Cal Poly IDHC Summary Report
New Faculty Study: Hurdles and Recommendations
Summary
On behalf of the Cal Poly IDHC, new faculty were surveyed using email, web, and paper queries on hurdles they face and recommendations for action. Sema Alptekin (Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering) and Dianne Long (Political Science) sent out the survey in June 2000 and summarized general findings to chairs and heads in October 2000. The following text highlights major concerns of faculty hired by Cal Poly within the last three years.
- Workload is a top concern. Faculty were overwhelmed with course preparation, committees, and research and found it difficult to balance work and home life.
- Compensation and cost of living were issues. Salaries do not allow faculty to buy into housing, and spousal employment is bleak. Child care costs and availability are related concerns.
- Chilly environment was a factor of concern. New faculty felt ignored or isolated. Many felt uncomfortable with the large cohort of older men (good old boys) and their patterns of socialization.
- New faculty members recommend looking at other models of workload, compensation, and faculty mentoring to adopt at Cal Poly.
Background
The Cal Poly IDHC subcommittee (Sema Alptekin and Dianne Long) surveyed new faculty who had been hired within three years. The purpose of the study was to increase our understanding of hurdles, hiring/retention issues, and subsidized housing interest. Twenty-one new faculty responded.
Open-ended questions were used:
- What are the major hurdles that young faculty members go through?
- What should Cal Poly do in order to hire/retain outstanding faculty members?
- Who should have access to proposed faculty housing?
Because of the reiteration of comments throughout the responses, this report is organized by major findings and related recommendations.
Work Load is the Greatest Hurdle
Almost all respondents mentioned balancing teaching, research and service as the top hurdle. Here are some comments:
- "Trying to juggle too many things without enough guidance and with inadequate time to adjust to the many competing demands of our jobs."
- "Teaching load is the greatest hurdle. There are a lot of demands on my time and energy outside the classroom as well: committees, mentoring, presentations, etc. While I enjoy each aspect of my job, it is exhausting!"
- "Balancing teaching and a productive research career is a problem. There is a subtle pressure to have a competitive, active research program that results in grants and publications. This is extremely difficult at a university that still prides itself as a teaching institution where teaching is the number one consideration for RPT."
- "Research is difficult here: There is lack of research infrastructure, lack of time, pressure to teach needed sections, worn out tenured faculty, and lack of technology support."
- "Adjusting to a new career with a heavy workload with little consideration in the form of released time. Remember that most grad schools do not train grad students in how to teach their subject. We have to learn to be teachers on the job."
- "Private industry invests in training entry-level employees without expecting them to perform at full capacity right away. Several colleges/departments at Cal Poly give one course off to a new faculty member, but that really isn’t enough. I believe, in the first year, especially the first two quarters, the load should be greatly reduced."
- "Lack of a clear definition of expectations beyond teaching requirements. The amount of industry outreach, research, publications, and recruiting new students needs to be considered with the large teaching load."
- "Reducing the faculty workload would be the single best way to attract and retain a high-quality faculty. Other institutions within the CSU have found ways to make the 12-hour workload less onerous."
- “Release time for course development or research projects should be much more broadly available. Twelve units should not invariably mean twelve classroom contact hours.”
- “Recruitment and retention are increasingly difficult due to the extremely heavy workload and high cost of living here.”
- “Clarify tenure standards. Right now, no one seems willing to pick a priority between teaching and research. One has to be more important than the other; we just need to know how to set our priorities, and we’ll do the work.”
- “There is inadequate institutional support for professional development activity which offsets the inherent pluses that have attracted faculty to Cal Poly in the past: reputation as a flagship institution in the CSU, the high quality of students, the natural setting and pleasant climate, and the high quality of life.”
- “Laboratory space for faculty interested in research is needed. Cal Poly needs to modernize and maintain facilities across campus as well.”
- “Reduced teaching loads would assist faculty with professional development and allow us to contribute to our field outside the classroom.”
- “We can’t do it all and do it all well.. We need to hire more faculty, provide significant release time, reward excellence and scholarship in teaching/learning, put more money into sabbaticals, provide more money for graders and readers.”
Low Compensation and High Cost of Living
Almost all respondents found the compensation low given the high cost of living, lack of spousal employment in the community, and day care costs. Specific comments follow:
- “Two incomes are essential to purchase a home here. This is a difficult place for a trailing spouse or partner to find meaningful employment, particularly if the spouse is also an academic. Cal Poly needs to work with academic couples.”
- “Housing prices spiral out of reach of even an associate professor’s salary, even in remote areas. Rents are so high as to prohibit an assistant professor from saving towards a down payment and/or reducing grad school debt, unless we are willing to live in a studio apartment or share housing for six or seven years.”
- “Build faculty housing. Affordable housing is an issue. Not all new faculty have a two-income household. God help faculty who are also single parents.”
- “New subsidized housing should give priority to new faculty, followed by staff. They should be allowed to live there for 1-2 years. (Some thought 1-2 years beyond the tenure decision.)”
- “New faculty start-up money is needed. To remain competitive this absolutely needs to be provided.”
- “New office furniture should be given to each new tenure track faculty. Let them pick it out. Un-ergonomic office furniture from the 1950’s or no office furniture at all is a problem.”
- “Professional development is not compensated in our contract. We publish and present papers for free on top of a full teaching load. This seems to me to be pretty bizarre.”
- “Quality child care should be available to faculty and staff not just to students. Cal Poly needs to expand the ASI daycare facility which is already inadequate to meet demand.”
- “Develop creative external funding initiatives to boost compensation, such as housing allowances, salary performance bonuses, research funds, etc. (They should be) privately funded and outside the influence of internal budgetary restraints and union restrictions…Spread an endowment over five faculty, each at $20k instead of funding a single member at $100k.”
- “Pay us more. Ensure that salaries are appropriate to increases in the cost of living.”
Chilly Climate A Factor
- Many commented on the chilly climate for diverse faculty and on the lack of mentoring and support. Their comments follow:
- “The work environment is dominated by heterosexual white males. Women, minorities, and gays/lesbians face subtle and not-so-subtle forms of discrimination here. The problems range from outright discrimination to the general air of an old-boy network that trivializes not only the experience of different faculty, but their work interests as well, since these often lie in non-mainstream, non-canonical areas.”
- “Insufficient mentoring is a major hurdle. New faculty members have many questions and often feel insecure asking them for fear of seeming incompetent. An institutionalized mentoring system would assure a new professor that the system expects that we need help, and provides it.”
- “Develop a strong mentoring program—across departments if need be—to ensure knowledge and movement toward RPT beginning with the very first quarter.”
- “Positive communication is needed between higher levels at the university and with politicians. I was presented with Chancellor Reed’s rude comments regarding faculty work schedules when I got here.”
- “Lack of support and advice from tenured faculty is a primary struggle. A hard job is made more difficult by lack of mentoring.”
- “Unclear tenure requirements with regard to service and professional development. Some departments do not have written requirements.”
- “Difficulty in establishing connections to the greater community beyond our departments and colleges.”
- “Loneliness, particularly for new faculty who come to Cal Poly without a spouse or partner.”
- “A clear maternity leave policy for junior faculty is needed. Faculty have but 20 days of paid maternity/paternity leave, or faculty can apply for unpaid professional leave timed to coincide with the arrival of a baby. Some universities offer reduced teaching loads as a matter of course to faculty women following the birth of a child.”
- “Diversity should be a factor in future hires.”
- “Eliminate merit pay. Merit pay has done me more psychological, professional and emotional pain than any other issue since I’ve arrived at Poly. The issue has succeeded in tearing us apart on some levels. For us, it became an issue of senior vs. junior faculty—a terrible dynamic and one that is certainly detrimental to the department as a whole. (Note: A few recommended merit pay for faculty who do research.)”
- “Our chancellor is problematic. He doesn’t seem concerned about student learning or faculty development.”
