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Life University considers its faculty members to be professional educators. They are the frontline providers of high-quality educational experiences for our students. As full-time teaching professionals, there is an expectation that they will maintain a professional workweek involving a combination of teaching, scholarship, and service activities. While faculty members will have different assignments and/or percentages of time devoted to specific activities, it is important to consider the overall equity of workload throughout the faculty.
Full time faculty members are appointed on an academic-year basis; however, multi-year appointments may be issued to faculty members as detailed in Appendix 4. The general guidelines for workloads are detailed in this document. The University reserves the right to revise the Academic Calendar, establish hours of employment, schedule courses, and assign workloads.
In addition to teaching and service hours, faculty members will schedule weekly student hours as determined by assignment. Those hours will be posted, and faculty members must be available in person or electronically during those hours. Student hours extend through finals week of classes each quarter, concluding after Thursday, unless prior arrangements have been approved by the appropriate supervisor.
1.0 General Description by College
A. College of Chiropractic
1.1 Didactic Faculty
In general, a professional workweek for a full-time employee constitutes approximately 40 hours of commitment. For didactic faculty members in the College of Chiropractic, the University has defined a full-time teaching workload as constituting 60 credit hours of classroom instruction spread out over the four-quarter academic year with an average of 15 credit hours per quarter.
For each hour spent engaged in classroom instruction, there is an expectation of an average of 1.25 hours spent preparing classroom materials and evaluating student assessments. This equates to an average of 18.75 weekly hours for a full-time faculty member teaching 15 credit hours in a quarter.
Didactic faculty members are required to be available for a minimum of 4.5 student hours and, if teaching more than 15 credit hours, to average one student hour per three credit hours per week. On-campus faculty members will schedule at least two of those hours in their office. Others may be met by appointments and/or through electronic communication. Student hours are for the purposes of advising, mentoring and/or providing supplemental instruction (SI). During the scheduled student hours a faculty member may also develop assessment instruments, prepare for assignments, complete paperwork, and carry out similar duties if students are not present.
Didactic faculty members are also expected to participate in an average of 3 credit hours of service activities per quarter, and scholarly activities are highly encouraged. Scholarly activity is used for rank and promotion, not for meeting workload unless it is assigned by a dean as a special project to make up an underage. See Appendix 9 and 10 for the parameters and grading of service and scholarly activities.
No didactic faculty member shall be required to teach more than 15 credit hours per quarter unless additional hours are necessary to reach the annually required 60 credit hours. When a faculty member exceeds the 60-credit hour teaching load, the additional teaching hours are referred to as overage and paid as supplemental compensation after the required 60 credit hours are reached. (See Administrative Document 1 for details.)
The maximum teaching load, including overage, shall not exceed 20 credit hours in a given quarter except in the case of temporary circumstances. Teaching more than 17 credit hours per quarter should not be sustained for multiple quarters.
Selection of faculty members to teach overage will be at the supervisor’s discretion, using the following criteria: credentials, qualifications, quality of instruction, and availability of faculty members.
If the University anticipates that it will be unable to provide the minimum full-time annual teaching assignment for a faculty member, the faculty member may be assigned a special project, service, or non-standard activity that falls within the parameters of his/her duties to fulfill a full-time workload. These additional projects will be compensated at the contact or credit hour equivalents outlined in the service and scholarship documents (Appendices 9 and 10) or as discussed in this document and elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, including appendices and administrative documents. If the special project does not fall under the service or scholarship documents and is not discussed in this document or elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, the supervisor and Dean will determine the appropriate number of workload credits. Faculty members may also teach in another college, division, or department to make up an underage.
As the didactic faculty member’s assigned credit hours vary with overage and underage, so do the expectations for classroom preparation, grading, and student hour requirements. While recognizing the variability of faculty assignments and how long it takes to accomplish a given task, it is still useful to provide guidelines for the average minimum number of hours a faculty member spends on various activities. These guidelines give a common understanding of expectations for faculty members and their supervisors. The example below outlines these guidelines for a faculty member teaching 15 credit hours carrying 15 contact hours of workload credit.
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1.2 Clinic Faculty
In general, a professional workweek for a full-time employee constitutes approximately 40 hours of commitment. Full time clinic faculty members in the College of Chiropractic work 30 scheduled hours per week in the clinic. The primary priority of clinic faculty members is their availability during scheduled hours for patient care and intern education. Additionally, an average of seven hours per week is spent on clinic/patient administrative duties as part of the professional work week. The minimum service requirement is an average of three credit hours per quarter beyond the 30 hours in clinic and the 7 for administrative duties. Scholarly activities are highly encouraged. See Appendices 9 and 10 for the parameters and grading of service and scholarly activities.
While recognizing the variability of faculty assignments and how long it takes to accomplish a given task, it is still useful to provide guidelines for the average minimum number of hours a full-time faculty member spends on various activities. These guidelines give a common understanding of expectations for faculty members and their supervisors. The example below outlines these guidelines for a full-time clinic faculty member.
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B. College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies
2.1 Undergraduate Faculty
In general, a professional workweek for a full-time employee constitutes approximately 40 hours of commitment. For undergraduate faculty members in the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, the University has defined a full-time teaching workload as 45 credit hours of classroom instruction spread out over the three-quarter academic year with an average of 15 credit hours per quarter.
For each hour spent engaged in classroom instruction, there is an expectation of an average of 1.25 hours spent preparing classroom materials and evaluating student assessments. This equates to 18.75 weekly hours for a full-time faculty member teaching 15 credit hours in a quarter.
Undergraduate faculty members are required to be available for a minimum of 4.5 hours and, if teaching more than 15 credit hours, to average one student hour per three credit hours per week. On-campus faculty members will schedule at least two of those hours in their office. Others may be met by appointments and/or through electronic communication. On-line faculty members will schedule at least two hours a week when they will be available regularly for students. The additional hours will be met electronically. Student hours are for the purposes of advising, mentoring and/or one on one instruction. During the scheduled hours a faculty member may also develop assessment instruments, prepare for assignments, complete paperwork, and carry out similar duties if students are not present.
Undergraduate faculty members also are expected to participate in an average of 3 credit hours of service activities per quarter, and scholarly activities are highly encouraged. Scholarly activity is used for rank and promotion, not for meeting workload unless it is assigned by a dean as a special project to make up an underage. See Appendix 9 for the parameters and grading of service.
Scholarly activity credit for supervising undergraduate student theses or research projects will be granted to an undergraduate faculty member only if he/she has been assigned official responsibility by the immediate supervisor. The assigned faculty member supervising a thesis or research project will receive 1 CH toward scholarly activity per assigned student for each term during which the thesis is being actively worked on. The maximum number of students per faculty member is four per term except in extenuating circumstances that must be pre-approved by the Dean.
No Undergraduate faculty member shall be required to teach more than 15 credit hours per quarter unless additional hours are necessary to reach the annually required 45 credit hours. When a faculty member exceeds the 45-credit hour teaching load, the additional teaching hours are referred to as overage and paid as supplemental compensation after the required 45 credit hours are reached (See Administrative Document 1 for details).
The maximum teaching load, including overage, shall not exceed 20 credit hours in a given quarter except in the case of temporary circumstances. Teaching more than 17 credit hours per quarter should not be sustained for multiple quarters.
Selection of faculty members to teach overage will be at the supervisor’s discretion, using the following criteria: credentials, qualifications, quality of instruction, and availability of faculty members.
If the University anticipates that it will be unable to provide the minimum full-time annual teaching assignment for a faculty member, the faculty member may be assigned a special project, service, or non-standard activity that falls within the parameters of his/her duties to fulfill a fulltime workload. These additional projects will be compensated at the contact or credit hour equivalents outlined in the service and scholarship documents (Appendices 9 and 10) or as discussed in this document and elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, including appendices and administrative documents. If the special project does not fall under the service or scholarship documents and is not discussed in this document or elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, the supervisor and Dean will determine the appropriate number of workload credits. Faculty members may also teach in another college, division, or department to make up an underage.
As the undergraduate faculty member’s assigned credit hours vary with overage and underage, so do the expectations for classroom preparation, grading, and student hour requirements. While recognizing the variability of faculty assignments and how long it takes to accomplish a given task, it is still useful to provide guidelines for the average minimum number of hours a faculty member spends on various activities. These guidelines give a common understanding of expectations for faculty members and their supervisors. The example below outlines these guidelines for a faculty member teaching 15 credit hours carrying 15 contact hours of workload credit.
2.2 Graduate Faculty
In general, a professional workweek for a full-time employee constitutes approximately 40 hours of commitment. For graduate faculty members within the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, the University has defined a full-time teaching workload as 36 credit hours of classroom instruction spread out over the three-quarter academic year with an average of 12 credit hours per quarter.
For each hour spent engaged in instruction, there is an expectation of an average of 1.25 hours spent preparing classroom materials and evaluating student assessments. This equates to an average of 15 weekly hours for a full-time member of the graduate faculty teaching 12 credit hours.
Graduate faculty members are required to be available for a minimum of 3 student hours, and, if teaching more than 12 credit hours, to average one student hour per three credit hours per week. On-campus faculty members will schedule at least two of those hours in their office. Others may be met by appointments and/or through electronic communication. On-line faculty members will schedule at least two hours a week when they will be available regularly for students. The additional hours will be met electronically. Student hours are for the purposes of advising, mentoring and/or tutoring. During the scheduled hours a faculty member may also develop assessment instruments, prepare for assignments, complete paperwork, and similar duties if students are not present.
Graduate faculty members also are required to participate in an average of 3 credit hours of service activities per quarter. See Appendix 9 for the parameters and grading of service. Graduate faculty members oversee and facilitate graduate student thesis/dissertation composition and research including chairing thesis/dissertation committees. To maintain a professional workweek with a reduction in instructional responsibilities, a member of the graduate faculty is expected to engage in an average of 8 hours of scholarly activity per week. See Appendix 10 for the parameters and grading of scholarly activities.
Scholarly activity credit for supervising graduate student theses will be granted to a graduate faculty member only if he/she has been assigned official responsibility by the immediate supervisor. The assigned faculty member supervising a thesis will receive 1 CH toward scholarly activity per assigned student for each term during which the thesis is being actively worked on. The maximum number of students per faculty member is four per term except in extenuating circumstances that must be pre-approved by the Dean. Scholarly activity credit that is used for meeting workload cannot be used for rank and promotion.
No Graduate faculty member shall be required to teach more than 12 credit hours per quarter unless additional hours are necessary to reach the required 36 credit hours. When a faculty member exceeds the 36-credit hour teaching load, the additional teaching hours are referred to as overage and paid as supplemental compensation after the required 36 credit hours are reached. (See Administrative Document 1 for details.)
The maximum teaching load, including overage, shall not exceed 15 credit hours in a given quarter except in the case of temporary situations. Teaching more than 15 credit hours per quarter should not be sustained for multiple quarters.
If a full-time faculty member is assigned more than the maximum teaching workload and is not carrying any underage from previous quarters, he or she will be provided supplemental compensation (see Administrative Document 1) for additional teaching. The university administration will determine payment schedules for supplemental pay.
Selection of faculty members to teach overage will be at the supervisor’s discretion, using the following criteria: credentials, qualifications, quality of instruction, and availability of faculty members.
If the University anticipates that it will be unable to provide the minimum full-time annual teaching assignment for a faculty member, the faculty member may be assigned a special project, service, or non-standard activity that falls within the parameters of his/her duties to fulfill a fulltime workload. These additional projects will be compensated at the contact or credit hour equivalents outlined in the service and scholarship documents (Appendices 9 and 10) or as discussed in this document and elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, including appendices and administrative documents. If the special project does not fall under the service or scholarship documents and is not discussed in this document or elsewhere in the Faculty Handbook, the supervisor and Dean will determine the appropriate number of workload credits. Faculty members may also teach in another college, division, or department to make up an underage.
As the graduate faculty member’s assigned credit hours vary with overage and underage, so do the expectations for classroom preparation, grading, and student hour requirements. While recognizing the variability of faculty assignments and how long it takes to accomplish a given task, it is still useful to provide guidelines for the average minimum number of hours a faculty member spends on various activities. These guidelines give a common understanding of expectations for faculty members and their supervisors. The example below outlines these guidelines for a faculty member teaching 12 credit hours carrying 12 contact hours of workload credit.
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2.3 Clinical Faculty
In general, a professional work week for a full-time employee constitutes approximately 40 hours of commitment. Full time Clinical Faculty members in the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies teach 1 course per quarter and are scheduled as preceptor and/or campus clinician in their respective discipline for 30 hours per week. The primary priority of clinical faculty members is their availability for intern education and supervision of care. The minimum service requirement is an average of three credit hours per quarter in addition to other duties outlined above. Scholarly activities are highly encouraged. See appendices 9 and 10 for parameters and grading of service and scholarly activity.
While recognizing the variability of faculty assignments and how long it takes to accomplish a given task, it is still useful to provide guidelines for the average minimum number of hours a full-time faculty member spends on various activities. These guidelines give a common understanding of expectations for faculty members and their supervisors. The example below outlines these guidelines for a fulltime clinical faculty member in the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies.
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2.0 Modifiers of workload credits
A. Modifiers of Teaching Credits
1. Definitions of Credit Hours (CH)
a. One hour of classroom instruction is compensated at 1.0 CH towards workload
b. One hour of laboratory instruction is compensated at 0.75 CH towards workload
2. Small Classes
a. The University has set guidelines for determining the number of students required for an academic course to be offered and count toward load at the full credit hour listing of the course. Regularly scheduled courses that fall below the minimum enrollment and need to be taught will be pro-rated based on the credit hours of the course being taught. The chart below distinguishes these levels among the colleges and types of courses.
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b For example, an undergraduate course requires a minimum of 10 students for a didactic course to run at full CH load. For each student fewer than 10, the award will be reduced by 1/10 of the credit load value. If a 5 CH course has 9 students enrolled, the CH counted toward load would be 4.5 CH (9/10*5); 8 students would be 4 CH (8/10*5) counted toward load, and so on. The same formula will be used to calculate an overage. This calculation will occur as of the census date each quarter.
c Situations may exist when exceptions to the above are granted by the Dean. This may occur when, but is not limited to:
i. Students need the course to graduate, and it will not be offered again prior to the anticipated graduation date
ii. The course is new or being offered for the first time
iii. In these instances, a low enrolled course must be approved by the Dean in consultation with the supervisor and may be counted as full credit toward faculty load.
3. Large Classes
a. A faculty member will be provided an additional CH allowance for class sizes as determined on the census date (Second Tuesday of each quarter) as follows:
i. Course section fewer than 80 students: no additional compensation
ii. Course section with 80- 119 students: 0.25 CH
iii. Course section with 120 – 159 students: 0.50 CH
iv. Course section with 160 – 199 students: 0.75 CH
v. Courses with more than 200 students: 1.00 CH
4. Independent Study
a. Independent Study engages a student(s) in the pursuit of clearly defined goals and is appropriate when a student wants to explore a subject more fully than is possible in a regular course or to study a subject not covered in the regular curriculum. In this effort a student may employ skills and information developed in previous course experiences or may develop some mastery of new knowledge or skills. This type of learning requires self-discipline, motivation and commitment to coursework and would not be appropriate for students who need maximum instructor contact; therefore, every accepted student must possess a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 earned with a minimum of 140 completed credit hours. The chief distinction of a directed study is that an individual faculty member works with the student prior to the initiation of the study (or at its very beginning) and at the completion of the study. While the student and instructor may meet regularly or irregularly, the student assumes the responsibility of fulfilling the terms of the study.
b. The Dean will calculate the appropriate number of credit hours to be awarded based on the anticipated effort required from the student during the term, consistent with the university’s CH policy. Faculty members are compensated at one-half the credit hours attached to the course.
5. Directed Study Course
a. A Tutorial (or non-Scheduled) Course is offered in rare instances when one or more students need an already approved course to complete their degree.
b. A Directed Study course must be approved by the Dean. Faculty members are compensated at one-half the credit hours attached to the course. If a course with a laboratory is approved, the faculty member will be compensated at the usual laboratory rate
6. Course Preparation
a. Normally full-time didactic faculty members will carry a minimum of one (1) course preparation (prep) and a maximum of four (4) unique course preps in a given quarter. In-load an additional one teaching credit hour per additional unique course prep will be granted to any faculty member responsible for more than four unique course preps. If taught as an overage, it will be compensated as supplemental pay at the current overage rate.
7. New Course Development and Substantive Modifications
a. Any proposed new course must be approved by the supervisor, in consultation with the Dean, prior to initiating course development. A faculty member developing an approved course that is new to the curriculum will be granted credit toward workload or compensated at the current overage rate as supplemental pay at a per credit rate of 0.5 times the course credit hours.
b. Faculty members may also be asked by their supervisor, in consultation with the Dean, to make substantive modifications to an existing course that would necessitate review by one of the college curriculum committees. A faculty member making substantive modifications to a course will be granted credit toward workload or compensated at the current overage rate as supplemental pay at a per credit rate of 0.5 times the course credit hours.
c. A faculty member who receives compensation for course development or substantive modification may not claim credit for that activity as part of their rank and promotion dossier.
8. Teaching a New Course
a. A full-time faculty member teaching a course new to him or her (but not new to the curriculum) will be granted credit towards teaching workload or overage of one credit hour above the actual contact hours for the course in the first quarter that they are assigned to teach the course. This workload credit compensates faculty members for the additional course preparation needed the first time they teach a course. In-load an additional one teaching credit hour per new course will be granted. If taught as an overage, it will be compensated as supplemental pay at the current overage rate. Credit for teaching a new course is independent of any course development/substantive modification credits that may be granted.
B. Service Activities
Service activities are those activities in which a faculty member uses one’s knowledge or skills as a benefit to the institution, professional organizations or the community. The skills and expertise brought to bear in service activities should provide unmistakable benefit. Such activities are an integral part of a faculty member’s duties as noted throughout the sections above. A minimum of 3university service credits is required each quarter from full-time faculty members. Service has two basic components: internal (typically on campus) and external (profession and community).
A full description of the weighting and evidence for excellence in service activities is found in Appendix 9.
C. Scholarly Activities
For promotion in rank scholarly accomplishments must be included. Scholarly activity is the active intellectual pursuit of new ideas or the creative application of existing methods within one’s field of expertise the significance of which is generally validated by one’s peers. According to the Ernest Boyer1 model of scholarship, scholarly work can be broken down into four distinct categories: Discovery, Integration, Application or Engagement, and Teaching and Learning. Original research that advances the knowledge of one’s unique discipline falls under the scholarship of discovery. Scholarship of integration pertains to the interdisciplinary application of knowledge and information. Scholarship of engagement is the integration of education with community development for the purpose of application to social issues. Finally, the scholarship of teaching parallels that of discovery within the specific context of teaching and learning processes.
A full description of the weighting and evidence for excellence in scholarly activities is found in Appendix 10.
1 Boyer, EL. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ:
Scholarship and creative activity are understood to be intellectual works whose significance is validated by peers, and which is communicated. The principle of peer review and recognition becomes increasingly important as the faculty member progresses through the academic ranks. Scholarship emphasizes project-oriented behavior that results in a measurable product or outcome (e.g., a publication, written report, manual, or protocol).
Consistent with the seminal work by Ernest Boyer (Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, 1990, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass) this activity includes, but is not limited to, the following types of academic work:
• Scholarship of discovery; pursuit of knowledge through original research, most often by application of the scientific process;
• Scholarship of integration; work that pulls together knowledge, views information in creative ways, often using interdisciplinary methods;
• Scholarship of application; develops knowledge through practice and systematic or scientific research, then applies knowledge to real-world problems;
• Scholarship of teaching; problem posting about an issue of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to disciplinary epistemologies, application of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection, and peer review.
Parameters of Scholarship
Acceptable scholarship must have the following characteristics:
• A rationale for how the activity or behavior supports the Mission of the University;
• Documented evidence that the activity was performed and completed;
• Criteria that establish that the outcome or result met an acceptable standard of quality.
Grading of Scholarship
Scholarship will be categorized or graded as “A”, “B”, or “C”. Categorization will depend on the level of importance to the mission of the University, degree of effort involved, timeliness of effort, and degree of quality, especially with respect to the parameters listed above. Scholarship activities not listed below, and the value thereof, will be categorized on the following lists.
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