Suppose 10 percent of the 1,800 or so faculty at USF each taught an extra course in each of two semesters. The university would save money by having faculty teach extra courses that would ordinarily be taught by teaching assistants or by adjuncts. If 10 percent of the 1800 USF faculty teach two extra courses a year, that's 360 courses. One of the biggest of the 10 universities in the system will save about a million dollars.
Most faculty are full-time employees.
Preparing for, presenting in, and evaluating a class takes several hours a week. If the extra teaching load is assigned to a strong Research faculty, they will think about leaving and taking their grants with them. It is not clear this proposal will save any money at all. It would be wise if senators actually crunched the numbers before presenting legislation. Gregory McColm is an associate professor of mathematics.