The Emerging Faculty as Team

The Computer Science Department at Oregon State University is re-examining faculty roles and the relationships between individual faculty members and the department and university. The result is a system for deciding upon faculty activities that makes more effective use of individual faculty members' talents and interests. The scheme aims to help faculty members enhance their own performance and progress in their careers while the overall performance of the department is increased. The primary features of the system are a revision and re-allocation of long-term individual responsibilities and a task-oriented approach to schedule short-term faculty activities. While the plan was implemented only recently, preliminary results are encouraging.