Excessive College & Department Service Responsibilities

Here are comments from survey respondents describing how, if at all, they have dealt with the issue of excessive service responsibilities, either to the department or to the college/university.

• There really wasn't anything I could do the first five years. It isn't much of a problem now.
• We try to share departmental responsibilities and tasks, and we attempt to rotate the department chair responsibility on a regular basis.
• The problem is being discussed at the college level, but apart from speaking up for some kind of budgeting procedure for assigning committee work, it is difficult to know what to do.
• Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
• I volunteer for as few service activities as possible though I used to enthusiastically do everything. Until my institution values me and makes time for independent pursuits, I participate only in service activities that are absolutely required.
• Esp. for junior faculty, we try to limit exposure to burdensome or irrelevant committees. We ask that the chair intervene in such instances, or the dept. as a whole might talk someone out of taking on a new commitment. But we also value the ways in which faculty can shape the college, and therefore many of us are highly involved in service.
• Prioritizing, deputizing, email instead of meetings. Some things never get done and are low priority. This is really a question of managing stress levels, i.e.., of deciding whether a piece of paperwork etc. has any value whatever.
• Learning to say no.
• Just said "No." (I'm tenured)
• Our department serves on 'core' committees such as tenure and promotion, and simply isn't represented on other committees such as library acquisitions, faculty essay prizes, etc. So far the Dean hasn't balked at this practice so long as she has been able to find quorum for decision-making in the committees we are forced to regard as optional.
• No good answer to this one. With a full and part-time faculty of 80, shared governance isn't possible unless people serve on (multiple) committees. Saying no to a President or a Provost is hard; perhaps this changes with tenure.
• Perhaps because of the reputation for philosophers being logical and good with arguments, I seem to get more than my fair share of committee duties. Right now, I'm coming off a two-year term on my college's Appointments, Promotion and Tenure committee (the last year as chair), so I'm feeling pretty burned out on college service. I look forward to a couple years off from this duty so I can return to what I do best: teaching and research.
• We're very supportive of each other here, so it's not a big problem for me (yet).
• As a department, we have agreed to protect each other and say no to a lot of service requests!
• None. In small departments this is especially a problem if one member decides to "check out" or shirk and leave the remaining members with all or most of the departmental obligations. With few members to help spread things around the obligations pile up.
• Stop volunteering, and do a bad job when forced to be on committees so that people don't ask me again.
• By trying to avoid it
• not much possible here--administration has higher priorities elsewhere
• Trying to have these accounted for, along with teaching loads, when finalizing workloads. This is not always successful!!
• Ask others to share.
• I try to remind myself not to get too worked up about these things, that there is life outside of these committees, and to not give it more energy than it really needs.
• I have tried to learn to say no to excessive committee work and not feel guilty about it.
• We're both junior faculty, and we're looking for ways to address this.
• Try to enjoy it : )
• I have encouraged my colleagues to try to resist the typical pressures placed on faculty by the administration.
• Trying very hard to say "no" to new demands and only take on passing rather than ongoing responsibilities.
• Lucky me, as a visiting assistant professor, I had no committee work, only a couple days worth of assessment work. My departmental service (advising the Philosophy Club, supervising the department's student worker) was manageable.
• I have consistently requested and been granted a course release to direct the minor. My department is supportive of this request and continues to ask administration for these releases. Administration has been friendly and granted them.
• Try to find ones that will allow networking opportunities.
• More time spent on campus, less with family... this isn't desirable, but what else can we do?
• There really isn't much I can do about these. I try not to volunteer for things, but we get assigned certain duties and you cannot leave everything to your colleagues. Everyone has to pull their weight.
• Complain a lot; try to pick committees without too much work.
• Usually results simply in lower scholarly activities for members of the department.
• Select just the few that matter most to me, and which also dovetail with my research interests in philosophy of education (e.g., curriculum-focused committees).
• Work harder and with suppressed resentment.
• It is obvious, If Philosophers have nothing to do they will become expert managers
• Again, we put up with it.
• Learn to love it.
• I actually enjoy these things. I just make sure that I put myself in a position to pick and choose which ones I become involved in. I like writing grants, for example. I have yet to see an administrator say "no" to that. Try writing institutional grants. You will be worshiped and adored.
• No good ideas here. I pretty much just suck it up and deal with it.
• more weeping and lamentation
• Not much, though our institution (in theory) allows us to weight our performance categories as we see fit (the three categories are teaching, research and service), and do this on an annual basis. Since I've had some larger service years recently I've had the opportunity to weight those areas higher to reflect how I am evaluated.
• i had to do it.
• Complaining?
• All service courses should also count towards the major, making it possible for students to major. Trying to work the service together with promoting the major by, say, hosting speakers for the whole college on bioethics or the like. Emphasizing how philosophy compliments other majors. Keeping the number of required classes as low as is respectable so we can change easily.
• Every member of staff is given a specific workload apart from the courses they teach.