Hi Larry: I can totally relate! We are a fairly small institution as well, at least in terms of unddergrad numbers (we have a Law school, business school, school of ed and nursing school all of which have high numbers of grad students).
We were just moved last summer into a remodeled building after a huge donation allowed for the 'sciences' to have their own building built, and they vacated the building we were moved into. Prior to that time we had minimal lab space. We were told we could plan our own lab space. Well, after all was said and done and we had to share space with other departments, we now have minimal plus a little more minimal space :( For example, before the move the psychology dept computing lab was already housed in this building, after the remodel we now have half the space for that lab! The rest was carved out to created a larger classroom (that no one uses for large classes! Go Figure.) It is extremely impossible in a climate of changing expectations for more scholarly activity to not have designated space to carry out professional activities. It seems to me that folks on the Board of Trustees just don't understand why space should be allocated to an activity that is not constantly on-going, such as daily classes meeting in a room, but rather extremely busy by fits and starts--the space we need is for the actual data collection, but as we all know, that is only a small part of the total time that lab space is in use. Of course, it helps to have space to store protocols and space to spread out materials when scoring them, space for data analysis and somewhere to go outside of our tiny offices when working on writing, etc. I believe you MUST negotiate for space, and spell out clearly how that space would be used, and DESIGNATE the space as "social lab facilities", "computer lab for research" "developmental lab facilities", "animal behavior lab" etc. Even though, you might in reality be sharing the space, depending on temporary needs of different faculty members, in my experience the admin folks need to have things allocated and spelled out. Incidentally, I believe you CANNOT do publication quality work with a 12-hour per semester teaching load, especially if that involves more than 2 preps. Just my opinion. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 09:41:01 -0400 >From: "Larry Daily" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [tips] Lab Space Assigned to Psychology Faculty >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > Good morning all! > > As Chair of our department I have been asked to > produce a document describing our department's > current status, our goals, and the major obstacles > to achieving our goals. One thing that I've > identified and mentioned in many previous reports is > lack of lab space assigned to Psychology faculty. > So, I'd like to ask, how many of you are at > institutions where you have no assigned lab space? > Do you feel that not having a lab hampers your > professional development? Any help would be greatly > appreciated. > > BTW - Shepherd is a fairly small institution of > about 4500 students. We have 4 full-time faculty and > about 170 Psychology majors (and about another 90 > students who minor in Psychology). Within the past > two years we moved from being Shepherd College to > Shepherd University and with that has come an > increasing emphasis on publication. I'm trying to > make the case that, at least in Psychology, > publication means data collection, and that data > collection is hampered by not having a lab (we won't > even mention the 12-hour teaching load each > semester). > > Best to everyone, > Larry > > ************************************************************ > Larry Z. Daily > Associate Professor of Psychology > Psychology Department Chair > > Department of Psychology > White Hall, Room 216 > Shepherd University > Shepherdstown, West Virginia 25443 > > Psychology phone: (304) 876-5297 > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > WWW: http://webpages.shepherd.edu/LDAILY/index.html > > Adam's prize was open eyes > His sentence was to see > - The Dreamer > - Tom Rush > --- > To make changes to your subscription go to: > > http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
