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Columbus
Dispatch
Kasich
again tackles faculty load
By Ryan Clark
Saturday February 23, 2013
Gov.
John Kasich’s office has
renewed a 2011 attempt to make Ohio’s public-college professors teach
more
classes. Critics say it’s a one-size-fits-all solution to a
multifaceted issue.
A
little-noticed provision in the
state budget bill would revamp the way Ohio universities and community
colleges
can change their employees’ workload. Boards of trustees currently have
the
ability to modify faculty workload — even to subvert
collective-bargaining
agreements. But this provision dictates that any change would require
faculty
members to take on one more class in the next two school years and
maintain
that higher workload.
“It
helps universities save money.
It’s pretty simple,” Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said.
Ohio
State University would not use
the provision because it does not account for the long list of
opportunities
outside the classroom, such as research and advising students, said
Herb Asher,
special assistant to OSU president Gordon Gee. Departments develop
individual
workload policies taking those factors into account, he said.
“The
language is kind of funny,”
Asher said. “The permissive language gives discretion (to boards of
trustees),
but it’s telling them what they can or cannot do.”
The
provision is more flexible than
Kasich’s “deeply flawed” attempt to mandate increased workloads
statewide in
2011, but it is still less flexible than ideal, said Bruce E. Johnson,
president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio. The council does not
yet
have an official stance but Johnson said, “Generally, the board of
trustees
should make these decisions.”
Officials
at the University of
Toledo have been working to create a standard 12-credit-hour workload
for its
tenure-track professors, President Lloyd Jacobs said. University
officials say
the move could save as much as $18 million a year.
Read
the rest of the article at the Columbus
Dispatch
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