Iowa State University


Inside Iowa State
June 9, 2000

FY99 faculty activity report
Nearly half of faculty hours related to teaching

by Linda Charles
The annual Faculty Activity and Workload Data report, presented to the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, in May shows that faculty worked about a half hour less each week during the FY99 year than they had during FY98, but about two hours more a week than 15 years ago.

Faculty put in an average of 57 hours weekly in 1999-2000, with tenure-eligible faculty working 59.2 hours, tenured faculty 56.9 and non-tenure track faculty 52.2. Men reported a longer work week (57.5 hours) than women (55.9).

In FY84, faculty put in an average of 54.9 hours a week. That steadily increased to a high of 58.8 hours per week in FY92. It dropped to 56.3 hours the next year but was back up to 58.2 in FY96. Since then, it has slowly decreased to the 57 hours reported last year.

Nearly half of the faculty's time (48.8 percent) in FY99 was spent on teaching-related activities, including time spent in class, advising and preparing. About one-third of their time (31.8 percent) was spent on sponsored and nonsponsored research activities, and about a tenth (12.8 percent) on university public and professional service.


Teaching
On average, faculty spent about 27.3 hours a week in teaching activities, which included nearly six hours of scheduled time with students (such as classes), 11 hours of non-scheduled time (advising, holding office hours, help sessions, etc.), and about 10 hours per week in other activities (preparing lectures and exams, grading papers, responding to student e-mails, etc.).

Assistant professors reported spending about 52.4 percent of their time on teaching activities, compared to 45.1 percent for associate professors and 41.4 percent for professors. Instructors reported spending the most time on teaching activities (79.9 percent).


Research
Iowa State reported in excess of $199 million in sponsored funding for FY99, with tenured faculty responsible for the majority of the funding in all colleges. (Research activity reported includes time spent submitting proposals.) Assistant professors reported devoting the most time to research activities (38.4 percent). Tenured faculty spent 33.9 percent of their week on research-related activities and tenure-eligible faculty 42.1 percent.


Administrative duties
The report shows that assistant and associate professors spent less time doing administrative work than professors. Professors reported spending 9.1 percent of their work week on administrative activities -- more than the combined amount of time spent by associate and assistant professor and instructors.


Outreach
The colleges of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine and Family and Consumer Sciences accounted for 90 percent of the clients served in more than 113,000 one-to-one interactions within the state. More than one-third of faculty reported some sort of advisory role to organizations within the state.

Iowa State homepage

Inside Iowa State, inside@iastate.edu, University Relations
Copyright © 1999-2000, Iowa State University, all rights reserved
URL: http://www.inside.iastate.edu/2000/0609/facultyact.html

Rev ised 06/08/00