FACULTY
The faculty is the most important resource of the University.
To promote learning and foster the intellectual
life of the University, Kent seeks to attract and retain an
active, culturally and academically diverse faculty of
the highest caliber, skilled in the scholarship of
teaching, discovery, application, and integration. The
University affords its faculty the fullest possible
academic and artistic freedom, including varied
opportunities for professional development,
collaboration among academic disciplines, and
outreach to local, national and international
communities. At Kent State University, faculty play an
integral role in university-wide planning and
governance. [Kent Institutional Characteristics
statement (KICS)]
As instructors, professionals, and academic citizens, the Kent State
University faculty deliver high-quality educational programs to students
and contribute immeasurably to student learning. Excellence in
scholarship is essential to the long-term vitality of the University, and
Kent's diverse faculty have an enviable record of achievement in research
and creative activities.
While faculty excellence has been largely responsible for positive
growth and distinction at Kent, the University must continually ensure its
academic programs are state-of-the-art. Many of the faculty responsible
for the development of Kent's graduate programs and research strength
will retire during this decade. (Some have already done so.) To ensure the
continued intellectual vigor of the University, retiring faculty need to be
replaced by new scholars. In addition, as the nation's profile reflects
greater participation by women and underrepresented groups, the faculty
must also reflect this diversity. Therefore, as it looks to the future, the
University will
Goal: Continue to build a stable cadre of teacher-scholars for
the twenty-first century.
Objectives:
Increase the number of tenure-track faculty in specified
schools and departments based upon carefully developed
priorities.
Enhance recruitment, retention, and development of faculty
with special emphasis on women and underrepresented
groups.
Manage the STRS Retirement Incentive Program to
preserve its fiscal integrity while providing a flow of
replacement positions consistent with department, school,
college, and University priorities.
Work to forecast and prepare for shortages of faculty in
particular fields.
Increase the number of endowed chairs in collaboration
with the Development Office.
Hire faculty at senior levels with established national and
international reputations in targeted programs.
Use more effectively the talents of the retired professoriate.
The University has an established policy regarding faculty
teaching load which states:
All regular, full-time faculty are expected to work full-
time for the university. This does not mean that each
contributes in the same way. Some professors are
employed by mutual agreement between themselves and
their departments solely for undergraduate teaching.
For these persons the teaching load shall be twenty-four
credit hours per academic year. Some professors are
employed for a mixture of undergraduate teaching,
graduate teaching, and the public research that is an
inherent part of graduate education. Their teaching
load shall be the equivalent of twenty-four credit hours
of teaching and shall include formal class teaching and
appropriate teaching credit for advising of individual
investigations, seminars, research, theses, and
dissertations.
Based upon the expanded definition of scholarship developed in
Ernest Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate,
faculty responsibilities and performance evaluations should involve the
scholarship of teaching, integration, discovery, and application. Scholarly
activity includes: (1) the scholarship of discovery which "contributes to
the stock of human knowledge and to the intellectual climate of a
university;" (2) the scholarship of integration which "gives meaning to
isolated facts, makes connections across disciplines, and fits basic research
into larger intellectual patterns;" (3) the scholarship of application which
asks, "How can knowledge be responsibly applied to consequential
problems?" and (4) the scholarship of teaching which "begins with what
the teacher knows, moves through the transmission of knowledge and
leads to the transformation and extension of knowledge." Recognizing the
breath of roles of faculty, the University will
Goal: Refine faculty workload policies at the department and
school levels so that they better reflect the multifaceted
nature of faculty scholarship and responsibilities.
Objectives:
Continue the well-established tradition of
evaluating faculty effectiveness.
Continue developing departmental workload
policies which address specific unit contributions to
the University mission.
Maintain a workload policy that is comparable to
those in force in similar research-oriented
institutions while responding constructively to
recently established state mandates.
In recognition of the need to attract and retain a highly skilled and
productive faculty, enhancing the faculty compensation and reward
structure has been one of Kent's top priorities. Kent has a tradition of
annual salary increments composed not only of across-the-board increases,
but also of merit increases to recognize and reward outstanding faculty
performance. In recent years--when available--merit awards have been
made for (1) teaching and service and (2) research, scholarship, and
creative activity. The University will continue to
Goal: Offer a competitive compensation package for both new
and continuing faculty.
Objectives
Maintain faculty compensation at levels competitive
within the state of Ohio and nationally for each
discipline.
Re-institute merit salary increases for outstanding
performance.
Plan and provide for regular salary adjustments for
part-time faculty and consider University
participation in the costs of medical insurance
coverage for part-time employees.
Continued professional development of faculty is essential to
maintaining high quality instruction and scholarship in the face of rapid
changes in knowledge across all aspects of academia. While
acknowledging current budgetary and staffing constraints, the University
will
Goal: Provide additional opportunities for faculty
professional development.
Objectives
Continue to support the current professional
improvement leave policy and assist, where
possible, in providing support for visiting faculty to
fill short-term vacancies so that faculty across the
University may take advantage of these leaves.
Enhance the opportunities for exchange teaching
both nationally and internationally.
Improve faculty support services and funding for
travel expenses, secretarial services, and other
scholarly costs such as publication charges.
Strive for an environment conducive to
excellent faculty scholarship by providing state-of-
the-art facilities and equipment, including
computers and library materials.
Broaden the availability of academic year research
and creative activity appointments by providing
supplemental staffing assistance to academic units
that lack resource flexibility.
Provide opportunities, incentives, and rewards for
faculty to learn computer and information technology skills
to enhance instruction.
In addition to enhanced support for individual faculty activities
and development, it is important that the faculty be involved in shared
decision making and be provided opportunities for meaningful input. A
companion to shared decision making is shared accountability. From an
operational point of view, the academic department, school, or campus is
the primary unit in which to measure overall productivity. Thus, the
University will
Goal: Foster departmental/school productivity through the
concepts of teamwork, unit productivity, and group
rewards.
Objectives
Promote collegiality and a sense of community by
recognizing and rewarding collective successes
among and within major operational units.
Continue to ensure faculty participation in the
University decision-making process.
Facilitate and develop positive academic leadership
roles by department chairs and other key
administrators.
Develop more comprehensive ways of evaluating
faculty individual and collective efforts in view of
the Boyer ideas about scholarship.