Do College Profs Have Too Much Free Time?

[Sally_Rubenstone]

<p>From today’s Chronicle of Higher Education:</p>

<p>

South Carolina Lawmakers Want Professors to Teach More</p>

<p>February 16, 2011, 11:36 am</p>

<p>College professors in South Carolina should skip sabbaticals and research and, instead, teach at least nine credit hours each semester, a member of the state’s House of Representatives has told the Associated Press. A House budget-writing panel agreed to such a measure, among others that are part of the state’s $5.2-billion budget. The full Ways and Means Committee will vote next week.

</p>

<p>My husband golfs with a group of college profs. The joke is that they work 24/7 (That is, 24 weeks a year; 7 hours a week). :eek:</p>

<p>Do you feel that the professors at your school have too good a deal? Do you think it might be easier for students to get in the classes they want (or need) if profs taught more hours each week? Or do you believe that–with teaching, research, committee work, etc.-- your faculty members work plenty hard already?</p>

[Mathemagician1]

<p>Why must we take away perks from jobs? Lately everyone gets upset whenever someone has better job perks than them.</p>

[whheex]

<p>yeaaa… if they worked hard for it, then they deserve their fun times. but i would feel indifferent to profs who don’t care about their students academics.</p>

[ThisCouldBeHeavn]

<p>Requiring professors to teach 2 or 3 classes every semester will reduce teaching quality, access to the professor out of class, and research quality. It would probably also make it more difficult for the school to recruit professors, so the quality of the faculty drops.</p>

<p>Obviously it saves some money for the state, but I think legislators tend to see public colleges narrowly as a place to provide mass education, since that’s what they pay for, when it serves a far broader purpose.</p>