| Name: | HOWARD S. NEUFELD |
| Institution: | APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY |
| Title: | PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY |
| Department: | BIOLOGY |
There is no “typical” work week in my life: each week constantly brings new demands on my time, and I find that no two weeks end up being the same in terms of my allocation of time to teaching, service, or research. I would say that in a typical week I arrive at my desk by 8:30 a.m. and don’t often leave until 6:30 or 7 p.m. I work at least two Saturdays and Sundays a month and keep regular hours during the summer, even when not on contract. This comes out to approximately 55 hours during the work week, plus another 10 hours on weekends, for a total of 65 hours per week. I work these long hours because I love what I do at the university.
My teaching loads are generally two courses per semester with some reassigned time for scholarship or service. When a course includes a lab, that adds several more hours a week of preparation time. And, of course, I am constantly updating and revising my lectures, even for established courses, and in recent years, transferring them to PowerPoint. It takes on average four to eight hours to successfully transfer a “chalkboard” lecture to PowerPoint, so this is an ongoing process. On top of these duties, I allocate time for reading essays and providing feedback, grading exams, and determining course grades – all of which consume several hours per week.
Scholarship also takes time: the critical requirement here is for large blocks of time, an entire afternoon or day, because doing research either requires going into the field (where much of my work is focused) or into the lab. Reading the literature and keeping abreast of new developments takes considerable time, often six to eight hours per week. I usually spend anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a week doing scholarship, depending on the season. When not doing the actual research, I have to analyze the data statistically, which is time-consuming, reduce the data to publishable form, and then write papers (the most time-consuming part). I also have four active graduate students and two undergraduate researchers who need advising. I often go into the field with them, which also takes a great deal of time, usually after hours or on weekends. I devote the largest fraction of my time to research during the summer months, with no additional pay or reimbursement.
Finally, service to both the university and my profession consumes a large fraction of my time. I am active on departmental committees, and I have served on university-wide committees. I have been involved with various professional societies (I am currently president of two), served as editor of two scientific journals, and I continue to review numerous scientific papers and grants. These duties alone often consume 10 hours or more per week.