A bill backed by both of Rowan’s state senators has received heaps of criticism from North Carolina college professors and could be altered as a result.

Senate bill 593, with Sen. Tom Mcinnis, R-25, as its primary sponsor, would require all professors in the University of North Carolina System to teach a minimum of eight courses per academic year. It would reduce the salary of a professor that doesn’t meet the requirement on a pro rata basis. The professor’s salary could, however,  be supplemented with the proceeds of an institution’s endowment fund if a professor’s number of courses taught was less than the minimum.

The bill — co-sponsored by Sen. Andrew Brock, R-34 — proposes an independent audit of each institution in the UNC system to ensure compliance. It was filed on March 26 and referred to the Senate’s Committee on Rules and Operations on March 30.

McInnis said he plans to alter the bill as soon as next week to base the number of courses based on research conducted at institution. An institution that traditionally conducts more research on average — McInnis used NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill as examples — would have a lower required course load for professors than non-research institutions in the UNC System, he said.

McInnis said the bill arose after conversations with parents and students, who said teacher’s assistants were the instructors for some college courses.

“Students and parents want and expect to receive a good education from one of the premier schools in the UNC System and they were not getting it because the professor was not to be found,” McInnis said. “Or, the professor was teaching half of the time and the student teacher was teaching the other time. Other times, you had student teachers that did not have the ability to communicate well in English. Their ability to disseminate the English language was tough for people to understand.”

He said ensuring college professors teach courses is increasingly important as students take out loans to pay for college.

Opposition to the bill includes detracting from research and overloading an already busy schedule for university professors. United for UNC — self-described as being composed of UNC System students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and supporters — is one of the groups that’s spoken out against the bill.

Hannah Mendoza, an assistant professor of interior architecture at UNC-Greensboro and member of the group, said it’s unfair to set one requirement for all professors, including those in different disciplines. Mendoza, for example, is teaching three courses this semester. She said McInnis’ bill, in its current form, is solving a problem that doesn’t exist.

“If I beat two spoons together and say I’m keeping the elephants away and someone asks if it’s working, I’d respond, ‘Well look around. There’s no elephants,'” Mendoza said. “I don’t think we see this as being a genuine effort to support teaching and try to create a better classroom experience. We see this as a way of punishing teachers because of a misunderstanding of what we do.”

In recent years, Mendoza said teacher’s assistants have been hard to come by, making an instance of a teacher’s assistant instructing a class rare. She said decisions to use teacher’s assistants as course instructors are likely caused by a shortage in faculty positions at UNC institutions.

When asked what her colleagues think of the bill, Mendoza said she couldn’t recall anyone speaking positively.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246.