Twenty-two percent of faculty members said they were not familiar enough with the Faculty Executive Committee to say whether it was doing its job or not, according to a Herald poll conducted this fall. Sixty percent indicated they approve of the committee's activity, and nearly 10 percent disapprove.
The high percentage of faculty who were unfamiliar with the FEC did not surprise James Dreier, professor of philosophy and chair of the FEC in 2008-09. Many faculty members have little or no involvement in faculty governance, he said. Only about 10 percent of the faculty regularly attend monthly faculty meetings, despite the FEC's email reminders, he said.
Reid Cooper, professor of geological sciences who is in his second year as a member of the FEC, said most faculty members prioritize teaching and research over University service.
"There are just a massive number of demands on faculty time," he said.
"If I were a young assistant professor trying to get tenure, I would avoid as much of the service work as I could," he added.
Rod Beresford, associate provost and professor of engineering, said more communication is always better but does not believe the FEC is at fault for low levels of faculty attendance or the difficulties they sometimes face when trying to fill committees. "It could be that some faculty simply don't care enough to pay attention to what's happening in faculty governance."
The FEC plays three major roles in University governance, Dreier said. The nine-member committee oversees specialized committees that discuss a wide range of issues, including the University's policies on affirmative action, the status of women in the University and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps policy.
The FEC also sets the agenda for faculty meetings and serves as a liaison between the faculty and the administration and student body.
Beresford, Dreier and Cooper all said that when changes to the University's tenure policy were being discussed last year, attendance at faculty meetings greatly increased.
Over 26 percent of science faculty responded that they were unfamiliar with the FEC, compared to around 17 percent of humanities faculty members. Cooper said the humanities faculty may be more aware of the faculty's role in governance because they rely more heavily on the University to protect their academic freedoms. Science faculty depend more on peers outside the University who read and fund research proposals, he said.
William Simmons, professor of anthropology, said adjunct professors, visiting professors and assistant professors may not be aware of the FEC's work because they do not get called on for faculty governance for a variety of reasons, including that the University "likes to protect junior faculty members from the stresses of these extra positions."
Simmons guessed some of the about 10 percent of faculty members who disapprove might feel "slighted" for having never been asked to serve, or they might harbor resentment toward the committee that handles faculty advancement if they were denied a promotion.
But many agreed that faculty input is crucial to University governance.
"A university is healthy when the top-down is strong and the bottom-up is strong," Simmons said. He said he regards the University's system in which the administration considers faculty input as a form of bottom-up governance.
Michael Vorenberg, associate professor of history, said that in a consumer-driven world, faculty input is key because "the idea of students as primary consumers is more likely to be obvious" to faculty members.
"This faculty governance thing is a part of the sustenance of the place," Cooper said. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't love the community and have the kind of view that we're in this together — the students, the faculty, the administration, the Corporation — we're a living entity and we're all in it together."
Methodology
Online questionnaires were sent to personal accounts of 902 faculty Sept. 25 and advertised on the faculty Morning Mail Sept. 27, Oct. 4 and Oct. 7. The poll closed Oct. 8. Only faculty that "teach, advise or interact with undergraduate students" were invited to respond, and 174 responses were recorded. The poll has a 6.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The margin of error is 11.3 percent for the subset of faculty focusing in the humanities, 10.5 percent for the subset of faculty focusing in science and 14 percent for the subset of faculty focusing in social science.
Find results of previous polls at thebdh.org/poll.
