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Faculty Handbook

Appendix VII—Faculty Development Leave

Teaching Load Policy

Faculty workload embraces the primary responsibility of West Texas A&M University, which is the provision of undergraduate and graduate education of the highest quality. In fulfillment of this primary responsibility, the University expects its faculty to be effective and accessible teachers. In support of this, and as an integral part of the teaching mission, all faculty are expected to:

• Stay current in their fields of study
• Participate in the revision and development of the
  University’s curricula
  
• Engage in research/scholarship/creative activity (optional for non-tenure track faculty)
• Engage in professional service The expectations for and assessment of teaching, research/scholarship/creative activity and professional service vary according to the goals and expectations of each academic unit. Faculty members are required to have a working knowledge of these goals and expectations by consulting the Faculty Handbook, their

academic department’s Unit Plan, and their academic department’s Minimum Standards for Performance.

1. Faculty Teaching Load
   1. All departments should plan to offer classes as large as is suitable for the content area and the mode of instruction. Department heads have the responsibility to section courses—including online courses—to ensure manageable class size and to maintain quality instruction. University core courses and individual college requirements may most easily lend themselves to large enrollments.
   2. More than one section of advanced courses should not normally be offered unless enrollment totals and scheduling needs warrant the offerings. Graduate sections should be as large as suitable for the particular instruction involved.
   3. As a general rule, off-campus classes should be planned for enrollments that will generate revenue that equals all costs associated with teaching the course. For undergraduate and graduate courses, a minimum of 20 and 10 students, respectively, should be the goals.
   4. Minimum class size as required by statute is ten undergraduate students and five graduate students. Approval must be granted for any exceptions to this requirement.
   5. In departments that offer classes that are relatively “small” but above the minimum class size, some faculty may need to teach above-normal loads and/or larger classes to generate the necessary student semester hours for funding purposes.
2. Calculations in Support of Faculty Teaching Loads
   1. A teaching load of 12 adjusted contact hours is expected of full-time tenured/tenure track faculty and non-tenure track/temporary faculty who have elected to conduct research/scholarship/creative activity; a teaching load of 15 adjusted contact hours is expected of non-tenure track/temporary faculty without research activity.
   2. Credit for organized courses (lecture, lab or seminar).

Type of Course, Organized	Adjusted Contact Hour (ACH)
1 lecture contact hour • Undergraduate, under 75 students • Undergraduate, 75-89 students • Undergraduate, 90-114 • Undergraduate, greater than 114	1.00 1.33 1.67 2.00
1 WTOnline undergraduate credit hour, first time taught 1 WTOnline graduate credit hour, first time taught	1.17 1.25
1 laboratory contact hour	0.50
1 clinical contact hour (organized)	0.67
1 studio contact hour (art or dance)	0.67
1 lecture contact hour (5000 or 6000 level)	1.17
1 lecture contact hour (7000 or 8000 level)	1.25

NOTE: Department heads may request reassigned time, sectioning or some other means to assist faculty in large WTOnline courses.

Type of Course	Total ACH
Primary performance (marching band, symphonic band, chorale, orchestra)	5.0
Secondary performance (collegiate choir, concert band)	2.5
Summer performance organizations	2.0

4. 4. "Credit for non-organized courses (practicum, independent instruction, thesis/dissertation, readings, applied music, etc.)

Type of Course, Non Organized Adjusted Contact Hour Weight (Per Student, Per Credit Hour*)
Readings/Problems • Undergraduate (and Honors Thesis) 0.10 • Masters 0.20 • Doctoral 0.25
Practicum 0.17
Student Teaching 0.50 per student**
Applied Music 0.667 Applied Music per contact hour 1 SCH = 0.5 CH x weight 2 & 3 SCH = 1 CH x weight
Master’s Thesis 0.25
Doctoral Dissertation 0.33

*Weight x Credit Hour(s) x Number of Students = ACH **Weight x Number of Students = ACH
Note: In any given semester, a faculty member may accumulate no more than 3.00 adjusted contact hours (ACH) in combination of practicum, readings, problems, theses/dissertations, and independent studies. This limit of 3.00 ACH does not apply to MUAP enrollments for music faculty. A student’s honors thesis may only count toward a faculty member’s load for one semester, a master’s thesis for two semesters and a doctoral dissertation for four semesters. Exception to this limitation must be approved by the department head and academic dean.

1. 5. Faculty members may accumulate excess teaching load during long semesters. The accumulated excess load is not limited by academic or fiscal year, but no more than 3 ACH of accumulated load may be used to apply for reassigned time in any given semester. When a faculty member’s load reaches an excess of 3 ACH and resources permit, consideration by the department head for reassigned time may be given. The excess 3 ACH load must be used within 24 months of reaching 3 ACH or the total accumulated excess load will decrease by 3 ACH. Excess accumulated load continues to accrue but will be decreased by 3 ACH after the 24-month period, whether or not the 3 ACH excess load was used for reassigned time.
   6. Faculty members may be credited only for laboratory, practice or studio sections they personally teach.
   7. A faculty member may teach only one specially scheduled course at one time during a semester or term. (Specially scheduled classes are organized classes that have a specific schedule different in at least one respect from regularly scheduled classes.) During any semester or term a faculty member may teach up to an effective teaching load of 24 ACH for as long as three weeks, so long as during the rest of the semester or term the faculty member does not teach an overload. Exceptions must be administratively approved.
   8. In order to facilitate unique instructional experiences that utilize multiple faculty members, departments may, while avoiding additional expense to the University, approve team teaching or shared instruction assignments. For team teaching, full load credit may be given each of the instructors in those cases where all instructors are present during all class periods and are actively participating in instruction. In those cases where responsibility for instruction is divided among a number of faculty members (shared instruction), each instructor shall receive credit for that portion of the load for which the faculty member is responsible.
   9. A faculty member teaching correspondence courses may be responsible for no more than 14 correspondence students at any given time. Correspondence courses are not considered when calculating load.
   10. Opportunities for summer teaching may exist at the discretion of the department head. The equivalent of a normal teaching load for full-time tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty who have elected to conduct research in a summer term is 6 ACH; non-tenure track/temporary faculty without the research component, 7.5 ACH. Faculty with less than twelve-month appointments may not accumulate load credits during the summer nor may they use accumulated load credit in the summer terms for reassigned time.
   11. Normal teaching load for teaching assistants and for graduate assistants who teach is 6 ACH. Any deviation requires prior administrative approval. Teaching assistants and graduate assistants do not accrue teaching load credits.
   12. For a part-time instructor, the load will be proportional to the fraction of a full-time appointment assigned to the individual (e.g., 0.20, one three-semester-hour class during a semester). Part-time faculty do not accrue teaching load credits nor may they receive or use reassigned time.
   13. Special requests beyond those outlined above may be recommended by the appropriate dean and must be approved by the provost/vice president for academic affairs before being granted (e.g., serving as department head, coordinating multi-section lecture courses, coordination of programs, supervision and training of teaching assistants, etc.).

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