Faculty Survey 2001-02 Nelson Bingham Mary Ann Weaver Gretchen Lamendola September, 2003 For links to tables within this report click here
In order to learn about the kinds of people who choose to teach at Earlham, a survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California was given to the teaching and administrative faculty in October of 2001. The results of this survey follow and the information from it may be useful in showing the attitudes and values of the typical Earlham faculty member.
The faculty were first questioned about their age. Of the 123 faculty members who responded to the survey at Earlham, 6.5% were under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2001. This compares to 19.5% of respondents in that same age bracket surveyed in 1998. Twenty four percent were between the ages of 30 and 39 and 28% between the ages of 45 and 49. Thirty percent were ages 50-59, while only 11% were over the age of 60 and 3% were over the age of 70. In terms of all colleges and universities in the U.S., the largest age group for professors is 45-54 with 35%. Sixteen percent are over the age of 60, as compared to only 5% of the teaching faculty in 1998.
Earlham faculty were also asked about their academic rank. Table 1 below gives a summary of the results of the responses to this question from the 53 teaching faculty who completed the survey. Table
1
Academic Rank by percentage
The overall percentage of full professors at Earlham is greater than that percentage for all colleges and universities, and the percentage of staff that are lecturers or instructors is less then average. Earlham also has more Assistant Professors (32.1%) than average, and less Associate professors (18.9%) than average.
In terms of degrees earned by Earlham teaching faculty, of those surveyed 94.3% held at least a Master’s degree or other first professional degree. Seventy three percent of the respondents hold a Ph.D. in some field. At comparable colleges (private four-year institutions) 84.1% of the respondents have Ph.D.’s. As compared to all institutions (60.5%) Earlham has a higher percentage of Ph.D. teaching staff.
As well as being asked about the highest degree they had earned, Earlham professors were asked in which field they had received that degree.
Table 2Field of Highest Degree by percentage
Not surprisingly, large numbers of Earlham professors earned their highest degree in such fields as Humanities (23.5%), and Social Sciences (21.6%). Year Highest Degree Earned
The male teaching staff at Earlham tended to receive their degrees earlier than the female teaching staff, with the earliest women receiving their degree between 1974 and 1978. All other institutions have more women receiving their degrees earlier (6.6% from 1969 to 1973), as do similar schools (6% between 1964 and 1968).
One question dealt with the issue of tenure. When asked if they were tenured, 51% of the Earlham teaching faculty respondents said that they were. This can be compared to 58.9% of faculty at all other institutions. Breaking this group down into male and female, we see that at Earlham 54.8% of male faculty and 44.4% of female faculty has tenure. Among similar colleges 61.8% of the teaching faculty reported tenure.
In addition to being asked questions about their education and their position as professors, Earlham faculty members were asked about their attitudes towards teaching. When asked about their primary interest in being a college professor, the majority (86.6%) of teaching faculty respondents said that they were either very heavily interested in teaching or that their interest leaned toward teaching. Teaching faculty at other private institutions similar to Earlham expressed the same interests as teaching faculty here, with 69.6%. While 13.5% of Earlham teaching faculty leans more toward research, 27.3% of teaching faculty at private, four-year colleges and 26.9% of teaching faculty in all institutions have this interest. No Earlham faculty member considered him/herself heavily interested in research, though 3.2% of private college professors and 3.7% of all professors see this as their primary interest.
Questions on the faculty survey did not deal solely with the college-related aspects of the professors’ lives but also with personal and familial questions. Faculty members were asked about their marital status as well as the education of partners and parents.
Those faculty members who are (or were) married or currently have a partner were asked about the level of education that their spouse or partner obtained. Many spouses of Earlham professors obtained advanced degrees, with 61.5% reporting this level of education. Forty six percent of the spouses of private, four-year college faculty had received the same level of education and 44.5% of spouses of all college and university professors earned an advanced degree.
In terms of parental education, Earlham teaching faculty tended to come from fairly educated families, with 64.2% of their fathers and 46.1% of their mothers having obtained at least a college degree. The percentages of professors at private, four-year colleges whose parents earned similar degrees are 46% and 35% respectively. While 41.5% of Earlham faculty fathers and 26.9% of their mothers earned advanced degrees, 22.5% of fathers of all college professors and 11.3% of their mothers received comparable degrees.
Another question relating to being an Earlham professor asked about the salaries that these faculty members make. When asked, a large number of faculty members (71%) reported earnings between $40,000 and $59,000 annually. Sixteen percent reported making over $60,000. In all institutions surveyed, 51.9% of professors make between $40,000 and $59,000; and a large number (27.6%) make over $60,000.
Teaching faculty were asked about the ages of their children. As Table 4 indicates, children of Earlham teaching faculty have a similar age range to most teaching faculty nationally. The greatest distinction is in the 24 and over age bracket where 34.4% of teaching faculty nationally have children in this age bracket but only 18.9% of Earlham teaching faculty have children aged 24 or over.
Table 4Ages of Children
Earlham professors were asked questions about their activities, both in general and in relation to teaching. The results of these questions are noted in Table 5.
Table 5General Activities
Though Earlham professors are very similar to all college faculties in most respects, they differ considerably from the norm in the area of research and writing on race, ethnicity, or gender issues. While 41.5% of Earlham faculty have done research or writing on women, only 24.7% of all college professors have done so. While 37.7% of Earlham professors have done writing or research on race or ethnicity, only 23.8% of professors from all institutions have done similar work.
Table 6General Activities in the Last Two Years
In the last two years, a greater percentage of (88.7%) of Earlham faculty have developed a new course, as compared to 71.4% of all teaching faculty, and 79.3% of teaching faculty of private four-year institutions.
Table 7Teaching Activities in the Last Two Years
Although their general activities might be similar to those of professors everywhere, the teaching experiences of Earlham professors are quite different from those of their counterparts elsewhere. While only 39.1% of all college professors have taught interdisciplinary courses, 79.2% of Earlham faculty have done so. Similarly, 24.4% of Earlham professors have taught ethnic studies while the national percentage is 10.2%. The emphasis on Women’s Studies is again evident as 24.4% of Earlham faculty have taught one of these courses while only 7.4% of all college and university professors have done the same. Earlham professors are also more likely to work with students on a research project, as 73.5% have done so.
Another set of questions asked the Earlham faculty how much time they spent per week in the following activities.
Table 8Hours per Week Spent on Scheduled Teaching
The majority (67.3%) of Earlham professors spend between 5 and 12 hours teaching each week, while 15.1% of Earlham professors spend 13-16 hours per week. At private colleges, a greater percentage (9.1%) spends between 17 and 20 hours on scheduled teaching.
Table 9Hours per Week Spent on Preparing for Teaching
Earlham professors seem to spend more time preparing for teaching than they do actually instructing a class since 23% spend over 13 hours in scheduled teaching and 57.6% spend over 13 hours preparing for teaching.
Table 10Hours per Week Spent on Advising/Counseling of Students
As one can see from Table 10, most Earlham professors spend 5-8 hours a week counseling students. This is not true of most college professors; the national average is 1 to 4 hours.
Table 11Hours per Week Spent on Committee Work and Meetings
Approximately 98% of Earlham professors spend at least one hour a week on committee work and meetings, compared to 95.1% of professors at private colleges and 94% of all professors. Table 12Hours per Week Spent on Other Administration
Table 12 shows that Earlham professors are less likely
than professors at other private colleges to spend no time in administrative
work. Also, there is a greater
percentage of Earlham faculty members who spend over 13 hours a week
in administrative work (10%) than professors at other private colleges
(4.5%) Table 13Hours per Week Spent on Research and Scholarly Writing
Overall Earlham professors spend less time on research and scholarly writing then their counterparts at other institutions. Female Earlham faculty are less likely to spend time doing research and scholarly writing, with 31.6% doing none.
When asked about their professional writings, 86.5% of Earlham faculty respondents had written at least one article for an academic or professional journal. Of those, 36.5% of Earlham professors had published three or four articles, and 11.5% had produced between 11 and 20. In terms of chapters in edited volumes, 49% had written at least one. More recently, 54.9% have published at least one writing in the last two years.
Table 14Goals Noted as Very Important or Essential
The most common goals noted as very important or essential are to be a good teacher and colleague. Promoting racial understanding is more important to Earlham professors than to all college professors and yet the percentage who indicated the same decreased from 1998. Becoming an authority in their field is less important than to all college professors. Earlham professors are also more interested in environmental clean up.
Table 15Evaluation Methods Used in Most or all Undergraduate Classes
Earlham professors (5.7%) are much less likely to use multiple-choice exams for midterms and finals than all college professors (32.5%). There has been a decrease in the percentage of Earlham professors that use essays for midterms and finals since 1998, though the current percentage (45.3%) is still greater than the percentage for all college professors (42.2%). Earlham professors are also less likely to use weekly essay assignments than they were in 1998, and more likely to use term/research papers.
Table 16Instructional Methods Used in Most or all Undergraduate Classes
Class discussions are the most frequently used instructional method among all survey populations. Earlham professors use readings on women, gender, racial and ethnic issues far more than the national sample but have decreased the use of those methods since 1998. It is interesting to note that far more Earlham professors use cooperative learning and independent projects than the national average. Table 17Goals for Undergraduates Noted as Very Important or Essential
The national sample of private colleges is more concerned than the Earlham respondents with preparing students for employment. A much larger percentage of Earlham respondents (73.1%) felt it was very important to prepare students for graduate schools than was reported by all other institutions (58.3). Earlham focuses more on personal growth, including emotional development, moral character, self-understanding and responsible citizenship. It is interesting to note that more Earlham faculty reported feeling it was less important to prepare students for family living than in 1998. Earlham faculty members (53.9) also are more interested in enhancing the out-of-class experience of students than the national sample of all institutions (39.3).
Earlham faculty were asked how many general education courses they were teaching during the current semester. The majority (53.1%) were teaching one general education course, while 12.2% were teaching two, 4.1% were teaching three, and 2.0% were teaching four. At Earlham 28.6% of professors were teaching no general education classes. Nationally, 48% were not teaching any general education courses, 21.3% were teaching one, 14.2% were teaching two, and 16.6% were teaching three or more general education courses. Table 18Political Orientation
The Earlham samples are generally farther left leaning than the sample from all private colleges. The number of teaching faculty that considers themselves liberal or far-left has increased since 1998. The majority of Earlham professors consider themselves liberal (66%). There is a much smaller percentage (44.4%) of Earlham administrative faculty in the liberal category.
Table 19Attitudes on Issues of Government and Lifestyles *
There are several tremendous differences among samples for these questions between Earlham faculty and the national sample. The 2001 Earlham faculty respondents agree much more strongly than the national faculty sample that community service should be given weight in admission decisions and that colleges should be involved in social problems. Concerning issues related to the participant’s institution, Earlham faculty respondents agree much more strongly that courses at Earlham involve students in community service, include the feminist perspective, and that our students are well prepared academically.
In 2001, there were a smaller percentage of Earlham professors (43.4%) who feel Western Civilization should be the foundation of undergraduate curriculum than in 1998 when 54.8% of our teaching faculty felt the same. It was surprising to find that 9.4% of our teaching faculty believes that there is a lot of campus racial conflict compared to 7.8% of all institutions faculty. This compares to 12.5% of teaching faculty in 1998 feeling the same. Earlham faculty agreed more with the statements that female and faculty of color are treated fairly than all other institutions. Table 20Issues Noted as Being of High or Highest Priority
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