NP 3-80 – Faculty and Instructor Workload

APPROVED:

EFFECTIVE:

REFERENCE:

BP 3-80 - Faculty and Instructor Workload

1. Statement:  It shall be the practice of Northeastern to establish standards of workload for teaching and related instructional duties for all full-time faculty (base contract 163 days).  The Department Chair or Director will be responsible for setting equitable workloads each college year using the standards and procedures defined in these guidelines.
   
   As per Board Policy 3-10, faculty  are college employees whose assignment is comprised of at least one-half the duties of a teacher, which may include program coordination, program development, and related activities.  For Northeastern this would be one-half of 30 credits of a full-time teaching load or 15 credits.
    
2. Procedure:
   1. Standard Teaching Load:  The standard teaching load for all contractual full-time faculty for the college year will be 30 semester credits per year or 38 contact hours per year, whichever comes first.  Exceptions to the 30 semester credits, or 38 contact hours per year for some career and technical programs and faculty with special assignments, are listed in Section II.E. of these guidelines.
      
      The Department Chair or Director will attempt to balance the teaching load each semester.
      
      Credit and lecture/lab hours that equal weekly contact hours for all courses are established by the current college catalog or an approved change in credit and/or lecture/lab hours by the Curriculum and Instruction Committee after publication of the current catalog.
   2. Hours and Duties of full-time Faculty:  Each full-time faculty member will have a minimum of a 40-hour work week in keeping with the requirements for all state employees.  Each full-time faculty member is required to spend a minimum of 30 hours per week (excluding lunch hour) during the business hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on campus or in other designated facilities in their performance of professional instructional responsibilities.  These hours are to be scheduled six hours per day, Monday through Friday.  In addition to these required on-campus hours, the full-time faculty is required to spend the additional 10 hours per week performing their professional duties either on or off campus.
      
      Alternative hours of duty requiring fewer than six hours per day, Monday through Friday, on campus or in other designated facilities may be permitted for faculty teaching a variety of campuses, weekend or outreach classes with the approval of the respective Department Chair and Vice President of Academic Affairs.
      
      Office Hours – Faculty:  All full-time faculty members are required to maintain six (6) hours per week of posted office hours.  These hours should be spread over the workweek between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and excludes lunch (as per the faculty job description).  Faculty should be available at other times by appointment. 

Each full-time faculty member is responsible to perform the General Responsibilities that are listed in the faculty position description. 

1. Guidelines in Determining Teaching Loads for Full-time Faculty:  The following guidelines shall be used in determining the teaching loads for all full-time faculty:       
2. Class Schedules – The respective Department Chair or Director shall consult faculty members assigned to their department as the schedule of classes for each term is being prepared.  This will be done in consultation with the respective Academic Liaison and/or Program Coordinator.
3. Class Size - Every effort shall be made to maintain appropriate class sizes conducive to effective learning and teaching.  The respective Department Chair or Director shall make the final determination regarding class size.

Specific Guidelines in determining teaching loads:

1. Definitions:
   1. Daytime Classes:  Daytime classes shall be understood to be classes which start between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
   2. Evening and Weekend Classes:  Evening and weekend classes shall be understood to be classes which start between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.
2. Cumulative Load:  Full-time faculty may be assigned a combination of load consisting of campus daytime, campus evening, outreach, weekend, condensed time-frame, distance learning, Northeastern online, CCCOnline classes, hybrid, or Second Chance Academy classes in order to reach the cumulative yearly load.
   • ​​​​​​​Evening, weekend or off-campus assignments may be needed for the yearly teaching load and are not an automatic overage for extra pay.
   • Summer session courses shall be excluded from teaching load requirements except in situations where job retention is an issue.  However, in some circumstances, summer courses may be necessary to fill a faculty member’s annual teaching load.  If it appears that this situation may occur, attempts should be made to teach courses during the summer prior to the academic year rather than following the academic year.
   • Every attempt will be made to mutually allow a period of at least 12 hours between the last assigned class of the previous day and the first hour of the following day.
   • A faculty member’s preference for daytime schedule shall be honored except where evening, weekend, off-campus classes, or other delivery formats are needed to maintain a full load or satisfy the curriculum needs of the discipline, course schedule, long-range plan, and/or student course need. 
   • When it is necessary to teach both on campus and off campus in a single day, classes will be scheduled so as to permit reasonable travel time.
   • Reimbursement for travel expenses shall be in accordance with current college procedures.
3. Appeal Process:  Faculty may address objections to their assigned workload by written appeal to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and ultimately to the College President, who is the final arbiter.  This is in accordance with BP 3-80.
4. Special Courses and Fulfillment of Yearly Teaching Load:
   • Independent studies and arranged courses may be taught by instructors as requested by students.  The respective Department Chair’s or Director’s approval is necessary before any independent study or arranged class is offered. Each group of five (5) students taught in this manner during one semester will be counted in semester teaching loads as the equivalent of a 1.0 credit course (1 student = .2 credits) for courses that are two or more credits.  One credit courses will be compensated as a percentage of 1 credit:  1-2 students 45%, 3-4 students 55%, and 5 students 65%.  A plan regarding the delivery of this type of instruction must be developed and signed by the instructor and student and approved by the respective Department Chair or Director.  Faculty Department Chairs or Directors must have their Independent Study and arranged courses approved by the Vice President of Academic Affairs.  This plan is to remain on file in the Records Office.  All paperwork must be on file before these courses are calculated into an instructors load or the faculty member can be paid.
   • Internships, On-the-Job Training, Cooperative Work Experience, and Practicums taught during fall or spring semesters will be counted in the semester teaching load at the rate of five (5) students equals 1 credit of load (1 student = .2 credit).
   • Internships, On-the-Job Training, Cooperative Work Experience, and Practicums taught during the summer will be paid at 3/4 of the faculty member’s daily rate of pay according to the provisions of I.P 1.07 OJT Payment Procedure.
   • An instructor may be assigned to two or more courses during the same hour.  Examples might include:  arranged courses, individualized programmed courses, automated accounting classes or two or three levels of the same subject taught together such as EQM 101 and 201, ART 121 and ART 122, hybrid & online sections of the same class with the same term, etc.  Faculty workload shall be earned for only one course with the highest credits or highest contact hours.
   • Instructors teaching private music courses for piano, voice, guitar, etc. (e.g., MUS 141, 142, 143, 144, 241, 242, 243, 244) will be paid at the rate of $254 per credit hour. Non-music majors enroll in a one credit hour course that is a half-hour in length and music majors enroll in a two credit hour course that is one hour in length. This includes both general fund monies and a portion of the course charge assessed to the student.  Some of the course charge is used to cover benefits. 
   • Evening (beginning after 5 p.m.), weekend, and/or off-campus classes that the faculty member teaches in addition to their regular daytime teaching load will be compensated at the regular rate for overload. 
5. Determination of Yearly Teaching Load and Overload Conditions:
   • If both the minimum of 15 semester credits and 19 contact hours per semester are exceeded, then overload will be calculated on both credit hours and contact hours and the higher of the two will be paid to the instructor. 
   • As per BP 3-80, overload assignments should be limited so as not to erode the professionalism of the faculty member. Faculty may volunteer to teach overload up to a maximum of six (6) credits per semester.  Release time and overload courses requested will be closely scrutinized by the respective Department Chair or Director in light of cost per FTE.  The College President has designated the Department Chairs or Directors to approve overload up to six (6) credits per semester.  The College President has designated the Vice President of Academic Affairs to approve overload exceeding six (6) credits per semester.  The College President must report to CCCS a list of all faculty who exceed 21 credits per semester.  Faculty who have been denied overload may appeal in writing to the College President.
     
     Arranged courses that were scheduled to accommodate short time conflicts students may have will not be considered for overload purposes.
     
     Any faculty member may appeal to the Vice President of Academic Affairs for teaching overload exceeding six (6) credits per semester.  The faculty member may utilize the Appeal Process for resolution.
      
6. Overload shall be paid each semester.  Overload will be paid at the current adjunct faculty rate. Payment of overload may be spread over more than one month if the faculty member requests it, but final overload payments cannot be completed until the class has ended.  Faculty can start receiving their fall overload starting in October and their spring overload starting in March.  This is in order to help balance the workload of the Department Chairs and Administrative Assistants early in the term.  August term and January term classes can be paid earlier provided the faculty member and department chair are sure they will fill their semester load requirements without these classes.
   
   Faculty and department chairs must look at their academic load for the academic year.  Situations may arise where a person could have overload one semester and under-load the next (or vice versa) and still be at 30 credits for the year.  Faculty, who may have earned overload in the fall, may anticipate the possibility of being under-load in the spring. This may delay all or part of their fall overload until they see how the spring semester develops.  This would avoid a situation where the faculty member has to “pay money back”.  In this scenario, it is the responsibility of the faculty member to send an email to this effect to their supervisor and Vice President of Academic Affairs by October 1st requesting their fall overload be held.
   
   Faculty who may be under-load in the fall, but expect to have enough load in the spring to equate to at least 30 credits for the year, must send an email to this effect to their supervisor and Vice President of Academic Affairs by October 1st. 
   
   Full-time faculty must disclose to their supervisor and Vice President of Academic Affairs prior to the start of the semester if they plan to teach for CCCOnline or any other entity. Such teaching should be balanced so as not to erode the professionalism of the faculty member.  If teaching more than 21 credits at a combination of two or more System colleges, the College President must approve and also report this to the system office.
   
   Faculty teaching outside their normal academic area will be paid based on their highest degree level.  Example – if a faculty member with a master’s degree in Math teaches a PED course, their compensation will be paid at the master’s level.  Generally courses taught well outside their primary academic discipline should not be used to fill their semester teaching load; they should be considered adjunct instructors and their compensation would be subject to proration if their course has low enrollment. In under-load situations, these courses may be used to fill a faculty member’s load.  These situations should be discussed with the Vice President of Academic Affiars.
7. Under loaded teaching conditions:
   • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Certain conditions and situations may arise from time to time where reduced teaching loads shall be considered or are inevitable.  Additional duties could be assigned or a reduced adjustment in salary may be required as negotiated with the faculty member.
   • Recommendations from faculty and Department Chair or Director will be considered by the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
8. ​​​​​​​Additional academic duties shall be assigned to faculty members teaching less than a full load.  The additional duties shall be equated to the amount of reduced credit hours or contact hours.  Additional duties may include, but are not limited to, mentoring, division or college special projects, special curriculum development projects, or summer registration days.
   • ​​​​​​​In some cases, state-wide curriculum requirements for some programs may result in a faculty member being under-load.  Department Chairs or Directors will handle these on a case-by-case basis.  Examples would include nursing, cosmetology, and automotive technology.
   • ​​​​​​​If reasonable efforts to address under-load situations cannot be arrived at, the college will deduct any under-load percentage from their remaining monthly paychecks.
   • ​​​​​​​Starting in 2020-2021, the college moved some extra duty assignments such as advising and club sponsorships from credits to flat rate compensation to credits in accordance with the Affordable Care Act.
   • Exceptions to Yearly Teaching Loads:
   1. Nursing –Full-time workload for nursing faculty shall be 270 contact hours a semester or 540 contact hours a year or 18 hours per week.

Faculty who are working on advanced degrees will have release time of two (2) hours per week to work on their graduate courses and a four-day work week.  Because a course could start late or end early, this release time may change mid-semester.

Faculty who provide clinical instruction will have release time of four (4) hours per week for clinical paperwork and evaluations. 

Faculty assigned to coordinate the nursing lab will have release time of four (4) hours per week to prepare lab simulations and manage/order lab supplies.

The Director of Nursing will determine which full-time nursing faculty will be needed to provide adequate classroom and clinical instruction during the summer.  Those faculty shall receive a 24 day extended contract and will be paid at their daily rate of pay for summer courses.

2. Cosmetology – The Cosmetology Coordinator shall receive an additional 43 extra duty days per year.  This equates to a regular 163 day contract for the instructor and a 167 day contract for the coordinator.  Because of the number of required credits and clock hours required of students in the Cosmetology program, cosmetology instructors’ yearly load calculations for fall and spring semesters will not use credit or contact hours for load calculation.  Thirty-five (35) clock hours per week will be the normal load for the program coordinator and instructor for fall and spring semesters.  Five (5) hours per week can be off campus performing other duties such as buying supplies, grading, etc. 
3. Equine Management – The Equine Management Program Coordinator will receive an 18-day extended contract for responsibilities associated with weekend supervision of horses used in the equine management program.  The coordinator is responsible for making sure the horses are fed and cared for on weekends.  It is expected that the coordinator would check the horses at least once each weekend.  In addition, the coordinator is responsible to respond to any situations involving the horses on the weekends that require adult supervision and guidance.  The Equine Management Coordinator will be compensated one (1) credit per semester for coordination duties since he/she is responsible for their own custodial duties and has very limited administrative assistance available.
4. Agricultural Business Management –  For full-time or limited contract faculty, each student enrolled in a three-credit class in the ABM program shall be calculated at .333 credits towards instructor load or overload. For adjunct instructors, compensation will be paid at $366 per student enrolled in a three-credit class (see adjunct pay scale). Starting in Fall 2018, the ABM program was changed from 9 credit hour courses with certificates consisting of two courses to all courses being 3 credit hours and certificates still requiring 18 credits or six courses.
5. Livestock Judging Team Coach – The Livestock Judging Team Coach duties shall be assigned as extra duty with a regular faculty appointment.  The teaching load will be 10 credits per semester or 12.73 contact hours, (67% of 19) due to the number of weekend workouts and extended travel for national contests. This position will receive extra duty pay as per policy IP 1.11. 
6. Assistant Livestock Judging Coach – The assistant livestock judging team coach shall be assigned as extra duty with a regular faculty appointment.  The position will receive assistant coach extra duty pay as per policy IP 1.11.  No load reduction for this position.
7. Rodeo Coach – The head rodeo coach duties shall be assigned as extra duty with a regular faculty appointment.  The teaching load will be 10 credits per semester or 12.73 contact hours, (67% of 19).  This position will receive a 20-day extended contract for responsibilities associated with weekend rodeos, recruiting, national finals rodeo, arena/stall preparation and cleaning.  This position will receive head coach extra duty pay as per policy IP 1.11. 
8. Assistant Rodeo Coach – The assistant rodeo coach will receive a 20-day extended contract for responsibilities associated with weekend rodeos, recruiting, national finals rodeo, arena/stall preparation and cleaning.  The load for duties as assistant rodeo coach will be two (2) credits per semester.  This position will also receive extra duty pay as per policy IP 1.11.
9. Career and Tech Program Coordinators - If a program has national accreditation and must undergo an extensive self-evaluation and accreditation or re-accreditation process, the program coordinator responsible for this will receive one-half (0.5) credit per semester for that year.  Examples would be automotive and diesel with NATEF accreditation and nursing for NLN accreditation.  Those programs with multiple faculty share these responsibilities, the load may be split according to the recommendation of their supervisor.
10. Art Gallery Coordinator – The Art Gallery Coordinator will receive one (1) credit of load each semester for scheduling, coordinating, and supervising art exhibits and receptions in the Peter Youngers Art Gallery.
11. Choir/Band Concert Coordinators – The directors of vocal and instrumental concert performances will receive one (1) credit of load each semester for coordinating, organizing, and advertising one concert performance and organizing receptions following the concerts.  Even though there may be more than one choir or band performing, this compensation covers the entirety.
12. Theater Productions - The Theater Director will receive one (1) credit of load each semester for scheduling, coordinating, rehearsing, and directing one major theater performance each semester. 
13. Art Instructor: If two separate studio classes have six or more contact hours, then two lecture courses and two studio courses would constitute a full load each semester.
14. Northeastern Faculty Senate President – The President of the Northeastern Faculty Senate will receive one (1) credit each term (summer, fall, and spring) for the duties associated with leading the Faculty Senate and attending Leadership Team meetings.
15. Advising Overloads – Due to the requirements in some areas, there will be a special calculation for heavy advising loads.  One-half (0.5) credit will be given when a full-time instructor has a semester advisee load from 21-30 advisees.  One (1) credit will be given when a full-time instructor has a semester advisee load of 31+ advisees.  One and one-half (1.5) credits will be given when a full-time instructor has a semester advising load of over 45 advisees.  Only advisees with 6 or more credits per semester are included in this count.  Concurrent Enrollment students are not included in this count.   If possible, no instructor should be given more than 42 advisees each semester.  The respective Department Chair or Director will be responsible for controlling the distribution of advisees. 

Faculty advising during summer registration days will be paid at 3/4 of the faculty member’s daily rate of pay.

16. Academic Liaisons – These individuals will receive one and one-half (1.5) credits per semester towards their load for these duties.  Responsibilities include coordination and development of the class schedules for each term and session, assisting with a staffing plan so as to maintain and balance teaching loads, helping identify and employ adjunct faculty, keeping the college catalog current and up to date, and attending the Curriculum and Instruction Committee meetings.  If these duties are split among faculty within a department, then the 1.5 credits should be appropriately split also.
17. Department Chairs – If these positions are held by a faculty member, they will receive between 3 – 6 credits per semester and have between 18-38 additional contract days for their administrative responsibilities.  The actual load will be determined by the College President with advice and recommendation from the Vice President for Instruction.  In some cases, the department chair and academic liaison duties will be performed by the same person.  In those situations, the credit hour allowance for the department chair duties includes the credit hours allowed to be the academic liaison. 
18. Assessment Leadership Team – These individuals will receive one (1) credit per semester for leading their departments’ assessment efforts, including collection, analysis, review, recommendations, and attendance and participation in ALT meetings, department meetings, and state or national assessment related conferences and meetings.
19. State Faculty Curriculum Council (SFCC) – Northeastern’s two academic and career technical faculty representatives to this statewide council will receive one (1) credit per semester for these duties, or a three credit course reduction per semester. 
20. State Faculty Advisory Council (SFAC) - NJC’s SFAC representative to this statewide advisory council will receive one-half (0.5) credit per semester for these duties. 
21. Equine Stall Facility Manager – If this position is held by a faculty member, the individual will receive one (1) credit per semester for these duties. 
22. Developmental Lead Instructors – The lead instructors for developmental Math and College Composition and Reading will have an additional 14 contract days for coordination duties. They will also monitor the results from the new Multiple Measures assessment pilot and report to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
23. Paired Courses – Faculty (both fulltime and part-time) teaching a paired course such as CCR 94 and ENG 121 will be compensated one (1) credit the first time they teach a paired course. 
24. Honors Program – The Honors Program lead will receive the equivalent of two credits per semester for handling applications, interviews, activity, trip, and banquet coordination as well as general supervision of the Honors Program.
25. PSEO/Concurrent Lead – in Math and English, a one credit per semester release will be provided to set up online homework and sharing, mentoring of K12 concurrent instructors, creating and sharing/norming math final or English essays, visit and evaluate area district concurrent teachers at least once per year, and participation at training.
26. English Lead – The English Lead will receive 1.5 credits per semester to lead book selection efforts, lead meetings, evaluate and schedule adjuncts, schedule courses, and lead norming and assessment efforts in all English courses.
27. Concurrent Enrollment distance learning Courses – If a full-time faculty member teaches a course delivered to area high schools as a Concurrent Enrollment distance learning Course, they will be compensated one-half (0.5) credit each time they offer the class in that format. 
28. Club and Activity Sponsors and Coordinators – Faculty sponsoring or coordinating a student club or activity as listed at the end of this procedure will receive the compensation as noted below.

LOAD COMPENSATION FOR CLUB AND ACTIVITY SPONSORS AND COORDINATORS

In order to receive this compensation, clubs must be in good standing with ASG, have their club constitution on file with the ASG sponsor and attend CAB meetings as required.

If sponsorship duties are shared by two or more faculty, the compensation listed above will be split equally between them unless a different percentage split is approved by the Department Chair.

Club sponsors will be required to submit a Program of Work by October 15 and a Student Club Annual Report by May 1 to their supervisor.​​​​​​​

Summary of Changes from Previous Year

Added new pay scale information where applicable, a 3% increase in each. Removed several extra duty positions that were bound by Title III. Added the PSEO, English Lead, and Honors Program Lead categories. Added new definition under Assessment Leadership Team, replacing Assessment Subcommittee Chairs.

Approved by Leadership Team 07/16/2019