A recent e-letter referenced a view once widely-held here that that faculty devote 40% of their time to research, 40% to teaching, and 20% to service. The intent behind the 40/40/20 model was to ensure that faculty had time to remain sufficiently current in their area of expertise so as to make scholarly contributions, that they communicated this knowledge to graduate and undergraduate students and that they engaged in the running of the institution through collegial committees. This model is not hard-coded into the University Standards or the Collective Agreement, but is a promise to faculty that they will be given an adequate opportunity to develop a program of scholarly study, achieve tenure and progress through the ranks.

In Colleges where teaching assignments have increased significantly, faculty may find themselves increasingly stressed to meet research standards. Spending more time preparing lectures for additional classes, grading assignments and exams for additional students in larger classes, increasing time spent communicating with students by email, meeting expectations for the management of websites, means less time for research, and under such circumstances, it does not take long for a faculty member to lose a competitive edge. This can considerably lengthen the time required to meet the standard for tenure when such standards do not accommodate faculty receiving additional teaching assignments, and can completely scuttle one’s chances for promotion. 

We urge faculty to ensure that they take ownership of their assignments of duties, their workload guidelines, and their standards for promotion and tenure. The USFA is addressing the problems of increased teaching assignments (with no corresponding decrease in research expectation) at JCMA and at Grievance, but needs the support of its members to ensure that careers of individual faculty members are not jeopardized by uneven workloads.