Southeastern Louisiana University has a highly valued, highly qualified, and diverse faculty. These dedicated professionals work together in a collaborative manner to support the mission of the University and to strive for the highest academic standards, both in their individual and collective pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, and service. Southeastern's mission is “to lead the educational, economic and cultural development of southeast Louisiana,” and in support of this, the first strategic priority of the University is “to recruit, advance, and graduate qualified students.” The core ingredient to enable Southeastern to carry out this task is to have accredited programs across university curricula with adequate faculty resources to support and sustain these degree offerings and serve Southeastern's approximately 15,000 students.

Adequacy in Faculty Numbers
One of the hallmarks of Southeastern is the personal connection made between the University's faculty and its students. This is accomplished though small class sizes and providing adequate full-time faculty members to teach Southeastern's course offerings.

During fall 2003, Southeastern employed a total of 715 faculty members, all of whom met the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools standards for faculty qualifications or were documented and approved in regard to alternative qualifications (see Southeastern's Faculty Credentials). As illustrated in Southeastern's Profile 2003 and communicated by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment in its Common Data Set 2003, 69.8% (499) of Southeastern faculty were full-time. While Southeastern makes every effort to recruit and retain full-time faculty for teaching purposes, 216 qualified part-time faculty were hired in fall 2003 to meet student needs and/or to bring specialized expertise into the classroom. In fall 2003, full-time faculty taught 84.5% of the class sections offered; part-time faculty taught 15.5% of the class sections offered.

Table 1
Number of Sections Taught by Faculty Type
Fall 2003

Faculty Type	Lower-Level	Upper-Level	Graduate Level	Total
Tenured	279 (17.0%)	297 (40.0%)	178 (49.6%)	754 (27.4%)
Tenure-Track	221 (13.4%)	147 (19.8%)	90 (25.1%)	458 (16.7%)
Instructor	775 (47.1%)	202 (27.2%)	20 (5.6%)	997 (36.3%)
Staff	53 (3.2%)	25 (3.4%)	35 (9.7%)	113 (4.1%)
Lecturer (Part-Time)	318 (19.3%)	71 (9.6%)	36 (10.0%)	425 (15.5%)
Totals	1,646	742	359	2,747

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

Another indicator of adequacy in faculty numbers is class size. Southeastern strives to make certain that class sizes are kept as small as practically possible, allowing for personal, caring connections between Southeastern's faculty and students. Figure 1 below illustrates the number of students enrolled per class section during fall 2003, as indicated in Southeastern's Common Data Set 2003. Almost 65% of the class sections offered by Southeastern contain fewer than 30 students.

Figure 1

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Common Data Set 2003, I. Instructional Faculty & Class Size

Table 2 below illustrates average class sizes by college and level of instruction during fall 2003. Average class size for lower level classes taught at Southeastern is 31.5 students; average class size for upper level classes is 17.9 students; and graduate level classes average 9.6 students per class section. These numbers illustrate that an adequate number of faculty were available for Southeastern's course offerings.

College	Lower Level	Upper Level	Graduate Level
Arts & Sciences	33.3	13.5	4.8
Basic Studies	26.2	24.7	NA
Business & Technology	31.0	30.8	13.5
Education & Human Development	23.7	17.1	13.0
Nursing & Health Sciences	25.8	14.4	8.7
UNIVERSITY TOTAL	31.5	17.9	9.6

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Profile 2003, Student/Faculty Ratio and Average Class Size by College, Fall 2003

Student to faculty ratio for the University during fall 2003 is 27:1. Table 3 below provides student to faculty ratio by college for the fall 2003 semester.

College	Student/Faculty Ratio
Arts & Sciences	32:1
Basic Studies	34:1
Business & Technology	29:1
Education & Human Development	19:1
Nursing & Health Sciences	14:1
UNIVERSITY TOTAL	27:1

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Profile 2003, Student/Faculty Ratio and Average Class Size by College, Fall 2003

Southeastern's student to faculty ratio demonstrates that Southeastern provides adequate faculty numbers to support its degree program offerings and the University's mission “to recruit, advance, and graduate qualified students.”

Adequacy in Faculty Resources
In judging adequacy of faculty resources, it is important to establish that faculty are qualified by virtue of degrees held. Of Southeastern's 499 full-time faculty in fall 2003, 62.5% held terminal degrees in their respective disciplines; 95.1% of Southeastern's tenured and tenure-track faculty held terminal degrees. The degree status of Southeastern's full-time faculty is illustrated below in Figure 2. Comprehensive Standard 3.71 provides more detail on faculty qualifications.

Figure 2

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Profile 2003, Highest Degree Earned, Full-Time Faculty, Fall 2003

Southeastern's full-time tenured or tenure track faculty members also teach the majority of upper level (300 and 400 level) and graduate courses. During Fall 2003, tenured and tenure track faculty taught 59.8% of upper level undergraduate courses and 74.7% of graduate courses (see Table 1).

Adequacy in faculty resources is also demonstrated by the quality of academic programs provided by the University. The Louisiana Board of Regents clearly links adequacy of academic programs to nationally recognized accreditation of programs in their respective fields, where such bodies exist. In its general policy on program accreditation, the Board states that

A program that is eligible for accreditation by an agency that is considered mandatory must be accredited for continued program approval. If the program is not accredited, the Academic Affairs staff will recommend to the Board of Regents that the program be terminated.

At Southeastern, 100% of programs classified as mandatory are externally accredited and in good standing. In addition to those programs classified as mandatory, Southeastern offers nine programs that the Board of Regents classifies as “recommended” for accreditation. Of the nine recommended programs, six are accredited, one is expecting to be accredited late fall 2004, one will be eligible for accreditation in the near future, and one is in the process of compiling a self-study. See Core Requirement 2.5 for more information.

Southeastern meets the rigorous standards held by its external accrediting bodies which take a hard look at faculty resources and the University's ability to meet the agency's standards of quality for faculty. To ensure that these same rigorous standards are applied university-wide, those degree programs that do not have an external accrediting body undergo periodic review based on Southeastern's Guidelines for Academic Program Review. Pages 6-7 outline the criteria for the review conducted by an external peer review team, including an examination of the nature and quality of the faculty.

Across the colleges that comprise Southeastern, the distribution of faculty, both in rank and tenure status also attests to the adequacy of faculty resources. As can be seen in Table 4 below, Southeastern employs faculty at all ranks. The institution is in full compliance with the University of Louisiana System's Board Rules (Section X, page 11), which specifies the maximum percentage of faculty that can hold the ranks of full and associate professor designations.

Table 4
Southeastern's Full-time Faculty by Academic Rank
Fall 2003

College	Full Professor	Associate Professor	Assistant Professor	Instructor
Arts & Sciences	36	44	64	97
Basic Studies	0	3	2	19
Business & Technology	19	15	20	25
Education & Human Development	9	12	34	13
Library	0	4	13	1
Nursing & Health Sciences	7	11	17	34
UNIVERSITY TOTAL	71 (14%)	89 (18%)	150 (30%)	189 (38%)

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Profile 2003, Full-Time Faculty Rank and Tenure Status by College Fall 2003

Table 5 provides data on the tenure status of Southeastern's full time faculty. The majority (58%) of Southeastern's full-time faculty were tenured or tenure track.

College	Tenured	Tenure Track	Non-Tenure Track
Arts & Sciences	82	54	105
Basic Studies	3	2	19
Business & Technology	31	19	29
Education & Human Development	22	25	21
Library	7	9	2
Nursing & Health Sciences	24	10	35
UNIVERSITY TOTAL	169 (34%)	119 (24%)	211 (42%)

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment,
Profile 2003 , Full-Time Faculty Rank and Tenure Status by College Fall 2003

As indicated, full-time faculty were adequately and appropriately distributed across ranks and by tenure status. Senior faculty provide the guidance and leadership capabilities needed by the University, yet there are opportunities for new faculty to come to Southeastern and infuse new ideas, research concepts, and teaching methods into university life.

As yet another indicator of faculty quality, faculty diversity is highly valued at Southeastern. As reported in Southeastern's Profile 2003, 54% of the full-time faculty members in fall 2003 are female. Forty-seven (9.4%) of full-time faculty are minority. While this is a 31% increase in minority faculty since 1998, the University recognizes the tremendous competition among universities for minority faculty and is exploring ways to attract qualified minority candidates to Southeastern. Southeastern recently appointed a Special Assistant to the Provost for Recruitment of Minority Faculty and Staff. In addition to this position, an advisory committee has been appointed to help determine effective strategies to increase minority faculty and staff at Southeastern.