The new workload policy from the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) has set a deadline of July 1 that mandates career-line faculty must all work 24 “instructional hour equivalencies (IHE).” At the U, they won’t see any immediate additional pay. This has created an environment where faculty and administration must work quickly to implement the policy while still allowing teachers to have a life outside of the classroom. Now, ASUU is looking at ways to make this possible.
The resolution
ASUU has thrown its hat in the ring. Joint Resolution 7, written by Senate Treasurer Pamalatera Fenn and Parliamentarian of the Senate Juniper Nilsson, asks that there be “exceptions.” “Since they’re raising [IHEs] from 18 to 24 we feel like as students … there should be exceptions,” Fenn said. “Because you know when you’re filing your taxes, you have certain exceptions to get more money back. That’s what we’re trying to do for the professors here.”
The resolution, which has over 150 signatories across campus, aims to ensure fairness and equity for faculty during this transition while still following USHE directives. The resolution also calls on the University to complete a compensation survey requested by the Ad Hoc Committee on Career Line Faculty Matters in the Academic Senate. The U administration, “hope[s] to be able to complete this analysis and then implement salary adjustments and/or promotion raises for the next fiscal year, as appropriate.”
These goals are in line with what the administration wants. Sarah Projansky, the vice provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, previously said that the administration wants to work with professors in order to build a fair system. One of the main ways is through exempting service. “One of the models that some units are using would be that 87 and a half percent of your assigned work is teaching, and 12 and a half percent is service. So then you would teach 4-3, because … you’d be down to 21 and that would you would teach 4-3, and have service obligations. So not everyone will be teaching a 4-4 but that’s the starting and then service could bring that down,” Projansky said.
Impact
The resolution, which passed both the assembly and senate unanimously, doesn’t actually force any change. “It’s sort of a, hey, here’s how we feel about something,” Dr. Harriet Hopf, the previous Academic Senate president, said. And that’s okay, according to Fenn. Just getting students involved in the conversation is the point of this resolution. “When the students complain, [the administration] actually listens,” Fenn said.
Hopf encouraged more students to get involved, saying that in a place like Utah where student opinion matters, they have much more power than she might. She also pushed back on any notion that a heavier course load is simply a matter of spending more time in a lecture hall. “You’re not just teaching three hours a week in a class, you’re preparing for it, and you’re meeting with the students, and you’re having office hours, and you’re maybe working on their projects with them. You’re grading, which is high intensity, right,” Hopf said.
However, this change will take time to implement. Fenn wants the administration to get it right. “I’m not expecting this to be done overnight,” Fenn said. “But what I want to be known is the students are watching [the administration] do it. She added student voices carry weight at the U. “When the students complain, [the administration] actually listens,” Fenn said.
