ANAC Institutional Representatives Discussion of Faculty Roles

This statement is meant to be in keeping with the call of the Associated New American Colleges faculty work project for a new academic compact between faculty members and their institutions which will be published as a book by Anker Press later this year (A New Academic Compact: Revisioning the Relationship Between Faculty and Their Institutions). Chief academic officers at ANAC member institutions have developed this text as a basis for discussions with faculty members and as a way to communicate with doctoral granting institutions and potential candidates for faculty positions. Although they seek to communicate clearly, the intent is not to issue a one-way statement or declaration. Rather, ANAC academic leaders wish to initiate a conversation that all will find helpful as future faculty and doctoral programs alike seek to better respond to the needs of the colleges and universities who hire new faculty, and as ANAC members and their faculties work together to create relationships that lead to greater mutual benefit. ANAC welcomes comments and a national dialogue that will both contribute to increased faculty satisfaction and enhance the quality of American higher education. Send comments to Jerry Berberet, ANAC Executive Director (anacjberb@aol.com).

The Associated New American Colleges (ANAC) at The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is a national consortium of small to mid-sized private comprehensive colleges and universities dedicated to the integration of liberal and professional studies in serving a diverse student population. We share a commitment to teaching and learning, a collegial ethos that is student and value centered, a flexible professional model that emphasizes faculty roles as scholar teachers, and an integrative institutional model that blends highly personalized qualities of liberal arts colleges with a diversity of students, faculty, and programs characteristic of research universities. In the land grant university tradition of service to the larger society, ANAC members are deeply engaged with their local communities as partners in meeting educational needs and promoting community development and quality of life.

The Associated New American Colleges invite candidates for faculty positions who wish to join such an academic community, where reciprocity is a guiding principle in shaping long-term institutional relationships that best serve students and faculty. ANAC member institutions understand that faculty needs and interests may change over time, just as institutional needs and priorities may change. Thus, to be meaningful, the faculty/institution compact requires flexibility and mutual support over the stages of a faculty member's career in order to serve the institutional mission with vitality and responsiveness. In short, we seek faculty members capable of commitment to an ANAC member mission and to enthusiastic participation as professional citizens of that institutional community.

ANAC members nurture a faculty professional model that emphasizes connections among teaching, research, and service roles in order to make the diverse elements of faculty work more complementary and manageable. We recognize that time pressures on faculty are increasing as new expectations arise. Consequently, we believe work properly that of the faculty is measured by a scholarly standard, that faculty workload differentiation is a means to take advantage of faculty strengths and interests, and that faculty should be rewarded for work that serves the priorities of the institution.

While it is within a context that also embraces research and service roles, engaging student learning is the faculty member's central priority. Whether in classroom, laboratory, studio, or off-campus learning settings, developing effective pedagogies for group and problem-based learning is a fundamental professional development goal. Facilitating the education of students who gain understanding of classical and contemporary knowledge traditions, become proficient with information technologies and applied methodologies, and develop capacities for deep reflection, ethical behavior, responsible global citizenship, and lifelong learning top the priority list of ANAC learning outcomes. ANAC seeks faculty members able to apply these same skills throughout their careers in evaluative self-assessment and collaborative professional development and workload planning in concert with their institutions.

The scholar teacher whom we seek, then, while expertly prepared in a discipline, holds broad-ranging interests that can find expression in interdisciplinary inquiry, teaching, and applied projects. Beyond simply "delivering" theoretical knowledge to students, this professor is equally comfortable working collaboratively with them to extract meaning from primary texts and testing ideas through applications such as exploring undergraduate science as a process of discovery rather than only "getting the right answers." Such a faculty member pursues scholarship - whether of discovery, application, synthesis, or pedagogy - that enriches teaching and can find expression in collaborative research with undergraduates and community engagement off campus. Implementing our professional vision requires close working relationships within the institutional community beginning at the point of hiring. Mentoring, frequent professional evaluation and feedback, a research agenda, publication and or creative/artistic expression, and contributions in governance and service are also essential in the early career to establish the habits of mind and professional endeavor necessary for sustained reciprocity with the institution. These provide a foundation for a career-long compact that nourishes students, faculty, and institutional excellence.