Faculty Workload Policy-Athens/Dublin
I. Introduction
This policy pertains to CHSP faculty assigned to the Athens and Dublin campuses as their primary worksite. CHSP faculty assigned to a regional campus as their primary worksite will follow the faculty workload policy of the campus to which they are assigned. Any future changes to the University’s model for academic integration across the campuses will be reflected in revisions to this policy. This policy pertains to CHSP faculty assigned to the Athens campus as their primary worksite. CHSP faculty assigned to a regional campus as their primary worksite will follow the faculty workload policy of the campus to which they are assigned.
Faculty workload is distributed across teaching, research, service, and/or clinical domains based on the classification of each faculty position. Individual workload distributions should be set for each faculty member at the time of hire for a designated period of time. The distribution should be articulated in the faculty member’s letter of offer/initial contract and should also be stated in annual evaluation letters and letters associated with promotion and/or tenure. Academic units may revise individual faculty workload distributions in response to documented unit need. Faculty members may also request changes to workload distribution.
Schools/departments should establish and publish faculty workload policies consistent with the tenets described herein.
II. Standard Workload Definitions
Consistent with previous calculations in CHSP and with University policy, a definition of individual faculty workload is based on teaching, research, and service activities with teaching typically being the area of activity with the greatest workload assignment.
Academic units must maintain a total regular faculty workload that complies with Ohio University Workload Policy for academic units (Ohio University Policy 18.009). As such, units must meet the following threshold for total unit faculty workload dedicated to teaching:
| Highest Degree Awarded | Individual Faculty (9-month) Teaching Credits per Year | Notes |
| Baseline | 30 credits | 100% dedicated to teaching; 0% research; 0% service |
| Associate's | 24-27 credits | Units offering only associates degrees will be expected to devote 80-90% of the total faculty workload to teaching |
| Bachelor's | 21-24 credits | Units offering only undergraduate degrees will be expected to devote 70-80% of total faculty workload to teaching |
| Master's | 18-21 credits | Units offering master’s degrees and/or professional doctorates will be expected to devote 60-70% of total faculty workload to teaching |
| Doctorate | 15-18 credits | Units offering PhD degrees will be expected to devote 50-60% of total faculty workload to teaching |
III. Teaching
A. Standard teaching units. A “standard” 3-credit hour didactic course is defined as reflecting 10% of total faculty workload. A “standard” teaching load for tenure-track faculty on 9-month contracts will be 15 semester hours per academic year (21 hours for those on 11-month contracts). “A “standard” teaching load for instructional faculty on 9-month contracts will be 24 semester hours per academic year (36 hours for those on 11-moth contracts).
Each school/department should establish and publish criteria for assignment of teaching workload credit outside the standard 10% for a three-credit hour didactic course. This may include criteria recognizing such factors as very large course enrollments, additional credit for courses with lab components, adjustments for team- taught courses, and diversified efforts of departments and schools to meet their mission. Adjustments would be made in the context of GA support, course structure, etc.
In proposing such additional criteria, the academic unit must show that the proposed criteria will not limit its ability to accommodate all necessary courses in its total assigned faculty workload. In other words, additional criteria cannot create an additional need for adjunct faculty instruction. In all cases, additional criteria defining teaching workload distributions must be approved by the dean. Such approval will typically be given for a five-year period with the criteria reviewed and maintained, revised or extended at the end of each five-year period.
B. Tenure-track faculty may negotiate a range of 40-60% of total workload being ascribed to teaching with 10-20% assigned to service, and the remainder to research. (This would result in a “standard” teaching load of 12-18 semester hours in a two- semester academic year.) The teaching needs of the school or department will be a basic consideration in determining whether a faculty member may be given a teaching workload that deviates from the standard 50%. Individual tenure-track faculty may request a teaching workload assignment outside the standard 40-60% range to reflect an extraordinary level of attention to research or service (see below). Such requests must be approved by the school director/department chair and the dean. Typically, approval would be granted for a designated period of time with the opportunity for the unit to extend the negotiated extraordinary distribution. Probationary tenure-track faculty members should not exceed a 60% teaching load
assignment, with 40-50% recommended, for the first six years, or the term of the probationary period, whichever is shorter.
C. Instructional faculty are generally expected to devote 80% of their total workload to teaching with 20% assigned to service. (This would result in a “standard” teaching load of 24 semester hours in a two-semester academic year.) Per the Faculty Handbook, instructional faculty should have a research workload of 0.
D. Clinical faculty are generally expected to devote 40 to 60% of total workload to teaching. Typically, this would be didactic or other teaching activities undertaken by tenure track and/or instructional faculty. Teaching should be differentiated from other activities particularly in the case of overlap with clinical practice or administrative duties (see VI. Clinical Faculty)
E. Faculty on 11-month contracts. In all cases, assigned teaching workload would be adjusted upward for faculty on 11-month contracts as described below. Individual faculty workload distributions should be assigned consistent with the guidelines described below.
F. OVERLOAD: Overload activities should occur only after 100% workload assignment is met. See the relevant teaching, research and service sections related to workload units.
IV. Research
A. Research activity. Typically, research may comprise 30-50% of a tenure-track faculty member’s total workload. The primary metric for assessing research activity is peer-reviewed publication in national or international outlets. For each 10% or total workload assigned to research activity, the faculty member is expected to achieve 1 peer-reviewed publication in a national or international outlet in a two-year period. This metric will be assessed in a rolling fashion meaning each faculty member will be expected to achieve the required metric in any two-year period. (Thus, faculty with 30% research workload assignments would be expected to achieve a minimum of three acceptable peer-reviewed articles in any two-year period; those with 40% research workload assignments would be expected to achieve a minimum of four acceptable peer-reviewed articles in any two-year period, etc.)
Two other scholarly activities may be substituted for peer-reviewed articles as follows:
1. External grants: Receipt of external research grants or contracts to support research activities may count toward faculty research work time based on the award amount multiplied by the percent effort for an investigator. If the amount is at least 10% of the investigator’s academic year salary, it counts for 10% of total workload. In cases where the award amount multiplied by the reported percent effort for a given investigator is 20% or more of the investigator’s academic year salary, it counts for 20% of total workload.
2. Book authorship: Authoring a book or serving as first editor of an edited volume may count as 10% of workload assignment. One authored or edited book may be counted toward research workload in any rolling two-year period. The period through which a book can count toward workload may be variable (i.e., the same book could be counted across multiple years) with sufficient documentation of yearly progress and sufficient assurance of eventual publication. Authoring a book chapter may count as 5% of workload assignment. Up to two book chapters may be counted toward workload in any rolling two-year period.
B. Additional research metrics. In some cases, a unit may wish to allow an individual faculty member to count some other form of scholarly activity toward research workload. Such instances should reflect the research traditions and expectations in the faculty member’s discipline. In all cases, criteria for research credit must be approved by the dean. Presentations, although important, are considered to ultimately support publishable activity and are thus not standalone contributions toward workload.” Such approval will typically be given for up to a five-year period with the criteria reviewed and maintained, revised or extended at the end of each five-year period.
C. Additional considerations. Publications or other scholarly activity in excess of the minimum are considered toward merit or toward other recognition available through the college. Publication in excess of benchmarks may also be used in support of GA allocation.
The most recent two years will be a basis of discussion for research load. Individuals not meeting their research expectations will complete a written improvement plan for one year with a stipulation that not meeting the objectives of the plan will result in reallocation of workload. Adjustment of workload to reflect a reduced research workload and comparable increase in teaching or service.
Although analyses can be made relative to authorship order on publications with an emphasis on 1st, 2nd, or final author order, such analysis will not be mandated in assessing faculty achievement of assigned research workload. Units may choose to build such analysis into review of faculty performance in relation to research workload. It is important to note that workload is designed to account for significant meaningful contributions to highly visible publications.
V. Service
A. Service activity. Typically, service may comprise 10-20% of a faculty member’s total workload. Faculty should be expected to achieve at least four service credits over a two-year period for each 10% of their workload assigned to service. Service credit may only be earned if no other compensation (i.e., additional pay increments, course releases, etc.) is provided for an activity. Service credit may be earned for otherwise uncompensated activity according to the following schedule:
| Activity | Service Credits |
|---|---|
| Chairing CHSP Curriculum Committee | 2.0 |
| Serving on CHSP Curriculum Committee | 1.5 |
| Chairing a college or school/department standing committee | 1.5 |
| Membership on a college or school/department standing committee | 1.0 |
| Chairing an ad hoc committee at the unit or college level | 1.0 |
| Membership on an ad hoc committee at the unit or college level | 0.5 |
| Chairing a standing university committee | 1.5 |
| Membership on a standing university committee | 1.0 |
| Serving as division/program director | 1.5 |
| Serving as graduate coordinator or other assigned leadership role in one’s program area | 1.0 |
| Other activities as assigned by director/chair or dean | Variable |
C. Dean’s approval. In all cases, any activity proposed for service credit that is not included in the above schedule or for an amount of credit that exceeds the credits listed above must be approved by the dean. Such approval will typically be given for a period of up to four years with the activity reviewed and maintained, revised or extended at the end of each approval period.
VI. Clinical Faculty
A. Clinical activity. Workload for clinical faculty must include at least 30% and no more than 50% of their time assigned to activities that are clinical in nature. These may include supervision of students in clinical settings, instruction of clinical courses, or engagement in clinical work in settings in which students from their academic program are present. The remainder of their time should be assigned to teaching, research, or service activities following the guidelines described above.
B. Clinical activity metrics. As each clinical faculty member is likely to have very specific assignments and duties, workload distribution should be individually negotiated and specified at the time of hire with adjustments made as needed. When engaged in didactic course instruction, clinical faculty should follow the workload distribution guidelines described in the “III. Teaching” section above. Similarly, the above guidelines for research should be used to operationalize clinical faculty work in that area when research is part of the clinical faculty member’s workload. The academic unit should negotiate the metrics to be used to assign appropriate workload credit for clinical activities undertaken by the clinical faculty member. These metrics should reflect the needs of the unit and the nature of the clinical work undertaken by the faculty member as that work relates to the teaching enterprise. In all cases, workload criteria for clinical faculty must be approved by the dean. Such approval will typically be given for the specified term of the faculty member’s contract with the criteria reviewed and maintained, revised or extended at the end of each contract period.
08-15-20