Journal of Infomlation Systems Education Volume 11(3-4) Traditional Scholarship, Instructional Scholarship and Service Scholarship William N. owen Roy J. Daigle Michael v. Doran David L. Feinstein University of South Alabama School of Computer and Information Sciences Mobile, Alabama 36688 Abstract Faculty workload decisions made by a departmental unit often create a conflict for faculty because promotion/tenure decisions usually focus primarily on individual scholarly achievements. This paper describes an approach to faculty evaluation that considers both departmental and individual needs by expanding the view of scholarship to include Research, Instruction, and Service. Keywords: Faculty evaluation, scholarship, research, promotion and tenure, 1 INTRODUCTION The University of South Alabama is a comprehensive university located in Mobile, Alabama. The School of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS), one of nine academic units reporting to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, offers a Bachelor of Science with specialization in one of four areas: Computer Science (CSC), Information Systems (ISC), Computer Engineering (CPE), and Information Technology (ITE). The four specialization areas share a common core of the first two- year courses and a common senior capstone experience. A Master of Science with specialization in CSC and ISC is also offered. In 1990, the School ofCIS began a two-year examination of its faculty evaluation process. The result was a document that clarified expectations, permitted self- scoring, eliminated surprises for annual review, and formally established a relationship between annual review and decisions involving promotion, tenure, and retention - (334) 460-6390, e-mail: [email protected] (Feinstein, 1996). Influenced by the views on scholarship expressed in Boyer (Boyer, 1991 ), the document also acknowledged that faculty could submit other forms of scholarship for promotion-tenure decisions. Although the process has met our objectives, it was based upon a research-faculty model that we believe is out-dated. Recently, the School of CIS has been confronted with a number of new challenges involving Instructional, Research, and Service oriented faculty. These include: .A diverse, non-traditional, commuting student population and a dramatic increase in enrollment resulted in a demand for new course offerings and multiple course sections for daytime and evening programs throughout the year- .Technological advances and competition for students created a need for delivery of courses through a distance-Ieaming format. .The redesign of the graduate program resulted in an increased need for research faculty to teach graduate courses and direct theses. 93Journal of Information Systems Education Volume 11(3-4) Successful grant funding resulted in reduced teaching loads. Response to market demands for a new specialization area, Information Technology, resulted in an increase in administrative functions. Greater community involvement with industry partners resulted in an increased service commitment. Industry demand for computing and technology professionals made it difficult to recruit qualified faculty. Accrediting guidelines resulted in teaching load constraints for faculty. Budget constraints imposed by the university resulted in a freeze on new faculty lines. These challenges have raised questions that are fundamental to the culture of every academic unit. We have identified several questions: .How can the three-fold mission of the School (Instruction, Research, and Service) be met and ensure quality in all areas? .Because annual performance evaluations, promotion, and tenure reviews must be done, how do we compare faculty who are asked to primarily focus on a single mission area? .How can tenure decisions be made that do not damage the ability of the unit to meet its obligations, and yet avoid inconsistencies that affect faculty morale? To solve these dilemmas, a proposal for three faculty models was prepared and brought before the faculty of the School ofCIS for discussion. Guidelines for this new view of scholarship are under development for tenure, promotion and retention decisions. The three faculty models focus on Research, Instruction, and Service areas. Although each model is distinguished by different expectations, a common feature is the requirement for a scientific and scholarly approach, innovative ideas, and tangible results to document successful activities. The proposal was influenced by Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered, Priorities of the Professorate (Boyer, 1991 ) in which he identifies four views of scholarship: the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching. In our proposal, which differs from Boyers's model, faculty may be hired for a specific role or choose to move between roles over time. The assessment of scholarship identified in our proposal is similar to the model posited by Glassick in Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation ofthe Professoriate (Glassick, 1997). The remainder of the paper will describe our approach to implementing this view of scholarship, which should be of interest to any academic administrator facing these similar problems. 2 OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS The Faculty Dilemma The School of CIS currently has eighteen full-time faculty members composed of thirteen tenure-track faculty, five non-tenure-track faculty (N1T). Adjunct faculty primarily teach service courses. Tenure, promotion, and retention decision for tenure-track faculty have been based on scholarship, collegiality, teaching effectiveness, and service. Tenure-track faculty have operated with traditional research expectations leading to scholarly publications. The fundamental dilemma facing this faculty is: How to determine teaching and service workload assignments that fulfill the needs of the School of CIS without creating obstacles to individual success and while maintaining a standard of scholarship for promotion, tenure, and retention decisions? Workloads Although the expected teaching load is twelve (12) semester hours for full-time tenure-track faculty and fifteen (15) semester hours for full-time NTT faculty, the actual teaching load is constrained by several factors. .Accreditation: The Computing Science Accreditation Board (CSAB) accredits the computer science specialization (CSC), and constrains the