Core Requirement 2.8

1.  The number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution and to ensure the quality and integrity of each of its academic programs.  (Core Requirement 2.8)

   X  Compliance           ___ Non-Compliance  

Narrative:

Southern University at Baton Rouge (SUBR) has an adequate number of full-time and parttime faculty to satisfy the instructional, research, and public service mission of the university. “The mission of Southern University and A&M College, an Historically Black, 1890 land-grant institution, is to provide opportunities for a diverse student population to achieve a high-quality, global educational experience, to engage in scholarly research, and creative activities, and to give meaningful public service to the community, the state, the nation, and the world so that Southern University graduates are competent, informed, and productive citizens.” SUBR provides multiple baccalaureate, master, and doctor of philosophy degree programs to ensure that the mission of SUBR is fulfilled.

The University supports the mission of maintaining and increasing its faculty to ensure that quality academic programs are maintained (See Faculty Roster Fall 2015). As evidenced by the transcripts and vitae provided in Section 3.4.11, the faculty of SUBR has a wide variety of expertise in each of its Colleges and Degree programs. Disaggregated student credit hour data confirms that more than 80% of all credit generating courses are taught by full-time University faculty. In fact, the full-time faculty generated 59,853 credit hours, while part-time faculty generated 26,479 in Fall 2015. SUBR ensures the integrity and quality of its academic programs by requiring that full-time and part-time faculty members teaching courses for credit must meet the same requirements for professional, experiential and scholarly preparation in their respective disciplines.

Additionally, SUBR requires faculty to divide work responsibilities among research, teaching, service, and advisement. This directly relates to SUBR’s mission of providing avenues for scholarly, research, and creative activities and to give meaningful public service to the community, the state, the nation, and the world. The University’s Fall 2015 roster of 292 full-time faculty and 135 part-time faculty continues to work together to create and deliver degree programs that prepare the students of SUBR to become global citizens.

Faculty Definitions

The academic officer for each department is the chairperson, who also serves as a member of the faculty. Departmental faculty consists of all members of the academic staff of a department having the rank of instructor or higher. Faculty members are appointed full-time for at least a one-year period (a percentage of their work for the current year must be in that particular department). A full-time faculty member is defined as one whose appointment is 100 percent of the time. A part-time faculty is defined as one whose appointment is any percentage of assignment that is less than 100 percent of the time.

SUBR provides for the following academic ranks for instructional and research personnel. Full-time faculty consist of the following categories: Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Instructors, and Visiting Professor of same ranks. Full-time faculty are designated as tenured and/or tenure-track. Part-time faculty include: Professor, Adjunct Professor, Associate Professor, Adjunct Associate Professor, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Instructor, Adjunct Instructor, and Cooperating Teacher. The qualifications for each of these positions are found in the SUBR Faculty Handbook.

Faculty Work Loads

According to SUBR Faculty Handbook, faculty work load designations are: 12 hours for undergraduate teaching, 9 hours for master’s degree teaching, and 6 hours for doctor of philosophy degree teaching. Each department may reduce the teaching requirement based on special projects or increase the teaching workload up to 3 hours to meet departmental needs.

To decrease faculty workload, chairpersons, division heads, and members of the faculty conducting special University sponsored projects, research and programs or who are performing other special University or University-related assignments beyond those normally expected may be approved for or granted a reduced teaching load by the academic dean or division head in consultation with the chief academic officer of the campus (e.g. chairpersons normally incur a 50% teaching load reduction for assuming the duties and responsibilities of chairing a division or department). To increase faculty workload to meet student needs, a full-time member of the faculty is authorized to teach up to six hours over their normal full-time assignment on- or off-campus each semester (this is typically one to two courses).

Each faculty member is expected to divide his/her time among Research, Teaching Excellence & Experience, Service to the University & Community, and Mentoring/Advisement. As evidenced in the SUBR Faculty Handbook, Appendix D,Table 1 indicates the percentage of time faculty members spend on each task. Each task supports the fulfillment of the SUBR mission.

Table 1
Percentage of Time Faculty Members Spend on Each Expectation/Task

Table 2 identifies faculty overloads by college and program. In Fall 2015, of the 427 faculty members, only 39 faculty taught an overload. In many cases, these overloads consisted of one 3-hour class that had multiple sections or a 1-hour lab taught in conjunction with a 3-hour class. With 60% of the time spent on teaching excellence and mentoring/advising, SUBR is committed to maintaining the quality and integrity of its programs by providing adequate faculty support to students.

Table 2
Faculty Overloads by College

Adequacy in Faculty Numbers/Resources

SUBR ensures the adequacy in faculty numbers by maintaining an appropriate student to faculty ratio. In Fall 2015, SUBR employed 292 full-time faculty for 4,833 students. The student to full-time faculty ratio was 19:1 for undergraduate level classes, 8:1 for graduate level classes, and 17:1 for both undergraduate and graduate level classes (Table 3). In Table 4, the student to faculty ratio by discipline of the 46 degree offerings listed, only 9 have higher than a 25:1 ratio. This is evidenced by the faculty roster Fall 2015. This supports SUBR’s mission to provide opportunities for a diverse student population to achieve a high quality experience.

Table 3
Student to Faculty Ratio Undergraduate and Graduate Level

Table 4
Student to Faculty Ratio by Discipline - Fall 2014

Full-time vs. Part-time Faculty Disaggregated by Academic Program

The adequacy of full-time faculty at SUBR can be determined by comparing the number of full-time and part-time faculty members in each academic program. Table 5 indicates the number of full-time vs. part-time faculty teaching course sections in Fall 2015, disaggregated by academic programs. The College of Business has 30 faculty, 22 full-time and 8 part-time. The College of Education, Arts, and Humanities has 92 faculty, 39 full-time and 53 part-time. The College of Engineering and Computer Science has 41 faculty, 36 full-time and 5 part-time faculty. The School of Nursing and Allied Health has 91 faculty, 62 full-time and 29 part-time faculty.The College of Sciences and Agriculture has 116 faculty, 89 full-time and 27 part-time. The College of Social & Behavioral Sciences has 57 faculty, 44 full-time and 13 part-time.

On occasions full-time faculty numbers surpass the part-time faculty. For example, during the 2015-2016 academic year, there has been a surge in enrollment in courses in the College of Education, Arts, & Humanities. The increased enrollment demanded additional sections of English 110 and 111 and additional adjunct faculty members were hired to meet the demand. In addition, in the Department of Music, the elevated numbers in part-time faculty is due to courses being taught by artists in residence.

Currently, SUBR employs 427 faculty, 292 full-time and 135 part-time faculty. The number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution and to ensure the quality and integrity of each of its academic programs. Disaggregated data for each college is listed in Table 5.

Table 5
Full-Time and Part-Time Faculty Teaching Courses – Fall 2015

SUBR does not designate between full-time and part-time faculty for its online degree programs. For each of the eight programs offered online, the total number of faculty is identified in Table 6.

Table 6
Online offerings

Supporting Documentation

Faculty overload Fall 2015 by discipline (spreadsheet)
Louisiana Board of Regents - Academic Affairs Policy 2.13
SUBR Faculty Handbook 2016-2020
Faculty Fall Roster