Mike Middaugh authors book on faculty productivity

A new book on faculty productivity, written by Michael F. Middaugh, UD institutional research and planning, has been released by Jossey-Bass Inc., publishers of San Francisco.

Middaugh said the book, entitled Understanding Faculty Productivity: Standards and Benchmarks for Colleges and Universities, provides a credible methodology for describing what faculty do.

"It traces the ways in which faculty activity has been measured--from older traditional models that drew skeptical and cynical assessments from those outside higher education, to newer, more innovative approaches that discuss faculty activity in terms of outputs, or productivity," he said.

The central focus of the book is the methodology and reporting conventions in the Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, which Middaugh directs.

In the book Middaugh "carefully leads readers through a new approach to assessing faculty productivity that enables them to compare practices at their own institutions, discipline by discipline, against standards and benchmarks developed with the same procedures in other institutions around the nation," according to Jossey-Bass promotional materials. "This new approach permits comparison by institutional type, but also provides for flexibility in interpreting differences."

Jacqueline King, director of federal policy analysis at the American Council on Education, called the book "an invaluable resource for any college or university striving to meet the National Cost Commission's call to make what colleges do and what it costs more 'transparent' to the public."

"Middaugh grapples with the nettlesome issues of university cost and productivity, and the degree to which we are getting our money's worth from our nation's multi-billion dollar expenditure on higher education," Bruce Johnstone, former chancellor of the State University of New York and now University Professor at SUNY Buffalo, said. "This is an important book, well-written, based on solid research, and combining sophisticated finance, political wisdom, common sense and sensitivity to the incredible complexity of academic management and governance."

George Keller, higher education consultant and author, said, "What do professors really do at work? This groundbreaking study shines light on their activities as no book has ever done before it. Understanding Faculty Productivity is a revelation, a useful landmark for campus administrators."

"Comprehensive answers trump anecdotal and one-sided criticism every time," John Hammang, director of special projects at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said. "Questions about faculty demand such answers. Middaugh's clear and patient guide to faculty productivity shows why and how to deliver such answers."

The book, which costs $32.95 in hardcover, is available by special order in bookstores nationwide, by calling Jossey-Bass customer service at 800-956-7739, or via [www.josseybass. com].

–Neil Thomas