Survey exposes faculty concerns

By Nick Petaros and Allison Schmidt
Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor

Selected responses from a faculty survey conducted in fall of 2004 have raised concerns regarding faculty satisfaction at Wartburg.

According to the national survey conducted by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), 45.2 percent of Wartburg faculty respondents describe “relationships with administration” as “satisfactory or very satisfactory.” This is a 3 percent decrease from when the survey was first taken in 2001.

The 2004 results are more than 15 percent lower than six of Wartburg’s benchmark colleges that participated in the survey at 61.5 percent and also lower than at all private four-year colleges surveyed at 61.3 percent.

“I’m more disappointed by the results than I am startled,” Dr. Stephen Main, professor of biology and faculty council member, said. “I think things are better here than most other schools, but worse than we’d like to see.”

Dr. Paul Hedeen, professor of English, gave his perspective on the percentage. “If my family gave me those kinds of numbers, I’d be concerned,” he said. “If only half the citizens of a community feel that way, community leaders would be concerned. If half my students say ‘this class sucks,’ I’m almost desperate to find out why.”

When asked about this survey item in regards to the relationship between faculty and administration, President Jack Ohle said, “That number (45 percent) doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“It certainly is something that stands out as needing to be addressed,” Dean of faculty Ferol Menzel said. “Faculty council is in dialogue and will continue to be in dialogue with the cabinet to try and understand exactly what [faculty who responded] meant.”

Another survey item reported that 38.7 percent of Wartburg faculty noted it was “very descriptive” of their college to see “faculty typically at odds with campus administrators.” This is over 25 percent higher than benchmark colleges at 9.5 percent and at all private four-year colleges at 12.6 percent.

With two HERI surveys conducted since 2001, both indicating strains in the faculty/administration relationship, some faculty have expressed impatience due to lack of action.

Due to fear of repercussion, one non-tenured faculty member who asked to remain unnamed said, “You would think with the survey there would be some administration response to this issue, but there hasn’t been. Part of the problem is that the administration won’t address there’s a problem; they’re in denial.”

Sixty-five percent of Wartburg’s faculty, including tenured and non-tenured faculty, responded to the HERI survey.

Dr. Fred Ribich, director of institutional research and assessment, said this percentage was “quite high.”

“It was close to a two-thirds response rate, which is very good,” Ribich said. “In terms of looking at some of the basic demographic characteristics, it seems to be fairly representative of a cross section of faculty. Overall, I would say the data is reliable.”

Involvement in decision making

Another survey item indicated that 54 percent of Wartburg faculty respondents feel they are sufficiently involved in campus decision making. This compares to 70.8 percent at benchmark institutions, which Ribich said is “quite a bit higher” than Wartburg. Ribich said the benchmark institutions may have made recent changes in administration “which could impact the way their faculty would respond.” He said Wartburg is closer to all private four-year colleges at 59.1 percent.

“It’s a question of where we would like to see ourselves even in terms of forgetting to compare ourselves to other places: ‘Would we like to be higher in that percentage? And I think most people would say, probably, yes,” Ribich said.

The survey suggests faculty want a greater role in the decision making process.

“A lot of faculty have expressed the feeling that there hasn’t been an appropriate degree of consultation with them in areas of academic decision making and decisions of this institution,” Dr. Greg Scholtz, professor of English, said.

Faculty also mentioned dissatisfaction with the timing of their involvement in the decision making process.

“Faculty would like to be more involved in information gathering before decisions are made,” associate professor of business administration Paul Magnall said.

Hedeen said that faculty are “mostly happy with the curriculum and [their] control of the curriculum” and are “ecstatically happy with students.”

 “But in crucial areas that affect faculty life on this campus, we are not consulted except perhaps after the fact,” he said. “The faculty wants power in its areas of expertise; it wants to be a respected partner in the administration of the college.”

Ohle responded to this issue by describing the principle of “shared governance” which institutions are developed on.

“There’s conversation and discussion of issues that are related to faculty programs and curriculum,” Ohle said. “Faculty make recommendations that ultimately have to be approved by the president or the board of regents. It’s very important that administration and faculty work together.”

However, faculty have indicated that there has been a consistent breakdown in this process.

“Too often faculty recommendations are either ignored or reversed or just changed into something else,” Main said. “This doesn’t happen all the time, but more often than one would like to see.”

Menzel noted the faculty handbook makes clear that the board of regents and the president make the final decisions.

“Can there be better exchange of information? Possibly, but I don’t think there’s any question about who makes decisions,” Menzel said.

Salary differentials

Concerns have also been raised by both tenured and non-tenured faculty due to issues related to financial compensation. According to Academe magazine, average faculty salary including benefits increased 2.9 percent from $65,500 to $67,400 from the 2002-2003 to the 2003-2004 fiscal year. These numbers were confirmed by Jane Juchems, director of human resources.

During this same period of time, the fifth highest paid administrator, Edith Waldstein, received a 5.7 percent increase in pay, including benefits and deferred compensation, from $100,580 to $106,288. Despite an error concerning the numbers reported on the Form 990 for President Ohle (see related article), the Trumpet has found it highly probable that he received a 7.1 percent raise, including benefits, from $219,960 to $235,650. IRS Tax Form 990s were used to find salary information for administrators, with the 2004 fiscal year being the most recent available.

“I don’t worry about those things; I really don’t,” Ohle said concerning salary. “I’m paid what the board wants to pay me.”

While faculty salary increases may be disproportionate to administrators, some faculty emphasize money isn’t a driving force in their job. Several have left careers in the private sector, where pay could be equal or greater, to pursue teaching.

“Pay isn’t the reason why we’re here,” Magnall said. “If you’re chasing money this isn’t the place to be.”

Hedeen looks at the salary figures as an issue of reward not just salary.“It’s not about the money, it’s what the money means,” he said.

The unnamed non-tenured faculty member mentioned that since the faculty salary pool raises are based off percentages, non-tenured faculty at the bottom of the pay scale actually receive lower gross pay increases than the tenured faculty.

Non-tenured faculty reluctant to speak

In addition to compensation-related concerns, some non-tenured faculty have also voiced distress over an environment in which they feel unable to voice their concerns to the administration. Some non-tenured faculty refused to comment for this story, while others agreed only to provide background information and one decided to speak as an unnamed source.

“[Wartburg] is not an environment that has assured us we speak freely without ramifications,” the unnamed source said. “We are expected to put on a smiling face and pretend everything is going well. It’s rare for a non-tenured faculty to voice concerns during faculty meetings in which administrators are present.”

The unnamed source mentioned that the workload expectations of Wartburg faculty has been a source of distress among some tenure-track instructors. The unnamed source stated there hasn’t been a proportionate increase in faculty while student enrollment has reached record highs on an annual basis. The source added it is not uncommon for faculty to be teaching an overload number of classes and students. In addition, they no longer get paid for arranged studies.

“Something that’s truly an issue is the number of hours expected of us,” the unnamed source said. “Faculty put in time on weekends, SOAR days and in the summer, even though we are on a nine month pay schedule. We feel the expectation to be on call 24/7.”

In addition to these expectations, the HERI survey reported 77.4 percent of Wartburg respondents rated “institutional procedures and red tape” as “ extensive or somewhat” a source of stress over the past two years. Among benchmark institutions and total private four-year college respondents, the percentages for this issue were 56.3 and 60.4 respectively. The percentage of Wartburg faculty citing this as a concern in 2001 was 88.5.

Job satisfaction v. joy at work

To Ribich, the “most intriguing” survey result stemmed from the following question: “Do you, to a great extent experience joy in your work?”

“That’s an interesting item because we’re lower than benchmark and all other private four-year colleges on the percentage of faculty who say they ‘experience joy’ in our work,” Ribich said.

The 2004 survey results indicated a distinction between “overall job satisfaction” and “experiencing joy” at work. The percentage of Wartburg instructors rating job satisfaction as satisfactory or better was 74.2, compared to the 56.5 percent who said they experience joy in their work. Job satisfaction at both benchmarks and all private four-year institutions was almost identical at 79.4 and 79.5, respectively. The number of faculty experiencing joy in their work at benchmark and private four-year institutions was 69.3 and 69.9, respectively.

“Job satisfaction is related to what we’re doing. We want to be in academia; we’re here because we want to be here,” the unnamed source said. “Concerning the ‘joy’ statistic, work feels more like a chore than it gives you joy. There are things that can be changed to make this more positive. This is truly about environment.”

According to the 2004 HERI survey, 50 percent of Wartburg faculty have considered leaving for another institution, compared to 37 percent at benchmark institutions and 40 percent of the national private four-year college faculty.

Taking the next step

In an overall sense of the survey, Ribich said Wartburg faculty responses were much like faculty at other institutions.

"The places where we are different, however, are places where we might say to ourselves, ‘What can we do to make ourselves better on these accounts," he said. “This survey information is a good starting point to initiate some conversations.”

Faculty council chair and professor of social work Dr. Susan Vallem said faculty council is looking at the survey results but mentioned the council may not have any definitive findings until the new year.

Many hope to see steps taken to address  the concerns raised by the survey.

“I think the fact that we’re still talking about the issues and trying to find solutions means there’s still hope,” Main said.

Hedeen said that in order for positive change to result,  members of the Wartburg community must keep in mind the purpose of this institution: serving students.

“In order for change to occur, there has to be the critical mass of people on both the faculty and administration that say ‘we’re not serving our students; the way things are has interfered with our mission of serving students,’” he said. “The institution only exists for the students; sometimes we lose sight of that.”