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Teaching Workload

The teaching load of individual faculty members is determined by the Dean or Division Chair in consultation with the Vice President for Academic Affairs and subject to the approval of the President. As part of this consultative process, allowance may be made for administrative service to the College, scholarly research, activity in professional organizations, artistic enterprises, and other contributions.

  1. The normal teaching load is 24 contact hours per nine-month academic year. Full time faculty are expected to teach 12 contact hours in each of the regular academic semesters. (Faculty in Division of Education teach 21 contact hours per New York State Department of Education.)
  2. In assigning courses to individual faculty, Chairpersons should take into consideration the number of different preparations as well as the number of students generally populating each class.
    1. Faculty should not be required to teach more than three different preparations in a given semester.
    2. Faculty are expected to teach both introductory level and upper level courses, preferably two sections of each, to ensure that freshman are exposed to the expertise of our full-time faculty.
  3. The following are counted as 3 contact hours:
    1. In education, the supervision of the student teaching of four students.
    2. In music, the directing of an ensemble.
    3. In theatre, the directing and producing of a play, musical, or other production approved by the VPAA.
    4. In media studies the oversight of a production company (e.g. Mount Media Productions) that involves students creating video content for external clients.
  4. For academic units that have programs that run during the summer, upon recommendation of the academic unit Chairperson or Dean, and with the approval of the VPAA, a faculty member may be allowed to teach a 12-credit summer workload in place of one of the two traditional (fall or spring) semesters. The faculty member would teach a 12-credit workload and maintain office hours during the summer and one of the traditional semesters. During the other traditional semester, the faculty member would be required to carry the full complement of advisees, and fulfill all committee and academic unit obligations, including attending meetings and admission events. This opportunity is only available to academic units that run programs during the summer, not those that only offer courses.

    Procedure:

    1. The faculty member would submit a written request to the Chairperson or Dean of the academic division.
    2. The Chairperson or Dean would discuss the request with the faculty member, considering the impact on scheduling.
    3. The Chairperson or Dean would forward the written request with their recommendation to the VPAA for consideration.
    4. The VPAA would respond within two weeks.
  5. All faculty members are expected to direct a reasonable number of Independent Studies if requested. These will not be counted in the teaching load of any faculty member but must be considered when the faculty member's workload is determined.
    1. A record will be kept, by the Registrar's Office, of the number each faculty member directs and that record will be available in the Faculty Evaluation process.
    2. No faculty member may mentor more than 6 credits/semester.
    3. Full time faculty may not use independent study mentorship in place of full time regular teaching obligations.
    4. The Overload Policy will apply to independent study credits offered as overloads in a traditional semester.
    5. Faculty who mentor independent study will receive a stipend.