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VOLUME XI, NUMBER 4

38% INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

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> UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
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Community College Staff Development:
Institutional Incentive for Professional Publication

Although some community colleges require profes-
sional publication for advancement, most community
colleges (including my own Kalamazoo Valley Commu-
nity College) do not. Community colleges were created
primarily as teaching institutions, seemingly to the
exclusion of research. And while 1 do not necessarily
subscribe to the “publish or perish” policy so often
attached to four-year institutions, I do feel it is impera-
tive for community college instructors to be profession-
ally active, including professional publication. There-
fore, as part of my Professional Development Plan
(PDP) at KVCC, | developed and proposed a means for
receiving credit for my professional publications.

The Professional Development Plan

The PDP allows faculty members to earn graduate
semestcr-hour credit through a variety of activities:
graduate and undergraduate coursework, routine and
new work experience, industrial school courses, corre-
spondence courses, technical seminars, and approved
research. The work performed in these activities is
equated to graduate semester-hour credit; and after
carning 15 semester hours, a faculty member advances a
column on the pay scale. At KVCC there are six col-
umns: |: Less Than Master’s; Il: Master’s Degree or
Equiv; Hh MA=15sh or Equiv.; IV; MA+30sh or
Equiv.; Vi MA+45sh or Equiv.; VI: MA+60sh or Equiv.

A New Proposal
The “Approved Research” component of the PDP

states: “A research report judged by a panel of peers to
be of caliber and extent of a typical master’s thesis will
be equivalent to three (3) graduate semester credit
hours.” It was under this rubric that I proposed receiv-
ing credit for my professional publications:

As part of the “Approved Research” section,

I would like to receive credit equated to

graduate semester-hour credit for the pub-

lished writing—book reviews, articles and

books—I do while teaching English at

Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

The reasoning for my proposal was quite simple—
writing teachers should write, must write (and not just
in the writing classroom with their students). That
writing teachers should be writers themselves is a
theme in many compositional texts for teachers.

As I stated in my proposal, writing teachers who
write can empathize with their students and the diffi-
culties they face in writing; writing teachers who write
know firsthand the writing process and how it works;
writing teachers who write and publish can feel a sense
of professional fulfillment by contributing new ideas,
perspectives and information to the profession, and
thus are producers rather than merely consumers in
their field; writing teachers who write and publish are
actively involved in the profession, which reflects well
on their institution and community colleges in general.

I queried 20 of my colleagues from various disci-
plines at KVCC about my proposal; 18 supported it.
Most agreed that community college instructors should
be more visible in their respective fields and should
share—in writing their ideas, interests, findings and
practices—with others in their field. Also most believed
that equating published writing to graduate credit
would provide incentive for instructors to write.
Several colleagues expressed an interest in writing a
similar proposal for their own PDP.

Deciding how to equate graduate semester-hour
credit to published book reviews, articles and books
proved to be no easy task. I discussed my proposal
with several colleagues and worked closely with my
associate dean and dean of instruction—both of whom
reflect the administration's desire to encourage profes-
sional development—to develop an equitable equiva-
lency. Ultimately, we decided upon the following:

* Book review = 0.25 to 0.50 graduate semester-hour
credit, depending upon length
* Article = 1.0 to 3.0 graduate semester-hour credit,
_ depending upon length
* Book = 3.0 to 9.0 graduate semester-hour credit,
depending upon length. No vanity press publica-
tions.

 

 

EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND:ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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