What can a college do when enrollments exceed faculty capacity to teach sections and state budgets are limited? One answer can be overload pay, in which faculty members are paid more to teach extra sections, rather than, for example, hiring more instructors.
But a debate in Iowa raises the question of whether these payments are good for students, faculty members or institutions. Last week, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported, following an open records records request, that the three state universities in Iowa paid out $3.4 million in overload payments for the 2011 fiscal year. The figures for the University of Iowa showed an 8 percent jump from 2008, when policies were changed at the university to make overload pay more restrictive.
