Standard 6. Element Three: Personnel

 

Teaching load policies at VSU are designed to allow faculty sufficient time to perpetuate enlightened guidance in the classroom, conduct research and participate in other forms of scholarship, and offer meaningful internal and external service in fulfillment of the University’s mission and Unit’s conceptual framework. Faculty workloads (outlined in the Virginia State University Faculty Handbook) consist of teaching, advising, committee service, office hours, research/scholarly activity, and public and/or University service. Other more specialized faculty responsibilities include supervision of field experiences and/or clinical practice, thesis/dissertation directorship, participation on thesis/dissertation committees, and teaching on-line courses. Faculty loads are adjusted to accommodate these unique duties. Undergraduate faculty loads consist of 12 semester hours for undergraduate faculty and 9 semester hours for graduate faculty. Faculty members are granted work release time for funded grants (in accordance with the provisions of the grants) or for other special projects assigned by the Unit Head. 

 

The Unit employs 5 clerical support personnel and 4 professional staff members (classified as Faculty Administrators at VSU), namely, the Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Assessment, the Coordinator of Program Admission and Data Analyst, the Coordinator of Field Placement and Special Projects, and the Policy and Planning Specialist. These staff support a graduate cadre of 29 full-time teaching/research faculty. Additionally, each faculty member is provided with a computer (with a variety of software available of upon request), Internet access, voice-mail, e-mail, and instructional technology assistance (through the Learning Resource Center). Additionally, college work-study students and 5 graduate assistants are employed in the Unit.

 

Clinical faculty members are integral to the design and success of the Unit in the development of educators at all levels. In addition to their supervisory and evaluative roles, they are highly engaged mentor-advocates for all VSU pre-candidates and candidates. Undergraduates work closely with clinical faculty in field experiences in five school districts: Petersburg City, Dinwiddie County, Hopewell City, Chesterfield County, and Surry County. These faculty members participate in orientation/development activities that provide preparation supervision of the pre-candidates and candidates and familiarization with the VSU conceptual framework to ensure program continuity. Graduate clinical faculty members supervise field experiences and clinical practice at state agencies, school district offices, and individual schools and are required to participate in orientation activities with VSU personnel. Through a clinical faculty development grant, the Unit is highly exacting in the preparing and utilizing clinical faculty, who must represent the dispositions and fully espouse the tenets of the conceptual framework.

 

Faculty development is funded through three sources: (1) the non-personnel services budget of the Unit as well as those of the Provost and dean of the school; (2) activities funded through the Academy for Faculty Development; and (3) grant funding (including the Title III, Part b) allotment. It is a primary responsibility of the SLAE dean to procure faculty development funding for research and other scholarly endeavors in accordance with the scope of faculty research areas in the School.  

 

Established by University President Eddie N. Moore, Jr. in 2000, the Academy for Faculty Development provides ongoing opportunities for faculty development services and activities ranging from Opening Conferences in August and January of each year (which include experts in a variety of fields), an annual research conference, and ongoing technology training classes throughout the academic year. Via University and grant funding over the last three years, faculty members have attended and presented at regional and national professional organization meetings and conferences, including those of the Association for Teacher Education (national and Virginia), the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the National Association for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the American Education Research Association, and the Oxford Roundtable.