Faculty and Staff in Schools and Academic Programs (2011 Strategic Plan)

To redress shortages in some areas of the College, a commitment should be made to fill faculty and staff lines that have been left vacant. This should be done within the context of a discussion of which areas require more faculty and staff support and for what reasons.

Comments
Please include your thoughts on the importance of the initiative, how to frame the issue, things that may be missing, and any additional comments here (you can do so by logging into Hampedia and clicking edit):


 * While I understand this is a preliminary document, I would like to stress the importance of reevaluating what areas have a strong faculty available to students and which are severely lacking. By increasing our student body we have also decreased faculty-student ratios, and many of us are struggling to find Professors who truly have the time to be committed and/or are knowledgable enough to be on our committees. Not to mention the fact that, despite the serious need for one, there is still no permanent queer studies/theory Professor at Hampshire. I think it would also be useful to state more explicitly what role students are going to have in this discussion, and perhaps consider ways in which the student body can be more informed about the process of hiring Professors and if there is a way to make it a more open dialogue to actually meet our needs.
 * The school needs to treat the fate of its professors more seriously. Year after year I am told that we will in fact hire a permanent lgbt studies professor. Jaclyn Pryor is great, but she is still adjunct and cannot possibly support an entire lgbt studies department alone. The art department is in a similar situation. Though we are hiring a new professor we are losing one who is a HAMPSHIRE ALUM after years working here because they would not make him a permanent faculty member.
 * While I believe that is essentially that we have more faculty, larger class sizes can additionally be remedied through other measures. At Amherst, for instance, class sizes are on average class are 16 students, while at Hampshire 17 students make up the average class. However, many of Amherst’s courses are large. Sarat’s course titled the social organization of the law has a 100 student maximum. These large course are what partially allow for smaller class sizes on average. For students taking Natural Science courses just for Div I distribution and have no interested in the subject could be given the option to take a NS course that has is 100 or 50 person lecture, and may have smaller discussion periods that are led by TA’s for it is believed to be necessary, which I doubt it is. - Asher Dvir-Djerassi, ald10@hampshire.edu
 * I would just re-emphasize the need to strengthen the sciences at Hampshire. Although it may not reflect the work that they actually have to do, the descriptions of the positions of faculty within HACU and CSI indicate a high degree of specialization, unlike in the CS and NS departments, where a small number of teachers seem to have to deal with very broad subjects (although this is also is true of music, writing, and the arts). Also, Hampshire is already known as a humanities and arts college, so in regards to allocating our resources to expand our appeal, it would make sense to take a look at the sciences. Of course, it is also important to strengthen all programs that are struggling. Also, I personally would like to see more philosophers at Hampshire, to better reflect current trends and anticipate future trends in American philosophy. As an analytic philosophy student, I am frustrated by the lack of analytic philosophy courses (due to the lack of analytic philosophy teachers) and the perception I've encountered of Hampshire as a school which does not do analytic philosophy. Devin Morse
 * re Asher: While I think you have a valid point, Hampshire is not, and should not be, Amherst. Yes, that kind of a class might solve one or two problems, but it would raise others. It would be exceedingly difficult for a professor teaching that type of class to write evaluations; Hampshire professors don't want to teach and students don't want to take that kind of class; I don't feel that it would fulfill the spirit of a div I requirement; etc.
 * I think that if we can't hire more faculty and we can't increase class size, we should increase support for independent studies, learning activities, and EPEC classes. I was always under the impression that at Hampshire the important thing was the education you got, not the classes you took. Ellen Green
 * I like Ellen's comment. It seems that class size is going to continue to be a problem for the next 4+ years, and I think that student-led EPEC classes - particularly taken as an independent study, under the supervision of a faculty member (which is much less work than teaching a course or directly supervising an independent study) are a great way to help with this. Also, in line with what others have said in response to various initiatives, taking a good look at what classes/professors are consistently filling classes and which aren't, and helping those that aren't come up with class ideas that better fit the student body, could be a great step forward. - Alynda Wood
 * Another way to reduce class size is popular classes/professors should run two classes instead of one, at different times. These are classes that the student population really demands and wants and that sort of feedback should be used and implemented. VA 11
 * This is very important. I like the idea of including students in these conversations.  I agree that increasing class sizes (even if it's just for certain courses) is NOT a good idea for Hampshire.  Discussion-based courses are part of what makes us Hampshire.  Students who are taking a course just to fulfill a distribution requirement are even less likely to get engaged and interested in the subject matter if they're just sitting listening to a lecture.  And, as someone pointed out above, it would be difficult for the professor to write evaluations for a large number of students.  Rebecca Thomas, F'07
 * I agree with Ellen. I was in a Workshop-ish class with Div III students doing their Div III and Div I and II students doing independent study. I heard that this kind of workshop-ish class is going to be part of Div I requirement. I think this is a really good idea. In this type of class, Div III students can present chapters and get feedback, while younger students can have a sense of what Div III is and how to do independent studies. Students can learn from students.
 * I'm in strong agreement with many of these comments. We need to embrace alternative forms of learning, and take them seriously as an institution. They should be evaluated (CEL-1 without narrative evaluations will be a JOKE.), and be officially seen as just as important as classes. This will help address many issues, including this one, in much more creative ways than endlessly trying -and not affording- to hire more faculty. - Ananda Valenzuela