When the revolution in higher education finally arrives, how will we know? I have a simple metric: When universities change how they measure faculty work time. Using this yardstick, the US system remains very far from a fundamental transformation. It is no accident that former college president Brian Rosenberg titled his new book, ‘Whatever It Is, I’m Against It’: Resistance to Change in Higher Education.
Some background: Faculty at a Tier 1 research university (which includes my own employer, George Mason University) typically bargain for what is called a “class load.” A class load of 2-2, for instance, means the professor teaches two classes each semester; 1-2 would mean teaching one class one semester and then two the next semester; and so on. Both smaller elite private schools and larger public universities operate on this system. And so long as the faculty member shows up and teaches his or her courses without major incident, the obligation to the university is satisfied.
This system, which has been in place for decades, does not allow for much flexibility. If a professor is a great and prolific mentor, for instance, she receives no explicit credit for that activity. Nor would she if she innovates and discovers a new way to use AI to improve teaching for everyone.
This courseload system, which minimizes conflict and maximizes perceptions of fairness, is fine for static times with little innovation. If the university administration asks you for two classes, and you deliver two classes, everyone is happy.
But today’s education system is dynamic and needs to become even more so. There is already the internet, YouTube, and a flurry of potential innovations coming from AI. If professors really are a society’s best minds, shouldn’t they be working to improve the entire educational process, not just punching the equivalent of a time clock at a university?
Such a change would require giving them credit for innovations, which in turn would require a broader conception of their responsibilities. Ideally, a department chair or dean or provost ought to be able to tell them to add a certain amount of value to the teaching and student development process — through mentoring, time in the classroom, or other ways. The definition of a good job would not be just fulfilling the “2-2” teaching load called for in a contract, it would be more discretionary.
