Approved 8/10/92
The following guidelines should direct Department Chairs and Deans in assigning faculty load. Additional approved guidelines, specific to departments and colleges, may apply. Teaching assignments must be discussed with faculty prior to their scheduling.
Full-time Load:
The normal full-time, undergraduate and graduate teaching load for faculty is eleven to thirteen credit hours per semester. However, a variety of circumstances may result in loads outside this range.
Committee Assignments:
Participation on departmental, school, and institutional committees; involvement with faculty and student organizations and their activities; and student advising are expectations of full-time faculty. Released time for special or extraordinary committee, organizational, or advising obligations must be assigned by the Dean with approval of the SVCAA. Non-tenure track, full-time faculty without significant committee, organizational, or advising obligations may have teaching loads greater than eleven to thirteen hours.
Independent Studies and Thesis Advising:
Faculty assigned thirty student credit hours or more of independent studies in a given semester will have their load reduced by three semester hours in that semester.
Faculty may accrue student credit hours of independent studies and thesis advising assignments. Student credit hours for thesis advising will be doubled for purposes of faculty load, i.e., six student credit hours of thesis will add twelve student credit hours to faculty accruals of independent studies and thesis advising assignments. Faculty accruing thirty-six student credit hours of independent studies and thesis advising assignment will have their load reduced by three semester hours in a subsequent semester.
Laboratory Courses:
Laboratory contact hours normally count as 1/2 of lecture contact hours. Specific approved college and department guidelines may apply.
Research and Public Service:
Released time for research and public service will be recommended to the SVCAA by the Research Services Council or other internal and external funding sources, The SVCAA will approve such assignments and reimbursements to the colleges for faculty released time, The SVCAA will also approve direct payment from the RSC and other internal or external funding sources administered by the University to faculty for research and public service to be performed outside the teaching load, e.g., research or service during a summer when the faculty member is not fully assigned to teaching,
Dependent on college resources, the deans may assign released time for research or public service to faculty who apply with the recommendation of their departments and/or department chairs.
Faculty who have or anticipate graduate teaching obligations, i.e., those who are or must become Graduate Faculty Members or Fellows, should have particular consideration in assigned time for research. However, faculty applicants proposing research which is directly related to the enhancement of the instructional programs and to the professional development of faculty should be considered for assigned released time.
Assignments by the deans of released time for research and service must be reported by the deans to the office of the SVCAA.
Assigned research and public service for individual faculty must be specifically addressed by department chairs and peer reviewers in the Annual Review of Faculty Performance.
Course Preparation:
The number of course preparations, especially the development of new courses, may be a factor in load assignment. Released time for course preparations and/or development will be recommended to the SVCAA by the chair and the dean.
Student Load:
Faculty teaching very small, but programmatically necessary classes, may teach more than thirteen hours, provided their total student load is still significantly less than the total load would be with normally sized classes. Faculty teaching excessively large classes may teach fewer than eleven hours as long as the total student load still exceeds the normal total student load for eleven to thirteen hours in those classes.
Averaging:
In areas where it is difficult to assign eleven to thirteen hours each semester, faculty may be assigned to teach more hours one semester and fewer another to achieve an average within the range.
Adjustments Requiring Approved Specific Guidelines:
Non-credit laboratory, studio, and-clinical instruction; external supervision of internships and student teachers; private lessons and supervision of performance, studio and media productions; and coaching assignments all require SVCAA-approved specific guidelines. In special instances, where particular courses make especially rigorous demands in class preparation, individual student contact, or evaluation of student writing and other projects, SVCAA-approved specific guidelines may value courses at more than the actual credit hours. In instances where preparation and evaluation demands are minimal or supported by assistants or technological components, SVCAA-approved specific guidelines may value courses at less than the actual credit hours.
Department Chair Load:
Department Chairs will be released from three to six hours each semester based on the size of the department and the complexity of its programs and services. Such released time will be determined by the Dean and approved by the SVCAA. Other coordination activities within departments, e.g., coordinating graduate programs or graduate teaching assistants, may also be assigned released time by the Dean with approval of the SVCAA.
Summer Loads:
Summer loads will be assigned by the Chair, the Dean, and the SVCAA and specified in letters of appointment consistent with the collective bargaining agreements,
Overloads:
Overloads will be assigned by the Chair, the Dean, and the SVCAA and specified in letters of appointment consistent with the collective bargaining agreements.
Exceptions to the Policy:
Assignments for part-time faculty, adjunct faculty, and graduate assistants are subject to separate policies.
Implementation:
Accruals of independent studies and other activities that result in released time will begin with the Fall Semester of 1992.
See also:
