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End the unreasonable workload at CUNY

162 Comments

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Jean Carmalt
10 years ago

It is bad pedagogical practice to overload teachers with so many classes and students. When I have fewer students in a semester, I am able to devote more time to my students, which makes me a better teacher overall. Not only is this load out of step with other requirements and peer institutions, but it is also bad for the students.

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Lauren R Shapiro
10 years ago

CUNY remains a top tier school because the faculty cares about the students and its reputation.

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Anonymous
10 years ago

It's my responsibility as faculty to teach, but also to do research and contribute to the development of new knowledge. This latter obligation is very difficult to meet, given our current teaching load. What's more, the quality of the instruction we are able to deliver to our students is also affected by the quantity of teaching hours in a week. We need a course release!

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Susan Kang
10 years ago

Associate Professor John Jay College

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Aranzazu Borrachero
10 years ago

CUNY Community Colleges have a 27-credit annual workload. For CUNY 4-year colleges, it is only 18 credits. Service and research demands are nowadays the same at Community Colleges and 4-year colleges, and yet, the disparity continues. Asking for a workload reduction across the board does nothing to repair this great injustice. Community College faculty members need to raise their voices and demand an end to this "second-class citizen" treatment.

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Jean Mills
10 years ago

For this relief much thanks

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James Petzke
10 years ago

We adjunct support our full-time brothers and sisters in this cause. Thanks.

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Allia Abdullah-Matta
10 years ago

LaGuardia Community College Assistant Professor

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Hunter Johnson
10 years ago

Teaching four courses, some of them at the graduate level, frequently with three preparations overall, leads to a life completely consumed with teaching duties, leaving very little time or energy for scholarly output or service contributions.

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Ellen Belcher
10 years ago

Library, John Jay College

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Daniel R Pinello
10 years ago

Professor of Political Science, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

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Catherine Kemp
10 years ago

As a relatively recent arrival, I am teaching 4 courses at once for the first time this semester; by the end of this calendar year I will have taught 2 more courses this year than I did in 3 years at Penn State.. I still know every one of my students names, but I can feel the loosening of the tremendous focus and attention needed to keep each one engaged and getting the most out of the work and time they are spending in my classes. Because THEIR lives are so busy, they need US to help them bring up the energy and mental endurance for their educations--when we are spread too thin, that assistance falters, and an already stressed student population is even more underserved. When I was at the University of Colorado, our 3-2 load came with a peer-review post-tenure review every five years. I'd gladly exchange SIX credit hours load for post tenure review, but with my colleagues I demand an unconditional reduction to 3-3. My students get SO MUCH MORE when I have that extra focus--THEY deserve it.

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Margaret Tabb
10 years ago Featured

I taught at John Jay for over 40 years, struggling to balance my work with students and my research. Each task required more time than I had. A reduced teaching load (as has been managed at other CUNY colleges) would have relieved some of my chronic exhaustion!

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Crystal Jackson
10 years ago Featured

CUNY tries to be everything- a teaching college and a research college. We can't have it both ways. If you want research productive faculty (and if you want research faculty to stay), the teaching load must be reduced. -asst prof, JJC

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John P Pittman
10 years ago

4-3 is unreasonable under any circumstances, but especially in a university serving generally 'undereducated' NYC high school students. Come visit our classes and see why we're so frustrated!

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Devin Harner
10 years ago

An equitable teaching load will actually allow us to do more not less. CUNY will benefit exponentially if they bring our teaching load into line with our peer institutions.

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Valerie Allen
10 years ago

We want to teach less in order that we may teach better by giving our students the individual attention they need and deserve.

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David Green
10 years ago

The excessive teaching load jeopardizes our ability to do everything we do as well as it ought to be done. It makes us less effective than we ought to be in the classroom, less productive than we ought to be as scholars, and less active than we ought to be as citizens of our communities--within CUNY and beyond. David Green, Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

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Susan Opotow
10 years ago

The course workload of 7/year is above other ppublic research, competing with important faculty research

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Dr joseph king
10 years ago

Kill research efforts