminars for limited compensation that does not involve actual pay.
• Convert 3-credit courses to 4-credit with no compensation for the extra work.
• Increase their teaching loads while continuing all of their research and service obligations.
• Initiate distance education and continuing education programs for profit.
• Engage in campus reorganization planning only to have their input ignored.

Where does this put our careers, and how should we respond?

Where will we find the time for this increased effort, and what are the costs?

At the December 3rd meeting we will discuss these issues in the context of career advancement.

1.  Protecting your career.

Even the most productive and efficient people reach a saturation point.  Many of us have reported concerns that they are sacrificing career goals to perform university work.  Tenure system faculty must protect their research time, as scholarly accomplishment is paramount at a research university.  Lecturers with heavy teaching responsibilities must protect the quality of their teaching, as that is an important measure of their potential for persistence and advancement.  As workloads increase, the core of your career activities must be protected.

2.  Choosing activities carefully.

The administration has invited faculty and staff to suggest revenue-generating ideas that could be aided with some one-time seed money.  Many of us have fine ideas with real potential, and to the extent that they can get a jump-start with some initial funding, we all win.  It is important though that these new commitments be properly measured against ongoing commitments.  Many of us are over-extended already, and work that might be performed in the future must be measured carefully against other work requirements that might have to give way. 

The administration is responsible for running campus programs, and spending only the funds available to do so.  Except for some kinds of capital spending, the university cannot run a deficit.  That puts pressure on building entrepreneurial ventures through work performed by the faculty and librarians.  The challenge is to do so without jeopardizing the long-term strength of UMass.

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