Full-Time Faculty Handbook - 04. Workload Policy
This university-wide workload policy establishes the principles of consistency, equity, and flexibility together with a process for determining workload responsibilities that are uniform across the various colleges. The activities, duties, and responsibilities of the faculty must be determined in relation to the mission, objectives, and strategic plans of the university, and to the specific mission, goals, and objectives of the respective departments/programs, colleges/schools.
In general, principal faculty are expected to teach five courses or their equivalent annually.
Principal faculty are also expected to excel in teaching and advising; to make scholarly contributions in scholarly and/or professional and creative practice; and to render service to the university, the profession, and the community. The workload obligation of an individual faculty member should reflect the proportion of faculty effort within each of the three areas of responsibility that best represent the interests and strengths of the faculty member, while simultaneously furthering the goals of the college/school and the university.
Workload Responsibility Guidelines
The primary responsibilities of full-time faculty are imparting knowledge to others (teaching or other instructional activities), creating new knowledge (research, scholarship, and/or creative or professional practice—RSCP), and facilitating the execution of the first two responsibilities (service). The faculty workload refers to the effort made in the execution of these three responsibilities.
This policy establishes a university-wide framework for individual effort in each of the three workload categories, across which any individual faculty member’s proportion of effort may vary. Within this context, the policy allows each college or school to establish clear expectations for its entire faculty across the three domains of work responsibility, including professional development, while still granting sufficient flexibility to departments/programs to allocate work assignments to individual faculty members in consideration of the priority accorded to departmental or program objectives.
The university expects all full-time faculty members to be engaged in the following three workload areas at all times.
- Instructional duties
- Research, scholarship, and/or creative or professional practice (RSCP)
- Service duties
For the purposes of this discussion, and with the understanding that equivalencies need to be specified by the disciplines and departments/programs for approval by the provost, academic courses are typically assumed to consist of lectures, seminars, or studios, meeting at least once weekly for 15 weeks per semester, and bearing at least three academic credits. In addition, it is recognized that in certain disciplines instructional activities are not defined by semester hours, but by other parameters such as contact hours, studio participation, or graduate research preceptorships. In such cases, semester-hour equivalencies must be defined by the college/school and submitted for approval to the provost, who will determine appropriate faculty workload assignments in the context of standard practice within the specific discipline, profession, or college.
These college definitions should be reviewed regularly by the deans and provost and should not be considered to be fixed in perpetuity, as disciplines and conditions may change over time.
When the minimum teaching load is not achieved—for example, when courses must be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment—faculty members will be assigned other duties in the department or in the college (such as additional student advising, involvement in recruitment or retention initiatives, accreditation preparation, departmental service, etc.). These assignments will be made by the dean or their designee (usually the department chair) after consultation with the individual faculty member and depending upon the amount of instructional activities in which the faculty member is engaged. If no other duties are assigned, the faculty member shall make up the teaching assignment within the next three semesters.
Additionally, the chair or director, in consultation with the dean and with the approval of the provost, may grant “released time” from teaching and or the possibility of “course buyout” to faculty members who have either significant externally funded support, depending upon the award amount and the proportion of effort funded, or substantial administrative or service responsibilities. In unusual circumstances, a faculty member, upon the recommendation of the chair or director and the dean, and with the approval of the provost, may be permitted to teach fewer courses (as defined by colleges) annually than those required of other faculty in the department or program. In addition, faculty members may, with concurrence of the chair and the dean, teach in excess of the credits described herein and “bank” the overload hours for a comparable amount of released time at a later date.
For the purposes of determining teaching load, a single course with both an undergraduate and graduate course number, meeting or scheduled concurrently, will count as one preparation. Individual instruction credits (such as reading courses, independent study courses, thesis/dissertation supervision) may be considered by the chairperson in determining whether a faculty member has a full workload. In the assignment of workload, consideration should be given to the following possible types of instruction: team teaching, graduate instruction, activity classes, laboratory courses, clinical supervision, directed study, and distance learning. Consideration for adjustments in workload should be given to at least the following: preparation for substantive changes in instructional methods, including the incorporation of new technology; unusually large class sizes, especially in the absence of teaching or research assistants or where the number of assistants is inadequate; research productivity demands; student-teacher supervision; thesis/dissertation supervision load; supervision of fieldwork; supervision of students in clinical settings; or extraordinary service on a university-wide committee.
In the area of research and scholarly or professional and creative activities, typically a minimum of 20 percent of full-time faculty members’ time should be devoted to this effort during the year. This may vary, however, depending on the amount of research or scholarly involvement in which an individual faculty member is engaged, as well as the extent of participation in teaching, mentoring, and university service.
Framework and Context for Individual Workload Assignments
Faculty work must be determined in relation to the mission, objectives, and strategic plans of the university, as well as the mission, goals, and objectives of the department or program and the school or college. The department’s overall instructional or course assignments shall be consistent with student needs and those of the department or program. The faculty of each department or program are responsible for developing, offering, and sustaining curricula that support simultaneously the mission of the university and the mission of the college/school in which the department or program is based; for meeting the goals and objectives of the departmental discipline(s); and, where applicable, for fulfilling accreditation standards. It is a paramount responsibility of each faculty member to ensure the delivery of the department’s instructional program to its undergraduate majors and minors, its graduate degree candidates, and to undergraduate and graduate students from other university departments for whom its courses are requirements. Also, it is assumed that departments will take into account the level of student demand in making decisions about the degree of responsibilities for teaching, research, and service for each faculty member.
In addition, the university encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in instruction, research/scholarship, and service where appropriate. Therefore, it is expected that as part of the implementation process for this workload policy, the departments and other academic units will promote, recognize, and reward both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration and participation. Further, it is recognized that “the responsibility profile” (i.e., the total of faculty contributions in the areas of instruction, scholarship/research, and service) of each collective departmental faculty will be influenced by differences in the tasks and cultures of the various disciplines. Faculty assignments should embody the principles of consistency and flexibility. The university expects consistent high-quality performance from all faculty members in the mutually supportive areas of instruction, research, scholarly and creative productivity, and service. Therefore, faculty assignments should not be designed to inhibit faculty members from contributing in all three areas over the terms of their employment. Appropriate effort should be extended to achieve flexibility in faculty assignments so that the changing needs of disciplines, departments, and the university are recognized and so that, by giving the faculty latitude to explore academic and professional opportunities as they arise, contributions to the university can be maximized.
Service Policy Guidelines
General Categories of Expected Service to the University
Examples of the types of service recognized and expected below are not meant to be exhaustive, but to represent the range of categories relevant to this policy. Academic advising of undergraduate and graduate students, thesis supervision, and course development are all considered to be part of all faculty members’ teaching responsibilities.
- Baseline service obligations of all full-time faculty
- Attend faculty meetings (department, program, school/college) and help to plan, define, support, assess, and implement academic programming
- Participate in promotion/reappointment reviews and classroom observations
- Given the existing distribution of faculty in various employment categories and ranks, and the need to staff review committees with those appropriate to them, eligibility for service on these committees will vary over time.
- Mentor colleagues
- Recruit students
- Assigned categories of expected service (to serve in one or more of the following contexts)
- Department or school committees (standing or ad hoc)
- Committees in this context include working groups, task forces, and other similar ad hoc activities.
- College committees (standing or ad hoc)
- University committees (standing or ad hoc)
- Organize and run extracurricular events (conferences, workshops, lecture series, etc.)
In general, all full-time faculty members should meet baseline service obligations and, in addition, serve on one or two committees within the contexts itemized above. Efforts will be made to ensure that no faculty member is serving in more than one high-intensity capacity at a time.
Additional Areas of Service to Be Valued, Tracked, and Counted
- Service to the profession
- On editorial boards
- As officers and committees of scholarly or professional organizations
- On juries, review boards, or prize committees
- Community service of value to the university (that is not normally considered as part of their scholarship, research, or professional and creative practice)
- On community boards or boards of nonprofits, government agencies, or quasi-government organizations
- As part of other voluntary community activities that further organizational missions and social, cultural, or public programming or activities for civic purposes
- Extraordinary Service (exceeding the expected service load, which may qualify for course release and/or supplemental pay)
- Leadership (chair of department, program, school, etc.)
- Other unusually demanding tasks, special projects (such as major curriculum or new program development), or a quantity of work in terms of time requirements beyond what is normally expected in a full faculty service load
The Provost’s Office, in collaboration with the deans, has implemented a standard set of guidelines for granting course release and/or supplemental pay for service beyond what is normally expected of all faculty.
Process for Workload Assignments
Role of the Faculty Member
The workload obligation of an individual faculty member should reflect the proportion of effort within each of the three core areas of responsibility that best represents the interests and strengths of that member, while simultaneously furthering the excellence of both the department’s and the university’s academic, service, and research and scholarly programs. This framework obviously must be applicable to individual departments and programs and modified, as appropriate, to take into account a variety of elements such as practica, studios, clinics, and laboratory sections, as well as to accommodate diverse learning technologies. The proposed policy incorporates the principle that the workload obligation should be made clear to the faculty member and be consistent with the principles stated in preceding sections.
Following are the time periods when workload assignments shall routinely be established for a full-time faculty member:
- At the time of negotiation of the initial faculty appointment or reappointment to a new renewable-term appointment
- At the time of appointment for a visiting faculty member
- At the beginning of a probationary term for a faculty member eligible for extended employment or tenure
- At the time of award of tenure or extended employment or reappointment on a Renewable-Term Appointment
- Following the conclusion of academic leave
- At the time of promotion for a tenured, extended-employment or RTA-OARS faculty member
In addition, workload assignments are generally reevaluated annually. All overload assignments (including but not limited to administrative appointments as well as teaching credit or non-credit courses) must be memorialized in an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) drafted by the college and approved by the provost.
Faculty with RTA or RTA-OARS appointments will have a job description and/or MOU which outlines the expectations for the appointment in the active contact period.
At any other time when a departmental need or faculty concern arises, faculty, chairs, or the dean can initiate a discussion of workload. Logically, one such time may be during the faculty member’s annual performance evaluation.
Role of Associate Dean or Chair/Director
The associate dean or chair/director, in consultation with each individual faculty member who holds a probationary, term, RTA, RTA-OARS, tenured, or extended-employment appointment, determines the workload assignment distribution for each faculty member, including the assignment of teaching responsibilities. A faculty member who objects may appeal to the dean for relief. Responsibility for identification of the specific graduate students for whom an instructor will serve as the thesis/dissertation advisor is delegated to the faculty member.
Role of the Dean and Executive Dean
In colleges that are organized by departments, programs or schools, the dean or executive dean is typically not involved in individual faculty workload assignments. However, when a faculty member objects to an assignment, the dean or executive dean shall review the case and render a final decision. The dean or executive dean is also authorized to approve the recommendations of the associate dean or chair/director concerning “released time” for individual faculty. In colleges that are not organized by departments or programs, the dean or executive dean determines the workload assignment for each faculty member. Additionally, all requests for exceptions to the general university-wide workload policy must be reviewed by the dean or executive dean, who in turn generates a recommendation for consideration by the provost, whose decisions regarding exceptions are final.
This policy provides the dean or executive dean with the authority to resolve any issues of concern to the faculty member. However, the associate dean’s or chair/director’s proposed assignment of workload will stand during the process of review by the dean or executive dean, and the dean or executive dean will have the authority to make an adjustment in the schedule. The dean or executive dean will provide a fair review of the faculty member’s concerns, will allow the faculty member the opportunity to express them, and will act expeditiously to resolve them. If the concerns are not resolved with the dean or executive dean, faculty may appeal to the provost for further review of the matter.
Formalization of Workload Assignment
The workload assignment of each individual faculty member should be formalized in a memorandum of understanding (MOU), approved by the provost, from the associate dean or chair/director to the individual, with copies to the dean or executive dean.
Feedback and Review
Faculty workload and faculty assessment and evaluation are clearly related, but appropriately are covered under separate policies. The faculty workload policy addresses the kind and amount of work to be undertaken by faculty during a particular period, while a faculty assessment and evaluation policy addresses the quality of work provided by the faculty during a given cycle. The faculty workload policy provides the formal process under which all faculty will understand and participate in formulating their responsibilities for a specific period and against which their performance will be assessed. The chair or director will review with each full-time faculty member, on an annual academic-year basis, that individual’s progress and status with respect to fulfillment and performance of the assigned workload. Performance measured against the approved workload shall be considered in merit salary adjustment recommendations, promotion or tenure evaluations, and periodic performance evaluations.
Review of Workload Assignments by the Dean or Executive Dean
The Dean or Executive Dean is responsible for ensuring that workload agreements are developed for all faculty in a timely manner and at the appropriate times, and that these individual agreements are appropriately documented and filed. The dean or executive dean exercises oversight to ensure that the collective, approved workload agreements within the college result in a distribution of effort among faculty members that promotes the efficient and timely completion of programs of study by students and facilitates compliance with accreditation requirements. Additionally, the dean reviews and approves the workload implementation policies and procedures of the departments.
Role of the Provost
The provost shall exercise the authority needed to ensure the fair and equitable implementation of workload policies throughout the colleges of the university. The provost approves all exceptions to the university-wide workload policy and is the final arbiter for all matters pertaining to and arising out of the workload policy.