Accreditation
team warns HPU
Hawaii pacific's faculty has been
By Pat Omandam
teaching too many extra classes
Star-BulletinHawaii Pacific University is under strong recommendations by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to increase the number of full-time faculty at its two campuses. HPU officials blame the accreditation problems on growing pains.
HPU Vice President and Academic Dean John Fleckles said the university was caught for allowing faculty members to teach too many extra classes, and for using too many part-time instructors.
Fleckles said an accreditation team visited the campuses in October 1996 and made recommendations to HPU this past February. HPU currently has 220 full-time faculty and 250 part-timers, he said.
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredits all of Hawaii's four-year universities and community colleges. Ralph Wolff, head of accreditation, speaking last week from Oakland, Calif., said HPU has made a very significant effort to respond to the problem.
Wolff couldn't say what HPU's accreditation status is because it is considered private. He explained that the association, whose goal is to improve institutions, has a range of notices to highlight serious problems at accredited institutions.
Fleckles said more full-time faculty is needed so that professors don't get so consumed by teaching that they cannot also participate in academic governance, such as program and curricular development. He said that part-time faculty will always be vital to HPU, especially in nursing and business courses.
"This is a normal part of the development of a university," he said. "From my perspective as dean, it's also very positive."
University Senate Chairman Ed Van Gorder, a professor of mathematics and management, explained that between 20 percent and 30 percent of the full-time faculty taught more classes than required in their contracts. For instance, Van Gorder last year taught 12 classes when his contract called for only eight.
"Some of us have taught loads that are large in comparison by other universities," he said. "We've been told that that's got to change."
Most faculty members didn't know the workload changes were driven by accreditation questions until association Executive Director Ralph Wolff was in town two weeks ago to meet with faculty leaders. The announcement was delayed so faculty would not get "excessively upset," Fleckles said.
"They were very positive recommendations that we increase the full-time faculty and manage the faculty overloads more carefully -- you know, the extra courses we teach," Fleckles said.
HPU President Chatt Wright was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
Wolff said: "There are times when we feel that providing a notice to an institution of certain concerns -- warning is one of those ways of doing that -- that stimulates the institution to take an issue very seriously and to move quickly to address it.
"When we feel that an issue or a set of issues are so important that public notice ought to be provided, then we place an institution on probation, and that is public and we disclose that in any communication," he said.
Wolff said he doesn't see HPU's situation anywhere near a probation status. The university's next review is set for October 1998, with recommendations expected in February 1999.
Van Gorder said HPU is a maturing institution that is striving to meet its expanding enrollment.
"We're sort of changing from a school where some of us, at least, have been mostly teaching, and we're now being nudged to be more of a traditional model of the university," he said.
"It's all very healthy, I think."
