--- title: "Professional Responsibilities" canonical: "https://facultystaff.clas.uconn.edu/space/CFSKB/28973334536/Professional%20Responsibilities" format: markdown --- **Established:** September 11, 2009 **Last updated:** January 31, 2020 --- Each department should maintain a Professional Responsibilities Document. Part of that document is a statement of the department’s teaching load policy. In order to address issues of equity and accountability, the College has guidelines for the teaching-load portion of these Professional Responsibilities Documents and calls on each Department to review their policy regularly in light of those guidelines and, where necessary, make adjustments to bring them into alignment. A clear departmental teaching load policy serves both an internal and external purpose. Internally, such a policy promotes transparency in the assignment of workload and makes it possible to hold individual faculty members, the department, and College administration accountable for equitable treatment of all faculty members. A policy also makes it possible to hold rational and principled discussions about resource allocation within the College. Finally, an explicit written policy is of particular benefit for individuals who are disadvantaged by the informal power structure in departments – including junior faculty members, and, in some cases, women faculty and faculty members from traditionally underrepresented groups. Externally, a clearly written policy helps to satisfy the College’s responsibility to account for its expenditure of resources in pursuit of its missions. It provides a basis for discussions with other units about the College's resource base. Finally, such a policy, carefully drafted and properly implemented, will improve the perception of the College's professionalism and will enable the College to cement its reputation for dedication to teaching, research, and service. ## **Teaching Load Standards** 1. The standard teaching load for tenure system faculty members who are actively engaged in research and participate in the typical amount of department and College service is set by the department, with the approval of the dean, based on documented disciplinary standards. Such documentation means evidence from peer and aspirant institutions showing that departmental policies are in line with market forces. In cases where faculty participate in interdisciplinary programs that cross departments, the relevant departments shall, in consultation with the dean, establish agreements that account for such efforts. 2. The standard teaching load for tenure system faculty members who are not actively engaged in research and who participate in the typical amount of department and College service is 3 courses per semester. 3. The standard teaching load for in-residence faculty members is seven courses per academic year. With permission of the College, research, service, outreach, advising, or administrative duties may be substituted for a portion of the teaching obligation. 4. The basic unit of measure for teaching load is the traditional, 3- or 4- credit, regularly scheduled undergraduate or graduate course that meets the College’s minimum enrollment targets and in which the faculty member is the sole instructor. Large lecture courses with associated discussion/recitation/lab sections count as one course, if these associated sections are managed by teaching assistants. In the absence of special provision in policy, courses team-taught by n individuals count as 1/n courses for each participating faculty member. Departmental policies must explicitly describe how teaching efforts in other settings – such as lecture courses taught by a large series of lecturers, online, or experiential (field) courses – are accounted for in comparison with this unit. 5. All faculty members not formally on leave will be on campus during the full academic year and must participate in advising and other service activities throughout the year. An individual's teaching should be distributed across both semesters of the academic year. In special circumstances, departmental policies may deviate from this requirement, but such deviations must be limited and must be documented in the departmental policy. 6. The department is responsible for characterizing “active engagement in research.” Such characterizations must reflect the complexities of scholarly and creative work in each discipline; they must be applicable in practice and reflect the high standards of the University. 7. Departments may offer a small number of faculty members a reduction in teaching load based on explicitly defined criteria. Such reductions may be associated permanently with certain functions in the department, or temporarily to allow a faculty member to take advantage of an exceptional opportunity. The College does not support permanent reductions in teaching load for an individual faculty member. 8. Departments should document guidelines that grant new faculty members reduced teaching loads or that provide pre-tenure teaching releases of various kinds. CLAS will not provide funding to cover courses under these circumstances. 9. Each departmental policy shall include an annual review process to determine which faculty are “actively engaged in research” and to ensure that teaching effort is equitably distributed. 10. These policies apply equally across all UConn campuses. Any reductions in teaching load per item 7 (above) shall result from consultation between the department head and the regional campus director, if applicable. 11. Departmental teaching load policies require approval by the dean.