Plenty of professors complain when teaching duties cut into their research time, but soon those who wish to do something about it will face changes to the course buyouts system.
Plenty of professors complain when teaching duties cut into their research time, but soon those who wish to do something about it will face changes to the course buyouts system.
Course buyouts allow faculty members with unusually large research time commitments and extra research money to give some of those funds to the University in exchange for a temporarily lighter teaching load. George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences, has initiated changes to the buyout procedure that will introduce greater transparency and prevent faculty members from eliminating their teaching responsibilities entirely.
Students benefit when professors are active researchers, but teaching must remain a priority, McLendon said. “I am unashamed about stating that a critical goal of Duke University is the quality of the educational experience,” he explained.
Greg Wray, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biology, reaffirmed the value placed on educating students at Duke, which seeks and attracts faculty with a genuine interest in teaching, he said.
“This is not the kind of institution that a professor should come to if they want to only focus on research,” Wray said. “At peer institutions, there is definitely a lot of people who buy out their teaching.”
Course buyouts are already relatively rare among Arts and Sciences faculty, even in departments that attract a relatively large amount of grant money.
David Beratan, chair of the chemistry department, has been at the University for more than three years. “I don’t know of anyone in that time ever buying themselves out for a full year,” he said. Beratan himself has bought out his teaching load this semester to advance a research project that must produce results quickly in order to continue receiving funding.
“Being able to do the buyout was really important to me,” Beratan said, but he favored some limitations. “It needs to be a special circumstance, and it shouldn’t happen too often.”
Although very few professors choose to buy out their whole teaching load, “I think the right number should be zero,” McLendon said. He was uncertain if the number of professors buying out only part of their courseload would change substantially under the revised policy, but he said the alterations would generally improve instruction.
Some standardization of how much money buyouts require is also among the proposed changes. Since the money that professors use to buy out class responsibilities goes towards hiring instructors to take on their teaching loads, the University must ensure that faculty pay a sufficient amount to maintain the same level of quality in course offerings, McLendon said.
“There’s just conversations about what’s the right dollar figure,” said Robert Thompson, dean of Trinity College. Variations in research funding among the many disciplines mean that complete uniformity may not be possible, he added. “One size won’t fit all there.”
This policy review is one of several initiatives through which McLendon hopes to make faculty more fully aware of the University’s priorities.
“It’s just a general statement of our shared goals and values as an institution of higher learning,” McLendon said. “I don’t believe that the faculty are best served by not knowing what the principles are.”
McLendon is eager to implement the changes, but he is waiting for the Arts and Sciences Council to report back to him with its analysis of the proposed alterations.
“I wouldn’t mind having this in place as early as next semester,” McLendon said.
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