The number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution. The institution has adequate faculty resources to ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs. In addition, upon application for candidacy, an applicant institution demonstrates that it meets the comprehensive standard for faculty qualifications.  (Faculty)

Texas Tech University is in compliance with Core Requirement #2.8.

Texas Tech University had a total of 1450.53 FTE teaching staff in fall 2003. This is a student to faculty ratio of 16.92. Of course, these teaching positions are not distributed equally among the 11 colleges and schools of the university, nor among the departments or other sub-units within those schools and colleges. Two colleges in the university (Rawls College of Business Administration and Visual and Performing Arts) have indicated partial compliance with Core Requirement 2.8 on the basis of accrediting agency reports that student-faculty ratios in some programs are higher than is desirable. However, it should be noted that all of the programs in question meet the basic requirements of their accrediting organization and are fully accredited. Therefore, the university is in compliance with the requirement that it have adequate faculty resources to insure the integrity of its academic programs.

Almost 350 new FTE have been added in the past decade, but enrollments also have grown. Time series data from the table below comparing student-faculty ratios by college reveal that, while the university as a whole has shown an improvement in student-faculty ratios for most of the previous 10 years, some units, most notably the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration, the college of Human Sciences, and the College of Arts and Sciences have remained stable or actually increased their FTE-student ratio over the period in question.

President Whitmore, who assumed office in September 2003, has stated he will add 100 new faculty lines incrementally over the next several years, and plans have been announced for 40 new FTE to be added in the 2004-2005 academic year. It is likely that at least some of these new FTE will go to units that have not seen reductions in their Faculty Student ratios.

The university has well established procedures for recruitment of new faculty. This procedure and the required qualifications for faculty appointment are presented in Operating Policy 32.16 Faculty Recruitment.

Faculty Recruitment is supervised by the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, who insures that OEO and affirmative action guidelines are followed and that faculty meet the requirements stipulated in OP 32.02, Faculty Qualifications.  Both OP32.16 and OP32.02 are available in pdf files on line at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/opmanual/

Student Faculty Ratios by College, 1994-2003

Source: Office of Institutional Research

SACS Off-Site Committee Finding:

 2.8      The number of full-time faculty members is adequate to support the mission of the institution. The institution has adequate faculty resources to ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs. In addition, upon application for candidacy, an applicant institution demonstrates that it meets the comprehensive standard for faculty qualifications.  (Faculty)

 ___       Compliance
             _X_       Non-compliance
             ___       Did not review

Comments: 

Although the Compliance Report’s charts indicate that 88% of total faculty are “ranked faculty,” the report does not indicate what ranks are included in this number.  Two colleges (Rawls College of Business Administration and Visual and Performing Arts) indicated “partial compliance.”  The reported student-faculty ratio for the institution in 2003 was 16.92, with the ratio for VPA 12.24: 1 and for business 24:1 (this ratio has been as high as 27.5:1).  Because of the two colleges’ reports of partial compliance, the institution needs to demonstrate more fully its actions to date to increase the number of full-time faculty. 

TTU Response:

University-Level Data:  

At the University Level, The Texas Tech Board of Regents approved $3.59 million from tuition increases in 2003-2004 to hire 40 new (non-replacement) faculty positions starting in Fiscal year 2005.  Documentation can be found in the May 2004 Board of Regents minutes (item VIII.B.1.b. and Attachment No. 4; discussed in more detail in the minutes of the Finance subcommittee of the Board of Regents special supplement to the TTU Board of Regents presented at the 5/13/05 Board of Regents meeting.  The document is located in the office of Eugenia Tillinghast, assistant to the TTU Board of Regents, Room 202, Board Office is the Administration Building, Room 202, Akron and Broadway Avenues, and also available here:   http://www.ba.ttu.edu/isqs/westfall/BOR-040513-Finance.htm.  

The additional faculty request represents a new initiative; previous years’ new faculty hires were primarily of a replacement nature.  There was enough funding to allocate 43 faculty positions; these searches opened in September 2004. A spread sheet showing the allocations is available from the Provost. 

The offsite committee wished to see the data presented in the initial report expanded to include ranks.  The report is given as follows: 

* Original table showed 1345 here and was a typo.
** Beginning in Fall 2002 the university stopped using the title and rank “lecturer”.  Most lecturers were moved to rank of instructor. 
 

Unit-Level Data: 

The two colleges that have noted “partial compliance” also have indicated steps that are currently underway: 

Rawls College of Business Administration: 

The college has implemented a tougher admission standards and aggressive recruiting efforts to reduce the student/teacher ratio as required by AACSB accreditation.   As a result, the college has gone from deficit position of -5.26 required faculty to a positive 14.80. According to the chair of the AACSB college peer review committee (Richard Furst), the college has made sufficient progress for him to recommend our review for reaffirmation. 

Supporting data from the Rawls College are as follows: 

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA): 

The Student/Faculty ratios in the CVPA are low (12.24 in 2003), supporting a claim of compliance.  It should be noted, however, that due to the studio and private instruction that constitute many of their courses; in actuality the faculty workloads are high, leading to concerns of the college.  The College has four new tenure-track CVPA positions being advertised currently:  two in music (music theory, music history); one in theatre (theatre generalist); and, one in art (art appreciation/art history). In addition, they are in the process of requesting at least one new position from the Faculty Excellence Fund (to accommodate underrepresented class hires). These positions are in response to issues raised during all three units’ accreditation visits during the 2002-2003 academic year in order to support existing programs.  Efforts to redistribute faculty loads are also underway. The student/teacher ratio problem noted in the area of Design Communication has been addressed by the implementation of a new enrollment management plan that has been successful to date. The addition of the new faculty lines in the three units plus the new enrollment management plan for admission to Communication Design noted above have addressed the concerns contained in the Visitors’ Reports of each respective arts accreditation body.