Education Policy, Business and Technology

How many is too many teaching waivers at a public research institution?

Inside Higher Ed: From Wisconsin to Iowa, it’s become somewhat typical for state legislators to question to the productivity and general usefulness of faculty members at public institutions. Their current campus climate troubles notwithstanding, the University of Missouri System and the University of Missouri at Columbia in particular are the newest targets of a legislative inquiry, and the finding that one-half of faculty members don’t meet the system’s minimum teaching load requirement has a prominent lawmaker threatening to withhold state funding. But the data point asks the questions of just who is seeking such teaching waivers, and how else faculty members with waivers are spending their time. Faculty advocates and additional data suggest that when professors seek waivers, they’re not shirking their responsibilities. Rather, they’re doing other kinds of work that contribute to a research university’s mission -- sometimes financially.

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