Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Terrapin Time Initiative: A Workshop to Enhance Alignment between Faculty Work Priorities and Time-Use

  • Published:
Innovative Higher Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Faculty members experience a gap between how they would prefer to spend their work time and how they actually do so. In this article we report results from a four-week workshop called “The Terrapin Time Initiative.” It was guided by theories of behavioral economics and behavioral design, which suggest that small changes to the context, or “choice architecture,” in which individuals make choices can enhance decision-making. Results indicate that the workshop was effective in changing the “choice architecture” in which faculty made decisions about their time-use, thereby helping them to develop new strategies for managing their time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The workshop was not offered in 2018 because at that point of the larger Faculty Workload and Rewards Project, we were enrolling the next cohort of departments and academic units.

References

  • Acker, S., & Feuerverger, G. (1996). Doing good and feeling bad: The work of women university teachers. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26, 401–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archie, T., Kogan, M., & Laursen, S. L. (2015). Do labmates matter? The relative importance of workplace climate and work-life satisfaction in women scientists’ job satisfaction. International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology, 7, 343–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Babcock, L., Recalde, M. P., Vesterlund, L., & Weingart, L. (2017). Gender differences in accepting and receiving requests for tasks with low promotability. American Economic Review, 107, 714–747.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beddoes, K., Schimpf, C., & Pawley, A. L. (2014, June). New metaphors for new under- standings: Ontological questions about developing grounded theories in engineering education. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Indianapolis, IN.

  • Bellas, M. L., & Toutkoushian, R. K. (1999). Faculty time allocations and research productivity: Gender, race, and family effects. The Review of Higher Education, 22, 367–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, S., Litt, J., & Wang, Y. (2004). Creating status of women reports: Institutional housekeeping as "Women's Work". NWSA Journal, 16, 194–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, K.A., Castleman, B.J., Denning, J.T., Goodman, J., Lamberton, C., & Ochs Rosinger, K. (2019). Nudging at scale: Experimental evidence from FAFSA completion campaigns. National Bureau of Economic Research (Working Paper No. 26158): Cambridge, MA. Retrieved from https://www.nber.org/papers/w26158.pdf

  • Bozeman, B., & Gaughan, M. (2011). Job satisfaction among university faculty: Individual, work, and institutional determinants. The Journal of Higher Education, 82, 154–186.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callister, R. R. (2006). The impact of gender and department climate on job satisfaction and intentions to quit for faculty in science and engineering fields. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 31, 367–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrigan, C., Quinn, K., & Riskin, E. A. (2011). The gendered division of labor among STEM faculty and the effects of critical mass. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 4, 131–146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castleman, B. L., & Page, L. C. (2016). Freshman year financial aid nudges: An experiment to increase FAFSA renewal and college persistence. Journal of Human Resources, 51, 389–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, J. A. D., Topp, R., Smith, C. E., Cohen, M. Z., Fahrenwald, N., Zerwic, J. J., & Conn, V. S. (2013). Time management strategies for research productivity. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 35, 155–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • COACHE. (2008). Highlights report 2008: Selected results from the COACHE tenure-track faculty job satisfaction survey. Cambridge, MA: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, C. J., & Dee, J. R. (2006). Greener pastures: Faculty turnover intent in urban public universities. The Journal of Higher Education, 77, 776–803.

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Alayli, A., Hansen-Brown, A. A., & Ceynar, M. (2018). Dancing backwards in high heels: Female professors experience more work demands and special favor requests, particularly from academically entitled students. Sex Roles, 79, 136–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, K. A., Bennett, J. C., & Harris, J. (2013). Marginalizing merit?: Gender differences in Black faculty D/discourses on tenure, advancement, and professional success. The Review of Higher Education, 36, 489–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarino, C. M., & Borden, V. M. (2017). Faculty service loads and gender: Are women taking care of the academic family? Research in Higher Education, 58, 672–694.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, P. (2014, December 1). Why academics feel overworked. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2014/12/01/essay-why-academics-feel-overworked

  • Hanasono, L. K., Broido, E. M., Yacobucci, M. M., Root, K. V., Peña, S., & O'Neil, D. A. (2019). Secret service: Revealing gender biases in the visibility and value of faculty service. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 12, 85–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heyliger, W. (2014). Academic administrator leadership styles and the impact on faculty job satisfaction. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 34–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huenneke, L. F., Stearns, D. M., Martinez, J. D., & Laurila, K. (2017). Key strategies for building research capacity of university faculty members. Innovative Higher Education, 42, 421–435.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado, S., & Figueroa, T. (2013, April). Women of color faculty in science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM): Experiences in academia. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, CA.

  • Hurtado, S., Eagan, K., Pryor, J. H., Whang, H., & Tran, S. (2012). Undergraduate teaching faculty: The 2010–2011 HERI faculty survey. Los Angeles, CA: Higher Education Research Institute.

  • Jacobs, J. A., & Winslow, S. E. (2004). Overworked faculty: Job stresses and family demands. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 596, 104–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juster, F. T., Ono, H., & Stafford, F. P. (2003). An assessment of alternative measures of time use. Sociological Methodology, 33, 19–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  • Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

  • Link, A. N., Swann, C. A., & Bozeman, B. (2008). A time allocation study of university faculty. Economics of Education Review, 27, 363–374.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mamiseishvili, K., & Rosser, V. J. (2011). Examining the relationship between faculty productivity and job satisfaction. Journal of the Professoriate, 5(2), 101–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, W. F., & Zemsky, R. (1994). Faculty discretionary time: Departments and the academic ratchet. Journal of Higher Education, 65, 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milem, J. F., Berger, J. B., & Dey, E. L. (2000). Faculty time allocation: A study of change over twenty years. The Journal of Higher Education, 71, 454–475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. (2013). Holding the hunger games hostage at the gym: An evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60, 283–299.

    Google Scholar 

  • Misra, J., & Lundquist, J. (2016, January 15). Making time for research [in midcareer]. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/01/15/tips-help-midcareer-faculty-members-find-timeresearch-projects-essay

  • Misra, J., Lundquist, J., Holmes, E. D., & Agiomavritis, S. (2011). The ivory ceiling of service work. Academe, 97(1), 22–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Meara, K. (2016). Whose problem is it? Gender differences in faculty thinking about campus service. Teachers College Record, 118(8), 1–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Meara, K., Kuvaeva, A., & Nyunt, G. (2017a). Constrained choices: A view of campus service inequality from annual faculty reports. Journal of Higher Education, 88, 672–700.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Meara, K., Kuvaeva, A., Nyunt, G., Jackson, R., & Waugaman, C. (2017b). Asked more often: Gender differences in faculty workload in research universities and the work interactions that shape them. American Education Research Journal, 54, 1154–1186.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Meara, K., Jaeger, A., Misra, J., Lennartz, C., & Kuvaeva, A. (2018, December 19). Undoing disparities in faculty workloads: A randomized trial experiment. PLoS One, 13(12), e0207316.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Meara, K., Lennartz, C., Kuvaeva, A., Jaeger, A., & Misra, J. (2019). Department conditions and practices associated with faculty workload satisfaction and perceptions of equity. The Journal of Higher Education, 90, 744–772.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, D. R. (2003). Making time, making change: Avoiding overload in college teaching. Stillwater, OK: New Forums.

  • Robinson, J. P., Martin, S., Glorieux, I., & Minnen, J. (2011). The overestimated workweek revisited. Monthly Labor Review, 134(6), 43–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rockquemore, K.A. (2010, September 27). Just say no. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/surviving/fall3

  • Rockquemore, K.A. (2013, December 18). How to thrive amid academic chaos. Chronicle Vitae. Retrieved from https://chroniclevitae.com/news/230-how-to-thrive-amid-academic-chaos

  • Rosser, V. J. (2004). Faculty members’ intentions to leave: A national study on their worklife and satisfaction. Research in Higher Education, 45, 285–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

  • Santo, S. A., Engstrom, M. E., Reetz, L., Schweinle, W. E., & Reed, K. (2009). Faculty productivity barriers and supports at a school of education. Innovative Higher Education, 34, 117–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silvia, P. J. (2018). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: APA LifeTools.

    Google Scholar 

  • Social Sciences Feminist Network Research Interest Group. (2017). The burden of invisible work in academia: Social inequalities and time-use in five university departments. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 39, 228–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, T. E., & Treloar, A. E. (2015). “How did it get so late so soon?”: Tips and tricks for managing time. Nursing & Health Sciences, 17, 409–411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stout, P. A., Staiger, J., & Jennings, N. A. (2007). Affective stories: Understanding the lack of progress of women faculty. NWSA Journal, 19(3), 124–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tagg, J. (2012). Why does the faculty resist change? Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44(1), 6–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  • Turner, C. S. V., González, J. C., & Wood, J. L. (2008). Faculty of color in academe: What 20 years of literature tells us. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 1, 139–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaillancourt, A.M. (2016, June 20). Create a “yes” filter. Chronicle vitae. Retrieved from https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1444-createa-yes-filter

  • Victorino, C. A., Nylund-Gibson, K., & Conley, S. (2013). Campus racial climate: A litmus test for faculty satisfaction at four-year colleges and universities. The Journal of Higher Education, 84, 769–805.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, K. (2003). Faculty service roles and the scholarship of engagement. ASHE-ERIC higher education report, 29(5). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

  • Webber, K. L., & Rogers, S. M. (2018). Gender differences in faculty member job satisfaction: Equity forestalled? Research in Higher Education, 59, 1105–1132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winslow, S. (2010). Gender inequality and time allocations among academic faculty. Gender & Society, 24, 769–793.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, J. L., Hilton, A. A., & Nevarez, C. (2015). Faculty of color and white faculty: An analysis of service in colleges of education in the Arizona public university system. Journal of the Professoriate, 8(1), 85–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziker, J. (2014, March 31). The long, lonely job of homo academicus. The blue review, Retrieved from https://thebluereview.org/faculty-time-allocation/

Download references

Acknowledgments

This project was supported as part of a larger research project funded by the National Science Foundation under ADVANCE-IHE [1463898].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Dawn Culpepper, Sarah Kilmer & Kerry Ann O’Meara

  2. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Joya Misra

  3. Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, NC State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Audrey J. Jaeger

Authors
  1. Dawn Culpepper
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sarah Kilmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kerry Ann O’Meara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joya Misra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Audrey J. Jaeger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dawn Culpepper.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Culpepper, D., Kilmer, S., O’Meara, K.A. et al. The Terrapin Time Initiative: A Workshop to Enhance Alignment between Faculty Work Priorities and Time-Use. Innov High Educ 45, 165–179 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-019-09490-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-019-09490-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation