Department of Psychology

Workload Policy

1.  Expectations of tenured/tenure-track Faculty Members in the Department of Psychology.

 

All full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty members in the Department of Psychology are expected to engage in teaching, research and service. Although members of the faculty are normally required to teach only during the spring and fall semester, as the Faculty Handbook makes clear (III.A. 1) responsibilities of faculty members do not cease at other times during the year. In particular, it is expected that the summer months will be devoted primarily to  reading, study, research, and travel related to professional development.

 

a. Standard teaching expectations. Each member of the faculty is expected to participate in the departmental instructional mission. The usual administered teaching load for tenured and tenure-track faculty ranges from two to four regular courses each fall and spring semester in areas deemed necessary by the Chair. Regular courses typically have credit/contact hours per week; special problems and independent studies are not considered to be regular courses but these activities are contributions to the area of teaching and shall reflect positively on the faculty member’s teaching appraisal. Each faculty member is also expected to advise students and to keep a reasonable number of office hours per week consistent with their teaching and student-advising responsibilities. Each faculty member is also expected to undertake such other teaching-related activities as are normally expected of a faculty member at a major American university, such as attendance at department functions, participation in curricular planning, student recruitment, safety training, and so forth.

According to the AAUP contract, two courses per semester and related teaching activities normally constitute 50% of a faculty member's standard workload.

b. Standard research and scholarship expectations. The production of original research and its publication in scholarly journals, monographs and books and through professional presentations at scientific meetings is the most significant component of faculty workload. Each faculty member is expected to engage in highly programmatic research that leads to regular publication and makes significant contributions to knowledge that has an impact on the field.  Each faculty member is also expected to support their research program primarily by extramural funding.  Other evidence of research/scholarship, beyond number of publications and successful extramural grant applications would  include the frequency of citations, the quality of publication outlets, special invitations to present one’s work at professional meetings and as part of other departments’ colloquia series.  Additional modes of scholarship would include major editorial assignments and regular review activities with national funding agencies like NIH or NSF.   Such research and scholarship typically constitutes 40% of a faculty member's standard workload.

c. Standard service expectations. Each member of the faculty is expected to serve the Department, College, University, and professional community in ways best suited to the faculty member's talents and the needs of the department, college and university.  Minimal service obligations include the participation in faculty governance and in the development and effective conduct of the academic program. More substantial service activity would include the assumption of leadership roles in department, college or university committees or leadership in national or international professional societies.  Participation in program or department evaluation committees in or outside the university would also be considered more substantial as would occasional ad hoc peer-review activities for academic journals or funding agencies.  Service activities normally constitute 10% of a faculty member's standard workload.

2. Modified tenured/tenure-track faculty workloads. The Chair may approve requests for nonstandard “administered” workloads that otherwise are consistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and University policies and procedures. The Chair may also assign administered workloads as long as such assignments are otherwise consistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and University policies and procedures.  If a faculty member does not concur with the administered workload assigned by the Chair, s/he may bring the matter before the department executive committee whose role will be advisory to the Chair in matters pertaining to workload.

 

Examples of such administered workloads for tenured and tenure-track faculty are summarized below.

 

a.  Emphasis on Research.  A tenured faculty member may ask to emphasize research and de-emphasize non-research activities in his or her workload.  Such an increase would normally be accompanied by significant active research funding in which the faculty member is principal investigator.  In such cases, a reduced teaching load would be accomplished by a ‘buy-out’ negotiated with the chair funded from the extramural resources.  In unusual circumstances, an emphasis on research will be considered, even in the absence of extramural funding, when there is other evidence of a sustained and significant research trajectory.
 

b. Emphasis on Teaching. A tenured faculty member may ask to emphasize teaching and de-emphasize research in his or her workload and thereby ask to teach one or more additional courses during the year beyond the standard assigned workload. If the Chair accepts this proposal, the faculty member will be assigned additional courses and will have his or her teaching workload percentage increased accordingly.

c. Low Research Productivity. The Chair will assign one or more extra courses (i.e., courses beyond the usual administered teaching load) to faculty members whose research productivity has been low, i.e., faculty members who are not actively engaged in scholarship as evidenced by both a poor publication rate and an absence of extramural research support.  Effort without outcome is inconsistent with the department’s research mission as the knowledge gained receives no dissemination and has little or no chance of significant impact.

 

d. Extraordinary Service. With prior approval of the Chair, a faculty member who undertakes an extraordinary service role may request a teaching load or research effort reduction. If granted, the faculty member's workload percentages will be adjusted accordingly.
e. Other modifications. As long as he or she acts in ways that are otherwise consistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and University policies and procedures, the Chair retains the flexibility to administer workloads over semesters or years. This most likely will occur when it is necessary to assign courses to cover for faculty who are on sabbatical or other leave, to account for co- or team-taught courses, or to take into consideration courses whose time requirements are substantially more (or less) than the three contact hour standard. If, by mutual consent, a modified teaching assignment results in an overload, extra compensation will be given at the prevailing rate.

3. Summer Program of Sponsored or Unsponsored Scholarship and Research

Tenured and tenure-track faculty on 9-month academic appointments may request that performance in a summer program of sponsored or unsponsored scholarship and research be included in the annual faculty evaluation. The faculty member must make the request for inclusion of such a program to the Chair on an annual basis during the workload planning process. The Chair may deny the faculty member's proposal on substantive grounds related to the content of the proposal, the appropriateness of the proposed program as part of the workload for the faculty member, or the department's needs and priorities. If the request is granted, the agreement must be documented as part of the individual's workload plan for the subsequent year. Documentation must include a statement of the summer program of scholarship and research, and the expected products of that program, and it must stipulate the duration of the summer program up to three months. When it has been an agreed part of the faculty member's annual workload plan, the summer program of scholarship and research must be considered in computing the overall percentage distribution of teaching loads of 45%, 41% & 37% respectively. 

 

4. 4. Standard workload for continuing non-tenure track faculty workload.

 

The standard workload for continuing non-tenure track instructional faculty in the Department of________ Psychology is comprised mainly of teaching and teaching-­related activities. Continuing non-tenure track faculty will normally be assigned four regular courses each fall and spring semester in areas deemed necessary by the Chair.  Regular courses typically have three contact hours per week; special problems and independent studies are not considered to be regular courses. Each faculty member is expected to provide substantial academic advisement  and to keep a reasonable number of office hours per week consistent with their teaching and student-advising responsibilities. Each continuing non-tenure track faculty member is also expected to undertake such other teaching-related activities as are normally expected of a faculty member at a major American university, such as affiliation with a department area group, attendance at department functions, participation in curricular planning, student recruitment, safety training, and so forth.

 

5. Circumstances that will trigger variations from the standard workload for continuing non-tenure track faculty.

In unusual circumstances, the Chair may approve requests for administered workloads that otherwise are consistent with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and University policies and procedures. A continuing non-tenure track faculty member might, for instance, at the Chair's discretion be granted a course reduction for undertaking a service responsibility that is particularly burdensome or that falls outside the envelope of teaching-related activities or to pursue avenues of scholarship consistent with his or her professional development.

 

6. Reassignment of workload.

 

When any faculty member (tenured, tenure-track, or continuing non­tenure track) is unable to perform the work that has been assigned during the annual planning process, the Chair is responsible for assigning alternative work that in his or her judgment is appropriate to ensure that the faculty member meets his or her full obligation to the Department. Such reassignment may occur, for instance, when a scheduled course fails to enroll a sufficient number of students to "make." The Chair might, in these circumstances, assign the faculty member to teach a new section of an oversubscribed course for which he or she is qualified or assign the faculty member additional teaching in a subsequent semester. Reassignment to alternative work can occur whenever it becomes clear to the Chair that a faculty member has proved unable or incapable of discharging any element-teaching, research or service-of the original workload plan and their has been consultation with the faculty member.  When such a determination is made, the workload plan must be redone with % effort for teaching, research and service adjusted accordingly.