The American Association for Higher Education Conference
on Faculty Roles and Rewards
-- E.L. (Betty) Donaldson
Director, Teaching, Learning and Curriculum, Learning Commons
How do we prepare graduate students, orient and mentor early-career
faculty, conduct the tenure and promotion process, and maintain the vitality
of mid-career faculty? How do we sustain the commitments of senior faculty
and deal with the retirement transition creatively?
In search of answers to these questions I recently became a snowbird for a
brief escape to Florida (it rained the entire time) for an American
Association for Higher Education Conference (AAHE) on Faculty Roles and
Rewards. The trip was a productive opportunity to join our American cousins
in focussed discussions about 'The Changing Professoriate'. As Canadians
always do, I returned with suitcases of new goods (books) and ideas to be
adapted for our less hospitable environment. Trying not to be too envious of
those wealthy Southerners and reminding myself of the virtues of being a
country mouse, I offer the following vignettes as nibbles, food for thought.
This reflection about the event summarizes conference demographics,
conference themes, relevant concepts and strategies for our campus, and final
comments relative to the curriculum redesign initiative.
Conference Demographics
The American talent for
organizing on a grand scale is an awesome
dynamic regardless of the purpose of the activity. This conference was no
exception. A day and a half prior to the
conference, a series of three-hour thematic workshops were held. The meeting
schedule was a well-paced combination of plenary and concurrent sessions.
The catalogue was an exemplary communication tool, appropriately keyword and
colour coded.
Approximately 1200 people attended (in Canada, the Society for Studies in
Higher Education is doing well if it attracts 100 registrants). AAHE
attendees included representatives from the most prestigious universities,
land grant and private colleges, state institutions including community
colleges, and a large range of affiliated organizations (such as the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; National Center for Higher
Education Management Systems, Xerox Corporation, the Council on Undergraduate
Research and many others). The bookstore reflected many recent and
international publications on topics ranging from retirement issues to
classroom dynamics.
Many pamphlets about further such scholarly activities and calls for papers
were readily available. There was a cybercafe (too small) and technological
support for presenters (sometimes problematic).
Of the 1200, approximately 40 people were from outside the USA. They came
from Australia and New Zealand, Sweden, South
Africa, and the UK. However, the majority of this minority was Canadian; the
University of Guelph had an impressive team (nine members including the VP(A).
We must have been a bit obvious because some presenters representing
American higher education indicated they were 'Canadian', manifestations of
the brain drain. Among the American group of scholars were many who knew
about Canadian issues or who had visited campuses (including Calgary), and
at least one senior administrator, known for research on the Antarctic, could
quote Ian Tyson better than I.
A sub-theme of the conference was 'New Generation' but most of the conference
attendees reflected the old guard. They were senior white-haired males who
have spent a lifetime in academia. When a video 'Shattering the Silences' was
shown in the large ballroom, for the first time visible minorities were
predominant but the room was not full. Only one session about gender was
scheduled; it attracted about 20 (2 males). At least one institution, however,
has a policy of rewarding junior non-tenured faculty members' outstanding
service with annual support for one such type of conference.
I met a talented Afro-American who is being mentored in this way.
The demographic shift is a concern for American Higher Education. One study,
replicating an earlier 1969 survey, indicated that the total number of
academics in the USA (about 170,000) has not changed during the past 30 years
but the numbers of women and 'people of colour' have changed the ratios.
Tenured faculty are older. Few incentives effectively encourage retirement.
Part-time instructor percentages have increased. There are more (highly-paid)
staff whose primary responsibilities maintain the institution itself, but
they do not have a teaching and research (knowledge generative) mandate. Many
very talented new graduates are choosing lucrative and challenging
professional careers other than academia. Thus, some concern about the
ongoing quality of the academy itself is evident.
Conference Themes
The 2001 conference was organized around five sub-themes that impact higher
education: impact of technology on the faculty role; generational changing
of the guard; honouring different forms of scholarly excellence; new pathways:
academic careers for a new century; other faculty-related topics.
Here are examples from each sub-theme.
The rapid adoption of WWW technology (from zero to
dominance in less than 6 years) has everyone reeling. Stand- alone units are
expensive and often underutilized. A successful strategy for many
institutions involves training graduate students (especially prospective new
faculty members) to support and facilitate within a
disciplinary program.
The need to provide training for faculty members moving to administrative
roles, including Department Headships generates institutional mechanisms that
provide periodic support. Recruitment and retention does not seem to be as
much of an issue as in Canada although some disciplines are in competitive
situations vis-a-vis the corporate workplace. Work conditions and benefits
are generally not better than conditions external to the academy but some
institutions are very obviously resource rich from endowments. New research
about the 'seasons of an academic life' provides compelling evidence of a life
style in which intrinsic rewards are being challenged by increasing external
pressures.
Honouring different forms of scholarly excellence especially the various
dimensions of teaching activities, technological courses and publications,
and 'service-learning' are high priority issues. One university (Missouri)
has developed a 'faculty performance shares' plan targeted to reward
implementation activities that directly further the strategic plan. Yes,
copies of these documents have been forwarded to senior administration, Human
Resources and TUCFA.
A few sessions addressed academic career pathways; these focussed upon post-
tenure reviews. It seems that private universities and disciplines requiring
accreditation are leaders in this area and this arena is quite a different
type of conversation than the one which facilitates scholarship about teaching
and learning or institutional strategic planning. In the USA, the new
dialogue is about the scholarship of 'engagement'. It arises from concern
that many citizens are alienated from the democratic process (low voter
turnout) and from concern that the more fortunate are not assisting less-
advantaged. Thus, 'service-learning' which is a structured learning
experience, usually off-campus, is an emergent priority. At least one
university successfully increased local community support by developing an
interdisciplinary project that illustrated the value of having a higher
education and of having a university in the area.
'Other' topics included diverse titles such as building inter-institutional
programs and projects, campus-based codes of conduct, transformative
leadership, ongoing alumni involvement, and scholarship and spirituality. A
well-attended session reporting results from a survey about departmental
leadership and management resulted in considerable sharing of expertise and
wisdom.
Relevant Concepts and Strategies
Overall, the conference confirmed that the University of Calgary has initiated
Milestone 1 of the curriculum redesign process as well or better than many
other institutions. We have applied successfully previous scholarship about
teaching and learning and undergraduate curriculum revision when developing
the Cornerstone Policies. These concepts frame the Explicit Syllabus
documents which are reviewed by APC for 'approval in principle'. Our
particular emphasis on a combination of content and process in the curricular
features is generating a UC 'signature' that will attract prospective students
and assist graduates. The shared commitment to develop core competencies
increases student performance.
An assessment framework developed by Indiana University (Bloomington), which
had the most exemplary institutional goals relevant to UC, indicates that our
campus has done very well indeed. Indiana has a strategic Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning (SOTL) program that is faculty led. To make effective
change happen, this team reported the following required components: getting
faculty involved; making changes to the program culture; making changes to
the institutional culture; assessing effects periodically. Key resources
include: massive administrative support, a dedicated director, a faculty
advisory council; a core of committed researchers willing to share their work.
Curriculum redesign at UC has had all of the above. But Indiana has the long
-term advantage because it has fostered a research approach. This emphasis
upon intellectual commitment, as a higher priority than service or practice,
has resulted in an orientation consonant with contributions expected from a
Centre of Excellence. UC has not yet moved into a clearly articulated, long-
term commitment to teaching and learning as a research-enhanced activity
informed by the Cornerstone policy concepts, and exercising all the vigour
and rigour that ordinarily applies to such work. The Cornerstone policy
concepts, however, provide a framework for potential further development.
One other interesting conference observation: in the self-absorption of
democratic renewal, little discussion about internationalization was evident.
Perhaps this is an undesirable outcome of being the most powerful nation on
earth.
Final Comments and Suggestions
At the final plenary, AAHE Board members attempted to identify trends that
will impact and characterize Higher Education in the USA. These included more
cross-institutional partnerships; more collaborative teaching projects; more
quality assurance mechanisms; more 'consumer protection; an unregulated www,
and life in a 'digital civilization'. As always, Canadians will be influenced
by these trends, adapting to them at our own pace, with our own pressures,
our own priorities. It is a requisite of our own cultural survival that we be
alert to the subtle and seductive American one. While we are fortunate to have
them as neighbours, perhaps it is a case of 'think smarter' because we are
not the biggest elephant on this continent.
Books, calls for papers, future conferences and other documents are filed in the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum offices in the Information and Learning Commons. If you want to do such type of participation-observation work, with respect to furthering the curriculum redesign strategic direction initiatve at the University of Calgary, please contact
E.L. (Betty) Donaldson
Phone: 220-2692
E-mail: eadonalds@ucalgary.ca
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