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[lgreco]

Dear Colleagues:

As a new dean I am facing the following challenge.  My predecessor allowed a sizable percentage of our school's faculty to reside hundreds of miles away from the campus.  These colleagues come to campus a few days a year and telecommute for the rest of the time.  Gradually, a culture of disconnect has emerged. Even some colleagues that live nearby show up at the office 1-2 days a month.

To reverse this situation I am proposing a policy that will require a minimum campus presence on an annual basis.  Colleagues who live out-of-state, will have about 3 years to reach, gradually, compliance with the policy.

Realistically, I am expecting to take some flak from those affected by the proposed policy.  I believe, however, that it is absolutely necessary for our school's survival to begin rebuilding a scholarly community that will be visible and active.

My questions to you are:

• Have you dealt with similar situations at your schools?  Specifically, do you have colleagues who permanently reside in another state and visit the campus only a few days a year?
• Do you believe that with all the technology available for telecommuting, distance learning, etc, it is truly possible to have a distributed college where faculty members are scattered across the country, while trying to fulfill institutional aspirations for tier-1?

Of course any other comments that you offer will be greatly appreciated.  Your perspective will be extremely valuable.  If I can provide any clarifications about my predicament, I'll be happy to answer your questions in the forum.

Thank you.

[totoro]

Are these people tenured? What are you going to do if they don't comply? Are they teaching regular classes from their remote locations?

[msparticularity]

My campus is pushing for more online courses, but I still can't imagine that it would be possible to be this absent from campus. Are committees still meeting and accomplishing needed goals, and are students being advised effectively--especially grad student research?

[systeme_d_]

If your faculty can teach their classes and do their research from out of town, what would be their incentive to come to campus?  Do you have a service requirement for faculty?

I am guessing your university must offer mostly online classes, because no one at my university could get away with what you describe.  Even those with a 1/1 load have to be on campus at least once or twice a week, and in practice, they're here every day because they have labs or programs to run.

[lgreco]

@totoro: we don't have traditional tenure.  We offer 5-year renewable contracts along with a generously long termination notice when necessary. So if these people don't comply, my ultimate action will be to refuse renewal of their contracts. I'd rather not go there because they are decent colleagues who do teach in our distance learning program and also supervise grad students.

Are there other colleagues out there facing similar challenges?  Can we have a vibrant and engaged scholarly community if we do not maintain a campus presence?

I could imagine a scenario of remote faculty if they were only teaching in our online programs. But with service and scholarship expectations, along with on-ground programs I think that we cannot afford permanently remote faculty.

[onion]

Maybe without tenure they don't feel sufficiently invested in the university or the university community?

[systeme_d_]

Maybe without tenure they don't feel sufficiently invested in the university or the university community?

'

Bingo.  Folks choose to work in primarily distance-learning programs with no tenure precisely because they're already geographically planted -- meaning immobile.

I think that turning a primarily distance-learning institution into a residential one can't work unless you make the students residential too.   And re-establish tenure.  That would help.

[larryc]

Yeah, what are the chances you can establish a system of tenure?

[barred_owl]

First of all, you have my sympathies, lgreco.  I'd like to ask a few questions, though, to tease out a little more information, before I offer any suggestions or advice.

(1) Have you been given a directive or other 'motivation' to increase the amount of face-time that your faculty spend on campus, and/or were you aware of this problem when or before you were hired?

(2) Is your school (within the college/university) unique in terms of the proportion of faculty on campus to faculty teaching by remote, relative to the other schools?

(3) Is this a relatively new school within your university/college?  Your answer will prompt a follow-up question, namely:  IF the school is new, have any of the 'remote' faculty yet achieved the 5-year renewal point, or are most (or all) of them so new that they will all be forced to comply with the new plan, whether they like it or not?

(4) This is related to question #1:  Do you have the support of upper administration if you choose to follow through on the new plan?

[lgreco]

@barred_owl:

Thanks for the empathy, it's more than welcome.

To answer your questions:

(1) Have I been given a directive to increase face-time?  Not specifically -- I am one of the new deans brought by the administration to support a quality initiative that will put us on a solid path to tier-1.  We are a comprehensive, well-rounded university with great potential.  We have a healthy mix of on-ground and on-line programs with substantial growth in the past few years.  As part of my wider mandate (support tier-1 aspirations), I find it imperative that faculty put an effort into campus presence.

(2) There are units within the university with clinical operations (e.g., the medical school, psychology etc) that necessitate the faculty's presence on campus.  Most of the undergraduate/liberal arts units also don't seem to have a problem with campus presence.  There are a couple of professional schools (one is my school)  with attendance problems.

(3) My discipline was present at the founding of the university; the school itself as an administrative unit, coalesced in the past 12 years.

(4) Unequivocally, yes.

@larry_c

We are contemplating our own approach to tenure; right now the termination notice -- when given -- is rather generous (measured in years).  One idea is to increase the length of the notice (e.g., to a 6 year termination notice with a buy-out option).  Along with 5-year rolling contracts, I think we are just as good as indefinite tenure systems.  
 

[larryc]

If you are asking for a concession from faculty the involves redefining their relationship to the university in a major way, quite a few are going to be angry. They have bought homes and their spouses have jobs in other cities. They have taught your classes and accepted contract renewals and possibly turned down other opportunities because they had a satisfactory arrangement with your university. Now you want to change the rules in a way that will wreak havoc for many of them. They are going to be quite angry, and in fact will organize to get you fired. Win or lose you are going to have an epic battle on your hands.

That was the context in which tenure was raised. It could be something you offered in return for the massive concession you are seeking. Or you could offer something else--pay raises or course reductions for example. But you had better be offering something really substantial for this not to blow up in your face.

[untenured]

Thanks for your thoughtful post, lgreco.

In addition to the good questions raised, I'm curious about the harm this distance activity causes.  You mentioned a 'culture of disconnect'.  Can you elaborate on what exactly that means?  Can you also elaborate on how specifically this culture negatively impacts the university (e.g. students, service)?

I ask because you may be able to target the specific harm, and as a consequence of targeting that harm ask that faculty be more present on campus.  This path might reduce the perception that you are requiring face time for no good reason.

[msparticularity]

Based upon what Larryc has said about the difficulty of changing well-established systems and expectations, I tend to think that your best of change is to try to work to do it going forward, with your new hires. Also, though, you may be able to adjust expectations in some other ways for existing faculty that will push them to change their approach or to go elsewhere. As one example, I would suggest that faculty who are failing to hold up their end in departmental operations (the stuff that requires actually being around) be required to teach more and/or larger sections in future contracts. This will help to free up time for those who are around for collaboration and service.

[barred_owl]

Just now getting back to this thread, after asking my questions earlier.  In between, Larryc and Ms_P have both expressed thoughts very much along the same lines as mine.  I'll echo the recommendation to apply the new expectations to new hires, while upping the teaching loads or numbers of students for those older faculty who have become accustomed to being permanently remote.

[larryc]

OP, what do you plan to offer the faculty in exchange for changing their working conditions?