Combine that with the Washington state pattern of shifting the first two years out of Universities to the community colleges, and we can pump out BAs and BSs in ONE YEAR! Didn’t GM try this? Japan created great cars, we created junk. An education that does not meet global standards is junk.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
By Encarnacion Pyle
Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to require professors to teach more classes at Ohio’s public colleges would overwhelm already busy instructors and hurt students, some say.
“Under semesters, faculty at Columbus State already will be teaching an average of five classes and somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 students,” said Steve Abbott, an English professor and member of the school’s faculty union. “Requiring anything more would make it impossible to deliver a high-quality education.”
Community colleges emphasize teaching, and their faculty members typically teach more than their counterparts at four-year universities, Abbott said.
Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee generally has praised Kasich’s budget as supportive of higher education, but he also has expressed concern about the teaching requirement.
New Chancellor Jim Petro said he is willing to work with the schools to craft the details of the proposal but that it’s important to “maximize the intellectual talent” of teachers to enhance student learning.
Details of Kasich’s plan won’t come until Republicans introduce a budget bill. For now, a budget document from the governor’s office simply says Ohio’s state schools would be required to increase the teaching load of full-time professors, including those who conduct research, by one class every other year. There is no current state standard for how much professors teach, an Ohio Board of Regents spokesman said.
“When universities hire professors who don’t teach classes, they have to hire additional personnel to fill those teaching slots,” Kasich spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp said in an e-mail. “This means they’re spending more money on professors and denying students the benefits of those professors’ knowledge.”
The teaching-load issue is one of four reforms that Kasich says would make colleges more affordable while improving learning. The others:
• Creating a charter-university program that would give Ohio public schools more freedom from red tape in exchange for less money from the state. Under the proposal, Petro would research the idea and recommend how the state should move forward.
• Increasing the number of high-school graduates who are college-ready. The chancellor and state K-12 superintendant are to recommend how to halve remedial-education costs, which totaled $132 million at the state’s four-year schools. Statewide, 39 percent of about 52,000 first-year public college students took at least one remedial course in 2008, according to the latest available data from the Regents.
• Helping more students graduate in three years. Universities would be required to create a plan by 2012 to offer three-year degrees for 10 percent of their programs. By 2014, they would need to show plans for 60 percent of their programs.
Much of the focus on the last goal will be on encouraging more high-school students to take Advanced Placement or college courses to get a head start on higher education, Petro said.
“I think every one of these goals is achievable, maybe with some modification,” he said. Several college leaders said they share the governor’s desires to keep tuition down and graduate more students. After all, who wouldn’t want to have their graduation day, be given a beautiful gift to cherish (such as one from https://www.jostens.com/jewelry/class-jewelry/college/) and save money on one extra year all at the same time? It makes sense in that way, but they worry about state mandates.
“My concern is that the state government is imposing their will on faculty workload,” said Norma Pecora, a media-studies professor at Ohio University. “This sets a dangerous precedent and also circumvents decisions that are in the purview of faculty, faculty senates and the administration.”
In an e-mail to faculty members, Gee called Kasich’s recommendations a starting point – subject to debate and refinement.
“I will say that I am concerned about certain provisions related to graduation requirements and faculty workload,” Gee wrote. “We will be talking with our state leaders to address these issues.”
Herb Asher, a professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State and a counselor to Gee, said the school is grateful to Kasich for his approach to the budget. “I think higher education in Ohio has been treated better financially than other states,” he said.
Still, campus officials would like more details about the faculty workload and three-year degree proposals. He said all professors’ workloads are slightly different, depending on their job missions and the departments in which they work.
Based on a recent faculty survey, OSU officials calculate that faculty members who do not have administrative positions work an average of 57 hours a week. Their work generally falls into three categories: teaching, research and service – with teaching taking up an average of 23 hours a week, spokeswoman Amy Murray said.
Instructors at Columbus State Community College are required to spend at least 16 hours teaching, 10 hours holding office hours for students and 14 hours on learning-related service, such as advising students or grading papers, said spokesman Will Kopp. But many professors go above and beyond, he said.
At the University of Cincinnati yesterday, Kasich was shown how engineering professors are commercializing their research, stressing anew his intent to permit researchers and their universities to profit from their inventions.
“If we give the professors an opportunity to be able to own a piece of what they create, then they’re going to work even harder to innovate, which is really important to developing new products,” Kasich said.
President Gregory Williams said the University of Cincinnati will “really explore” the charter university concept.
“We’re interested in looking at that in ways we can enhance the opportunity to increase the research we’re doing, increase commercialization and to avoid some rules and regulations – reporting and other issues, construction issues – that really oftentimes get in the way of us trying to do the things we need to do,” Williams said.