[phas-faculty_staff_others] Fwd: Some questions

Tue Oct 1 16:43:39 CDT 2024

FYI.

From: Yasemin Atinc <Yasemin.Atinc at tamuc.edu<mailto:Yasemin.Atinc at tamuc.edu>>
Date: October 1, 2024 at 1:34:03 PM CDT
To: Brent Donham <Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu<mailto:Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu>>
Subject: Re: Some questions

 Thank you! I appreciate your prompt response.
I will share your responses with the faculty senate.

Best,

Yasemin

On Oct 1, 2024, at 12:26 PM, Brent Donham <Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu<mailto:Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu>> wrote:

Good morning.

Thank you for sharing with the senators.  I will attempt to answer and if it would be helpful for me to come to a meeting, happy to do so.

  1.  Let us assume that one day TAMUC receives R2. This will place us among the other research university. Would this lead to a decrease of the faculty teaching load below 4 x 4, as it is in the other research Universities?

I believe reducing the teaching loads is something we need to work towards as a university, especially for faculty who are actively involved in research.  I don’t believe that is something that will be done unilaterally upon receiving the R2 designation as there are economic implications that the university will have to address.  My office does not make decisions on the workload but I will continue to be an advocate to for reducing teaching loads to support growth in research.

With that said, not all R2 institutions have a reduced teaching load.  I benchmarked the other R2 institutions in the A&M System and found they still have a similar workload policy as us.

•         Texas A&M Corpus Christi (~$50 million research expenditures)
University Rule 12.03.99.C1, Faculty Workload
Full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty are expected to accrue 24 workload credits (usually 12 credits each long term) over the academic year. Full-time fixed-term (non-tenure track) faculty are expected to accrue 30 workload credits (usually 15 credits each long term) over the academic year.

•         Tarleton (~$20 million research expenditures)
University Rule 12.03.99.T1, Faculty Academic Workload and Reporting Requirements
The academic workload standard for full-time tenured and tenure track faculty who are teaching undergraduate courses includes 12 hours of normal classroom teaching per semester.  The academic workload standard for tenured and tenure track full time faculty who are teaching only masters level graduate courses includes 9 hours of direct teaching per semester. For those tenured and tenure track full time faculty who are teaching only doctoral level courses, the load includes 6 hours of normal classroom teaching per semester.

•         Texas A&M Kingsville (~$22 million research expenditures)
Texas A&M University-Kingsville Faculty Handbook
Full-time appointment (Applies to tenure-track and tenured faculty): an appointment in an academic assignment or the library, equivalent to a twelve (12) hour teaching load per semester, for a nine-month academic year (September through May).

Like our workload policy, each of our sister institutions allow for release time for research, administrative assignments, etc.  but nothing guaranteed (that I can find).  I agree, as do all of my colleagues at these R2 institutions that we would prefer a lower teaching load, especially for active researchers.  That is something we discuss and advocate for during our VPR meetings as well as internally on campus when opportunity arises.

  1.  In the email below is shown statistics about the research projects submitted for funding. It will be useful if we receive a similar statistics about the funded projects, I think.

When it comes to awards, please keep in mind that awards don’t necessarily align with the academic year they were submitted.  I reported 78 grants were submitted in FY24 vs 62 in FY23.  However, the awards received in FY24 did not necessarily come from the 78 grants submitted but rather some were from FY23 and actually had at least one from FY22.  As an example, a proposal may have been submitted in July 2023 (FY23) but we didn’t receive the award until October 2024 (FY24).  With that said, here is some data related to funded projects in FY24.

We received 37 awards in FY24 for a total of $7,744,678 compared to 29 in FY23 for a total of $5,228,337

•         COSE – 16 funded awards
•         COEHS – 6 funded awards
•         CASNR – 4 funded awards
•         CHSSA – 3 funded awards
•         COB – 0 funded awards
•         CID – 0 funded awards
•         Other – 8 funded awards

•         Assistant Professors – 13.5% of funded awards
•         Associate Professors –16.2% of funded awards
•         Professors – 32.4% of funded awards
•         Deans – 5.4% of funded awards
•         Department Heads – 2.7% of funded awards
•         Other – 29.7% of funded awards

  1.  Do the research publications in reputable peer reviewed venues count toward the receiving of R2 level?

The Carnegie designations are based upon the data reported in the IPED and NSF HERD report.  Research publications are not tracked in the NSF HERD data so they are not considered when determining the Carnegie designation.  With that said that DOES NOT MEAN publications are not considered research.  In addition to publications, other forms of research are not tracked in the NSF HERD report but again it does not mean they are less valuable but rather they just are not part of the formula used in determining whether an institution is designated as R2 (or R1).

I hope this helps.  Happy to answer (or try) any questions the senate has.

Thanks

Brent

Dr. Brent Donham

Vice President for Research & Economic Development

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From: Yasemin Atinc <Yasemin.Atinc at tamuc.edu<mailto:Yasemin.Atinc at tamuc.edu>>
Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2024 9:25 AM
To: Brent Donham <Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu<mailto:Brent.Donham at tamuc.edu>>
Subject: Some questions

Hello Brent,

I hope all is well!
After sharing your email with faculty senate, I received the below questions from some of the senators. I would really appreciate if you can address these.

Best,

Yasemin

  1.  Let us assume that one day TAMUC receives R2. This will place us among the other research university. Would this lead to a decrease of the faculty teaching load below 4 x 4, as it is in the other research Universities?
  2.  In the email below is shown statistics about the research projects submitted for funding. It will be useful if we receive a similar statistics about the funded projects, I think.
  3.  Do the research publications in reputable peer reviewed venues count toward the receiving of R2 level?

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