Assistant professors want more time for research.
Associate professors are unhappy.
Female faculty members report being sexually harassed.
Is it the minutes from a faculty meeting at a major public university? No. It’s some of the results from the 2007 Faculty Quality of Life survey. The survey, which paints an interesting and occasionally contradictory picture of faculty opinion, has been an issue for faculty and students alike over the past few days.
The survey was conducted in Spring 2007. Of all the faculty, 93 people responded, but not all faculty responded and not all responding faculty answered every question. The survey likely included responses by faculty members who are no longer at the College. It included questions about almost every facet of faculty life, ranging from concerns about research and departmental mentoring to life in Crawfordsville and how well the values of College match faculty members’ own values.
Staff and student surveys were not conducted, but College officials have not ruled out the possibility of such studies.
After parts of the survey was obtained by the Bachelor, and confirmed by Dean of the College Gary Phillips, the Bachelor requested that the whole survey be released and published. The Student Senate has followed the Bachelor in that request. As of press time, Dean Phillips had not released the report.
It does not appear that there are any plans to do so in the immediate future.
“It is our collective view that we are not in a position to disseminate the report to anyone – staff, students, parents, anyone – before the faculty has had a chance to thoroughly review and discuss this important document,” Phillips said. “Once that happens to the faculty’s satisfaction, then it will be up to the faculty to decide if and how it will release this information.”
Faculty members responded committee work, teaching load, and the lack of personal time have been at least somewhat stressful in the last two years. According to the survey, 19 faculty members have a negative view of a college for men. At the same time, 54 faculty members report feeling at least satisfied with their job.
Dean Phillips organized a Quality of Life Committee last semester. The purpose of the committee was to make a survey of the faculty, according to the survey’s executive summary, “to gather quantitative and qualitative information that would help pinpoint areas of need and to enhance faculty quality of life across the College.”
President of the College Dr. Patrick White commented about the utility and purpose of the study as well. “I see the Quality of Life Study as one tool,” White said. “You care about the quality of life of faculty since they’re central to the student learning process.”
The Bachelor obtained the entire survey from faculty sources. It is an executive summary, discussing the methods, results, and national comparisons; Appendix A, the raw data; Appendix B, a thematic breakdown of the survey; and Appendix C, a summary of faculty answers to three open-ended questions.
While there is a substantial amount of data, several themes emerged. First, that 95.5 percent of responding assistant professors want more time for research. 54.5 percent of the assistant professors responding to the survey prefer less time teaching. That is compared in the study to 21.3 percent of associate professors responding and 40.7 percent of full professors responding. At the same time, 63.2 percent of the assistant professors think that their teaching is valued strongly, and 36.8 percent think that their teaching is somewhat valued.
Assistant professors were also more likely to spend a fair amount of time on department and committee work. According to the survey, 95.2 percent of responding assistant professors spend between one and four hours a week on department work, and 76.2 percent spend one to four hours a week on committee work. That is compared to 64 percent and 62.5 percent respectively for associate professors, and 64.3 percent and 57.1 percent of full professors.
President White said the stress levels and concerns of assistant professors are of interest to administrators. “The stress of junior faculty, i.e., untenured faculty, is a very important concern for all of us,” White said. “Wabash and maybe 200-300 other colleges care about scholarship and teaching.”
Assistant Professor of German Dr. Brian Tucker ’98 said there are some clear trends among the responses of non-tenured faculty.
“We report in overwhelming numbers that we would like to have more time for research and that we are at least somewhat stressed out by the tenure review process,” Tucker said. “These concerns strike me as reasonable and predictable given where assistant professors are in their careers.”
On the specific matters of teaching loads and faculty stress levels, Dr. Tucker put the issue into the context of other colleges. “It's also a question of how attractive Wabash is as a place to start an academic career,” Tucker said. “It's not uncommon for non-tenured faculty at other institutions to receive reduced teaching loads in their first year or to have a semester of research leave prior to tenure. Some of the numbers regarding teaching load and research time at Wabash should be read in this light.”
President White acknowledged assistant faculty can feel the pressures of life at Wabash. “You can find the job too much, even when you love the job,” White said.
Associate professors, according to the survey, are “dissatisfied and unhappy.” Issues that Appendix B to the survey highlighted were that associate professors were “more likely to think faculty at odds with campus administration,” “less likely to experience joy in work,” “less likely to feel good about direction of life,” “less likely to feel that work adds meaning to life,” “less likely to experience close alignment between work and personal values,” “somewhat less likely to think that their research is valued,” and “stressed by research demands.”
At Tuesday’s Student Senate meeting, the issue that 37 percent of responding female faculty members reported being sexually harassed was of some concern. Dean Phillips addressed this concern.
“This is not unique to Wabash as the national comparative data reveal,” Phillips said. “Nonetheless, this ought to be of concern to everyone and a reason to investigate further, which I believe the faculty and administration together will.”
The executive summary compared Wabash data with results compiled by the Higher Education Research Institute, which was the basis for the Wabash survey. That study reported 23.2 percent of responding faculty felt that subtle discrimination had been at least somewhat stressful in the past two years, as opposed to Wabash’s 32.9 percent.
“The report [i.e., the Wabash survey] does not specify who has done the harassing,” Phillips said. “That is why the survey is a place to begin further study and investigation, not draw superficial conclusion about attitudes, whether it be toward students, faculty colleagues, or life in Indiana.”
The study, though, raised issues that will likely concern many students. At the same time, it presented information that was supportive of the College and the College’s liberal-arts focus.
There were, though, negative comments. “Nineteen respondents explicitly commented negatively about Wabash’s mission as a college for men,” the survey said. The objections were “grouped loosely into the following three categories”: “it creates or allows objectionable behaviors and/or values,” “it creates difficulties for women at Wabash,” and, “the student body would be better (or better served) if it included male students.”
Specific responses mentioned included, “Emphasizes unpleasant and damaging values and behaviors (anti-intellectualism, parochialism, conservatism, hypermasculinity),” “takes courage to be a woman here due to pervasive behaviors (from subtle gender discrimination to blatant sexual harassment),” and “learning is hurt because female students are not in the classroom.”
There were other issues raised, which might surprise students. “I do want to be at a liberal arts college, but do not feel that I belong at Wabash, “it feels like the college wants to return to the 1950s,” and “concerns about sexism – inappropriate t-shirts, comments in print or otherwise that ‘Wabash doesn’t need women’ can be alienating to female faculty and staff.”
Professor of Religion and Philosophy Stephen H. Webb ’83 doubted that assertion. “Wabash is much less sexist than other colleges and universities I am familiar with,” Webb said. “For one thing, young women today are just as, if not more sexist than young men, so removing women from the classroom cuts down on sexist opportunities and the female reinforcement of sexist behavior.”
Dr. Webb also dealt with the assertion that it takes courage to be a female faculty member at Wabash. “It takes as much courage to be a woman teacher at Wabash as, I am sure, it takes to be a male teacher at an all female college,” Webb said.
Professor of History Stephen Morillo responded to the issue of sexism, as well. “With sexism, the real question we need to look into is how Wabash compares to other schools our size,” Morillo said. “The survey is a starting point of how the faculty feels and then we can use that data to investigate fully how we compare to other schools. We come out way ahead of other places, especially with regards to faculty being happy teaching here.”
The study also reported that 18 respondents felt “moderate to strong incongruity between Wabash’s values and their own,” and another 19 “expressed a conflicted response to the question.”
Dr. Tucker felt the concerns raised were both important and nothing that most students hadn’t known for some time. “Students don't need to adopt a ‘sky is falling’ attitude toward the responses in Appendix C, but they shouldn't completely ignore the issues raised there either,” Tucker said. “What do the open-ended responses tell us that we don't already know, at least anecdotally? It's not exactly news that not all faculty whole-heartedly support single-sex education. We also know that some of our colleagues - especially women and people of color - do not always feel equally welcome and respected on campus.”
Professor of Classics Dr. David Kubiak was uncertain if the survey expressed the general feeling of the faculty. “I don’t know, and that’s what we’re being invited to discuss,” Kubiak said.
Asked how students should react, Dr. Kubiak supported action in general. “They should react,” Kubiak said. “The biggest problem we face is apathy.”
Additional Reporting by Josh Harris and Rob Fenoglio