Higher Class Sizes, Less Learning

From Inside Higher Ed, 10/6/10:

When Less Is More

Conventional wisdom has long held that students benefit from smaller classes. But that conventional wisdom has primarily been tested in elementary and secondary education -- and some of the research finds that class size is not the key factor for the student experience there. More...

Dear Colleague:

The MLA, a founding member of the Coalition on the Academic Workforce
(CAW), invites members of the contingent academic workforce in US
colleges and universities to participate in a CAW survey of fall 2010
course assignments, salaries, benefits, and general working
conditions.

If you are a teacher, postdoctoral fellow, or research worker employed
off the tenure track in one or more postsecondary institutions, we
encourage you to take the survey and to forward the survey to your
friends and colleagues. Your participation will help CAW create a more
accurate picture of contingent academic workers' professional lives
and working conditions and better enable CAW and the MLA to advocate
for contingent academic workers.

The survey is available through 30 November 2010 at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNNNRVS.

For more information about CAW, visit www.academicworkforce.org.

Survey participants are eligible to win one of several $50 bookstore
gift certificates to be awarded in December.

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey and make your voice heard.

Cordially,



Rosemary G. Feal
Executive Director
Modern Language Association

GA State AAUP Meeting in Augusta, May 1

Dear Colleagues:

Please accept this letter as your invitation to the Spring, 2010, Meeting of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors.   On behalf of the entire Augusta State University Chapter of AAUP, the host committee of Michelle Benedict, Mike Bishku, and Shelly Ford are honored to welcome you to our campus for the meeting on May 1, 2010, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm in the Jaguar Student Activities Center (JSAC) Ballroom.   Please feel free to come early as we will have complimentary coffee, juice, fruit, rolls, and other continental breakfast items in the Coffeehouse  (immediately above the meeting room) from 9:00 am to 10:00 am.   A campus map is enclosed which also includes directions from Interstate 20 to campus.  The most convenient parking lot is #6 and it can be most easily reached by entering campus at the main entrance.  We also hope you will join us for a Wine and Cheese Social from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm in the Maxwell Alumni House.  Past President of AAUP@ASU and our founding member, Mark Fissel, will be available to share his experiences with chartering a new AAUP Chapter with any attendees who could benefit from his insights or who would like to share their own experiences with birthing a Chapter. 

We are most pleased to announce that President Jane McCandless and Executive Secretary Hugh Hudson have arranged for Donna Potts, English, Kansas State University, who has served as the Kansas Conference President, 2002-4, and has been president of the KSU Chapter since 2001, to be our keynote speaker.  She is currently a candidate for National President of AAUP, so we hope you will make every effort to join us for this very special honor.

Campus Food Service has graciously agreed to be available on Saturday to provide us a limited buffet in the Coffeehouse for $10.00.  Entrée choices are Rosemary Chicken or Veggie Lasagna and either will be served with green peas, vegetable rice pilaf, tossed green salad, bread, desert, and beverage.  Please contact Bill Reese at wreese@aug.edu by April 26th with your choice of entrée.

Attendees who wish to come to town the evening before or who plan to stay over should be advised that we have arranged for conference rates of $106 per night if you mention AAUP at the historic Partridge Inn.  For attendees coming to town Friday evening, Jane McCandless will host a reception at the Partridge Inn.  In addition, please note that we have enclosed information for nearby restaurants, site seeing venues, and entertainment.  We hope you will have time to enjoy the amenities and the hospitality of Georgia’s second largest city.   

Given these times of severe economic austerity, we especially relish the opportunity to meet with you and celebrate our profession and our solidarity.

Hope to see you soon,

William A. Reese, II

President, AAUP@ASU

wreese@aug.edu  706.737.1735 (office) or 706.738.9037 (home) or 706.825.6386 (cell)

Budget Cuts "Unjust"

AAUP members spoke and showed up to support a student-organized rally, 3/9/10, regarding the budget cuts. The rally was covered by The Statesboro Herald, "Budget Cuts 'Unjust'" by Jake Hallman:
"People aren't happy at Georgia Southern University. From administration to students, nobody wants state budget cuts at GSU — but how can they be avoided?
    Students, faculty and staff tackled that question and vented their frustrations at a rally Tuesday morning at Sweetheart Circle to protest the possible cuts.
    Calling the cuts “unjust,” senior philosophy major Andres Montes, one of the rally's organizers, said the protest was a historic moment of unity for the university community.
    “Our education, our future is in jeopardy,” he said to the crowd. He questioned specific programs the state is spending money on, and suggested that Georgia would be better off investing in education programs than new buildings.
    “They're trying to take away our education,” he said."

Recent Coverage: Cuts in Courses Cause Concerns

George-Anne Daily, Feb. 25, 2010, by Charles Minishew: 

A number of Georgia Southern students went to the Student Government Association Wednesday night with concerns that the number of upper division courses offered would decrease as a result of an increasing freshman population and budget cuts.

Kelsey Ryan, Veronika Urbina and Kelly Corallo created a group on Facebook to protest cuts of upper division courses at GSU on Friday, Feb. 19. By Wednesday, the group had nearly 1,000 members.

(more at GA-Daily)

Financial Crisis FAQs

From AAUP: Most colleges and universities, and their faculties, are facing challenging financial situations. In a few cases the challenges are extraordinary. But in too many cases, administrations invoke the broader fiscal collapse in ways that exaggerate institutional conditions that are considerably less extreme. And in too many cases administrations invoke such conditions as justifications for implementing, without sufficient or any meaningful faculty participation in the decision making, a variety of measures that threaten the working conditions of faculty, academic professionals, and graduate employees. Such measures include hiring and salary freezes, furloughs, salary cuts, layoffs, nonrenewals, reduction and elimination of academic programs and colleges, revision of curricula, changes in academic policy, elimination of tenure, substantial changes in workload, and more.

Recent Coverage About Changes at GSU

"Too Many Students, Not Enough Faculty?" George-Anne Daily, 2/4/10

From the article: "GSU has experienced rising enrollment numbers over the past 10 years. Since 2000, enrollment has increased by nearly 5,000 students. The fall semester of 2009 saw a large increase in the student to faculty ratio. The number of faculty decreased by nearly 70 between fall 2008 and fall 2009. The University experienced a big jump in enrollment during this period, however. There were 19,086 students enrolled in fall 2009, an increase of over 1,300 students from the previous fall semester.

The student to faculty ratio increased from 19 to one in fall 2007 to 21 to one in fall 2008.

Michael Moore, Moderator of the Faculty Senate and a professor at Georgia Southern, said that increases in class sizes make it difficult to maintain teaching ability. Moore said he has seen an increase of about five to seven more students in each of his classes than in past semesters.

“It is hard to expect the same teaching results with increased class sizes,” said Moore.

Moore also said that due to rising enrollment many classes have had to add more sections, creating a need for more faculty members to cover them. Due to the budget cuts, however, many departments are experiencing a shortage of faculty needed to teach these courses, he added."