Interview with Hazel W. Forsythe, April 22, 1992

Partial Transcript: Today is April 22nd, my name is Gabrielle Billings and this is my third interview with Hazel Forsythe. We're continuing working conditions. Do you meet your students socially?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe explains that she enjoys teaching students who are willing to learn. She applies her research towards pregnant women because pregnancy can be one of the most magical periods of a woman's life. Forsythe discusses the importance of knowing who you are communicating with and using the correct jargon and diction. Forsythe explains that, because of good communication between the dean, educators, students, and department members, most of the university community is well versed on university matters. However, Forsythe adds that she often stays to herself, only going to meetings and focusing on her own work. She acknowledges that this may lead to her missing out on some of the events in the office.

Keywords: Applied research; Career motivation; Career rewards; Employee communication; Employee development; Employee engagement; Information; Informed communication; Interaction; Job motivation; Job rewards; Open communication; Organizational jargon; Personality; Rewarding careers; University communication; Workplace communication

Subjects: Active learning; Career development.; College administrators; College students--Attitudes.; College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Communication in personnel management.; Pregnant women; Universities and colleges--Faculty.; Vocabulary; Workplace communication

Partial Transcript: Can you describe the organizational structure of your unit?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe states that her unit's organization is pretty straightforward. She describes the assistant of her department as second in command because she has been there longer than anyone else. Forsythe feels that everyone generally knows what everyone else is doing since they are a small department. Billings asks Forsythe if she feels that she is part of the decision-making process in her unit. Forsythe responds that she is not always part of decision making, especially when it does not concern her. She is not often supervised and, in fact, most others in the department do not know what she is working on at any given time. Occasionally, Forsythe adds, she will supervise over the correlation of courses. Billings asks Forsythe how conflict is dealt with in her department. Forsythe replies that she mostly tries to avoid conflict whenever possible. If she sees it in her workplace or department, she tries to resolve it in the best way that she can.

Keywords: Avoidance; Communication in organization; Conflict resolution; Conflicts; Coordination; Departmental structure; Leadership style; Organizational conflict; Organizational culture; Perceived opposition; Resolution; Resources; Resources Administration and Development; Self-serving behavior; Small organizations; Structure and bonding; Supervision; Unit structure; Workplace conflict

Subjects: College administrators; College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Communication in personnel management.; Problem solving; Universities and colleges--Faculty.; Workplace communication

Partial Transcript: Now we're going to talk about personal habits. How does your work affect your family?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe says her family is not too happy with her because she spends long hours at work. She states that she has been a single parent for the last three years, and often sees her family as a distraction or something that raises her stress. Forsythe explains that, because of her long hours of work, the little spare time she has is spent with her children and catching up on sleep. Forsythe says that the result of this is that she has almost no social life. When asked if her social and professional lives ever mix, she replies that the two don't mix very well. Billings shifts the topic of conversation to rewards and motivation, asking Forsythe what makes her work. Forsythe responds that she enjoys what she does but is sometimes unsure of what her motivation to work is. Forsythe discusses how she enjoys teaching, but in order to fulfill the responsibilities of her position, she must also do other tasks she does not enjoy as much. Forsythe states that her personal goals in her work are to make pregnancy a normal, happy time for women, to combat child hunger, and to address the social issues caused by school life. Forsythe explains that her students are facing many personal issues, yet not taking full advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. She finds this very unfortunate because she believes this is the best time of her students' lives. Forsythe also finds it unfortunate that there is not enough time for her to accomplish both her personal goals and to fulfill the responsibilities of her job.

Keywords: Career stress; College expectations; Family; Futures of pregnant women; Job stress; Parenting; Personal lives; Single parenting; Single parents; Stress; Student living; Student nutrition; Time measurements; Workplace stress

Subjects: College students--Attitudes.; College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Pregnant women; Universities and colleges--Faculty.

Partial Transcript: What is your own greatest professional achievement?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe explains that she is most proud of winning the National British Council Fellowship in the United Kingdom since there were seven thousand people who participated, and she ended up as one of three people out of the seven thousand to be awarded with the fellowship. Forsythe explains that most of her work was what she expected to do when she has hired but she was never given a job description from the beginning. Forsythe mentions that she might want to go back to working in the field at some point, but as of now, she enjoys where she is at in her career. Forsythe says that she doesn't desire to work anywhere else other than UK because employment elsewhere would be much the same. She states that it would be nice to be recognized and remembered for her work in nutrition for pregnant women at UK. However, Forsythe believes that nothing is permanent and she's more concerned with helping those in need in the present than in leaving a permanent mark.

Keywords: Future goals; Permanence in the workplace; Personal achievements; Professional achievements; Professional legacy

Subjects: College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Pregnant women; Universities and colleges--Faculty.; University of Kentucky; University of Kentucky--Faculty; Women--Employment

Partial Transcript: Okay. Now we're going to talk about the distribution of effort.

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe explains that how her distribution of effort is supposed to be calculated does not reflect what happens in actual practice. Forsythe says that she spends forty hours a week researching, spends roughly twelve hours teaching, fifteen hours advising students, and twenty hours doing administrative work.

Keywords: Administrative work; Advising; Distribution of effort; Professional teaching; Research; Researching; Teaching; Work hours

Subjects: College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Workload; College teachers.; College teaching; Universities and colleges--Faculty.

Partial Transcript: Okay. Now we're going to talk about research. What is the most important problem you are working on right now?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe explains that she is trying to find out what the common nutritional risks for pregnant women are, especially those above thirty-five years of age and those who are young adults. Forsythe describes how she determines when it is the appropriate time for doctors to intervene in the diets of pregnant women and how she determines what kind of prenatal care a particular woman should receive based upon her food behaviors and diet. Forsythe mentions that, by practicing a better diet and seeking appropriate medical attention, women are having fewer c-sections and their infants are born in better health. Forsythe discusses her work with teenage pregnancy groups, drug abuse pregnancy groups, smoking and alcohol pregnancy groups, and many other different types of support groups for pregnant women. Forsythe's research is not as adequately supported as she would like it to be but she doesn't have enough time to do what she would like. She states that her funding comes from both external and internal sources.

Keywords: Diets of pregnant women; Nutritional science; Prenatal care; Research funding; Substance abuse during pregnancy; Teenage pregnancy

Subjects: College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Workload; College teachers.; Pregnant women; Universities and colleges--Faculty.; Universities and colleges--Research

Partial Transcript: Okay. Now we're going to talk about teaching. Um, what classes are you teaching in the current semester?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe teaches maternal and childhood nutrition, nutrition and patient formula, and community nutrition classes. The enrollment in these classes are forty in maternal and childhood nutrition, twenty in nutrition and patient formula, and eight students in community nutrition. Billings asks Forsythe how she would describe her classroom style. Forsythe replies that she emphasizes social interaction in her classes over just providing lectures. She explains that her students need to get to know people, ask questions, and sometimes even volunteer twenty hours of service doing such things as working with preschoolers, mothers, at risk children, etc. and then share their experiences in class. Forsythe adds that she spends many hours with her students outside of class and, over a semester, she will see each one of her students at least five times over questions of projects and program planning. Forsythe believes that students do not get any advice about what will help them most in the long run or advice on how to organize their life. Forsythe discusses how students are given simple note sheets that they can follow and regurgitate back out and this has caused students to lose the ability to navigate difficult structure and organization. Students will say that the course is too much work or too hard to follow, but they just want to take the easy way out. Forsythe describes that teaching should be evaluated by having a team of colleagues visit your class with a standard key of what to look for and check off on and that this should occur over multiple visits.

Keywords: Community nutrition; Service hours; Student expectations; Student teaching evaluations; Student workload; Teaching evaluations

Subjects: College students--Attitudes.; College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Universities and colleges--Faculty.

Partial Transcript: Now we're going to talk about policy. What kind of changes would you like to see in higher education in Kentucky?

Segment Synopsis: Forsythe would like to see changes in higher education in Kentucky in the aspect of teaching students. She wants to change students' perspectives on classes to not just breeze through the class and continue on to different things. Most educators find it difficult to fail students and they give them passing grades to reflect their effort rather than what they earned. Forsythe reports that to keep a single baby in the hospital Intensive Care Unit for a week costs $20,000 just for health care costs. Children who are hungry or falling ill are not a resource to society so the cost of Forsythe's work pays for itself in that it brings more children into society to be beneficial and eventual working members of society.

Keywords: Benefits of researchers; Fair grading; Higher education; Money; Pregnant women; Societal resources; Student effort; Student levels of effort; Student work; Taxpayers; Working members of society

Subjects: College students--Attitudes.; College teachers--Job satisfaction; College teachers--Social conditions; College teachers.; College teaching; Health care; Universities and colleges--Faculty.; Universities and colleges--Research