Degree Requirements for FYE Instructors

Degree Requirements for FYE Instructors

On September 1, 2004, Erin Joyce from Baker University asked list members if they required their FYE course instructors to hold terminal degrees. The Baker program employs several popular instructors who do not hold such degrees and there is hesitation to make such a requirement due to the inevitable loss of these individuals. Most of the respondents indicated that they require at least a Master's degree, while one institution required only a Bachelor's degree and an understanding of first-year students. The value of a terminal degree was also discussed by several individuals.

Erin Joyce (read FYE post or send email) erin.joyce@bakeru.edu
Dawn Henderson (read FYE post or send email) dxhenderson@st-aug.edu
Diane Savoca (read FYE post or send email) dsavoca@stlcc.edu
Christel Taylor (read FYE post or send email) ctaylor@uwc.edu
Karla Sanders (read FYE post of send email) cskjs@ux1.cts.eiu.edu
Amanda Norton (read FYE post or send email) anorton@du.edu
Bonnie Gorman (read FYE post or send email) bbgorman@mtu.edu
Melody Kilcrease (read FYE post or send email) kilcreas@mail.sdsu.edu

September 1, 2004 4:28pm
Original Message: Staffing Question

Hello All,

I have a question concerning staffing of the FYE course in your institutions. Do you require that all instructors have a terminal degree? I ask because we have some very qualified Student Life staff members who teach our courses and do not have terminal degrees. Some concerns have been expressed over this, however. While I certainly
would prefer that all of our FYE instructors have terminal degrees, I hesitate to require it because then we might lose some of our instructors, who happen to be quite popular with the students.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Erin Joyce
Baker University

September 1, 2004 5:16pm
Re: Staffing Question

No, but we do require individuals to have a Bachelors and some understanding of the teaching and learning process of first-year students.

Dawn X. Henderson, M. Ed.
Associate Director, Lower College
Saint Augustine's College
(919) 516-5083

September 1, 2004 5:31pm
Re: Staffing Question

All of our success course faculty hold a masters degree or higher. Some of them are in Student Development.

Diane Savoca
St. Louis Community College

September 1, 2004 5:38pm
Re: Staffing Question

To me, a relevant question might be what the value of a terminal degree is. In a traditional content area course, that value might come in the deep knowledge of subject matter and a socialization into an academic community. This knowledge enables a faculty member to provide a rich and full context for the subject matter and make curriculum decisions that are grounded in a sense of what the discipline values in terms of ideas, resources, theory, and pedagogy. (And I might argue that a terminal degree is not the only, or even the best, path to this academic connectedness.)

Does FYE have a sense of disciplinarity, with a shared sense of values, resources, theories, pedagogies, etc.? If so, then wouldn't it be that only a terminal degree in FYE would suffice?

This is an issue I have been pondering for various reasons lately. In direct response to your question, though, we do not require a terminal degree to teach our FYE course.

Chris

Christel Taylor
Assistant Coordinator, Engaging Students in the First Year Initiative
University of Wisconsin Colleges
Lecturer, Department of English
UW-Waukesha
1500 N. University Dr.
Waukesha, WI 53188
262/521-5477
ctaylor@uwc.edu

September 1, 2004 5:44pm
Re: Staffing Question

Our instructors are required to have a master's degree, which is the requirement for many of our instructors who teach freshmen level English, math, speech, etc. courses as adjuncts or non-tenure track faculty. We feel very strongly that instructors have master's degrees, but we wouldn't have enough teachers if we required a Ph.D.

Karla

Karla Sanders, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Academic Support and Achievement
Eastern Illinois University
600 Lincoln Ave.
Charleston, IL 61920
217-581-6056
cskjs@eiu.edu

September 1, 2004 6:09pm
Re: Staffing Question

All of our classes must be taught by a professor. This is a new change in an attempt to make our classes more closely tied to academics.

Amanda Norton
University of Denver

September 1, 2004 6:50pm
Re: Staffing Question

Erin--
We just went through a conversation about this and agreed that all instructors needed to have a Masters Degree--for this course a terminal degree was not required,

Bonnie Gorman
Michigan Technological University

September 2, 2004 3:06pm
Re: Staffing Question

Hello,
At SDSU we expected all of the FYE instructors to be active or retired faculty, but since there is very little compensation for these folks, our FYE faculty has become a mix of staff and terminal degreed faculty. We ask that staff members have a Master's degree,
and prefer folks who have worked on campus for at least one year. (Most SDSU academic instructors without terminal degrees are adjuncts and cannot teach in our FYE program.) We promote our program as a connection to the SDSU community and are proud of the commitment of our staff members to volunteer to work with our first year students. they teach on the clock as permitted by their department supervisors, and are among some of the most popular instructors, too. Personally I prefer effectiveness over credentials, but I'm that kind a gal....

Melody Kilcrease
San Diego State University