ACOE_Self-Study

Standard V – Faculty

5.1 The number, qualifications, expertise and experience of faculty members must be sufficient to meet the stated mission and goals of the program. In AY 2018-19 the College employed about 70 full-time and 39 part-time paid faculty members for a total of approximately 81.4 FTE ( Appendices V-1 and V-2 ). Faculty data are updated annually and posted on Factbook (https://www.sunyopt.edu/offices/institutional-research/factbook). This census does not include non-compensated faculty at externship sites or librarians. It compares favorably with faculty numbers for other schools and colleges of optometry as reported in Association for Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) surveys. The high number of faculty at SUNY may be attributed to its large campus-based clinical care facility and research program and numerous contracts with health-care facilities in the New York Metropolitan Area. Faculty members have primary appointments in either the Department of Biological and Vision Sciences, Department of Clinical Education or the University Eye Center (UEC) and may have secondary appointments in the departments or UEC services. Faculty appointments may either be qualified (e.g., clinical and some research appointments) or non-qualified rank (tenure- track/tenured). Per SUNY Board of Trustee policies ( Appendix IV-1 ), qualified appointments are not eligible for tenure, but may be renewed indefinitely. Faculty members have academic qualifications appropriate to their responsibilities. Basic science courses are generally taught by faculty members who hold doctorates in a related field, and many have participated in post-doctoral research training. Clinical courses are taught by ODs (with some lectures given by MDs) and clinical supervision in the UEC is provided by New York State licensed clinicians who are credentialed by the University Eye Center (UEC). Appendix V-3 gives the distribution of faculty degrees. For AY 2017-18, 10 faculty members hold a PhD, 7 both an OD and PhD, 80 an OD, and 8 both an OD and MS. This census does not count 13 attending ophthalmologists in the UEC. A list of faculty members showing rank, degrees and institutions rewarding these degrees can be found in Appendix V-4 . Faculty CVs will be available on site for review upon request. The College recognizes the challenge it faces in recruiting and retaining highly qualified, full-time faculty members, particularly those with clinical qualifications, in one of the highest cost-of-living cities in the world. On a periodic basis, the College performs a detailed faculty salary analysis that examines salaries at the various ranks and compares them with national and local data. Please see Appendix V-5 for the most recent analysis. As can be seen from these data, the College has made a concerted effort to increase salaries for entry level faculty members (assistant professors) that has resulted in an average salary increase of 23% from 2012-13 to 2016-17, considerably above the comparable ASCO increase of 12%. It should be noted that the fringe benefit ratio provided by the College (63.89% for full-time faculty members in 2017-18) compares favorably to that of peer ASCO institutions.

The quantity and quality of faculty members is sufficient to allow the College to meet its educational, research and service missions. The student to faculty teaching ratios in laboratories

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