In a recent edition of The News Record, Ms. Joan Herschede, Secretary of UC’s Board of Trustees, became rather vocal of her negative opinion about the outcome of contract negotiations between UC faculty and administration. She expressed her feelings by saying that “faculty should be happy with their jobs and should work harder at their positions.” Throughout the article Ms. Herschede tries to support her opinion by claiming faculty do not work an eight hour workday/40 hour work week, and “After a while (tenured professors) don’t even have to teach.” She closes her comments by stating, “Instead of complaining about their positions faculty should initiate communication with administrators to relieve tension between the two sides.”
In reaction to this article, the RWC faculty, spearheaded by Dr. Emel Yakali, Chemistry Professor and Chair of the Faculty, sent a message to The News Record in response to Ms. Herschede’s allegations. Following is the complete text of the letter, addressed to the Editor of The News Record and copied to Governor Bob Taft and the entire UC Board of Trustees:
To: The Editor of The News Record
In the article “Trustee Chides Faculty” in the February 25, 2002 issue of The News Record, Ms. Joan Herschede, Secretary of the University of Cincinnati’s Board of Trustees, expressed negative opinions concerning UC faculty. We, the faculty of Raymond Walters College, are surprised that there has been no response from the Board regarding this article and subsequent letters about the article and have expected a retraction or apology regarding these misconceptions. However, the faculty at RWC would like to respond to Ms. Herschede’s suggestion that the faculty initiate communication with the administration by extending an invitation to Ms. Herschede and all other members of the Board to spend a typical week with us at Raymond Walters College.
A typical workweek for all full-time faculty, tenured and non-tenured alike, includes 12 contact hours in class with additional contact hours spent in laboratories or clinicals or in appointments with students. Additional uncountable hours are spent in dedication to our commitment to teaching and learning. We address our students’ different learning styles by developing a variety of types of assignments such as group projects, writing, and class presentations so that grades are not based solely on midterm and final exams. Those of us who regularly use technology in the classroom, be it Blackboard, spreadsheets or graphing calculators, must first master it ourselves. We have no teaching assistants and no graders to help minimize our out-of-classroom time. We are a commuter campus. In order to meet the needs of our students, we must make ourselves accessible at times that are convenient to them, including teaching evening classes. We get to know our students individually, learning as many as 100 names each quarter. All of these efforts take time and contribute to a workweek in excess of 50 hours. Because the pay is inadequate (half of the RWC faculty earned less than $46,200 per year as of September, 2000 and the minimum salaries at all ranks are less than the comparable salaries of Cincinnati public school teachers), many of us invest additional hours to teach an overload course or teach in the summer or advise for additional pay. While students receive a break between quarters, the faculty do not, because we must prepare course materials for the upcoming quarter. Furthermore, as all university professors must do, in order to receive tenure and be promoted, we actively engage in professional development and service activities throughout our careers. RWC faculty have a strong tradition of governance and leadership in the college and university, as well as contributing our expertise to community service. And while teaching is our major focus, our faculty are recognized in a wide range of professional activities, including consulting, conference presentations, and publications of papers, books, works of art, media productions, etc. We invite members of the Board to review our extensive list of achievements in these areas, as the vitae of our faculty will be available during their visit.
Not only are we dedicated to our profession, but we are effective at what we do. We will show the members of the Board why RWC secured a ten-year re-accreditation in 1999 without any threat of a focus visit, why our assessment plan receives national recognition, and why other UC colleges look to us for guidance on assessment issues.
As our mission states, we prepare our students for their future endeavors. Faculty in UC’s College of Business, College of Pharmacy, and others recognize RWC students from the general UC population because of how well prepared they are. Data indicate that our graduates who transfer to baccalaureate programs at UC outperform native students. In 1999 and 2000, the students in our Radiologic Technology program have had 100% success rates on the national credentialing exam, compared to national averages of 80.2% and 88.7%, respectively. Our distinguished alumni include the CEO of Cincinnati Milacron, a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, a lawyer who worked for former Attorney General Janet Reno, and a former mayor of Madeira.
Our students value their educational experience at RWC as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive comments from students in classes taught by tenured, non-tenured, and adjunct faculty alike. We will show members of the Board why our faculty received such high ratings on UC’s Student Satisfaction Survey conducted in the Spring of 2000 and why so many of our faculty are nominated for the Cohen and Barbour Awards every year. RWC faculty are well-represented on the list of past recipients of these prestigious awards.
Board members will see why so many of our faculty and staff who send their children to UC choose to send them to RWC first. We touch lives here. We have hard-working, quality faculty and we have hard-working, quality students. Come talk with us. Talk with our students. Visit our classes, our offices. Raymond Walters College is an asset to the University of Cincinnati and we look forward to showing members of the Board why. We invite them to contact Dr. Emel Yakali, Chair of the RWC Executive Committee, to arrange a visit this quarter.
(The letter was signed by 88 out of 89 RWC full-time faculty members.)