Edison State College Response Report to the Visiting Committee  
Core Requirement 2.8: Faculty  

Recommendation 3: The Committee recommends the College ensure the number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution and ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs.

Edison State College Response:

In its review of materials provide by the College for CR 2.8, the On-site Committee “determined that insufficient and inconsistent documentation is available to verify that the number of full-time faculty is adequate to ensure the quality and integrity of academic programs” [ 1 ].   The recommendation emphasized that:

  1. Edison State College’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) would gravely affect workload issues for “the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan but also ensuring the quality and integrity of programs” [ 2 ]
  2. Full-time to part-time ratios indicate a lack of sufficient full-time faculty in some core and program areas; an example given on the disparity between the high ratios (above 50 percent) in Fall 2010 for Lee Campus English and Mathematics, and the low ratios (below 38 percent) in Communications, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Furthermore, ratios in health professions were shown at 2.68 percent for full-time faculty [ 3 ].
  3. There is an inconsistency in unduplicated headcount for 2009/2010 in which the College detailed 24,262 students with an FTE of 11,072 in lower division and 321 in upper division FTE [ 4 ]. This was found to be inconsistent with the total number of full-time faculty (135 or 144) and the reported student to faculty ratio of 23:1.

To ensure compliance with Core Requirement 2.8, the College has standardized the manner in which faculty information is developed, reformed the administrative reports used to support the allocation of faculty resources, and disseminated reports and reporting methodology to all stakeholders within academic affairs.  These reforms represent major steps in an ongoing process to ensure that enrollment growth and legislative budgetary decisions do not negatively impact the quality or integrity of programs at Edison State College.  The following narrative highlights the faculty development efforts in three broad categories: 1) Consistent reporting (and understanding) of faculty to student ratios, 2) ensuring that each campus has the full-time faculty levels associated with high quality academic programs, and 3) preventing faculty workload from hindering the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Program (QEP).

The Vice President for Academic Affairs assembled a representative team of faculty and staff (Response Team) to develop recommendations for standards associated with faculty allocation reports [ 5 ].  This Response Team was charged with rectifying any factual errors in previous reporting of student to faculty ratios, standardizing the manner for extracting faculty and course section data from Banner, and suggesting user-friendly report formats.

In collaboration with the department of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness (IRPE) and the Banner Support Team, the Response Team developed a standard method through which student-to-faculty ratios are developed and reported.  Table 2.8-1 provides a summary of a more comprehensive, two-year, faculty analysis report [ 6 ].

Table 2.8-1 - Updated Student to Faculty Ratios

Data and Ratio Type

2009-2010 Academic Year

2010-2011 Academic Year

Annual Unduplicated Headcount

24,262

26,018

Student to All Faculty Ratio

31 to 1

29 to 1

Student to Full-time Faculty Ratio

178 to 1

170 to 1

By ensuring that datasets can support the development of student-to-all faculty and student-to-full time faculty ratios, the Response Team has more than rectified past reporting issues by eliminating ambiguity in the interpretation of questions and response data concerning student to faculty ratios.
Although reports of faculty headcount information will be maintained, the Response Team suggested that reports of faculty statistics be based on credit hours taught [ 7 ]. Thus, the Academic Affairs Division will further reduce the likelihood that institutional constituents misinterpret faculty information.  This reporting technique offers the following advantages:

  1. Full-time and part-time faculty counts can be disaggregated by campus, academic division, and specific department.
  2. Faculty load can be accurately quantified by campus, department, and modality.
  3. Administrators can use common reports as they make decisions regarding faculty hiring in terms of discipline, campus, and modality needs.

One critical component of this process is the standardized method for extracting faculty and course section information from the core administrative system (Banner).  To achieve the strengths listed above, IRPE and Banner Team members developed a query definition that would yield data sets that fulfill the Administration’s reporting and decision-support needs [ 8 ]. The results of this query were presented at the February 2012 Deans Council Meeting.

The Vice President for Academic Affairs, Deans, and Associate Deans made extensive use of faculty analyses reports to highlight specific academic areas and campuses that have immediate need for new, full-time faculty [ 9 ].  These areas included:

  1. Six full-time faculty members in College Prep; three assigned to the Collier Campus, two assigned to the Charlotte Campus and one assigned to the Lee Campus (three positions are funded through reclassification of existing faculty positions)
  2. Three full-time faculty members in Social Behavioral Sciences; two assigned to the Lee Campus and one assigned to the Collier Campus
  3. Two full-time faculty members in Speech and Foreign Languages; one assigned to the Charlotte Campus and one assigned to the Lee Campus
  4. Five full-time faculty members in Natural Sciences; four assigned to the Lee Campus and one assigned to the Charlotte Campus
  5. One full-time faculty member in Student Support/First Year Experience (SLS 1515-QEP course) assigned to the Lee campus
  6. Two full-time faculty members in Business and Computer Science assigned to the Lee Campus
  7. One full-time faculty member in Law and Public Service Programs assigned to the Charlotte Campus
  8. Two full-time health discipline faculty members assigned to the Lee Campus
  9. One School of Education faculty member assigned to the Lee Campus (funded through reclassification of existing faculty position)

The College’s District President has provided the Academic Affairs Division with a written expression of the District Board of Trustees’ commitment to investing in increasing the number of full-time faculty to ensure adequate support for the mission of the institution and to ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs [ 10 ].  As the list of approved faculty positions highlights, the College is engaged in active searches to fill the faculty positions outlined above  [ 11 ].  Once the faculty positions associated with these projected needs are filled, the percentage of credit hours taught by full-time faculty will increase from 37.62% (Academic Year 2011-2012) to 41.34%.

In disciplines where the full-time faculty ratios far exceeded other areas, faculty lines were re-classified to provide equity amongst divisions, campuses and centers.  The new faculty lines and reclassifications have been entered through the College’s Budget Development Process and are tied to Unit Plan Outcomes [ 12 ]. Recruitment efforts have begun, with anticipation that the majority of the faculty lines will be hired by Fall 2012.  All new faculty will be expected to complete the on-line training to become certified to teach on-line as well as ground courses.  This will substantially improve the credit hours taught by full-time faculty for Edison Online, as noted by the SACS-COC On-site Reaffirmation Committee.

Edison State College is engaging in a multi-faceted approach to ensure that existing faculty workloads do not have a negative impact on implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  In addition to the efforts to increase the number of full-time faculty, the College has narrowed the focus of the QEP.  As highlighted in the College’s response to the preliminary findings associated with the QEP (section 3.3.2 Quality Enhancement Plan), the QEP Implementation  Committee and SLS 1515 faculty have agreed to revise the initial focus.  With this revision, SLS 1515 course content and direct assessment efforts will focus on Critical Thinking and Success Strategies.

Enrollment trends at Edison State College are stabilizing.  To account for the impact that revised enrollment projections will have on the SLS 1515 demand, the QEP Implementation Committee and the Department of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness developed revisions to the projected number of required sections for each year of QEP implementation [ 13 ].  Based on analyses of enrollment trends by student type and primary campus [ 14 ], the College expects to offer 46.5% fewer sections of SLS 1515.  Coupled with a refined focus and reduced section requirement, the enhanced number of full-time faculty will ensure that faculty workload will not impede QEP implementation.

Documentation  
Supporting Documentation Description
[1] SACS-COC On-site Report p.10 2.8 section of On-site Report from November 2011 visit
[2] SACS-COC On-site Report p.11 2.8 section of On-site Report from November 2011 visit
[3] SACS-COC On-site Report p.10 2.8 section of On-site Report from November 2011 visit
[4] SACS-COC On-site Report p.10 2.8 section of On-site Report from November 2011 visit
[5] 2.8 SACS Response Team List of members serving on Response Team
[6] Ratio Excerpt Faculty Type Credit Hour Analysis Report of credit hours taught by faculty type to include headcount and faculty:student ratios
[7] Detail Faculty Type Credit Hour Analysis Credit hours taught by faculty type, discipline and site arranged by academic year
[8] Basic faculty and section extraction query Query developed to provide data regarding
[9] Faculty Projections in FTE Requirements Analysis of FTE and faculty headcount by discipline
[10] Presidential Memo of Support Memorandum showing support for fiscal resources to increase the number of full time faculty
[11] List of Approved and Active Faculty Searches List of faculty positions planned for hire by Fall 2012
[12] 2012-2013 VPAA Unit Plan Unit plans referencing new faculty hires and budget requests
[13] SLS 1515 Sections Estimate Planned sections of Cornerstone Experience course
[14] Sections Estimate Process Process used to determine number of planned SLS 1515 course sections