Faculty Senate Resolution 2004-2005-11

Advising as Teaching

Whereas the Faculty Senate appreciates the major steps being taken to heighten the focus on student advising as a way of promoting student success, and

Whereas the Faculty Senate recognizes that with changing funding conditions, improving the University’s retention and graduation rates will be of paramount importance in the coming years, and

Whereas the Faculty Senate believes that the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) and the creation of the Center for Student Excellence will be a major, strategic effort to advance the goals of the university to improve the chances that our students will indeed graduate and achieve success in the world beyond the gates of Southeastern, and

Whereas faculty have always served as advisors and mentors to students, but now, advising will be a formally-recognized activity, and

Whereas there is significant concern amongst the faculty that increasing the emphasis on faculty roles in advising and mentoring will lead to increased demands on faculty, potentially changing the workload and evaluation of our present faculty and impacting our ability to recruit and retain qualified faculty in the future,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT the Faculty Senate requests that the administration take such concerns seriously and recognize that actions taken in isolation in planning for the implementation of the QEP could have far-reaching consequences on the faculty, and

BE IT THEREFORE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Faculty Senate believes that if advising is considered to be teaching, it should be rewarded and evaluated commensurately.

BE IT THEREFORE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Faculty Senate believes that if advising is considered to be teaching, any duties in the advising and mentoring areas should be considered as increases in the workload of the faculty member. As such, the faculty member should earn the right to have his/her teaching load reduced commensurate to these new duties and/or be paid for these incremental duties through overload pay and summer compensation.