University Professors Are Not Idle When Outside Of The Classroom – Especially In The Coronavirus Era

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Something happens with almost 100% certainty when I tell someone that I am a professor at a university. They ask, “What do you teach?” It is a fair question I suppose because most people experienced their professors only as teachers. I have addressed this issue before in Forbes, but a recent piece in the same outlet prompted me to revisit the topic. Richard Vedder, a fellow contributor, wrote a piece entitled “Six Ways To Keep American Universities Alive. I often read Vedder’s material so have no interest in disparaging the article or dissecting his suggestions. He is entitled to his opinions as a fellow contributor, and I am sure we both care for institutions of higher learning. I simply want to address one statement in his piece: “Although typically paid to work year-round (administrators) or nine months (faculty), many in fact are idle on some days when they are paid to work.”

I am tenured and the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography at the University of Georgia. I have received two of the university’s significant teaching awards and routinely receive very high evaluations from my students. I value teaching and am proud of my efficacy at doing it. However, teaching is far from the only thing that I do. My appointment calls for an equal split between research and teaching, as is the case for most professors at my (and similar) institutions. My research is focused on advancing knowledge and applied capabilities within the topics of extreme weather, hydroclimate, climate risk, and urban meteorology. On top of that, we are expected to carve out time for broader service to the institution, state, Nation, and world (and we proudly do it). Admittedly, there are some institutions and colleagues that have more of a teaching focus, but this piece is written from the perspective of major research-intensive (R1) type universities. For more insight on how universities differ, click this link for a breakdown of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning.

Even as we suffer through the coronavirus pandemic, I look at all of the vaccine, model prediction, and diagnostic research being conducted by universities around the nation. For example, Augusta University stepped to the plate with an extensive contribution to extend COVID-19 testing and screening capacity within Georgia, and I know there are numerous projects ongoing at other state institutions. Those colleagues are not idle. In my previous article, I listed the following things that a professor is typically doing in a given week. They include, but are not limited to,

• Conducting innovative research in areas of expertise
• Writing research grant proposals to secure funds from funding agencies, private foundations, companies
• Writing peer-reviewed scholarly papers to disseminate our research findings
• Reviewing peer-reviewed papers or proposals
• Teaching classes and constantly modify/update materials
• Grading homework and exams
• Representing the University and serve as experts on external panels, boards, and committees
• Writing letters of recommendations for current/past students, colleagues, and professionals going up for promotion/tenure or awards
• Writing books and textbooks
• Responding to large volumes of email
• Guiding the research process for graduate students
• Serving on internal, departmental, college, or university committees
• Conducting administrative tasks
• Serving as advisors for student organizations
• Engaging in outreach on social media, with policymakers, and local stakeholders

Since being “quarantined,” my days are filled with back-to-back (to back-to-back) videoconference meetings, class check-ins, grading, recording of lectures, advising my graduate students, reading dissertation drafts, writing recommendation laters for students seeking jobs or internships, writing peer-review articles, reviewing articles, and interacting with colleagues on four major federal or private foundation grants the I am the lead or co-lead on. Several colleagues that I reached out to offered their perspectives.

Dr. Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair Director, Global Change Program ADVANCE Professor, College of Science at The Georgia Institute of Technology: Today’s universities are so much more than a collection of classrooms populated by instructors and students. They are anchor institutions that drive a large fraction of the economy in their region. That means secure employment with full benefits for area residents, but also food, shelter, and other forms of support for a large number of disadvantaged students. Their vast research programs are powerful economic engines that provide a high return on taxpayer dollars invested, fueled by highly-skilled, dedicated, and passionate faculty, staff, and students. The results of academic research advance the public good, driving social and technological innovation to address our most pressing challenges, including the COVID19 pandemic. Today’s universities roots are deeply embedded in their local communities, but their branches reach around the entire world, building community and accelerating progress. This is no time to continue the disinvestment of higher education in America, which has suffered sustained state budget cuts in recent years. Rather, it is a time to nurture and support our universities’ roles as innovation hubs, workforce development engines, and critical glue for communities on local to international scales. Simply put, thriving universities represent our nation’s best bet for a prosperous, safe future.

Dr. Joann Mossa, Term Professor, 2018, University of Florida: In those “idle” days we are advising graduate students, doing service work for professional organizations, conducting work on research grants, editing or reviewing for a journal, or conducting our own research with fewer interruptions. Most of us aim for publishing in higher tier and higher visibility outlets to advance the forefront of understanding in our discipline​. The staff are there to manage grant purchases, to manage budgets, to handle student registration and administrative matters, to conduct or assist in student advising, attend to HR and visa matters, to facilitate many other things that occur on campus, to keep work and classroom spaces clean, to support the functioning of the university in numerous ways. They are indispensible.

Dr. John Maerz, Josiah Megs Distinguished Professor of Wildlife, University of Georgia: Faculty at large and small universities and colleges generally work more than 5 days a week and well over 50 or 60 hours a week – often stretched into evenings and weekends. Outside the classroom, faculty spend time prepping courses and grading, but also meeting with graduate and undergraduate students, editing theses, coordinating research, serving on governance committees that oversee curricular and student life matters, and writing scholarly papers. A large number of faculty have split appointments between teaching, research, service, and administration, and for most, teaching comprises a minority of their expected allocation of time. In my case, I teach an average of 4 courses a year, mentor a half dozen graduate students, supervise several undergraduate students in research including capstone theses requirements, while chairing my school and the university curriculum committee…and my teaching is only considered a third of my job expectations. 60% of my job expectation is research. It is also worth noting that many faculty put in double or triple work rapidly converting to online this spring, helping students who were impacted by changes, and serving on institutional groups doing contingency planning for the coming year. (Authors note: I often do something work related 7 days per week even if it is responding to emails).

Dr. Marilyn A. Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems. School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology: Solving the crises we face as a nation – the Covid pandemic, global climate change, affordable housing, the opiod epidemic, and more – all require a strong science and education system. This is a time to strengthen our universities, not shrink them. We need to innovate our way out of these problems, drawing solutions from biology and chemistry, as well as administrative, economic, and policy sciences. Universities are the crucible of such solutions.

Professor Stephen Nesbitt, Full Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois: The idea that most faculty work just a few days per week is preposterous – recent surveys show that the average work week is over 60 hours. Faculty work hard to stay at the cutting edge of science to train the students that feed into our nation’s scientific infrastructure. In reality, faculty often make less money than our students once they become established in the field. These fields wouldn’t exist without the fundamental research and training we carry out at the university.

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