What Do Professors at CWU Do?
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Job Responsibilities of Professors
At CWU, unlike High Schools or research universities, professors have many professional responsibilities. At CWU, the responsibilities of a typical tenured or tenure-track faculty member are usually allocated as 80% Teaching, 13% Research, and 7% Service. This does vary a bit, however. And it should be noted that the teaching responsibilities include many more activities than just teaching classes.
To give you some idea of what professors do, here is a brief description of typical activities included in the areas of Teaching, Research, and Service.
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Teaching
- Teaching classes at the undergraduate or graduate level. The typical professor will teach between two and three classes each quarter. In addition to to the time spent in the classroom, keep in mind that professors must prepare for classes, write lectures or create slides, hold office hours, create homework and exams, grade, develop and run labs and field trips, and respond to student questions in person and through email. Depending on the number of students in the course, or the level of the material, these activities can be very time consuming.
- If applicable, we are often also responsible for making sure our studios, labs, equipment, etc are functional.
- Writing letters of recommendation for students.
- Supervising Undergraduate Research Projects
- Supervising Masters Theses for graduate students.
- Designing new courses and updating the curriculum requirements for various degrees.
- Running organizations for students or serving as faculty advisor for such organizations. These might include departmental, university, or professional groups.
- Bringing speakers to campus to tell students about job or research opportunities.
- Creating new degree programs or options within degree programs.
- Advising - for both classes/degrees and getting jobs. Often more than this, but that depends on the individuals.
Research
- Doing actual research.
- Writing up research results in papers and submitting these papers for publication.
- Writing textbooks or monographs (not that common, but some do)
- Submitting grant applications to support their research, and administering grants (e.g., working with budgets, submitting reports) that have been awarded (common in the sciences, less so elsewhere).
- Traveling to conferences to give talks, share research results, and stay abreast of what is currently going on in their field of study.
- Traveling to other universities to give invited colloquium or seminar talks.
- Traveling to other universities or research centers to collaborate on projects with other researchers.
- Reading papers, journals, or books to keep updated on new advances in their area of research.
- Speaking with researchers who are visiting from other universities in order to learn about their work or collaborate on projects.
- Organizing, attending, and speaking in research seminars.
- Supervising a research project or group that may contain several students.
- Doing university paperwork related to research (e.g., submitting travel requests, submitting reimbursement requests for travel or research purchases, preparing and submitting reports on how grant or university money was used). You have no idea how much time this wastes.
- Service
- Serving on committees in the faculty member's department, college, or university.
- Refereeing papers. (Journals send submitted papers to professors to ask them to read through the papers carefully and give their opinions on whether the paper should be published.)
- Writing reviews of published papers or books.
- Serving as an editor for a journal. This often involves accepting submissions to the journal and contacting referees for reports that will help decide whether the paper is published.
- Organizing research conferences. These are often national or international events that can involve participation and coordination of numerous researchers.
- Organizing and participating in outreach activities in the community.
- Serving on panels for the National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, Simons Foundation, or other institutions, in order to review grant applications and make suggestions on which grant proposals should be funded.
- Serving in professional societies
- Speaking to or helping local-national organizations (ie. The Audubon Society, USFS, etc etc).
Many professors work 60 hours per week or more to keep up with their responsibilities, and they also have to travel frequently. Many do all of this while trying to balance a family and home life. Although most love their jobs, many are overworked and at certain times they may be tired, stressed, or overwhelmed. Be aware of what they do, and how hard they work, and be considerate of their time when you deal with them.
Remember the above list of activities (which, mind you, is just a partial list) when you wonder why professors act so busy, or why they aren't always available, or why they are not free to meet with you at all times.
When classes aren't in session (e.g., during summers or breaks) it doesn't mean professors aren't working. It means they are working on their other professional obligations --- often parts of their job that are difficult to do when teaching a class, or activities that require large, uninterrupted periods of time (such as large research or writing projects). These are very important parts of their job that sometimes have to be put on the back-burner while classes are in session.
If you ask professors to do extra work beyond what they are already doing for the class, sometimes they have to say no. It's not that they don't want to help you. Sometimes it is the case they actually do not have time to do these things for you. Maybe they even have to make a decision between spending time with their family versus doing the extra work you have asked of them.
If you want to get an idea of what activities a particular professor is involved with, take a look at their website. Most professors will often have a copy of their Curriculum Vitae (CV) on their website, which lists their publications and activities.