Productivity comes to Academe

I don't normally think about my work in terms of productivity. I don't make widgets, gadgets or anything else. Productivity of faculty has historically been counted in the form of number of publications, number of grants submissions, and number of advisees. But, a recent Wall Street Journal article has pulled back the lid on Pandora's box.

As the operating budgets of universities have grown much tighter and tuition has risen, a focus on productivity of faculty (as well as of their colleges and universities) is a natural consequence. Natural, but not. Productivity is implicitly, as well as explicitly, linked to profit margins, organizational viability, and supply/demand curves. None of these concepts applies naturally, organically, or ideologically to the provision of higher education.  The capitalist mind-set now exists globally (with the exception of a few notable hold-outs). That mindset has seeped into the corridors and mortar of our universities. What was once viewed a a public good, namely college education, has been turned into a commonplace, sometimes stock traded commodity.

I don't know if this change will turn out be good or not for society as a whole. I only know that it is the current reality to which faculty are having a challenging time adjusting.  If we accept this change as de facto, then we would be wise to proactively say "here's the productivity metrics which we know to distinguish the good from the bad..." For my part, the metrics mentioned in the WSJ article are the predictable metrics, some of which reflect a naive grasp of the realities of our work. (Hence this blog.)

One stand I would take, as I feel are worth some advocacy effort, is to have metrics that take into account all or a combination of the following: (a) not all students will succeed, so allow at least a x% product failure rate; (b) the production of grants, manuscripts and graduating students does not occur on a regularly scheduled basis, so allow for smoothing over time of the rates (at least a 2 year rolling average); and (c) monetize the passion and enthusiasm for knowledge creation generated among peers and students, as a minor adjustment for the less than glamorous monetary rewards, as well as a necessary prerequisite to innovation.

To this last point, I refer the readers to the new report from the National Academy of Sciences,

"Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5." I doubt, but could be wrong, that a focus on productivity will not get this country out of the Category 5 storm they describe.

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