Common Data Set
2007-08

I. INSTRUCTIONAL FACULTY AND CLASS SIZE

Last Updated: November 13, 2007

Instructional Faculty | Student to Faculty Ratio | Undergraduate Class Size

Instructional Faculty and Class Size

CDS I-1. Number of instructional faculty members in each category for Fall 2007. Include faculty who are on your institution's payroll on the census date your institution uses for IPEDS/AAUP.

The following definition of full-time instructional faculty is used by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in its annual Faculty Compensation Survey (the part time definitions are not used by AAUP). Instructional Faculty is defined as those members of the instructional-research staff whose major regular assignment is instruction, including those with released time for research.

Full-time instructional faculty: faculty employed on a full-time basis for instruction (including those with released time for research)

Part-time instructional faculty: adjuncts and other instructors being paid solely for part-time classroom instruction. Also includes full-time faculty teaching less than two semesters, three quarters, two trimesters, or two four-month sessions. Employees who are not considered full-time instructional faculty but who teach one or more non-clinical credit courses may be counted as part-time faculty.

Minority faculty: includes faculty who designate themselves as black, non-Hispanic; American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian or Pacific Islander; or Hispanic.

Doctorate: includes such degrees as Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Education, Doctor of Juridical Science, and Doctor of Public Health in any field such as arts, sciences, education, engineering, business, and public administration.

First-professional: includes the fields of dentistry (DDS or DMD), medicine (MD), optometry (OD), osteopathic medicine(DO), pharmacy (DPharm or BPharm), podiatric medicine (DPM), veterinary medicine (DVM), chiropractic (DC or DCM), law (JD) and theological professions (MDiv, MHL).

Terminal master's degree: a master's degree that is considered the highest degree in a field: example, M. Arch ( in architecture) and MFA (master of fine arts in art or theater).

	Includes all Instruction Faculty per Above Definitions (Faculty from Mercer's School of Medicine are NOT included)
	Full-time	Part-time	Total
a)  Total number of instructional faculty	352	220	572
b)  Total number who are members of minority groups	51	34	85
c)  Total number who are women	145	105	250
d)  Total number who are men	207	115	322
e)  Total number who are nonresident aliens (international)	7	0	7
f)  Total number with doctorate, first professional, or other terminal degree	310	90	400
g)  Total number whose highest degree is a master’s but not a terminal master’s	41	121	162
h)  Total number whose highest degree is a bachelor’s	1	7	8
i)  Total number whose highest degree is unknown or other	0	2	2
j.)  Total number in stand-alone graduate/professional programs in which faculty teach virtually only graduate-level students	61	38	99

CDS I-2. Student to Faculty Ratio

Fall 2007 ratio of full-time equivalent students (full-time plus 1/3 part time) to full-time equivalent instructional faculty (full time plus 1/3 part time). Excluded are both faculty and students in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, business, or public health in which faculty teach virtually only graduate level students. Mercer does not have undergraduate or graduate student teaching assistants.

Mercer's faculty and students in the Schools of Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Theology are excluded.  Graduate faculty and students in Business, Engineering, Music, Continuing and Professional Studies, and Education are included; these graduate programs are not stand-alone.

Fall 2007 Student to Faculty ratio: 13.0 to1 (based on 5,635 students and 473 faculty).

CDS I-3. Undergraduate Class Size

Mercer University has several distinct programs for undergraduate degree-seeking students: 

1. The"traditional" program is offered on the Macon Campus in Georgia; it is a daytime program geared toward traditional age, first-time college students. 
2. Mercer offers an evening and weekend continuing education program geared toward adults held at off-campus centers around the state of Georgia. 
3. The Atlanta Campus offers upper division undergraduate courses leading to a BBA in business. 
4. The Georgia Baptist College of Nursing offers undergraduate nursing degrees in Atlanta. 

Class Sections: A class section is an organized course offered for credit, identified by discipline and number, meeting at a stated time or times in a classroom or similar setting, and not a subsection such as a laboratory or discussion session. Undergraduate class sections are defined as any sections in which at least one degree-seeking undergraduate student is enrolled for credit. Excluded are distance learning classes and noncredit classes and individual instruction such as dissertation or thesis research, music instruction, or one-to-one readings. Excluded are students in independent study, co-operative programs, internships, foreign language taped tutor sessions, practicums, and all students in one-on-one classes. Each class section is counted only once and is not duplicated because of course catalog cross-listings.

Class Subsections: A class subsection includes any subsection of a course, such as laboratory, recitation, and discussion subsections that are supplementary in nature and are scheduled to meet separately from the lecture portion of the course. Undergraduate subsections are defined as any subsections of courses in which degree-seeking undergraduate students are enrolled for credit. As above, excluded are noncredit classes and individual instruction such as dissertation or thesis research, music instruction, or one-to-one readings. Each class subsection is counted only once and is not duplicated because of cross-listings.

Following are the the number of class sections and class subsections offered in Fall 2007 by class-size intervals.   For example, a lecture class with 800 students who met at another time in 40 separate labs with 20 students is counted once in the "100+" column in the class section column and 40 times under the "20-29" column of the class subsections table.

Number of Class Sections with Undergraduates Enrolled

Undergraduate Class Size (number of sections) (Total includes courses with enrollment of 1)

	2-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-99	100+	Total
All Undergraduate Programs Combined
Class Sections	129	363	294	63	12	14	4	881
Class Sub-Sections	19	27	20	1	2	8	1	78
Macon Campus Traditional Program Only
Class Sections	88	207	195	27	9	12	0	539
Class Sub-Sections	19	23	20	1	2	6	0	71
Atlanta Campus Nursing Program Only
Class Sections	0	3	1	0	2	2	4	12
Class Sub-Sections	0	2	0	0	0	2	1	5
Adult Regional Academic Center Program Only
Class Sections	40	145	96	33	1	0	0	316
Class Sub-Sections	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
Atlanta Campus Upper Division Business Only
Class Sections	1	8	2	2	0	0	0	13
Class Sub-Sections	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0