Attitude

Ambiguities

Uncertainty of
expectations

Symptoms

Root

Confusion &
Frustration

" They"

Assumptions

Positivity

13

I. Analysis

Chairman W. Blair asked that this submission include the
advisory committee's finding concerning possible weaknesses and/
or failures of faculty development efforts at Douglas to date.

The advisory committee's conclusion was that the various dif-
ficulties and dissatisfactions encountered in faculty development
to date are largely attributable to attitude.

A. There has been considerable ambiguity as to:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

what counts as faculty development

where, when, and how faculty development is to happen
who is responsible for judging its success or failure
who is to initiate the process and various programs
who is to decide what is acceptable

where the funds are to come from

how funds are to be allocated

B. Rather than try to deal with such concerns in a piecemeal
manner, the advisory committee identified them as symptoms and
set about to discover the root of such problems as continuing
ambiguity and uncertainty of expectations.

1)

2)

3)

Ambiguities concerning responsibility and accountability
and a general uneasiness about expectations lead to con-
fusion and frustration.

The result has been the emergence of a general attitude
about faculty development that tends toward haphazard
and ad hoc efforts to demonstrate development. In

such situations "negative energies" can develop. All

too often an undefined "they" emerges: "I'll only do
what they tell me I have to." "They'll never approve
that!" "We'll have to do it because they never will."

"They don't know what thev want (or, are doing) ."
Administrative and faculty perceptions of who "they"
are blur or polarize.

The advisory committee was certain that the attitudes

the faculty adopt reflect the assumptions that motivate

the institution. To demonstrate this we need only look

to the issue of contract renewals to see how the specifi-
cation of an assumption set the stage for the growth of a
positive attitude about the emotion-laden questions of com-
petence and continued employment. The administrative as-
sumption that faculty are competent and responsible dis-
pelled doubts, ambiguities and uncertainties. It remained
only to specify a mechanism to deal with charges that a
faculty member had demonstrated incompetence or irrespon-
sibility. This mechanism has operated and is being refined.
But the essential point is that it is at root, a basic as-
sumption which instills confidence and a sense of dignity
and worth in each faculty member.