Workload Equity

Committee Co-Chairs

Renee Botta, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Kate Willink, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Past Chairs

2020-2021
Sarah Pessin, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Committee Members

Brian Gearity, Graduate School of Professional Psychology
Dean Saitta, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Hava Gordon, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Rick Leaman, Daniels College of Business
Erin Elzi, University Libraries
Michele Tyson, Morgridge College of Education
Deb Ortega, Graduate School of Social Work
Brian Majestic, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Oliver Kaplan, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
Alison Staudinger, Office of the Provost
Matt Gordon, Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

Mission

The Office of the Provost, the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs, and Faculty Senate are partnering to strengthen equity outcomes within and across departments and units by bringing greater clarity and transparency to three-interrelated areas: (1) faculty responsibilities and expectations, (2) the decision-making processes by which department and unit heads assign faculty responsibilities and set faculty expectations, and (3) the standards by which faculty responsibilities and expectations are measured, assessed, and rewarded.

Outcomes

1. Ensuring all faculty have a clear, explicit, and transparent understanding of their job responsibilities and expectations. This contributes positively to all faculty and can be especially supportive of faculty from under-represented constituencies who might be less familiar with some of the unspoken/unwritten rules, expectations, and boundary-setting related to success in the academy.
2. Avoiding disproportionately burdening some faculty over others. For example, research shows that women and faculty of color disproportionately engage in service and that this work is often undervalued in annual reviews and during tenure, promotion, and reappointment This has consequences for tenure, promotion, and reappointment.
3. Aiming to become more mindful about either helping avoid or helping reward “invisible labor”.

The Faculty Workload Equity Committee is charged with to the following four initial steps:

1. Collecting: We start at the department-level collecting existing policies, procedures, by-laws, and other written documentation related to faculty workload requirements and expectations.
2. Compiling: Informed by relevant scholarship and national best practices, and working with DU’s office of Institutional Research and VPFA Data Governance Board, we compile the material into relevant reports, graphs, infographics, and/or dashboards to help us get a hold on the data, including by way of comparisons and contrasts, and/or other helpful organizing principles.
3. Comparing: We then compare our practices with national best practices and make concrete recommendations (if and as appropriate) for ways we might increase clarity and transparency towards increased equity. The recommendations will also address ways to ensure that workload policies and best practices align with institutional resources and annual faculty review and merit structures.
4. Coalescing: Based on our recommendations, we will create an initial set of opportunities for productive departmental and unit-level growth in areas of workplace equity; this might include intra- and/or inter- departmental/unit workshops, Chair/Director trainings, a symposium, and/or visiting speakers. In way of deepening and widening the work across campus, we also set follow-up goals for next steps (and possibly a new committee) for follow up.

The committee will also develop strategies for effective feedback loops with FSEC (including Personnel and APC), ODEI, OTL, IR, Deans, and other key constituents.

DEAPs are a research-based approach to improving workload equity and faculty satisfaction through a collaborative, department or academic unit-based process. R1 Our Way funded three years of DEAP cohorts of  up to five departments per year, along with national experts to lead workshops, administration of evaluation and self-study tools, and support for participating faculty teams. The first cohort will present their findings in 2023, the second in 2024, and the third in 2025.

Teams will:

• Participate in training on workload equity and implicit bias
• Create a department dashboard to catalyze conversations about workload
• Create and revise a department equity action plan
• Publicly present their work to the DU community, including academic unit stakeholders

For more information or to get involved see the DEAP Call for Proposals page.

Apply for the 2023 DEAP Cohort 3