•
						•
						•
						•

Section II: COC Core Requirement

2.8 The number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution and to ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs.

Upon application for candidacy, an applicant institution demonstrates that it meets the comprehensive standard for faculty qualifications. (Faculty)

---

JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

√ Compliance             Partial compliance          Non-compliance

NARRATIVE

The number of full-time faculty is adequate to support the mission of Richard Bland College.  Given that RBC is a teaching institution and the mission focuses on liberal arts preparation for transfer to senior institutions, full-time faculty members are chosen for their graduate preparation in appropriate liberal arts disciplines.  At least two full-time faculty members represent each of the traditional areas in the social sciences (psychology, sociology, history, and government), humanities (English, philosophy and religion, and foreign language), arts (visual arts, music, and theater), mathematics, and laboratory sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology).  To support the need to offer significant numbers of skills courses (English and mathematics), one-third of the full-time and most of the part-time faculty are in those disciplines.  The size of the faculty allows RBC to offer courses with enrollments ranging from four to fifty in seminar, lecture, laboratory, and studio environments.  RBC enhances its articulation agreements with senior institutions by regularly offering a few pre-professional introductory courses in business, education, and health sciences.  All formal annual faculty evaluations emphasize teaching (weighted at 60% of the total evaluation as described in Comprehensive Standard 3.7.2).  Full-time faculty with year of appointment, rank, and graduate degrees are listed in the RBC Undergraduate Catalog 2006-2008, which maintains currency on the RBC website.

The College has offered an average of two hundred thirty-six classes (sections of courses) each semester for the past three years.  Of those, 77% have been taught by full-time faculty.  Similarly, 80% of all academic credits delivered during that time were delivered by full-time faculty.  In the fall semester of 2007, 77% of the courses taught and 78% of the credits delivered were by full-time faculty.  The College also employs fully qualified part-time faculty to complement or supplement the curriculum and course-offering needs as enrollment demands.  RBC classifies its faculty as full-time and part-time.  Part-time faculty are adjuncts or those who have renewable contracts limited to multi-course assignments and occasional other limited duties.  Guidelines for recruitment and appointment of full-time faculty are published in the Richard Bland College Faculty Handbook, Section VIII – D – E, and for part-time faculty, in the Adjunct Faculty Policies and Procedures Manual, Section IV – B.  The Adjunct Faculty Manual also contains all information on adjunct faculty responsibilities. 

The College maintains a student-faculty ratio of 22:1.  Personnel files of full-time faculty members, including a current contract, vitae, transcripts of graduate credits and degrees earned, awards, etc., are kept in the Office of the President.  Faculty evaluations, faculty development reports, absence records, added assignments and adjunct files are maintained in the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculty.  See Comprehensive Standard 3.7.1 for a discussion of faculty credentials. 

Faculty workload is typically five courses; i.e., fifteen semester hours per semester or a combination of science laboratory and lecture assignments for faculty in those disciplines.  Components of the workload are defined in the Faculty Handbook, Section VIII – L including faculty responsibilities for instruction, committee service, advising, and office hours. 

The faculty profile of service to the College reflects significant successful retention among fully-qualified full-time faculty since the opening of the College in 1960.  Twenty-nine of thirty-four full-time faculty are tenured and hold the rank of Associate Professor or Professor.  Seventeen hold a terminal degree, and three are ABD.  Six (18%) have been at the College for more than 30 years; seven additional (20%) for more than twenty years; another seven (20%) for more than ten years; eight others (24%) for more than five; and six (18%) for five or fewer years.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, through the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), has approved criteria for selection of institutional peers outside of the state for every public college and university in Virginia.  SCHEV has established twenty-six schools as peer institutions for RBC, the most basic purpose of which is to ensure competitiveness in recruiting qualified faculty to match the mission of RBC.  Because this strategy focuses on salary comparisons, this helps sustain our capacity to continue to recruit, appoint, and retain faculty qualified to ensure the quality and integrity of our academic endeavors.

The College invests in the faculty full responsibility for the quality and integrity of its academic programs.  Article IV, Section 4.1 of the Faculty Bylaws as recorded in section VIII – C of the Faculty Handbook reads:

It is the expressed responsibility of the Faculty to concern itself with the educational programs (as outlined in Article IV, Section 4.2) of the College and to make recommendations to the Provost regarding all matters related thereto.  No change in the educational functions of the College shall be effected without due consideration of the proper committees herein established and/or the Faculty-at-large at a meeting organized in accordance with these By-Laws.  The Faculty shares with the administration the general responsibility to develop and maintain an educational program of high quality.

See Comprehensive Standard 3.4.1 for a description of faculty involvement in academic program approval.

---

SUPPORT DOCUMENTATION

Page updated February 18, 2008  | Questions or comments? Email sacsparc@rbc.edu

© 2005, Richard Bland College
Petersburg, Virginia