A total of 126 professors will teach an undergraduate course on campus this summer, around 14 percent of whom are visiting faculty, including three in their first year at Dartmouth. Faculty and department chairs have negotiated the 2014 summer course schedule since last fall, government department chair John Carey said.
Various considerations influence faculty members’ decision to teach for the summer, including research-related constraints, contractual obligations and personal choice, several faculty members said. Varying each year, these dynamics can lead some departments to hire more visiting professors for the summer terms, while others rely on existing own faculty.
The designation of visiting professor, however, can include faculty who have taught at the College for several years, history professor Doug Haynes said.
Fourteen of this summer’s 17 visiting professors fall into this category.
The ratio of visiting faculty members in the government department has fluctuated over the last five years, Carey said.
During other terms, the government department usually offers about 25 classes, of which 75 percent are taught by full-time faculty members, Carey said.
Carey said that faculty who do not teach during the summer often use the time for research, especially if their field of study leads them overseas.
Physics and astronomy department chair Jim LaBelle wrote in an email that most science professors remain on campus over the summer to work in laboratories, though they do not necessarily teach. Several important scientific meetings are scheduled to take advantage of faculty members’ greater flexibility during the summer, he wrote.
For non-science faculty, however, the summer can be a break from administrative responsibilities, as the College does not hold as many committee meetings, English professor Thomas Luxon said.
“You’re just doing your teaching,” he said, “and that’s comfortable.”
Other faculty members cited personal reasons for not teaching over the summer, many calling it an opportunity to spend time with their families and children.
Dartmouth’s term schedule makes it difficult to plan extended family trips, LaBelle said, noting that local school holidays are not synchronized with Dartmouth’s academic calendar.
As a result, many faculty who teach summer classes tend to be older, with children who have grown up and moved out, Carey said.
Economics department chair Doug Staiger said many members of his department elect to remain on campus to conduct research over the summer.
Two visiting faculty members will teach four of seven economics classes this summer, though neither is new to Dartmouth this year.
“We are a department that disproportionately uses guest lecturers compared to other departments,” Staiger said.
In contrast, neither the history nor the English department will offer courses taught by guest lecturers this summer.
Haynes said that the history department will rely on its own faculty over the summer. The history department hires visiting professors less frequently than other departments do, he said.
“Sometimes we have distinguished professors who visit us,” he said. “When we hire someone for a visiting position in the summer, it is because we really see it as something to enhance our offerings.”
Luxon, who will teach the department’s high-enrollment Shakespearean literature course this summer, said that the English department’s faculty alone is enough to support the “thin” summer offerings, he said.
When public policy professor Charles Wheelan began teaching at Dartmouth as a visiting professor from the University of Chicago, the summer term was the only term he could teach, he said. He found that he enjoyed the close relationships he could develop with students, he said.
“I like teaching when students are less distracted,” he said. “I also like having only sophomores, as then I get to know that class each year.”
Sera Kwon contributed reporting.
