Faculty Bloat at UVa
Share this article
ADVERTISEMENT
(comments below)
Comments
Comments
17 responses to “Faculty Bloat at UVa”
-
“The Board of Visitors hasn’t discussed it, and there is no indication from publicly available sources that the university administration has engaged in any introspection.”
These are, coincidentally, the same behaviors when faced with a “non-problem”, aka a nit.
“Another factor worth exploring is the degree to which administrative authority has shifted from faculty departments to UVa’s salaried bureaucracy. Time was, faculty departments were largely self-governing and autonomous.”
Oh, I can only imagine what a BR article would be if this weren’t the case. All those liberal professors…. Remember this?
https://thejeffersoncouncil.com/app/uploads/2023/07/donations.png
-
Well, there was a time when college faculty weren’t all Marxists, and academic freedom was understood to mean…academic. The old rights and responsibilities thing…
-
Actually, it was the division of rights and responsibilities. Your rights; their responsibilities.
-
-
Somewhere in all of that babble there must be a post. Do you mind getting Toit?
-
Somewhere in all of that babble there must be a post. Do you mind getting Toit?
-
Obvious to the most casual observer. Perhaps, it’s you?
-
-
-
Do these numbers include the UVA hospital?
-
All numbers in the story refer to UVa’s academic division only.
-
The term of art for UVAHealth is that it is associated with the hospital but is, in reality, a separate organization. Some of the physicians at the hospital are probably have co-appointments with the medical school but very few would be tenured tracked researcher/primary investigators.
-
-
-
Which means… what exactly of relevance to the article?
UVA inState student percentage went up marginally?
So what?
Allowing more inState rubes to go so the Admin could say “See, we admitted more inState students while the out of State tuition…tripled? Oh, and we watered down the academic requirements, too!-
It’s more than 1.1% as stated for a 10-year period in the article. Enrollment grew ~1% in just one year in that chart.
-
-
-
This is a good analysis. It is not the type of analysis that a board of visitors w0uld get into and I would be surprised if the UVa board did so.
It is a good demonstration of the difference between a research insitution and one that is focussed more on teaching. When I was at W&M many, many years ago, all but one of my instructors were tenure-track faculty. For example, the introductory chemistry course was taught by a long-time full professor who was also chairman of the department.
An examination of the courses being offered by the W&M Government [Political Science in most colleges] Department in the coming fall reveals that of the 49 sections for which the status of the instructor can be identified, only 7 are being taught by non-tenure track faculty (lecturers). The instructor for several courses is not listed on any of the faculty directories on the website; therefore, it is not known if they are in tenure-track positions.
-
UVa is a horrible school that consistently ranks in the top 50 in the nation.
-
1.1% increase in total enrollment 2012 to 2022?
2013-2014 23,464
2021-2022 26,005. Hmmm, that’s 10.8% by my reckoning…
https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/trends/university-of-virginia-main-campus/student-population/Maybe they have it wrong, but 1.1% would be only ~250 students. That just doesn’t make sense, now do it?
Especially in light of the growth shown in the chart below.Total faculty went up by 9.5%. Seems reasonable for a 10% increase in enrollment.
Given ya got that wrong, what’s the problem again?
Uh yeah, in a lot of cases, lecturers and instructors are probably adjunct. Teaching one course, maybe two. We used to call them “Roads Scholars” because they might teach courses at more than one school and commute like mad, or sometimes they have other employment. Ya know, like real jobs in the real world.
From my recollection, those on tenure track are offered 6-year contracts. It’s make or break, publish or perish. Other full time faculty (4 or 5) class sections were 3- or 6-year renewable contracts. I suppose if’n you don’t get tenure at the end of 6 years, you could get another contract but without tenure track. I’ll bet they just move on.
I can only imagine the howling that would occur here if, for some inexplicable reason (like the oft touted, never has happened, economic collapse because the Democrats can’t govern) the enrollment fell by 50% and 90% of the faculty were tenured. Wow, what a problem that would be!
Of course, there is a shining example of a now conservative well-managed college, New College. 40% of the faculty bailed, and a clear ton of the undergrads are transferring out. The joke is all that’s left is the football team.
Be careful fo what you wish. PragerVa?
But, not a UVa problem exclusively… everybody doin’ it and swimming upstream is an expense the GA is unlikely to support…
https://www.aaup.org/article/data-snapshot-tenure-and-contingency-us-higher-education#:~:text=Nearly%20half%20(48%20percent)%20of,39%20percent%20in%20fall%201987.Research? Alas, the saddest thing about university research is that the universities do very exciting and cutting edge stuff, but more times than not, lack the capacity to bring stuff to market. Perhaps, the State should invest in helping UVa identify venture capitalists?
-
NN, you are correct — I made an error. I double-checked the SCHEV data, and the number of annualized FTE students at UVa increased by 8.8% between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2022. Thank you for making the catch and bringing it to my attention. I will issue a correction.
-
You’re welcome. I just did a Google search and that site popped up. I guess they have different numbers than SCHEV to have a different percentage, unless 2012 to 2013 dropped. Nevertheless 8.8 increase in students and the 9.5% in faculty is certainly ballpark. It’s that dealing with whole persons, no doubt.
-
-
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.