by Justin Boulmay
Staff Writer

One faculty member addressed the Student Government Association two weeks ago to explain why she felt a Faculty Senate resolution calling for reduced office hours was a bad idea.

Dr. Ruth A. Strickland, chair for the department of criminal justice and political science, said she felt the reductions were not needed and would hurt faculty’s availability to students.

“In my opinion, this resolution on office hours is unprofessional and violates the mission of Appalachian State,” she said. “Appalachian State’s mission, which emphasizes putting students first, does not seem to guide these Faculty Senate resolutions.”

The Faculty Senate passed a resolution last fall calling for fewer hours with the purpose of providing more time for professors to conduct research for their classes. The resolution has not yet been implemented by the administration.

Faculty Senate Chair Paul H. Gates Jr. said this would help the students and help Appalachian State University further develop as a comprehensive university.

Strickland said faculty members do not need less office hours to get work done, and the reduction will only serve to weaken accountability.

“Eventually, hard-working, normally available faculty will feel demoralized by keeping more office hours than their neighboring faculty member who only holds one hour or two hours per week,” she said.

Strickland said if the resolution were made policy, students would have less personal interaction with their professors outside the classroom.

“Under the resolution, faculty members may set zero hours per week and only set up monthly hours – one hour a month, two hours a month – whatever they select,” she said.

“This will mean that students will be more reliant than ever on e-mail and will have much less face-to-face contact.”

Strickland said the faculty had not been polled on the issue, and many whom she had talked to did not consider office hours to be an issue.

Gates said the whole point of the Faculty Senate was to represent the concerns of faculty, and added there are always times when people disagree which issues are more important.

“It’s hard to poll the faculty on everything,” he said. “The senate is elected by the faculty, and what we hope to do is represent the faculty perspective and the people who put us on the senate. Not everyone is going to agree. Not everyone in the senate agrees.”

Strickland has not been the first faculty member to bring the issue of office hours to SGA.

Dr. Edwin T. Arnold and Dr. Kenneth B. Muir addressed the student senate in January and presented their arguments supporting the resolution and to discuss any misunderstandings students may have regarding the policy.

Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Wilber H. Ward III said last Tuesday he had not heard whether a final decision had been reached regarding the resolution.

“It’s still under advisement with the provost,” Ward said. “So far as I know, he hasn’t responded to that recommendation.”

Interim Provost Kenneth E. Peacock was not available for comment.