CHAPTER 5: A VIBRANT FACULTY
Standard 10
Listing of Standards
Standard 10: Faculty
The institution's instructional, research, and service programs are devised, developed,
monitored, and supported by qualified professionals.
Overview of Charge and Questions Addressed
The Vibrant Faculty work group will document faculty support of the mission of the
College through their teaching, scholarship, and service. The group will examine the
faculty’s commitment to excellence in quality instruction through creation of a climate of
inquiry, and by shaping and improving the curriculum. This work group will document the
level of activity and engagement of scholars in innovative and dynamic pedagogy, wideranging forms of scholarship, and engagement in various types of institutional outreach
activities. This group also will also examine the mix and diversity of faculty members in
support of our programmatic and institutional goals.
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Does professional development of faculty contribute to more valuable experiences
for students inside and outside the classroom?
Does the institution clearly communicate expectations for faculty performance that
will best contribute to SUNY Oswego’s mission and goals and to students’ success?
Are the qualifications and professional expectations for faculty members appropriate
to national standards for a 21st-century faculty?
Are the needs of students and the institution met by the size, mix and diversity of
faculty at SUNY Oswego?
CHAPTER 5: A VIBRANT FACULTY
Introduction
SUNY Oswego faculty are committed to excellence in quality instruction through
creation of a climate of inquiry, and by shaping and improving the curriculum. On SUNY
campuses academic teaching and librarian faculty, along with academic professionals, are
members of United University Professions (UUP), a collective bargaining unit which
supports them in both wage and benefit negotiations and professional development.
Throughout this chapter we will distinguish academic teaching and librarian faculty from
other professionals responsible for such services as student affairs, public relations and
student recruitment. Significant activity and engagement of faculty in innovative
pedagogy, wide-ranging forms of scholarship, and various types of institutional outreach
activities are well-documented.
A close examination of data on faculty accomplishments with a keen eye as to how the
college can best promote student learning, reveals that faculty support our mission
through their teaching, scholarship and service. They are committed to providing
distinctive curricular and co-curricular programs, academic support services, scholarly
and creative work, and contributions to our strategic plan.
Faculty Qualifications
The vitality of a faculty can be demonstrated in several areas. An important criterion
traditionally has been scholarship. Faculty scholarly engagements have increased
significantly. As documented in the volunteer online faculty activities reports. Over the
past five years faculty publication increased by 85% and faculty-led student research
resulted in more than 1,300 student publications, presentations and exhibits - the highest
level of scholarship in the college’s history. In the academic year 2009-2010, 217 full
time instructional faculty participated in the volunteer online faculty activities reports. Of
this group, 117 (54% ) reported submitting one or more publications and 155 (71%)
reported on one or more presentations, exhibitions or other scholarly and creative works,
with similar participation in the 2010-2011 academic year. (2009-10 Academic Affairs
Annual Report, 2009-10 Institutional Profile).
Faculty members have been partners with regional and national leaders in developing
programs. Programs supporting student success continue to evolve under the leadership
of a strong professional staff, while our new faculty members bring new knowledge,
skills, and perspectives to their programs. Faculty and professional staff are also playing
an important role in the planning for new learning facilities on campus.
Table 7-1 below summarizes the characteristics of our teaching and librarian faculty.
Approximately 88 percent of the full-time teaching faculty have a PhD or other terminal
degree, and 86 percent of these faculty are tenured or on tenure track lines. Over 80
percent of classes are taught by full-time faculty. Part-time faculty use has risen from 37
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percent to 40 percent of the faculty as budget pressures have forced some programs to
hire part-time instructors in place of full-time, tenure-track faculty. This is an area of
concern for full-time faculty who must then bear a larger share of curricular, assessment
and advisement responsibilities. Still, the use of part-time faculty allows for institutional
flexibility to meet changing curricular needs and exposes students to the experiences of
practitioners in their fields. The best possible balance between full-time and part-time
faculty, of course in relation to the College’s financial outlook, is a subject of ongoing
discussion on campus. On a very positive note, full-time faculty from divergent global
and ethnic backgrounds increased by 43% in the last decade, from 44 in 2001 to 63 in
2009 (Oswego by the Numbers).
Table 7-1. Characteristics of SUNY Oswego Faculty
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
507
479
516
513
532
Total Faculty
Full-time faculty (tenured, tenure-track,
and lecturers)
( % of all faculty)
319
304
319
312
319
63%
63%
62%
61%
60%
Part-time faculty
188
175
197
201
213
(% of all faculty)
37%
37%
38%
39%
40%
Female faculty
223
200
230
223
236
(% of all faculty)
44%
42%
45%
43%
44%
67
52
78
78
76
( % of all faculty)
13%
11%
15%
15%
14%
Full-time faculty holding terminal degree
% Full-time faculty holding terminal
degree
Part-time faculty holding terminal degree
% Part-time faculty holding terminal
degree
265
250
265
273
281
83%
82%
83%
88%
88%
47
44
45
46
49
25%
25%
23%
23%
23%
Faculty who are members of underrepresented groups
Professional Expectations as Communicated by the Board of Trustees
Professional expectations as communicated by the Board of Trustees and as reinforced by
the Division of Academic Affairs, through the Provost’s Office, outline specific criteria
for faculty personnel decisions. The Provost meets regularly with faculty groups and
governance to review the criteria, and distributes a variety of documents to faculty as part
of ongoing professional development. These documents include:
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The Faculty and Professional Staff Handbook, distributed to all new faculty upon
arrival and available online. This is a policy document used for reference
purposes.
Criteria for Faculty Personnel Decisions, communicating local performance
expectations in the context of Board of Trustee criteria: Mastery of subject
matter, effectiveness of teaching, scholarly ability, effectiveness in university
service, and continuing growth. This document provides the basis for
recommendations for re-appointment, tenure, promotion and salary increases.
Above and beyond system-wide communications about responsibilities, each department
has created and maintains a statement of departmental personnel review criteria that
describes departmental expectations in terms of teaching, advising, scholarly activities
and service.
Documenting Excellence
The Academic Affairs Annual Report summarizes accomplishments made by faculty and
departments as communicated through each academic unit’s annual report. This report
lists department and program accomplishments, including individual departmental
initiatives such as new courses, programs, outreach activities, and international
experiences. Faculty also post information to a voluntary online faculty data reporting
system and this data is compiled used to support departmental and school reports on a
yearly basis over multiple years.
The assessment system of faculty, as established by Faculty Assembly, starts at the
departmental level. A department level committee is appointed to review materials using
the Provost’s Criteria for Evaluation. The criteria are the basis for recommendations on
Discretionary Salary Increases (DSI), promotion, and continuing appointment
decisions. The departmental committee then makes a recommendation to the division or
subdivison committee, which has representation from each department in the division.
These committees make recommendations to the academic deans, who in turn make the
recommendation to Provost and the President. The process has many layers of oversight,
and each year the Provost’s office provides an updated workshop for all interested parties
about the process and how to make it more transparent. Decisions for term and
continuing appointment are made in a similar fashion, without review by divisional
committees.
Effectiveness in teaching
As a learner-centered institution we recognize that effective instruction is our highest
priority. It is then heartening to learn from recent surveys that our students find their
classes rewarding. For example, approximately 400 senior student respondents gave
SUNY Oswego faculty higher marks for key teaching qualities as compared to their
SUNY peers in the categories Enriching Educational Experiences, Active &
Collaborative Learning, and the Level of Academic Challenge (2008 NSSE Report).
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For individual faculty personnel decisions, documented teaching effectiveness is
essential. Student evaluations, peer evaluations, course materials, self-evaluations,
information on advising and other teaching related activities (all explained more fully
below) are all used in personnel decisions. While there is no standard student evaluation
form across campus each department specifies how student feedback is to be collected,
and interpreted. Forms for evaluation may include both numerical and essay responses
from students. Untenured full-time faculty members are evaluated by their students
every semester; tenured faculty members are encouraged to use student evaluations
regularly for purposes of continuing improvements and applications for promotion and
Discretionary Salary Increase (DSI).
Faculty members are encouraged to present to personnel committees materials from their
courses that can provide evidence of their teaching practices and proficiency. These
committees review sample materials for evidence of high expectations of student
performance, knowledge of subject matter, learning outcomes, engaging teaching
approaches, and a supportive and encouraging learning environment. In addition, faculty
members have their teaching reviewed by departmental/program colleagues through
classroom visits. These peer judgments must be a part of every recommendation
affecting promotion and/or continuing appointment for teaching faculty.
Effectiveness of teaching is also evaluated for responsibilities outside the classroom.
Work with student organizations, clubs, and advising, among other activities, are all vital
teaching arenas. The latter, for example, is a very important component of faculty work,
and faculty members can demonstrate effectiveness in advising through student feedback
and/or self-evaluations of their performance as an advisor. Those who serve as First Year
Advisors meet several times with students during the first year. These advisors are
compensated with additional travel monies. There has been ongoing assessment of the
First Year Advisement program, discussed in more detail in Chapter 4: A LearnerCentered Campus and Chapter 8: A Culture of Continuous Improvement. At this time
there is no campus-wide assessment of other academic advisement. An equally rigorous
assessment of such would be beneficial to address concerns of academic advisor
incentives and rewards, workloads, training and development and quality and
effectiveness of advisement on student outcomes.
Scholarly ability
SUNY Oswego also values faculty members who are teacher-mentorscholars. Therefore, all faculty members are expected to show evidence of consistent
engagement in scholarly or creative activities, as defined by departmental and
disciplinary criteria. Faculty are encouraged to include students in their scholarly and
creative activities, and grants are available for student-faculty research projects. All
scholarly and creative works are evaluated on the basis of their significance and impact
on the intellectual or artistic community and as evidence of the faculty member’s
intellectual vitality and knowledge.
Case Study: Celebrating Intellectual Rigor with Display to Archives
The Display-to-Archives Program is an ongoing, campus-wide effort to
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recognize, exhibit, collect, and promote access to SUNY Oswego faculty’s
scholarly and creative work. Faculty are invited to donate copies of their recent
published professional work or programs and reviews related to their recitals,
exhibitions, and productions. Material from the past two years is exhibited in the
Penfield Library lobby continuously. Older donated material goes directly into the
college archives. An annual reception hosted by Penfield celebrates these
scholarly and creative efforts.
Effectiveness in university service
Faculty members are expected to contribute to the vitality of SUNY Oswego through
service both to the College and the broader community. This may take the form of active
participation in governance as well as by volunteering in community organizations or, of
course, professional associations. In personnel recommendations, departments and
committees evaluate service activities for both participation and level of responsibility,
effort and quality. Recommendations for advanced ranks or continuing appointment note
an individual’s participation and leadership in a given organization or cause over time.
Support for Faculty
Institutional support is strong for faculty professional development, scholarly and
creative activity and instructional pedagogy. Services and resources of several nonteaching departments are instrumental in providing critical faculty support, and are
detailed on the webpage Support and Assistance for Faculty.
Internal funding support
To promote continuing professional development as teachers and scholars, SUNY
Oswego encourages and provides financial support for regular participation in
professional organizations and workshops. This support, especially for junior faculty,
includes travel grants, Scholarly and Creative Activity Committee (SCAC) grants,
Curriculum Innovation Grants (CIG), First Year Advisement Travel Grants, Student
Faculty Collaborative Challenge Grants (SFCCG), and startup grants and matching funds
for grant activity. Since 2010, the College Foundation supports a Summer Scholars
Program (SSP) to support faculty working with undergraduates on research projects. In
2011, the SSP received $50,000 in donor support through the College Foundation and an
additional $13,000 through the Office of the Provost.
Administrative support for all of these grants has increased or stayed steady over the past
five years. For example, SCAC grant awards have increase 33 percent, while the
percentage of CIG requests filled rose from 71 to 76 percent. Faculty receiving grants
submit final reports to the Provost’s office after the projects have been completed.
Case study: A SFCC grant to improve physics education
A student and McNair scholar, wrote the SFCCG grant guided by professors in
physics, human computer interaction and computer sciences departments on using
multi-touch technologies. The student designed the technology and worked with
the faculty on applying new teaching methods in physics classes such that the
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kinesthetic learners would benefit. A commercial multi-touch board can reach
between $100,000 and $300,000 while this project cost only $3,000, providing a
real solution to resource issues. The project was presented at two international,
five regional and four local conferences, with the write up submitted for
publication. The project also resulted in faculty and student awards (McNair
Certificates and Sigma Xi /ORSP 2010 Quest Award)
Case Study: CI grant for course development in theatre
A theatre professor was awarded a grant to support the development of a course
taught in Spring 2010, “Jewish Culture and the Holocaust”. The grant was used to
travel to Kielce and Krakow, Poland, where collaboration with Jan Kochanowski
University faculty resulted in student conferences and multiple day trips in
relation to the course topic. Ten Oswego students travelled to Poland in May of
2010, visiting a number of sites connected to Jewish culture. As a result of the
success of this project, seven students from Jan Kochanowski University came to
Oswego in June of 2011 for the Second Annual Jan Kochanowski UniversitySUNY Oswego Student Conference on Cultural Studies, which will alternate
between Oswego and Kielce every year for as long as both schools support the
collaboration
External funding support
All externally sponsored projects for research, scholarly/creative services utilizing SUNY
Oswego facilities and/or personnel are processed and administered through the the Office
of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP). External awards from Academic Affairs
have risen from $2.5 million in 2009 to $3.3 million in 2011, with almost $6 million in
committed funds for 2011-2015. ORSP’s commitment to college research and
scholarship is further evidenced in their sponsorship of the QUEST Day activities. This
annual campus-wide event provides an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to
present the results of their research and creative projects. At Quest 2011, for example,
400 students, mentored by 95 faculty members, participated in 296 talks, demonstrations,
and other activities.
Case Study: Women in STEM
In 2010 the National Science Foundation awarded SUNY Oswego a $200,000
CATALYST grant to assess the status of women faculty in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM). This project will collect data to better
understand the status of women in STEM areas, look at best practices at similar
institutions that have obtained improved participation and advancement of women
in STEM, and publish and present the data, building campus understanding of the
factors that may hold women faculty back in the STEM fields. With the addition
of two new engineering programs, we are poised to enter into fields where the
number of women faculty is traditionally low. This project will ensure that female
STEM faculty are recruited and retained to become mentors and role models for
female students who are interested in the STEM disciplines.
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Faculty Travel
Travel to professional meetings and participation in scholarly work, both in the United
States and abroad, is widely supported. Regular travel funding to participate and present
work at professional conferences is made available by the deans, International Programs,
and the faculty bargaining unit, UUP.
In the past five years, the Provost’s office supported faculty travel in the amount of
$108,356 to $184,855 each year. The budget downturn of 2007-2010 forced a reduction
in the amount of travel awards available for faculty development. During this period,
awards for junior faculty took priority over tenured faculty to reinforce the college’s
commitment to strengthening the instruction and research programs of newly recruited
faculty. Travel reimbursement awards for the 2011-12 academic year have been increased
for all full-time time faculty and the criteria have been broadened to provide more
professional development opportunities for faculty.
Students are also funded from various sources for travel to conferences to present their
work if they request such assistance. The Provost’s Office alone spent about $7,000 for
student travel in the 2010-2011 academic year.
According to Academic Affairs reports between 2008-10, 65 different faculty members
received grants to travel abroad to over 19 countries for professional meetings and/or
research. In recent years more than twenty faculty received travel grants from Office of
International and Education and Programs for research or scholarly presentations abroad
to countries including Brazil, Kenya, Austria, South Africa, Congo, Singapore and South
Korea, France, Canada, India, Germany, Bahamas, Turkey, India, Nigeria, Ireland, and
Hungary.
Case Study: Travel funding for professional development in pedagogy
With support from the CLAS dean’s office, two economics faculty attended a
conference by the Redesign Alliance, through the National Center for Academic
Transformation in 2007. Both instructors re-designed large enrollment courses
(Eco 101 and 200, enrollment over 500 students annually) incorporating the main
ideas from the conference sessions on the redesign pilots at other institutions.
These included low-stakes mastery learning exercises to provide frequent
feedback, the results of which are used to inform lecture emphasis, along with
online discussion forums to apply course concepts. Since the redesign, students’
performance of the Test of Understanding of College Economics (TUCE) has
improved, with students scoring, on average, above the 60th percentile in 2009, up
from the 45th percentile in 2006.
Support for professional development on campus
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
Strong support for faculty continuing growth in teaching effectiveness is offered by
various campus offices, and is coordinated through the Center for Excellence in Learning
and Teaching (CELT). CELT offers workshops, discussion groups, seminars, and
webinars, along with post-event video recordings, on a wide range of topics each year.
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Past topics include assessment, civic engagement, grant writing, research, teaching
strategies, advisement, sustainability, computing technology and mentoring. Many
involve collaborations with other campus offices such as ORSP and CTS. CELT has
been instrumental in challenging faculty to consider cutting edge technologies in the
classroom, for example, presentations focused on using iPods in teaching in 2006-2007
and on Second Life in 2009-2010. In 2008-2009 CELT initiated faculty learning
communities and over 50 faculty participated that year in discussions focused on large
class instruction and on diversity.
Penfield Library
Library faculty serve as subject specialists who liaise with each academic department to
support faculty research and provide instruction. Penfield Library collections in
traditional and online formats are supplemented with comprehensive interlibrary loan
services, amounting to nearly 12,000 requests last year. Since SUNY Oswego’s last
review, technology has driven huge changes in library services and resources, including
growth of electronic journals available to 45,000 titles, addition of e-reserves, e-book
collections and a range of virtual reference services--including twenty-four hour a day
chat reference service. Multimedia technology is provided for faculty use, and librarians
partner with teaching faculty to provide roughly 300 class sessions and support for a
growing integration of library resources into the online course management
system. Faculty have been consistently involved in planning for upcoming library
renovations, to ensure that their needs are considered and gain a valued perspective from
these teacher/scholars. As mentioned earlier in this report, Penfield’s Display to
Archives program continually solicits and maintains a collection of faculty publications
and creative work and honors authors annually for their contributions to academic
scholarship.
Campus Technology Services
CTS is proactive in maintaining current technologies in support of the educational
mission of the college, and its staff provides ongoing training and assistance in using
these technologies. For online and hybrid instruction the SUNY Learning Network and
local curriculum designers from the Division of Extended Learning provide training and
user support. Local instructional designers also provide ongoing faculty workshops on
the ANGEL course management system, reaching 140 faculty and staff members to date.
Several times each year CTS workshops offer hands-on instruction in new software or
services. In addition Skillport E-Learning, with over 1500 on-demand courses, are
available to SUNY Oswego faculty, staff, and students at no charge.
The Office of the Associate Provost for Multicultural Opportunities and Programs
The role of the Office is to support and improve the recruitment and retention of faculty
of color and to promote the academic achievement, multicultural competence, social
development, and retention of students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. The
Office recommends policies and procedures appropriate to ensure diversity and equity
and a positive campus climate for all. Among their important initiatives is a mentoring
program for new faculty, outlined in the Effective Mentoring Handbook given to all new
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hires at faculty orientation, which focuses particular attention on the needs of faculty in
underrepresented populations. Since fall of 2004 the College has increased full-time
faculty of color as a share of all faculty from 11% to 18% in fall of 2011. The total of
underrepresented students now exceeds 1,200.
Chapter Findings
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Faculty expectations are clearly communicated through system, campus, division
and program policies. Strong peer review processes are in place to ensure that
expectations are met.
With many sources of internal and external funding, faculty professional
development has brought innovative curricular changes and more effective
pedagogies to our classrooms, on a campus enriched by scholarly and creative
activity.
The emphasis on funding and showcasing faculty-led student research has
resulted in impressive gains in the opportunities for students to learn and become
part of the solutions to world challenges.
Chapter Recommendations
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Implement richer documentation of the impact of faculty professional
development on student learning outcomes. The documentation should be
regularly reported out and archived in the academic affairs division.
Review the process for evaluating and assessing the work of adjunct faculty, with
standard guidelines available for all departments. This important analysis should
be combined with a larger discussion on what is the appropriate balance between
full and part-time instruction on campus in light of recent budgetary constraints.
Develop systemic strategies for enhancing the quality of academic advising
including incentives and rewards for advisors to engage in high-quality advising,
strengthening advisement orientation, training, and development, and evaluating
the quality of academic advisement from the perspectives of advisors and students
in the process.
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