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Academic Senate warns that state teaching-load change increases pressure on faculty service
Summary
The Academic Senate reported it counted 43 university-level committees and said a Utah Board of Higher Education move to raise career-line teaching equivalents from 3 to 4 courses could create inequitable workloads without recognizing service hours; the senate urged trustees to defend faculty service recognition.
The Academic Senate representative told trustees that an ad hoc committee conducted a census of campus service and identified 43 university committees staffed by faculty, many of which had not been counted in workload calculations. The committee warned that a separate change under consideration at the Utah Board of Higher Education — increasing teaching-load equivalents for career-line faculty from 3 to 4 courses per semester — would effectively raise teaching expectations by 33% and could worsen already-high workloads if service contributions are not credited.
The senate representative said the committee’s census revealed that faculty perform substantial service that should be recognized as part of instructional equivalents, such as mentoring, advising, supervising theses, and curriculum work. "When we're asked to do more with less, and in some cases, for less, we need to think creatively about how to defend it," the senate speaker said. The speaker asked trustees to consider service recognition and equitable frameworks to avoid undermining instructional quality and retention of career-line instructors.
