tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post9070972368414040415..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: Conservation of Committee MassFemale Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-29235152609324448592009-07-16T13:06:08.510-05:002009-07-16T13:06:08.510-05:00In the past 2-3 years our department went from hav...In the past 2-3 years our department went from having almost all untenured faculty to almost all tenured. When there are very few tenured faculty, the assistant faculty cannot simply refuse to do committee service, and the tenured faculty have to do more than usual amounts of service to keep the load on the untenured faculty down to a reasonable level.<br /><br />In a small department, it often helps to have some tasks done by the whole faculty (like grad student admissions and curriculum design) rather than creating separate committees. Other tasks are best delegated to single individuals to avoid the high overhead of committee meetings (like transfer admissions or catalog copy changes).<br /><br />At our university, the amount of work a committee entails seems to be pretty well correlated with how much influence it actually has. Some campus committees (Planning and Budget, Academic Personnel, Educational Policy) have significant impact and insane workloads. Others (like Faculty Welfare, Library, Teaching) have modest workloads and almost no influence.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14528751349030084532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-64547391306486552862009-07-16T11:18:42.973-05:002009-07-16T11:18:42.973-05:00That wasn't true in my case. As an assistant p...That wasn't true in my case. As an assistant professor, I discussed with my department chairs and other senior colleagues what I could/could not do in terms of service work relative to priorities and time. I adjusted my service work accordingly, including quitting some committees, as different opportunities arose.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-49591728341972126922009-07-16T11:10:11.940-05:002009-07-16T11:10:11.940-05:00I believe that declining a request to join a commi...I believe that declining a request to join a committee, or quitting a committee, is something that you don't get to do until you're tenured.Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-54113583725946869962009-07-16T09:25:18.595-05:002009-07-16T09:25:18.595-05:00That is also a handy way to decline requests to se...That is also a handy way to <b>decline</b> requests to serve on committees. When asked to join committee X, respond, "Fine, but then I'll have to resign from responsibility Y", where Y to be something they need more.<br /><br />Declining service requests for feeble reasons leads to both a rep of unhelpfulness and a lack of future requests that might be of more interest.John Vidalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09871768524749705799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-48387569848419493162009-07-16T08:05:05.695-05:002009-07-16T08:05:05.695-05:00Really? You can quit committees? (Yes, I am new at...Really? You can quit committees? (Yes, I am new at this "faculty" thing.)plamhttp://patricklam.canoreply@blogger.com