how many classes do astronomers at liberal arts schools really teach?

[imli5533]

i was under the impression that at liberal arts schools you would be expected to teach 4 classes a semester (maybe 3 if you're lucky) with at least 3 preps (which means two of the classes are the same, again, if you're lucky). is this untrue? who knows an astronomer (i think physicists would work too) at a liberal arts school? ask around and

Comments

[drspiff]

UIS (my employer) considers itself a liberal arts institution. Historically it was an upper division university (a two year university with juniors and seniors where people that did two years at a community college could finnish their BAs). We aren't quite a four year liberal arts institution yet, but that is the direction of all our planning and evolution.
That said, the teaching load here is 12 contact hours per semester. A contact hour is a hour in the classroom. So a lab, which counts for students as 1 credit hour, counts for the professor as 3 contact hours because that is the actual classroom time. With lectures, credit hours tend to equal contact hours. Most science courses at UIS without labs are 4 contact hours. Most science courses with labs are 7 contact hours with and additional three contact hours for each additional lab section.
Currently, I am teaching 10 contact hours/semester with professional release time for two hours/semester. I'm expected to do department stuff and public outreach with those two release hours. I am teaching two lectures and one laboratory section. The lab is attached to one of the lectures, so on the books, it is two classes: ASP 203 (Into to Astrophyics) and ASP 201 (University Physics I).
So the three, maybe four that you came up with sounds about right for me. If I taught a fourth at this point, I would be on overload because we have no 2 contact hour courses. But sometimes it gets worked out so that you get release one semester and pay it back in overload in a future semester.

[drspiff]

Oh yeah and I guess I also fall into the state school but not research one catagory.
I'd say that it depends on the institution. Because some of them see their big brothers and sisters raking in the research $$ and want thier cut of the pie. So you can end up in an environment with all the minuses of research one but none of the advantages (if there are any!). Where I am, they are very blunt about the fact that tenure and promotion depend on (in this order): teaching, service, and research. Service actually comes before research here and teaching is head and shoulders above all of them. Service is doing committee work or helping run your department, division, or school. In my case, service also includes running the public program at our campus observatory.
Since I seem to fit the bill on both counts that your looking for (liberal arts school and non-research one pulic) feel free to email me if you have questions.