Faculty Absences
Faculty are expected to meet all assigned classes and laboratories on a regular basis for the required time. Faculty who miss classes must arrange for a colleague or other professional to fulfill the assignment and should report the absence from class to the department chair. In some cases, students may be given out-of-class assignments during the absence of the professor. In no case should students be left unsupervised in studios or laboratories. An illness that may result in absence beyond two class meetings requires notification of the appropriate dean.
Teaching Loads
A full-time teaching load, regardless of location and mode of instruction, for faculty is 24 semester teaching load hours per year. Teaching load hours are equivalent to credit hours except in cases of laboratory, studio, or special format instruction. The credit for laboratory or studio instruction is calculated at the rate of 2/3 teaching load hours for each clock hour of laboratory or studio instruction.
Under normal circumstances, no faculty member should teach more than ten regular classes or 32 semester hours per year. Course overloads must be approved by the appropriate dean and must be made at the time the department submits its recommended schedule for the next term unless there is a genuine emergency in added enrollment. No overloads will be funded unless and until the faculty member in question has met the required, regular faculty load for the year with courses enrolling at least seven students each or as specified by the appropriate academic Dean. Courses taught with enrollment below seven are at the discretion of the Dean.
Faculty or administration may initiate discussions of this matter at any time. Course releases for special faculty assignments or service positions are determined by the appropriate dean and may be suspended by the administration at any time.
A faculty member should limit Directed Independent Study (DIS) courses to two per regular semester and to one during the January term or summer terms, in addition to the regular teaching load. A faculty member should not carry more than a total of four DIS students in any term. Exceptions to this load must be approved by the appropriate dean.
The Dean of the School of the Arts determines overall workloads in the Petrie School of Music, in consultation with the Director of the Petrie School of Music.
In addition to teaching and advising responsibilities, each faculty member is expected to be active in professional activities appropriate to their discipline or interdisciplinary areas and service each year.