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[brixton]

I hired an Associate Dean to support first-year students.  Our school doesn't have a first-year seminar program.  She has devised a good half-term course that meets once a week, for 1.5 hours.  The class isn't academic, per se, but it provides the structure that some first-year students need to get good college level skills.  Approximately 15-25 students sign up each semester for the class.  They take it in addition to the core academic curriculum

She has been doing some research and has discovered that schools reward faculty with a stipend for teaching in a first-year seminar program.  She thinks that she and her associate should get an honorarium because they teach this class.  I say that she was hired to support first-year students.  This isn't a course that is in addition to her job.  (It doesn't reach beyond the 40-hours that her job requires. She teaches during the school day.  The grading is fairly light.)  I view fy-seminar stipends as a way to seduce faculty/staff to do something in addition to their job, to break away from their divisions curriculum and help out the college.

Who is right?  It's a tight budget year, so this is pretty theoretical.  There are several people in my department who deserve raise, but there isn't a chance of giving them one.  But as a dean, I like to at least know when I'm reaching the level of exploitation, even if I can't do anything about it...

[concordancia]

I was given a nominal stipend to bribe me into teaching freshpeep seminar. It wasn't enough to convince me to do it again any time soon.

I do agree with you - even if you were to offer stipends to other faculty in the future, this sounds like part of the job. I can't imagine that the person who runs the program at my U gets a stipend for the sections she teaches.

[simplesimon]

I would like to see the position description or the job ad you used to hire this associate dean. What does she do when she is not teaching this FY seminar?  Many associate deans also hold a tenured faculty appointment and may or may not teach a course in their subject area.  They need not be paid extra for this, but from what you say it sounds as if this FY seminar is an additional duty. 

Teaching requires time and effort; it has value and it can be very draining.  You need to pay for it.  Just because the course is not a traditional academic discipline (math, English, history, etc.) doesn’t mean it is not academic.  If her job is specifically to teach this course then she is already being paid for it and need not get a stipend.  If the course is a new or added responsibility (as it sounds) then you need to pay her for it.

Whether or not other people in your department deserve a raise is beside the point, and you irresponsibly distract yourself by thinking about that.  The question you must answer is whether or not teaching this seminar is the job you hired her for or is it an additional duty.  You would not teach for free; do not expect anyone else to do so.

[anthroid]

I'd say that the seminar is part of her job, particularly since she came up with it.  BTW, it is hardly a new idea.  Administration does not get paid extra to teach classes, and she is administration.  I think she's reaching way beyond her role.  You might want to watch out for her.  She sounds like trouble.

[sinatra]

The president of the college where I work teaches one course per semester. It is neither part of his job description nor does he accept payment for it. Faculty at my institution also teach three sections of a one-credit FY course as part of their normal load or one course for a one-credit overload. Some even "bank" the courses with the dean to request a one-course reduction at some prearranged future semester for research. Still, I think simplesimon's approach is correct: Check the original job description. If this even appears to be something in addition to the job requirements listed there, pay her one time. But require her to provide assessment evidence that her course is effective in matriculation efforts (vs. a cohort of students who are not taking her course). If (a) she can provide such evidence and (b) the evidence shows that the course has a positive effect on matriculation, keep paying her. You'll make the money back in retention. If either (a) or (b) doesn't hold, then don't pay for future offerings.

[neutralname]

I think our administrators do get paid to teach classes, but they teach them outside of regular work hours.  So they teach in the evening or weekends and get paid.  If they are teaching during their regular work hours, then no, they would not get paid extra.

It does seem that the job was initially created so that teaching would be part of it.  But I'd also say that the program probably needs to expand, and if it does, then you will need to work out a way to pay other people who teach in it.  If it is just up to her and there's no incentive for expansion, she will keep it as it is.

Generally the argument for these things is that they pay for themselves with improved student retention.

[brixton]

Thanks -- Here is the job description: 

"The Associate Dean serves as an advocate for [our college's name] students and will lead efforts to enhance and sustain a campus climate that educates and nurtures  a community of undergraduate scholars.  Reporting to the Dean of the College, the Associate Dean provides guidance and coordination for community engagement and enrollment management, and will work ... to enhance our orientation, first-year and transfer programs.   

Responsibilities include participation in a full range of Student Affairs Activities.  Specifically, the position will create and provide oversight, guidance and coordination of Orientation, Leadership programming, programs to improve retention."

If anyone is interested, I posted at another site, and here are some responses:

Reply 1:  "At XXX College we allow administrators to teach one class per semester in our traditional day program, as part of their full-time salary. They do so only with the approval of their supervisor. If administrators teach in our Evening, Weekend, and Graduate program, they are paid the per course rate. Coaches teach as part of their regular full-time contract, although I am working to change this to separate contracts."

Reply 2:  "At XXX our policy is close to that at YYY.  I can say that most every coach teaches some sort of activities class as part of his/her administrative contract.  Also most other administrators who teach from time to time--e.g., the dean of students, the academic dean--do not receive an additional compensation when they do so."

Reply 3:  "My gut reaction is that there is only a wage law issue here if the staff member is hourly. Exempt employees, normally salaried, do what is assigned as appropriate...

I have always actively encouraged the idea of administrators and staff engaging in the classroom. It is not a legal matter for exempt employees but rather an institutional decision about what is an appropriate use of time and what is the equitable incentives to do so. If you think the organization and the students benefit by cross connects like this – then do it.  Personally I think it does strengthen things, just like the college president acting as an advisor for a leadership study cohort or that sort of thing...

Organizationally, one probably would say that if the staff member is assigned to teach the course in the normal “duty day,” then it is a duty day allocation and you may well say no extra pay.  On the other hand, if you expect them to do their course development and grading and all that outside the normal duty day, then you ought to pay them on some protocol.  If they teach a class outside the normal duty day, evenings or weekends for example, then the case for extra pay is more clear-cut.

 But for exempt employees, these are institutional decisions."

Other insights are still welcome. (This may break down into a LAC/University issue.  We're a small lac.  Our President does teach a class.) 

 



 



 

[anon99]

I agree with anthroid and concordancia.  She is doing it during the regular working day, it is 1.5 hours per week and she is the one who came up with the idea.

She has been doing some research and has discovered that schools reward faculty with a stipend for teaching in a first-year seminar program.  She thinks that she and her associate should get an honorarium because they teach this class.  I say that she was hired to support first-year students.  This isn't a course that is in addition to her job.  (It doesn't reach beyond the 40-hours that her job requires. She teaches during the school day.  The grading is fairly light.)

Why would her associate be asking for extra pay?

[msparticularity]

I agree with anthroid and concordancia.  She is doing it during the regular working day, it is 1.5 hours per week and she is the one who came up with the idea.

She has been doing some research and has discovered that schools reward faculty with a stipend for teaching in a first-year seminar program.  She thinks that she and her associate should get an honorarium because they teach this class.  I say that she was hired to support first-year students.  This isn't a course that is in addition to her job.  (It doesn't reach beyond the 40-hours that her job requires. She teaches during the school day.  The grading is fairly light.)

Why would her associate be asking for extra pay?

Not only that, but she appears to be a bit confused about the nature of her job. She is not a faculty member; she is not in the administration. Faculty members receive stipends for teaching first-year seminars because it is not a part of our job descriptions, and we are typically doing it on overload and outside of our departmental responsibilities. It is, in fact, a fairly substantial detour from what we have been hired to do, and what will satisfy departmental and college/university requirements for merit, tenure, and advancement. Your Associate Dean, OTOH, is doing something that was her own creation, within her job description, and which will count toward her annual assessment and salary calculations, yes? 

[prytania3]

She is right; you are wrong.

She should get paid for the credit hours she is expected to teach.

Boy, I bet you're a pip to work for.

And the contract is a rip off.

[sirkdn]

Our Univ has a 3 cr-hr First-Year Seminar.  Each first year advisor teaches a section as part of their regular duties - and don't get paid an additional stipend (it is part of their job description).  I teach a section as well, and also don't get paid - but I am a 12-month administrator.  However, faculty who teach the seminar can count it toward their course load or get paid as an overload.  Adjuncts can teach it for cash as well.