Atty. Policarpio was late for his Obligations and Contracts class. He entered the room with many things on his mind – test papers to check, research papers to go through and to top it all off, seven written assessments of the disciplinary cases forwarded to him by the Discipline Office. He apologizes to his class for not returning the second quiz on time. He takes a deep breath and tries to shrug his worries aside; he finally starts his lecture.
George saw Atty. Policarpio’s tired disposition as the professor enters the classroom. He worries for the class’s sake since for the past meetings, the professor was not on top of his teaching game. Jerome hears his professor’s apology; all he wanted to do was empathize with Atty. Policarpio.
Atty. Policarpio is a faculty-administrator. He teaches major subjects and at the same time, he holds an administrative position in the University. He juggles all his responsibilities as a professor and administrator simultaneously. At times, he prioritizes faculty work, while most of the time, he puts his administrative responsibilities first. He knows that his students are getting the shorter end of the stick because of his administrative role.
They are the most practical choice
The intuition behind hiring faculty administrators is for logistical convenience, and the assumption that faculty members master the processes of an educational institution. DLSU President and Chancellor Br. Jun Erguiza FSC explains that it is convenient for the University to recruit administrators from the faculty pool because they know the internal workings and culture of DLSU compared with hiring competent individuals, but not affiliated with the University.
Br. Jun furthers that administrators are given a probationary period of one year after their installation in office. For top-ranking positions, the service term is three years, renewable for another term of three years, while low-ranking administrative positions are given a term of one year, and a year’s renewal. “In a sense, it is a waste time,” says Br. Jun, pertaining to the consequences of externally hiring someone, and that administrator would waste the probation period by assimilating with the DLSU culture, instead of working on his or her responsibilities.
Ronald Holmes, Director for Institutional Research, Planning and Advocacy Office (IRPAO), a faculty administrator, argues that faculty members with administrative posts are contributing more to the University.
“You need to appoint faculty members because unless a person is let us say, knowledgeable on how to conduct a degree program, has had experience in teaching, he or she would not know how to deal with faculty members [or] how the core operations of the University run,” he says.
Holmes sites that the positions intrinsically open for faculty are the Vice Chancellor for Academics, Vice Chancellor for Research and the like. These roles are fitting for faculty members since they actually practice research and teaching.
“You cannot get a non-faculty [for such positions]. He or she would find it very difficult to lead others if he or she does not have that particular status. Let me give you an example…You cannot get a dean who is not a PhD holder. That almost comes as a requirement because the ones that he or she will be dealing with are faculty members who all have PhDs. What would this guy tell the faculty, when he or she is not even qualified to do such functions,” Br. Jun illustrates.
Holmes supports that faculty administrators be given positions that are academic in nature and stresses that this is nothing new, in terms of University decisions. Considering that most of the administrative posts are academics related; he said that it is only logical to appoint faculty members to these positions.
While the intuition behind hiring faculty members as administrators is valid and practical, the issue on whether the University is sacrificing the prowess and quality of its faculty by removing academic units from their responsibilities arises. Moreover, students might miss the mentorship opportunity that a well-seasoned faculty member turned administrator could provide.
Do students get the shorter end of the stick?
Holmes clarifies that the University does not recruit faculty administrators from departments that are short of faculty members. He explains that the ones who appoint these administrative posts are careful about upsetting and degrading the performance of the department and the quality of the department’s faculty.
Jerome Abesamis (IV, AE-LMG) was able to experience Dr. Myrna Austria, Vice Chancellor for Academics (VCAD), as his professor in one of his Economics electives. He shares that although the role of VCAD is noble, and Austria fits the position, he expresses his dismay regarding the opportunity cost students might bear because of such seasoned professor’s deloading.
“Dr. Austria is a full professor and she specializes in International Economics; it is unfortunate that many Economics majors may not experience her expertise because of her deloading,” Abesamis shares.
Br. Jun further explains that faculty administrators need to deload, but they could always decline the offer to become an administrator. “…Since a full load [for the faculty] is 12 units, [when one is a faculty administrator], he or she could be given six units of administrative functions and the rest of the six units are allocated for teaching. Some are job specific, [for example], a particular job requires only three-unit deloading, some require six or nine units, and some, full deloading is necessary.”
The trade-offs of deloading is the eventual inability of faculty administrators to teach Lasallians, if they are fully deloaded, and the difficulty of balancing teaching and administrative responsibilities when a faculty administrator is just partially deloaded.
Dr. Brian Gozun, Dean of the Ramon V. Rosario-College of Business (RVR-COB), admits that it is difficult to balance the workload brought by teaching and the responsibilities of being an administrator. JV Zantua (IV, AMG) shares that students notice the burden carried by certain professors who hold administrative positions. He furthers that such pressures are reflected in the professor’s performance during class discussions.
Gozun insists that at the end of the day, although it is difficult and tiring to juggle both administrative and faculty responsibilities, the advantages of being one exceeds the negative effects of holding such a position. The RVR-COB dean also mirrors the sentiments of Holmes that faculty administrators have more opportunities to contribute to the University.
Atty. Demaisip of the Commercial Law Department explains that teaching and administrative positions go hand in hand. He explains that administrators learn from teaching and help other professors through their experience.
“There are not that many administrative positions to begin with, and you do have a good number of faculty members,” Holmes reiterates.
