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C110: Teaching Assignments

Policy

(Approved by Faculty Senate 12/6/77; by the Regents 1/24/78)

  1. This policy has been developed pursuant to the resolution of the Regents at their meeting 13 June 1977.

  2. Faculty "teaching" assignments are measured in "load units" as defined and calculated in accordance with the University's load formula. The term "load unit" as used in this policy is defined by that formula as currently revised (now the Ninth Revision, 8 September 1975).

  3. "Instructional faculty FTE" measures the percentage of time charged to an instructional budget. A portion of the time of faculty-administrators and of faculty engaged in contract research or projects is charged to other budgets. The guidelines in paragraph 5 relate to the teaching assignments of full time faculty members (1.00 FTE), i.e., those whose salaries are charged entirely to instructional budgets. The teaching assignments of faculty members charged in part to instructional budgets (less than 1.00 FTE) would be modified proportionately.

  4. The guidelines established in paragraph 5 do not apply to the School of Medicine or to library faculty members. Separate policies will be developed for these groups.

  5. The following guidelines are established with respect to minimum* teaching assignments (Section I of the load formula):

5.1 A full-time faculty member normally shall be assigned a minimum teaching load of nine load units each semester.

5.2 In all cases in which it is proposed that a full-time faculty member be assigned a semester teaching load of less than nine (9) load units (but at least six (6) load units), advance approval by the dean of the faculty member's college shall be required. For the 1978-79 school year, advance approval of Office of the Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs shall also be required. (On 1/19/79 the Regents extended this requirement to include the 1979-80 school year.)

5.3 Any reduction in teaching load below six load units shall be granted only with the advance approval of the Office of the Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

5.4 It is recognized that in rare cases, a teaching load of nine (9) or more load units may be planned for a faculty member, but that the required minimal teaching load of nine (9) load units may in fact not materialize because of a shortfall in student enrollment. This should be the only circumstance in which the teaching load of a full-time faculty member will be less than nine load units, except with the advance approval of the appropriate dean's office. Departments, schools, and colleges should be prepared to explain load reductions of this kind and present plans to minimize their repetition.

5.5 At the end of each semester each dean shall report to the Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs a list of the names of all persons to whom reduced teaching loads have been assigned with the justification for each.

5.6 Justification for reduced teaching loads may include (but not be limited to) the following:

5.61 exceptional current productivity in scholarship, research, and/or creative work;

5.62 released time for development of contract research proposals;

5.63 released time for course or curriculum development;

5.64 special administrative assignments or exceptionally heavy committee assignments; and/or

5.65 load reduction in compensation for a teaching overload in an alternate semester.

5.7 The Office of the Provost/Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs shall review all decisions by deans to allow reduced teaching loads to ensure that the justifications used were adequate and that approval of such assignments in the future will not have the effect of creating or continuing unjustifiable inequities in faculty teaching loads among the departments, schools, and colleges. It is an expected result of this policy and the required review that a faculty member will not regularly be released from the obligation of carrying nine teaching load units.