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When it comes to understanding how much a faculty member is involved in teaching, 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ experts say it's more complicated than just counting courses.

Illumination will come this spring when a 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ task force releases long-awaited findings on faculty instructional activity. While this preliminary report is in immediate response to a 2000 state audit that called upon the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ system to clarify its definitions of faculty teaching activity, it is also in response to an ongoing dialogue on the nature of faculty instruction in the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ system.

For years Sacramento lawmakers have asked whether the university's faculty give adequate attention to the teaching mission. And 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ faculty themselves have asked how completely their activities are reported.

"It's important for the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ to assure its constituencies that our faculty members take their teaching roles extremely seriously," said Patricia Turner, vice provost for undergraduate studies and one of 17 faculty, administrators and staff from 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ campuses on the task force. "This is a necessary step to redress the deficiencies in the state audit of 2000. We hope to better reflect the range and breadth of instructional activities."

Through its rigorous scrutiny, Turner said, the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ's Implementation Task Force on Instructional Workload Recom-mendations seeks to clarify the issue for the state Legislature.

Draft results are expected as early as May or June at the latest.

While the state audit focused on "primary" courses alone, the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ task force has developed a new university-wide set of 18 faculty instructional categories that cover a broad range of activities -- large lecture classes, fieldwork, tutorials, and individualized study, to name a few.

Campuses are currently classifying their courses into the 18 categories and compiling the results to show the range of instructional activities.

The findings may prove valuable as the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ system forges a new partnership agreement with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Historically, these agreements are a key element in determining the level of state funding 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ receives.

Turner said the final results will be available later in the summer or fall. In light of the current fiscal situation, she described 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ government relations officials as "eager" to have the report on teaching activity in hand as they continue to make the case for the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ budget.

"Now is an ideal time to examine how we measure performance in 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ higher education," Turner said.

"This will help all of us explain in quantitative detail the instructional role of our faculty in educating our highly valued students."

Another audit finding was that a number of courses taught by ladder-rank faculty members had enrollments of only one or two students. Auditors suggested that some classes of such small size might more properly be classified as independent studies, not primary classes.

Bruce Madewell, chair of the Academic Senate at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis, welcomes a deeper understanding of faculty instruction.

He said that lecturers' courses were not included in the instructional report that was used to prepare the state audit. Also, the audit did not take into account the existence of independent study courses, which incur significant faculty time.

51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ is meeting the commitment asked of it by the Legislature and is working on improvements to undergraduate instruction, Madewell said.

"We have continued to increase courses taught by regular rank faculty over the past decade, and we will follow the progress of the task force with interest."

He said the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ system actually comes out ahead on the issue when compared to other institutions:

• The average time for a 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis undergraduate to earn his or her degree is about 4.2 years, a better mark than comparable institutions.
• The number of undergraduate degrees awarded per ladder-ranked faculty full-time equivalent at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis is 4.3, compared to 1.6 at similar private universities and 3.3 at similar public institutions.
• The number of all degrees (bachelor's, master's and doctoral) awarded per ladder-ranked faculty FTE at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis is 5.8, compared to 4.8 at similar private universities and 5.5 at similar public institutions.
• 74 percent of 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ students graduate within six years, compared to 69 percent at other public universities and 78 percent at private universities.

Madewell also pointed out the very high peer review rankings that all 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ campuses receive in publications such as U.S. News and World Report, saying, "We look pretty good in comparison."

With members on the task force, the Academic Senate is deeply involved in the dialogue on the subject, he said. It's important, he added, to measure teaching efforts, especially at a time of increasing 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ student enrollment and expanded year-round instruction.

The irony, Madewell noted, is that as state lawmakers are cutting back funding for the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ system, the Legislature seems to be attempting to "micromanage" the institution. And the attempt to classify all aspects of instructional workload is time-consuming.

"Most colleges and universities don't track this information to this level of detail," Madewell said, "and if they do it's not even available for scrutiny."

Madewell said the Senate has "reservations" that the workload study will not put enough emphasis on graduate student instruction, which, he said, is a more intensive experience than undergraduate instruction for faculty members at large research institutions such as 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Davis.

Al Harrison, a psychology professor, is working on the Davis review to help give it a "faculty" perspective.

"Those of us who teach at the University of California or other major research universities have a different set of instructional responsibilities than our colleagues who teach at state universities and colleges," Harrison said.

He explained that in addition to lecturing in the classroom 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ faculty members teach in the laboratory, studio and in the field.

"We provide advanced training for graduate students and we mentor postdocs," Harrison said. "Any reporting system that does not include the full array of our instructional activities misinforms the Legislature and the public and is a major disservice to ourselves. The new reporting procedures should eliminate confusion by revealing the true scope of our teaching contributions."