Resolution from the Art History Faculty Concerning Faculty. Workload

WHEREAS Art History's growth in the five years between Fall 1998 and Fall 2004 (extracted from the official CSU Academic Planning Data Base-APDB) was 57.8% at the lower division level, 94.5% at the upper division level and 57% at the overall undergraduate level, yielding an actual overall growth of 11.7 SFR (from 20.26 to 31.7 SFR), for a 57.7% growth in overall workload; and

WHEREAS Art History achieved this undergraduate growth over the five-year period despite a reduction of .26 FTEF (from 4.057 to 3.797 FTEF), a loss of6.4% FTEF; and

WHEREAS Art History experienced a significant increase in General Education responsibilities during this period-in Fall 2004 its lower division student faculty ratio (almost all of it GE) was 50.4 SFR; and

WHEREAS Art History's majors doubled in number, from 25 in Fall 2000 to 53.5 in the Spring of 2006, figures annualized by Institutional Research as 26.5 in 2000-01 and 48.5 in 2004-05, with associated needs to supervise additional capstone senior theses; and

WHEREAS Art History, given these circumstances, has found it difficult (1) to provide necessary breadth in the major, including chronological breadth, (2) to meet the extensive enrollment targets assigned by the Dean to meet his School's own enrollment target, and (3) at the same time maintain the highest standards for the major unless its faculty either exceed Contract benchmarks for WTU and SFR, or ask its students to achieve timely graduation by taking courses in other institutions or venues such as Extended Education; and

WHEREAS Art History's 3.797 FfEF (Fall 2004 APDB Course Section Data) carried in that semester a total of 10 excess WTU aboveCSU agreed obligations in order to meet the timely requirements of its majors; and

WHEREAS the Academic Senate's Faculty Standards and Affairs Committee (FSAC) has forwarded a resolution to bring workload into alignment with benchmark standards agreed to by the CSU in the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and with standards promised to the public through the University's Mission Statement; be it

RESOLVED that the Academic Senate establish and charge a task force chosen from its Faculty Affairs, Educational Policy, Academic Planning and Senate Budget Committees and from members of the Senate body itself (1) to undertake a survey of WTU and SFR practices throughout the University in order to define the extent of the problem that Art History has identified, and (2) to offer the Senate a resolution requesting that the administration ensure that the University-wide workload and funding of classes are adequate to meet in quality the Academic Senate approved curricula of majors and programs; and be it further

RESOLVED that the task force publicize the results of said survey throughout the University community: to participants in faculty governance, to appropriate Senate and administrative committees, to University, School department and program administrators and to individual facuIty members; and further

RESOLVED that the task force recommend to its constituent bodies and the Senate as a whole, immediate relief to problem areas of whatever WTU and/or excessive SFR overloads it may discern, and in cooperation with Senate governance, develop long range strategies to preserve the academic quality of the Senate approved major curricula and ensure on-going compliance with the CSU approved benchmark workload practices; be it also

RESOLVED that Senate governance also consider the merits of incorporating and regularizing appropriate WTU and SFR standards into academic program review and University-wide planning processes.

RATIONALE: Inasmuch as SSU: gained 986.5 full time equivalent students (FTES) in the five years between Fall 1998 and Fall 2004, a 16.5% growth in enrollment (based on 1998 figures), yet was reduced in its allocations by 16.7 full time equivalent faculty (FTEF.) a loss of 5.5% FTEF, SSU recorded a growth in student faculty ratio (SFR=FTES/FTEF) of 4.6 SFR (from 20.0 to 24.6 SFR), a 23% growth in overall workload. By contrast, the CSU augmented its SFR by 1.6 during the same period (from 20.3 to 21.9 SFR), an 8 % growth in overall workload.

In the most recent retrenchment, between 2002 and 2004, SSU lowered its enrollments by 230.6 FTES, which, at 2004 CSU standards of 21.9 SFR, should have reduced SSU's faculty allocation by 10.5 FTEF. Instead, it was reduced by 54.6 FTEF-yielding an increase of 3.4 SFR, a 16% growth in overall workload (based on 2002figures). In the same retrenchment CSU's increase was 1.1 SFR, a 5.3% growth in overall workload.

Within the above five year period, the Chancellor requested that campuses incorporate capstone projects into the majors.

As a result, Academic Senate approved curricula at SSU have increasingly required that faculty either (1) work beyond CSU agreed standards in Weighted Teaching Units (WTU) and/or carry excessive SFR, or (2) encourage matriculated students to go outside SSU to fulfill their major requirements in a timely manner.

Because the Art History Program is a case in point, its faculty members propose the following resolution:

Approved by the Senate
04/27/2006