Professors serve on academic committees
Collegian Freelancer &?News Editor
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: News
Every year faculty members band together to form new committees in charge of administrative decisions such as hiring new professors and laying out the academic calendar.
But many only join because their contracts require them to, some professors said.
"It's definitely not fun," Professor of Business Bruce Ikawa said. "I would worry about people who like committees. It's one of the downsides of the job, I think."
After serving on dozens of committees himself, Dean of Faculty Mark Kalthoff said he sympathizes with professors like Ikawa.
"Most college faculty become college professors because they love to learn and to teach," he said. "We don't go into this to sit in committee meetings and deal with burdensome stuff. But that's the price of doing business - you gotta have committees."
Associate Provost David Whalen said the college uses both standing and temporary committees.
Standing committees re-form with new members each year, but their responsibilities remain the same, he said. One committee grants professors tenure and promotions, for instance, and another handles sabbaticals and summer leave.
Singular, timely events often demand their own temporary committees, Whalen said. A committee forms when a calendar issue needs resolution, such as the future of fall break, he said. Another committee forms when the college needs to hire a new full-time professor.
"Every time you have a search, bingo, there's a committee," he said.
To join a committee, each faculty member receives an appointment from his own department or from Provost Bob Blackstock.
Blackstock said he considers Hillsdale's committees more effective than those at most colleges.
"We debate when time permits, we make our decision and we implement," he said.
Kalthoff said committee members occasionally have fun, too. Most professors like serving on the nominations committee, in which they meet just once per year and joke about nominating their enemies for the most boring committees.
Sometimes the committee work affects students' lives in a serious way, though, Professor of Accounting Michael Sweeney said. He once served on the Academic Review Board during a semester in which it expelled a student for plagiarism.
"I ran into the student a couple years later and the student had finished his degree at another institution and said that that was one of the best things that happened to him in the long run and that was a wake-up call for him and thanked me. That was nice," Sweeney said.
But many only join because their contracts require them to, some professors said.
"It's definitely not fun," Professor of Business Bruce Ikawa said. "I would worry about people who like committees. It's one of the downsides of the job, I think."
After serving on dozens of committees himself, Dean of Faculty Mark Kalthoff said he sympathizes with professors like Ikawa.
"Most college faculty become college professors because they love to learn and to teach," he said. "We don't go into this to sit in committee meetings and deal with burdensome stuff. But that's the price of doing business - you gotta have committees."
Associate Provost David Whalen said the college uses both standing and temporary committees.
Standing committees re-form with new members each year, but their responsibilities remain the same, he said. One committee grants professors tenure and promotions, for instance, and another handles sabbaticals and summer leave.
Singular, timely events often demand their own temporary committees, Whalen said. A committee forms when a calendar issue needs resolution, such as the future of fall break, he said. Another committee forms when the college needs to hire a new full-time professor.
"Every time you have a search, bingo, there's a committee," he said.
To join a committee, each faculty member receives an appointment from his own department or from Provost Bob Blackstock.
Blackstock said he considers Hillsdale's committees more effective than those at most colleges.
"We debate when time permits, we make our decision and we implement," he said.
Kalthoff said committee members occasionally have fun, too. Most professors like serving on the nominations committee, in which they meet just once per year and joke about nominating their enemies for the most boring committees.
Sometimes the committee work affects students' lives in a serious way, though, Professor of Accounting Michael Sweeney said. He once served on the Academic Review Board during a semester in which it expelled a student for plagiarism.
"I ran into the student a couple years later and the student had finished his degree at another institution and said that that was one of the best things that happened to him in the long run and that was a wake-up call for him and thanked me. That was nice," Sweeney said.
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