APPLICABILITY: FACULTY

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and representatives of general academic institutions shall develop and recommend general policies and standard reports for academic faculty workloads and services. The governing boards shall adopt rules and regulations concerning faculty academic workloads.
  
Faculty members at the University of North Texas have a variety of duties and responsibilities associated with the mission of the institution, including the essential functions of teaching, research, creative work and service activities. These expectations constitute a faculty member’s professional obligation and contribute to the strength and integrity of the University of North Texas.

As an emerging national research university, faculty members are expected to engage in those duties which will enhance the teaching/learning process and the quality of the institution’s programs. Recognized duties include, but are not limited to, the teaching of organized classes; supervision of undergraduate and graduate students in practica and internships; direction of individual study, special projects, theses and dissertations; advising and counseling of students; course and curriculum development; scholarly study, creative work, research and publication, all activities which contribute to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge; assistance in the administration of the academic programs, professional activities and other public service. Such duties are inherent in the nature and life of the university and all are factors to be considered in making decisions regarding promotion, tenure and salary of faculty members.

All faculty, regardless of teaching load, are expected to be engaged, as appropriate, in individual research, scholarship, creative work and professional service activities which are assumed to be an integral part of a faculty member’s instructional obligation, because those activities contribute to their remaining valuable instructors in their specialized fields.

To fulfill the multi‑purposed mission of the university and the charge of the Legislature, it is necessary to distinguish between (a) teaching load requirements and (b) total workload requirements. Teaching loads refer to teaching requirements and additional instructional activities. The total workload requirement is defined as both the teaching load and the following: scholarship and/or creative work, and service expectations that must be assumed by any faculty member who intends to advance at UNT. A Total Workload Report will be filled out by each faculty member at the beginning of each fall and spring semester.

The responsibility for assigning workloads that accord with this document shall rest with departmental chair and deans. Appropriate workloads are defined as those observing the minimum and maximum ranges assigned for each of the areas below.

All units must credit the same type of activities equitably.

In accordance with Texas Education Code 51.402, a summary of teaching load credits itemized by school and college is submitted for review, providing evidence of compliance with requirements established by the governing board.  The comprehensive workload reports are available in the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Faculty workloads at the University of North Texas shall be developed according to the following standards and criteria.  (Calculations of teaching load credit are related to actual work assignments, of course, but are intended primarily to meet certain State reporting requirements, and do NOT determine actual work assignments, especially for instruction.)

In order to permit the development of varying total workloads, tenured faculty may — subject to the instructional and service needs of the department or unit — on an academic year basis select from three general distributions of effort among teaching, research/creative/professional activity, and University service (at the departmental, college or University level). Since expectations for tenure require that an individual be outstanding in either teaching or research/creative activity and good in the other as well as in service all non‑tenured faculty for tenure will normally select only Option 1. Any departures from the policy of Option 1 for non‑tenured faculty (who are eligible for tenure) must be approved in advance in writing by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. In all options, administrative assignments, as determined by the dean, can account for up to 50 per cent of a total workload. Lecturers are subject to other workload policies and standards of evaluation.

Option 1. Teaching and research/creative/professional activity both account for a minimum of 30 per cent and a maximum of 50 per cent of total workload, with University service accounting for 10‑20 per cent. This option should entail a minimum of the equivalent of five lecture courses or seminars per year.

Option 2. Teaching accounts for 70‑90 per cent of the total workload, with University service accounting for 10‑30 per cent. This option should entail a minimum of the equivalent of eight lecture courses or seminars per year.

Option 3. Research/creative/professional activity accounts for a minimum of 50 per cent and a maximum of 60 per cent of total workload, with teaching accounting for 20‑30 per cent and University service accounting for 10‑30 per cent. This option should entail a minimum of three lecture courses or seminars per year, and is normally available only to those with demonstrated records of research/creative activity or strong potential for success in such activity.

The equivalence between graduate classes, undergraduate classes, and other forms of instructional activity shall be consistent with the current workload policy.

Each department and college shall evaluate its standards/criteria for promotion and tenure for tenured and tenure‑eligible faculty in view of the impact of the workload option on teaching loads.

All faculty must be evaluated in all three areas: teaching, service, and research/scholarly/creative activity. Department PAC’s must use the appropriate weights from options 1, 2, or 3 in conjunction with the Performance Evaluation Form to establish the overall rating of each faculty member within the department.

Teaching assignments necessarily vary by discipline and other factors, but should be at least roughly equivalent throughout the university. Thus, all faculty will be expected to teach at least the equivalent of three undergraduate semester hours for each 15‑20 per cent of effort in instruction. Faculty members selecting Option 2 with teaching assignments accounting for 70‑90 per cent of the total workload should be responsible for 12‑15 undergraduate semester hours of instruction per semester, or a minimum of eight courses per academic year (two long semesters). Faculty members selecting Option 3 with teaching assignments of 20‑30 per cent should teach at least three to six undergraduate hours per semester, or a minimum of three courses per year.

The assignments of workloads are subject to the following criteria:

       a.  Each academic unit must provide for equivalencies of traditional organized courses.  These equivalencies must include supervision of theses, dissertations, and problems in lieu of thesis, as well as supervision of student teaching, field –based instruction, practica and internships.  The equivalencies must also include activity and performance courses, distributed learning courses, large classes, and administrative functions such as departmental advising.  Individual units may need to provide for other equivalencies.

       b. Each workload must be developed in the context of the instructional and service needs of the department or unit (i.e., every unit must have a total distribution of faculty effort that meets basic needs for instruction and service).

       c.  Each workload should be negotiated between the faculty member and the department chair (or equivalent), and approved by the dean.

       d.  Selection of a specific option will depend on a faculty member’s previous professional performance (especially in research/creative activity) as well as future professional interests.

e.  Faculty members may change the percentage of effort within their workload option each semester (subject to the constraints noted in paragraphs a, b, c, and d, above).  The faculty member will be evaluated using the percentage of effort within the workload option for each semester included in the next merit evaluation cycle. (When approved by the dean, department chairs may authorize an additional year of evaluation using the percentage of effort in the previously selected workload option.)

  f.   All faculty are advised to consult current department, college and university promotion/tenure standards prior to negotiating an option.

Total Workload and Teaching Load
Most faculty will generate from 9 to 12 teaching load credits each semester; in no case will a faculty member on 100 percent faculty salary teach less than one organized class per semester, and the average of each school and college shall be 9 teaching load credits each semester. Instructional activities include the following: those activities which generate semester‑credit hours; academic advising; the preparation of instructional materials and curriculum materials; and other instructional activities included in the UNT Faculty Workload Report (see A‑K below).

I. Instructional Activities

No two colleges or schools, and probably few departments, are identical in the mixture and nature of teaching responsibilities which are expected of individual faculty in order to meet student needs. Individual colleges, schools or departments, therefore, may find it necessary to establish minimum teaching requirements greater than those set forth below.

It is not intended through this policy to establish uniform or standardized teaching loads or norms for instructional assignments. It is intended that chairs and deans have the maximum flexibility (within the limitation set forth below) to “individualize” faculty assignments so as best to achieve the goals of the university and to distribute the total workload as equitably as possible.

A.        Instructional activities shall range from 16.7 percent to 70 percent of a faculty member’s total workload (one organized 3‑hour undergraduate class equals 16.7 percent equals 3 TLCs; one organized 3‑hour graduate class equals 25.0 percent equals 4.5 TLCs of total workload). Fractional credit for additional instructional activities is listed below. In team‑taught courses the teaching credit shall be divided in proportion to the amount of effort expended.

B.         In regularly scheduled instructional activities which normally meet more hours per week than the semester credit hour designation for the course—such as laboratory and clinical courses, physical activity courses, studio art, studio music instruction—one classroom contact hour per week equals two‑thirds teaching load credits at the undergraduate level and one teaching load credit at the graduate level. One classroom contact hour per week in the major music performance ensembles—symphony orchestra, symphonic wind ensemble, marching band, a cappella choir, one o’clock jazz lab band—equals 1.50 teaching load credits; one classroom contact hour per week in all other music performance organizations equals one teaching load credit. One contact hour of individual studio music instruction equals three‑fourths teaching load credits at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

C.        Supervision of student teachers, clinical supervision and intern supervision shall be credited such that one student supervised equals one‑half teaching load credits at the undergraduate level and three‑fourths teaching load credits at the graduate level.

D.        Supervision of individual instruction courses and individual research courses shall provide teaching load credit at the rate of one-tenth teaching load credits for each student semester credit hour of undergraduate instruction and one-fifth teaching load credits for each student semester credit hour of graduate instruction. In no case will individual instruction in a single course generate more teaching load credits than if the course were taught as a regularly scheduled, organized class.

E.         Teaching load credit for the supervision of dissertations, theses and problems in lieu of theses shall be provided only to the faculty member directly responsible for supervising the work of the student and at the rate of one-third teaching load credits per semester credit hour of dissertation research and one-fifth teaching load credits per semester credit hour of thesis or problems-in-lieu-of-thesis research.

F.         A faculty member who coordinates several sections of a single course shall be given one teaching load credit for each six sections coordinated up to a maximum of three teaching load credits.

G.        Credit may be proportionally increased for teaching a large class, which requires extensive grading or evaluation of students’ work by the faculty member, according to the following weighting factors.

           
H.        The chair of a department or comparable administrative unit normally will receive three teaching load credits for serving in that capacity. Where circumstances justify, a larger credit may be authorized up to a maximum of six teaching load credits upon recommendation of the dean of the appropriate college/school and approval by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. In large departments or comparable units an additional three teaching load credits may be granted to faculty members who assist the unit head in administrative functions, provided such credit is approved in advance by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, but in no case may the total for departmental administration (including the chair) exceed nine teaching load credits.

J.          Limited faculty teaching load credit may be granted for major academic advising responsibilities, for preparing major documents in fulfillment of programmatic needs or accreditation requirements, or for other professional assignments which can be documented as relating directly to the teaching function.

K.        Instructional activities shall include the above mentioned and other related activities such as student advising for academic programs.

L. Exclusions

1. The faculty teaching load established above does not apply to graduate teaching fellows or teaching assistants, or to adjuncts or special appointment faculty who are employed less than full time by the university.

       2.  Under no circumstances may teaching load credits be granted for intercollegiate coaching activities.

II. Scholarly, Creative and Professional Activities

Scholarly, creative and professional activities shall range from 20 percent to 67 percent of a faculty member’s total workload.

Scholarly activity and research are defined as those activities which expand, enhance or refine knowledge in an academic area, the results of which are shared in some printed or oral form with other members of the academic community (i.e., scholarly books, articles, papers, book reviews, abstracts, editorial responsibilities and activities such as chair, respondent, critic on panels, workshops and programs at scholarly meetings).

Creative activity is defined as the act of making, inventing, producing or in any other way bringing into being that which is shared with the academic community and public through publication, exhibition, media or performance.

Research grants (or contracts, etc.) applied for, received or not received, also are professional activities, as are the holding of offices in learned societies and professional organizations.

III. Administration and Service

Administration and service shall range from 10 percent to 50 percent of a faculty member’s total workload. A number of faculty members have been assigned administrative duties, and all faculty members are expected to help with the service duties, which are a part of every academic unit. These functions properly constitute a portion of the total workload.

A.        Administration: includes assisting the unit head in his/her administrative functions and administering sub‑units of an academic department/division.

B.         Service: includes a multitude of activities, some of which are internal (i.e., contributions to the life and function of the university), and others which are external.

       B, 1.         Internal activities include such functions as service on college/school, university and/or departmental committees, the Faculty Senate and its various committees, the University Review Committee and the University Tenure Committee; membership on thesis and dissertation committees for which a faculty member does not receive instructional credit; supervision of TAs, TFs and Adjuncts offices; and any other type of assignment not covered in the Faculty Workload Report under instructional activities.

       B, 2.         External activities include public service activities that are uncompensated and related to the faculty member’s professional training and competence (i.e., lectures on one’s specialty or the profession in general to service clubs, civic groups, etc.) and to the community outside the university, public and private. This includes uncompensated professionally related public service activities (serving as consultants, etc.).

       B, 3.         Only those external service activities, which are not compensated, are considered service.

C.        A faculty member may devote no more than half of the total workload to the areas of administration and service.

IV. Implementation

Each school/college must have an approved mission statement on file in the office of the provost and vice president for academic affairs. Each school, college, department and division, with faculty participation, shall develop written evaluation criteria and procedures for evaluating faculty members for merit salary increases in accordance with the workload policy stated in this document.

The chair and the faculty member must negotiate a semester teaching assignment and a semester total workload. This document differentiates between the teaching assignment (teaching load and additional instructional activities that generate semester credit hours) and the total workload.

The teaching assignment must comply with the minimum and maximum ranges, computed on the basis of teaching load credits (or percent equivalents) as stipulated in this document under I, A‑K.

The total semester workload should reflect percentages of effort in each of the three categories defined above (I, II, III) for the specific purpose of merit evaluation. In the area of teaching, the percentage of effort may or may not coincide with the percentage obtained from the teaching load credits equivalent. With approval of the chair, the faculty member will assess the percentage of effort in each category on the basis of which he/she will be evaluated and record these on the Total Workload Report included as part of this policy.

The merit evaluation of each faculty member should reflect the division of effort as negotiated and should be summarized on the Performance Evaluation Form included as part of this policy. A performance evaluation form should be filled out for each faculty member and approved by the department/division chair and/or college/school dean and filed in the office of the provost and vice president for academic affairs. No two people should have the same rating in any category. Ratings may be done in each category on a continuous variable scale of 0 (low) to 10 (high).

The responsibility for assigning appropriate workloads shall rest with department chairs and deans.

Each department chair must certify that the duties of each full-time faculty member include the minimum instructional responsibilities prescribed in this policy.

The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs shall monitor workload assignments and provide appropriate reports in accordance with the provisions of state law.