Time Distribution of Faculty Workload at Boise State University

This project’s first phase was to get a general idea of what the average work day looks like for a Boise State University faculty member; from this stage we developed activity definitions to use for the next phase. Thirty faculty members were interviewed by fourteen trained undergraduate research assistants over the course of two weeks on alternating days, April 9-21, 2013. These thirty faculty members represented all colleges of the Boise State University campus, including the Library, providing a total of 166 faculty days’ worth of data. The positions held by each participant ranged between an Assistant Professor and a Department Chair. The time diary method enabled students to document the type and duration of activities, functions, locations, and presence or absence of other types of individuals. Data on general work patterns and activities of BSU faculty are presented and broken out by day of week, type of activity, function, and location. These findings indicate that faculty work more than expected and in a wide range of activities and they work alone much of the time