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Appendix E. Faculty Workload Policy Recommendation (Updated 10-05)

Policy:

Idaho State University will maintain a general policy describing faculty workload that is applicable to all categories of faculty appointments (i.e., academic tenured, tenure track, and non-tenure track; and professional-technical non-tenure track). This policy will be subject to periodic reconsideration and revision by the ISU Faculty Senate and the University Administration. This policy identifies and describes classes of duties of the faculty. It is intended to be used as a broad guideline for academic departments when assigning workloads to individual faculty members or for equalizing workloads among their faculty members. Additionally, it is intended to provide a means for recognition and documentation of the work that is done by the university faculty. Workload as defined herein is the total of the instructional, scholarly, and professional service activities rendered to the University by its faculty.

Rationale:

The total responsibility of each member of the faculty to the University should be determined in such a way that each individual can make significant contributions toward completion of the mission and objectives of the institution and at the same time enhance his or her own professional development. Of paramount importance for fulfillment of the mission and goals of this University are effective teaching of its students, completion of substantive research, creative works and other scholarly activities by its faculty and students, and sufficient opportunity for its faculty for professional renewal and development. Additionally, the faculty are necessarily involved in university governance, academic program development, curricular design, and a lengthy list of other service activities and professional duties. It follows that the assignments of faculty workloads and, subsequently, that the opportunity, recognition, and rewards for realization of those workloads, will be commensurate with fulfillment of the institution's mission. It is realistic and fitting that workloads for individual faculty members vary from one another to better achieve the overall mission and goals of the University's programs and/or to more effectively utilize each individual member's strengths. Nonetheless, the full-time faculty as a whole share the general responsibilities for completing the teaching, research, and service functions of the University. Therefore, it is desirable and expected that faculty workload assignments will reflect shared responsibilities with the further expectation that opportunities will be provided for each faculty member to participate substantively in and contribute to all three of these major functions.

Purpose and Scope:

The policy set forth herein is intended to serve as a general recommendation for the assignment of faculty workloads at Idaho State University. Each individual's workload should be assigned and subsequently evaluated within (1) the requirements and allowances stated in the contract which that faculty member signed with the University and the State Board of Education, (2) the set of professional expectations of the professoriate as a whole and the academic discipline which that faculty member serves (i.e., the "norms" for that profession or discipline), and (3) the context and normal operations of the academic unit or division (hereafter referred to as department) to which that faculty member is assigned. Furthermore, each college and/or department at ISU will develop, implement, and maintain a workload policy that is consistent with the unique and specific needs and obligations of its own faculty.

This general university policy is intended to provide only broad definitions of faculty members' responsibilities, duties and expectations. It is acknowledged that, while fulfilling the academic mission of each faculty member's department, the three major categories of work and effort (teaching, scholarship, and service) may be insufficient in defining a member's responsibilities and overlap necessarily may exist among the three. Nonetheless, for the reasons stated above, this policy generally should apply to all faculty members at ISU with some exceptions (e.g., the faculty of the University Library, whose responsibilities and operations may differ significantly from those of the general university faculty). Finally, it is not the intent of this policy to create a procedure to manage or control each faculty member's time and effort, nor to compare faculty members' workloads and performance. Rather, it is intended to broadly define faculty workload for ISU and provide the means for recognition and documentation of the work done by the faculty and their departments in order to satisfy the requirements of accountability for both state and federal governmental agencies to which the University reports, and the citizens of Idaho, whom the University serves. Accordingly, it is expected when workloads of the collective faculty within a department and/or of individual faculty members consistently exceed those implied by this policy, that the University will address those excessive workloads with the allocation of increased resources.

Faculty Workload:

In fitting with the character, traditions, and mission of Idaho State University each full-time faculty member's workload should consist of fifteen units of effort each semester. A "Unit" of effort is a dimensionless measure used only to gauge relative expenditures of time and effort accorded the three categories of workload described here. Individual circumstances may require that other measures be employed, such as "percent of total effort" or "contact hours." Also, workloads for part-time faculty should be proportional to those for full-time faculty members within their respective academic departments. In addition, when teaching an "overload," a faculty member should expect to receive additional compensation.

The norm for tenured and tenure-track faculty at ISU is defined as "9-3-3," with approximately 9 units effort (60%) allocated to instruction, 3 units (20%) allocated to scholarly activity, and 3 units (20%) allocated to service. For other faculty appointment categories, the norms for distribution of workload units of effort may be represented by patterns other than "9-3-3." For example, research faculty may have few or no teaching responsibilities; clinical faculty may have practice responsibilities in addition to didactic teaching and clinical supervision and minimal research expectations; lecturers may have only teaching expectations and some faculty may have assigned administrative duties. In addition, the mix of responsibilities may change throughout a faculty member's academic career (e.g., junior tenure-track faculty may choose to emphasize research, which might be reflected as a "9-5-1" unit load; conversely, senior faculty might choose to emphasize service over research, as a "9-1-5" or "9-0-6" load, or teaching over research, as a "12-0-3" load).

While it is acknowledged that wide differences exist in the obligations and operations of the University's colleges and in the responsibilities of its various categories of faculty appointments, generally those 15 units of effort should be apportioned within the three classes of activities outlined below. More specific criteria may be established for any of these general classes of workload activities by each department with majority approval of the faculty of that department and the dean of the college. When circumstances dictate, the relative amounts of time and effort expended in any of the major categories of faculty work may deviate from the amounts generally recommended under this policy in order to meet the needs of the University, college, department, and faculty member. When that occurs, new workload arrangements should be reached only by mutual agreement by the affected faculty members and their respective department chairpersons. Furthermore, no faculty workload assignments should be made that conflict with a member's departmental faculty evaluation standards or promotion and tenure policies. All should be mindful that concentration of faculty effort in one category of work to the near-total exclusion of effort in the others, except for specific faculty appointments (e.g., research and lecturer) is discouraged under this policy for the reasons stated above (see "Rationale"), and every faculty member should be given the opportunity to contribute in measurable ways to the teaching, research, or other scholarly work, and service functions of the University.

Instruction: As defined here, instruction includes the teaching, supervisory, and training functions necessary to fulfilling the academic mission of a faculty member's division or department and includes (a) graduate and undergraduate coursework, (b) the supervision and direction of students' scholarly works, including but not limited to research and theses, fine arts works and performances, clinical experiences and student teaching, and (c) other activities such as student advising necessary for students to complete their degree and program requirements at ISU. Accordingly, the assigned teaching load per semester for any faculty member ordinarily should consist of no more than three undergraduate courses or classes (ca. 9 academic credits) or their equivalents, with additional allowances given for graduate level courses and courses that require students to complete laboratory, recitation, clinical, public performance or other special works.

Research, creative work, and scholarly activity: These are commonly acknowledged as activities related to (a) original investigation and discovery, the development of improved technologies, creative performance, original composition and academic writing, the investigation and improvement of pedagogy, the interpretation and integration of knowledge, the improvement of academic curricula, and like activities, and to (b) professional growth and development to enhance each faculty member's academic discipline and/or that faculty member's ability to serve that discipline.

Professional service: Units of effort allocated for the purpose of fulfilling faculty service functions include but are not limited to serving on various departmental and University standing and ad hoc committees and councils, serving as GFR for graduate students outside the faculty member's immediate department or discipline, serving professional societies and organizations when such service enhances the image or operations of ISU, serving in a professional capacity when addressing public and community needs, serving as faculty advisor for student organizations, and some forms of academic advising. An additional category of professional service is that performed by faculty who have professional practice responsibilities and/or who provide other clinical services as part of their assigned departmental workload.

For purposes such as reporting time and effort to various extramural funding agencies or for obtaining release (i.e., "buying release time") from certain duties that a faculty member is obliged to perform under the stated or implied terms of his/her university or departmental contract, the units of effort used above may be converted to percentages of total effort. For example, faculty members wishing release from the responsibilities of teaching one of their regularly assigned courses in order to obtain or satisfy the requirements of funded research might be required to compensate their departments amounts equivalent to 15-30% of their base salaries (where the exact percentage depends on variables such as anticipated cost for replacement, credit-hour requirements, course level, and other special features of the course or faculty position), with the expectation that this money would be used by the department as compensation for replacement faculty member.