Faculty Service Workload Equity

Guided by our mission and motto Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech faculty are expected to engage in, and are evaluated on, research or creative scholarship, teaching, and service. Though there are expectations and guidelines around performance of research or creative scholarship are more easily understood through promotion and tenure guidelines and teaching evaluations, service expectations vary widely and are less clearly defined and understood. As a result, department leadership and faculty evaluative committees are challenged in both assigning service responsibilities fairly, and in evaluating performance related to that service, resulting in inequitable practices. By promoting fair and transparent service workload distribution, the university aims to support career advancement, reduce stress, and enhance faculty retention and well-being.

The Office of Faculty Affairs started engagement with service workload equity in 2019 through a workshop led by Kiernan Matthews, the executive director of COACHE, which facilitates our Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey and Kerry Ann O’Meara, a faculty member from the University of Maryland (now Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of the Teachers College at Columbia University) and well-known scholar in faculty workload equity, recruitment, and retention. Though delayed by the pandemic, in 2024 Faculty Affairs reinitiated engagement with this challenge based on O’Meara’s work with efforts to collect and share effective, evidence-based strategies for assigning service responsibilities fairly and transparently.

An initial survey was completed by 40 Virginia Tech department heads/chairs or school directors, followed by additional in in-depth interviews with several respondents to provide richer insights into their processes, tools, and challenges. Those conversations revealed diverse approaches, varying levels of structure and formality, and a shared desire for clearer expectations and institutional support. The findings will inform the ongoing development of a resource library, support materials, and programming initiatives to foster equitable service distribution across departments at Virginia Tech.

Top 10 Suggestions

From Virginia Tech Department Heads/Chairs for Promoting Fairness in Faculty Service Workloads

1. Start Simple, Start Now
   As KerryAnn O’Meara cautions, “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good”. Even small steps toward fairer service workload distribution and transparency are better than doing nothing at all. Prioritize action over perfection.
2. Streamline and Clarify Committee Structures
   Conduct a review of departmental committees. Eliminate redundancy, clarify charges and goals, and set clear expectations for outcomes. If possible, consider reducing the number of committees and/or combining committees to reduce overload.
3. Ensure Faculty Buy-In Through Transparency and Choice
   Invite faculty to share preferences, match assignments to strengths and interests, and use feedback loops to align assumptions and expectations between leadership and faculty.
4. Make Service Data Meaningful and Contextual
   Spreadsheets alone do not capture all the information. Department Heads/Chairs should provide narrative or contextual explanations alongside quantitative data to better describe the type of service work, time commitments, and expected engagement.
5. Track and Evaluate Service Fairly and Holistically
   Develop systems to track not just service assignments but contribution and impact (including “invisible service”) as well. Consider formal or informal pre/post committee assessments, 360 evaluations (committee chairs and members evaluating each other), and ongoing feedback loops.
6. Protect—but Also Prepare—Pre-Tenure Faculty
   While shielding early-career faculty from service overload is common practice, excluding them entirely may undermine their professional development and negatively shape later perceptions of the value of service. Strive for balance and intentionality around developmental service assignments while supporting pre-tenure faculty in saying “No” to time-consuming or misaligned service roles.
7. Create or Strengthen Advisory Committees for Equitable Service Assignment
   Some departments benefit from advisory groups that help assign service workload fairly and provide a buffer between department heads and individual negotiations, avoiding favoritism or bias.
8. Shift the Culture: Service as Leadership
   Faculty may avoid service due to perceptions of low value and high cost. Promote a culture where service is seen as professional development and leadership training—not as an administrative burden. Taking opportunities to make the connections between service and professional development in check-ins or other meetings will both reinforce this culture.
9. Address Systemic Barriers and Freeriding
   Acknowledge and challenge patterns like “weaponized incompetence” or habitual non-participation. Use tracking systems to make contributions (or lack thereof) transparent and push toward a culture of accountability, and identify ways in which participation, or lack thereof, is rewarded or corrected.
10. Reward and Recognize Service Contributions Meaningfully
    Elevating service contributions and impact is encouraged at all levels – department, college, and university – by implementing more visible recognition, leadership development opportunities, or even compensation to reinforce the value of service work.

Faculty Service Workload Equity: Further Reading

This section provides both additional reading and tools to help you develop an equitable service culture for your faculty. The literature, models, and resources from other institutions will be updated regularly as we learn about new information that might be helpful. If you have suggestions for additional resources, please email facultyaffairs@vt.edu.

Faculty Service Highlights