Faculty assigned time guidelines

Workgroup Members: Lorrie Clemo, Pam Michel, Richard Skolnik, Adrienne McCormick, Julie Pretzat, Barbara Shaffer, Jill Pippin, Bill Bowers, and Brad Korbesmeyer, Rameen Mohammadi

Charge: The charge to the group is to design clear and equitable guidelines that set a reasonable goal for capturing permanent savings and mitigates risks of audit and loss of public trust in our commitment to carry out our public mission.

Academic policies

Faculty Workloads per the SUNY Oswego Faculty and Professional Staff Handbook, Section 6 states that, “In consultation with the Provost, Deans, and Department Chairs, sufficient flexibility in faculty workload assignment policy and related guidelines provide for efficient and productive workload assignments in the broad base of teaching activity, institutional service, research and related activity, administrative assignments, and public service activities. The instructional portion of faculty workload assignments for full-time faculty at the college are generally equivalent to 12 semester hours per semester during the academic year, 6 semester hours during the six-week summer session, and 3 semester hours during the three-week session.”

Workgroup recommendations

The workgroup recommendations regarding Faculty Teaching Workload and Faculty Assigned time are based on Academic Policies-Section 6 of the Faculty and Professional Staff Handbook.

A) Teaching workload--The faculty work load is defined as indicated below.

Faculty teaching only undergraduate courses: 12 credit hours per semester.
Faculty teaching only graduate courses: 9 credit hours per semester.
Faculty teaching a combination of undergraduate and graduate courses: 21 credit hours during an academic year.
Faculty teaching in the School of Business: 12 credit hours per semester regardless of course level (see C.1).

B) Teaching workload calculation

Faculty teaching workload is calculated based on course credit hours using the following rules:

Cross-listed courses are counted once.
Undergraduate–graduate dual-listed courses are counted as undergraduate courses when the majority of enrolled students are undergraduates, or the threshold may be lowered at the discretion of the dean in consultation with the chair.
Overseeing student activities such as independent studies, honor theses, and internships is not included as teaching workload.
Courses for which faculty receive extra service compensation are not counted toward teaching workload.
Student–teaching courses are counted based on School of Education (SOE) instruction.
Technology Lab (TEL) courses are counted based on SOE instruction.
Lab and Studio courses with no credit hours may entitle the faculty to Assigned Time (see C.11).
Music Studio and Ensemble courses are counted based on National Association for Schools of Music accreditation standard.
Workload calculations other than those listed above must be approved by the Dean in consultation with the chair (see C.3).

C) Assigned time guidelines

In addition to teaching/instruction, faculty are expected to fulfill responsibilities in the areas of instructional related activities (e.g. advisement), institutional/departmental service, research/scholarly related activity, administrative assignments, and public service activities. Faculty teaching workload (number of courses or credit hours) may be adjusted due to additional responsibilities according to the following guideline:

School of Business faculty involved in substantial research indicated by Scholarly Academic status as defined by the document on faculty qualifications in the School of Business Guidelines for Personnel Decisions are eligible for Assigned Time of 3 credit hours per semester.
A course with an enrollment equal to or greater than 90 students is considered a “large section” and may be counted as two sections. Faculty members teaching such a course, therefore, are qualified to receive 3 hours of assigned time.
The department chair and the dean will review large section designations each semester and may lower the threshold to set faculty assigned time based on course content and actual enrollment.
Assignments (e.g. academic program director, coordinator, etc.) which require a minimum of an additional 7 hours work per week may be considered as “additional responsibility.” A faculty member assigned to such a responsibility may be qualified to receive 3 hours of assigned time.
Assigned time of faculty appointed to institutional administrative position such as the Director of General Education, Director of CELT, etc. will be determined by the Provost in consultation with the appropriate dean/deans.
Assigned time for department chairs will be determined by the dean in consultation with the Provost.
Faculty teaching only graduate courses (9 credit hours per semester load) are expected to be involved in substantial research/scholarly activities. No additional assigned time is granted for research/scholarly activities.
Substantial research/scholarly activities are expected of faculty teaching a combination of undergraduate and graduate courses. No additional assigned time is granted for “unfunded” research/scholarly activities during the semester with 3 graduate courses (9 credit hours) assignment.
A faculty member teaching only undergraduate courses, in consultation with the chair and dean, may receive 3 hours of assigned time for substantial research and scholarly activities over and above what is required to stay up to date in his or her discipline.
A faculty member engaged in “externally funded” research and scholarly activities may be qualified to receive assigned time.
A faculty member teaching studio/lab courses including those with no credit may receive assigned time.
Faculty teaching only undergraduate studio courses (9 credit hours per semester) may receive assigned time.
The teaching workload of a faculty member who teaches a combination of lecture and studio/lab courses is calculated based on credit for lecture courses plus pro-rated assigned time for studio/lab courses.

Qualifying lab courses are those courses that require special-purpose equipment for student participation, experimentation, observation or practice in a field of study. They must meet with the faculty member for at least two hours a week to deliver content not presented in the class. They are not help, homework, or tutorial sessions.

Qualifying studio courses are those courses that require special-purpose equipment for student participation, experimentation, observation or practice in a field of study under faculty supervision and contact with the student. Outside preparation by the student is expected. They are not help, homework, or tutorial sessions.

D) Assigned time monitoring and reporting:

The department chair recommendation/request for Faculty Assigned Time should specify duration (begin and end), nature of the responsibility, intended outcome, and the replacement (extra service or adjunct) cost.
Faculty Assigned time requires approval by the appropriate dean/deans (before start of each semester). Such an approval should take into consideration the educational benefits, curriculum integrity, cost, and alternative solution.
The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment will continue to gather information regarding faculty teaching load (from BANNER), extra service teaching (source: Provost’s Office) and Assigned Time (source: Dean’s Office) and generate the Faculty Instructional and Assigned Time report for review by department chairs. All changes and modifications of faculty workload with regard to Assigned Time submitted by chairs will be verified through the Dean’s office. The final Faculty Instructional and Assigned Time will be forwarded to the deans.

President’s Council Approved 3/7/16