To                    Ken Swalagin, Secretary, University Senate
 
From:               Ted H. Szatrowski, Professor, MSIS, RBS and University Senator and new ICA member
 
Date:                September 29, 2006
 
Subject:            Request to revisit Senate 3/26/2004 action restricting faculty to teaching only one course in WinterSession
 
Cc:                   Natalie Borisovets, Chair, ICA
 
I would request that this issue be revisited.  The ICA did not consult with either of the faculty teaching two courses during Wintersession (1 in New Brunswick, 1 in Newark) to gather information about the pros and cons on this issue.  It is my understanding that the New Brunswick Wintersession Offices has been unwilling to grant exceptions to this rule, because of the rule, not because of the merits of having certain individual faculty members teaching more than one course.  On the other hand, before this rule was put in place, the Wintersession office in New Brunswick was cognizant of the record of the faculty member teaching two courses, and reviewed this situation on an annual basis to insure that quality instruction was not being compromised.   I ask that the committee propose rescinding this rule with action taken by the Senate at an early Fall, 2006 meeting.  It has adverse impact on students and faculty, and may indeed restrict their access to quality instruction.  Note that rescinding this rule would not remove the discretion that the Wintersession office has to make decisions based on a case by case basis as to whether to let a faculty member teach more than one course. 
 
I was the faculty member in New Brunswick who taught two courses in Wintersession, 01:960:285 Introductory Statistics for Business and 33:623:385 Statistical Methods in Business.  I am willing to share my experience in teaching two courses, the advantage to the students and the sharp contrast between reality and the last sentence in the report excerpt below.  Although I have no doubt the intention in the ICA report was good, I believe the action has had an unintended negative educational impact.
 
Background on Senate Action on this Matter:
 
1) Following brief discussion, the report was approved unanimously by the Senate on card vote, as presented by the committee. (excerpt from Senate Minutes for 3/26/2004 meeting.)  [The report was 9 pages long.]
 
2) Excerpt from: Rutgers University Senate, Instruction, Curricula and Advising Committee, Report in Response to Charge S-0303, Winter Session Review, January 2004, Revised February 2004, http://senate.rutgers.edu/wintersessionreview.html
Winter Session Faculty
The 2000 Senate report focused primarily on issues relating to the courses being offered during Winter Session, no recommendations were offered relating to the faculty teaching those courses.
In looking at this year’s offerings, the Committee noted that both Newark and New Brunswick had at least one faculty member teaching two different courses during Winter Session. Teaching university-level courses 7 or 8 hours a day, combined with the necessary preparation and other student-contact times, would seem to be equivalent to, and potentially as counterproductive as, a student taking more than one Winter Session course during a single session.