The pledge of a department chairman to be accessible to faculty members by maintaining the open-door policy is discussed, and the wisdom and utility of this policy questioned. The chairman found himself taking home three briefcases full of work while his colleagues went to basketball games. (MLW)

Flexible tenure contracts are proposed as an alternative to the current college faculty tenure system. Such a contract would make more explicit, and potentially more varied, the contributions expected of the candidate, but avoid the tenure-track/non-tenure-track distinction. It could also help resolve conflicts over the relative weights to be…

Analysis of data on faculty workload, time expenditures, and pay support the idea that the college faculty reward system tends to emphasize the discreteness, not the mutuality, of teaching and research. Most institutions expect faculty to make conscious choices between those activities rather than assume that one reinforces the other. (MSE)

Changes in faculty workloads are examined in light of state legislation mandating specific numbers of "contact hours," negative attitudes toward liberal educational trends, recessionary pressures, and undergraduate versus graduate instruction. The article encourages improving communication with supporters, articulating better ties between research…

The commonly cited prescription for improving higher education, increasing the time faculty spends teaching, could lead to an impoverished learning environment because it ignores the rich learning opportunities afforded by the full complement of faculty life, which integrates teaching, research, and service. The traditional approach reflects…

Analysis of curriculum, enrollment, and faculty data from four private liberal arts colleges and two private research universities investigates the most cost-effective curriculum design, using simulation models. It is concluded that simpler college curricula, with fewer courses, less specialization, and more consolidation will yield smaller, less…

The use of part-time, adjunct faculty by many colleges as a money-saving device is reviewed. Implications for both personnel and institutions are illustrated by example and by National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) statistics. (JMF)

A college professor examines her feelings about working in a university, her attempts to create a more supportive and congenial relationship with fellow teachers, and the frustrations of an environment in which colleagues are out of daily communication because of workload and the need and ability to work at home. (MSE)

It is proposed that universities fund all research prospectively, one project at a time, as publishers do, and require faculty whose research has not been funded to fill his work schedule with teaching, effecting significant savings and the understanding that time off for research is not automatic. (MSE)

Recent (1990-92) college and university task force reports on faculty rewards reveal changing expectations about faculty's role, changing standards and methods for evaluating faculty performance, and a rethinking of the aims and means of rewarding teachers. It is concluded that administrative and faculty leadership and innovative reforms are all…

A discussion of college faculty productivity defines the term and looks at related issues, including ways of improving productivity; costs of academic work; "deadwood"; and productive behavior as it relates to research, grantsmanship, instructional quality, enrollment and class size, and teaching load. Incentives and persuasive arguments are seen…

A description of the status of college faculty in China looks at their number, composition, academic qualifications, tendency toward inbreeding, workload, salaries, retirement system, employment stability, lifestyle, and social standing. (MSE)

Seven suggestions are offered for enhancing the quality of college and university instruction, based on British experience: (1) define excellent teaching; (2) distinguish competence from excellence; (3) weight teaching in balance with research and service; (4) increase teacher sophistication; (5) promote excellent teaching, not just excellent…

Results of a Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching national survey concerning the extent and reasons for college faculty's dissatisfaction with the teaching profession, working conditions, institutional climate and governance, and prospects for the future of the profession are reported. (MSE)

Results of a national survey by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching on the role and status of women faculty on college campuses are reported. Data, presented in graphic form with narrative analysis, concern women's salary, rank, job security, and teaching loads relative to those of men faculty, and their contributions to the…