How Augustana supports its faculty

Augustana’s faculty make a difference. Our expectation is that everyone who joins our community will begin to make a difference in their first year; not just in the classroom or in the department, but campus-wide. Faculty shape the curriculum, build programs, contribute to debates, advocate for change.

That’s really important to us. The world is far too challenging either for any of us to retreat into our academic niches or for the college to be guided only by tenured faculty. Every committee, task force, faculty assembly and committee has room for our newer colleagues.

We make leadership possible in two ways.

First, we provide the most reasonable workload that the budget can support. The base contract is 24 credits and the basic class earns four credits which translates to six classes spread over two semesters and, in some years, January term. There is “reassigned time” for those with significant administrative or advising responsibilities, including all first-year advisors.

Our average class size is 18, with almost no classes over 30 students. The student:faculty ratio is 12:1.

Second, we provide support for you as a teacher and scholar including a competitive salary and benefits package. Some of the hallmarks of the teaching support program are our year-long New Faculty Orientation Program, the New Faculty Mentoring Circle Sessions and the work of the Augustana Center for Faculty Enrichment. Departments often offer course packs — sample syllabi, textbooks, assignments, and readings — for new colleagues preparing for their first year's classes.

There’s a wide array of supports for continuing professional engagement and growth. Those include the option of a pre-tenure paid leave (effectively, a pre-tenure sabbatical), a $1,000 professional meeting allowance, a new faculty research fund and bridge funding. There’s targeted funding and support for projects involving students as your co-investigators.