Faculty Workload Equity & Teaching Excellence Taskforce Update

Mar 8, 2021

Photo by Felipe Furtado on Unsplash

Faculty Workload
The Faculty Workload Equity Taskforce has convened its first meeting of 2021 and has set things in motion to address immediate concerns around campus such as a general lack of faculty involvement in major academic decisions relating to the determination of departmental and faculty workload. To address this, the task force is working towards an evaluative framework(s) that can work for most if not all departments on campus. To accomplish this, the Faculty Workload Equity Committee has formed three subcommittees to engage in a tripartite tackling of these issues. These subcommittees have been formed around three research areas concerning local and national workload equity practices: Existing Research, Best Practices, University & Departmental Data. One of the initial tasks posed to these subcommittees is to identify and engage key stakeholders.

Teaching Excellence
The Teaching Excellence Taskforce convened its first official meeting of 2021 and has begun charting a path forward into the year. The task force’s present charge is to survey both local and national best practices regarding teaching excellence. Part of this survey includes synthesizing methodologies of demonstrating effective teaching beyond the commonly used student evaluations. Additionally, the committee has identified key stakeholders around campus and has begun the process of engaging them for their input and aid in advancing our initiative. Thus far, the task force has begun forming subcommittees to conduct surveys and to draft effective questions for our stakeholders and deans to be distributed in the coming months.

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