TASK FORCE ON FACULTY INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES (JULY 2003)

In November 2002 President Atkinson appointed a Task Force on Faculty Instructional Activities to examine the adequacy and equity of instructional responsibilities in the University and to reconsider thoughtfully the way we define faculty instructional activities and describe them both publicly and to our faculty.

That Task Force has completed its work and produced two reports, copies of which are attached:

· Describing and Reporting Faculty Instructional Activities, which suggests a new approach to reporting faculty teaching activities in a way that more appropriately reflects the special features of a research university experience for our students and the different modes of teaching in which our faculty are engaged.

· Faculty Instructional Responsibilities: Guidelines for Departmental Policies, which places the locus of responsibility for teaching activities clearly on the department as a collective whole and recommends new processes to monitor comparability of efforts within disciplines and strengthen oversight.

Discussions about implementing the recommendations in these reports are continuing.