May 5, 2003
CFR Faculty,
The on-going transformation of our College allows us to reflect on
and carefully
think about many issues related to the instructional
work load of our faculty. Under
procedures described in the Faculty Handbook, our division Chairs
regularly confer with all faculty and discuss: 1) the division's and
College's present needs and goals with respect to our mission
and vision statements
and each faculty member's present teaching, research, scholarly, and
service
responsibilities and accomplishments; 2) shared goals for the faculty
member's teaching, research, scholarship, and service in the
forthcoming year
(or
years, as appropriate) in keeping with the division's and College's
needs
and goals for the same period; and 3) a shared strategy for achieving
these goals. These procedures have served us well and will continue.
To bring additional clarity to our work planning process,
we need to restate our current work load expectations in light of
the on-going transformation of our undergraduate and graduate,
research, and service programs. This College policy
provides guidelines to help us through the transitional period between
many highly differentiated courses and curricular requirements to our
new streamlined model while distributing teaching responsibilities
and opportunities fairly.
I will work with our Chairs and faculty to implement work
planning that embodies the following expectations. These
are established with the knowledge that not all faculty will achieve
each expectation in a uniform manner. Further, these are
expectations
and not constraints that must be satisfied in every instance.
Nevertheless, we expect these expectations to be achieved at the
divisional and College-levels of aggregation.
the standard classroom load for faculty members in regular pay status
on 9-month appointments that are fully funded by instructional
budgets is three formal courses (i.e., a regularly scheduled course
consisting of 3-5 credits at the undergraduate or graduate level)
full time state faculty members are expected to generate a
minimum of 450 student credit hours per academic year from all
teaching efforts full time state faculty members are expected to
support graduate students and generate a minimum of $120,000/year of
external research
grants and contracts.
Annual work planning with the Chairs will elucidate trade-offs
between teaching
and research activities following the above schedule.
As
we
move to increase the efficiency of our curriculum, we need to ensure
that
all state funded faculty are contributing to the College's
educational mission while simultaneously satisfying all University
obligations.
Exceptions to the above work load can be
granted under the
following circumstances, if all costs to the instructional program
can be
mitigated through other means:
Significant administrative responsibilities in the positions
of:
Dean, Associate Dean, Chair, or Director.
Temporary relief for one quarter (one course) may be granted as
part of a
plan approved by the division Chair to develop new courses in support
of the mission of providing
high-enrollment service courses to the University, tooling up to
teach
courses critical to the new College undergraduate program in areas
outside
current disciplinary expertise, or retooling graduate level programs.
The new course must be approved by the division Chair and the College
Curriculum Committee
and
taught no later than the corresponding quarter in the following
academic year
in
which the quarter off is granted.
Temporary relief for one quarter (one course)
on review and approval by the division Chair and the CFR New
Initiatives Team may be granted
to
develop a substantial and significant new research proposal in
support of
the College research or teaching mission. Proposals that engage
colleagues from other units, develop new funding sources for the PI,
and/or pursue exciting developments at the cutting edge of
disciplinary
interest will receive particular consideration.
Temporary instructional buyout. A faculty member may elect to
reduce
his/her classroom load by transferring part of his/her salary to a
non-state budget (i.e., research, self-sustaining instructional
budget, etc.), or by taking
leave
without pay (see below). In the first instance, the rate is a
maximum
of 10% on state funds per month in the quarter of relief,
for one course per academic year. The division Chair must concur of
this
buyout prior to presentation to the Dean for approval.
Sabbatical. A faculty member on sabbatical for one quarter at
100%
FTE compensation is relieved of one course in the annual course load
of
three. A faculty member on leave for two quarters at 75% is relieved
of
two courses out of the three. A faculty member splitting a two or
three
quarter sabbatical at reduced compensation over two or more years
will
negotiate the annual teaching load with the division Chair.
Leave without pay. A faculty member may apply to go on leave
without
pay for up to two consecutive years. If the faculty member negotiates
a
certain level of instructional responsibilities with the Chair, to
take
place during the LWO period, the faculty member may be eligible for
5%
salary during the leave quarters. Depending on the level of state
funds
available and the actions necessary to cover the faculty member's
teaching
responsibility, it may not be possible to pay the 5% from state funds
in
which case the request may be denied or the faculty member may, if
the
work load is appropriate, pay him or herself out of research funds.
No combination of options shall result in less than
a
50% appointment in any quarter.
B. Bruce Bare,
Dean
To Return to:Prof Bare's
Page, Dean's
Office,
College of Forest
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