Below is an e-mail message I sent to both the CAP and CFA committees on April 1, 2002
giving my opinion on the "4th hour" proposal being discussed.
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April 1, 2002

Rick and Aigli:

I have serious concerns about the "4th" hour proposal contained in the CAP report of March 8, 2002 and discussed at last Wednesday's open meeting ( March 27, 2002). 

Before such a proposal is adopted, it is vital that safeguards be considered and adopted to guarantee that there be no expectations established for how that time is to be used by faculty if that can be done. 

It is certainly possible that a person applying for retention, promotion, range adjustment or engaged in the five-year review process might be penalized by the committee involved for not having students use that time "productively", especially in comparison with another faculty member who had her/his students engaged during that "optional" time period. Anything of this type must be  neutral in the reappointment, promotion, 5-year review or range adjustment process. Just stating that this should not happen is not sufficient in my estimation. 

Since these types of judgments are made independently by faculty there is probably no absolute way to guarantee that things done in those time slots by students won't be seen as something "above and beyond" the normal call of duty and given "extra credit points." It is likely that this already happens in the case of faculty who volunteer to serve as advisors to student groups, "faculty fellows" or other such things which are not required as part of the normal job. However, we should be extremely cautious when proposing anything further which could evolve into an "expected" activity rather than one which is truly optional. Something of this type might prove to be problematic in the situations previously mentioned.

I can't image any statement or mechanism which would totally eliminate that possibility and feel that this proposal for an optional "4th hour", noble though it may be, should be eliminated. Faculty will continue to establish levels of expectation for their students which they feel are appropriate in the
normally-scheduled time period.

Ralph Edelbach