Chained to the Bench

Many a faculty mentor has jokingly chided their students and postdocs about chaining them to the bench. This morning I read about UK universities requiring faculty to spend at least 35 hours a week on campus. One explanation being that they did not want to become a virtual university.

I know many an academic who works from home when they need to concentrate, as when they must grade exams or finish grants. For some it's the only way to work without constant interruptions. After all, being available to students is fine, but we do have other faculty member duties that require considerable concentration.

Since being at home results in me wandering into the kitchen or out into the garden were there are always more interesting things to do than grade, I tend to stay on campus and close my office door. My reputation for not tolerating interruptions when the door is closed enables me to get things done. The rest of the time my door is open and interruptions are welcome, or at least tolerated. I am not sure what the difference to the university is between me being in my office with the door closed and me being at home.

I know many faculty who complain about colleagues who are only on campus the hours they teach or have office hours or meetings. They demand all seminars, thesis defenses, and meetings be on Tuesday or Thursday between their class, so they don't need to come to campus more than twice a week. I think this goes a bit too far. At PUI and MCU campuses where being research active requires training your students yourself, I have marveled that colleagues can pull it off.

I see some irony it the pressure to become a more impersonal and virtual university, with fewer tenured and tenure track faculty, mega-lectures and on-line classes and labs while chaining the faculty to their offices. Perhaps the future of higher education will be at least partially defined by the type of faculty model the schools subscribes to.

T.S. Hall