Ohio Administrative Code
Title 3349 - Northeast Ohio Medical University
Chapter 3349-3 - Faculty Rules
Section 3349-3-203 - Faculty workload
Universal Citation: OH Admin Code 3349-3-203
Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Purpose.
The purpose of this policy is to recognize faculty for their contributions to the mission of the university and to establish a framework through which the teaching, research and service workload is equitably distributed between faculty members in a transparent and consistent manner.
(B) Scope
This rule applies to all types of faculty appointments for tenure, tenure track, or non-tenure track faculty employed by the university. This rule does not apply to affiliated or co-funded faculty, nor does it include faculty members with adjunct, intermittent, research or visiting appointments. This rule does not include faculty whose primary role is administrative, specifically faculty who serve in a role as a vice president, general counsel, college dean, or as the director of a college center or university institute (or specifically designated otherwise by the provost). The workload requirements set forth in this rule are meant to be complementary to and work in coordination with the faculty empowerment plan (FEP), the faculty incentive plan (FIP), the college and university research incentive plan (RIP), and the annual performance evaluation (APE).
(C) Definitions
Words have their ordinary and widely accepted meaning unless the word or phrase has been assigned a specific meaning within the university faculty bylaws, the university faculty bylaws appendices or university rules. The following terms are specific to this rule:
(1)
"Academic year" for the purposes of this rule, aligns
with the fiscal year of the university and commences on July first through June
thirtieth.
(2)
"Full time" for the purposes of this policy, refers to
the expectation that a faulty member works approximately one thousand eight
hundred forty hours per year for a twelve-month appointment (i.e., a
fifty-two-week appointment, exclusive of vacations and holidays, is equal to
forty-six work weeks per year at forty hours per week, or one thousand eight
hundred forty work hours per calendar year).
(3)
"Research" refers
to investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge
relating broadly to public health, including behavioral and social-sciences
research. The term encompasses basic and applied research and other
mission-relevant scholarly activities, product development, innovation,
entrepreneurship, and commercialization. In the context of this rule, all
research activity should be in alignment with university's research focus
areas.
(4)
"Research-active faculty" refers to faculty who have
satisfied their research workload and annual performance expectations as
described in this rule and established by the department chair.
(5)
"Research-inactive Faculty" refers to those faculty who have
failed to satisfy their research workload or annual performance expectations as
described in this rule and established by the department chair and have
consequently been temporarily relieved of their research workload pending
completion of a plan to return to research-active faculty
status.
(6)
"Service" refers to activities that support the
university, profession, and the broader community. All service activity should
be in alignment with guidelines as set forth in the faculty handbook and
university rules and faculty bylaws.
(7)
"Teaching" refers
to approved activities involving instructional interactions with students that
are consistent with the university's educational mission and goals. Classroom
(including instruction in the simulation center), online, or hybrid instruction
all count equally toward workload requirements.
(8)
"Teaching
overload" refers to faculty who exceed the generally prescribed workload
requirements for teaching.
(9)
"Workload
substitution" refers to the ability of a faculty to substitute one category of
workload for another. Specifically, research-active tenure track or non-tenure
track faculty members who have secured extramural funding with full external
salary support may request to substitute their research activities for portions
of their teaching workload, as can faculty who have been assigned significant
administrative duties by the dean or provost. A workload substitution can be no
more than seventy-five per cent of the faculty member's teaching workload for
the academic year unless recommended by the dean and approved by the
provost.
(D) Policy statement
(1)
Annual workload
distributions
(a)
The workload percentages provided herein are determined
annually by the department chair and approved by the dean of the college where
the faculty member has their primary appointment and the provost. In the case
where the faculty member's workload will be distributed across more than one
college, the dean of the college holding the primary appointment must review,
and if appropriate, also approve, the distribution and workload per centages
outside of the college prior to submission to the provost. Satisfying workload
requirements is a prerequisite to the performance standards established for
reappointment, promotion, or tenure. General guidelines for workload
distribution include:
(i)
Tenured faculty: forty per cent teaching, forty per
cent research, twenty per cent service;
(ii)
Tenure track
faculty: forty per cent teaching, fifty per cent research, ten per cent
service; and
(iii)
Non-tenure track faculty and research-inactive faculty:
sixty to eighty per cent teaching, ten to twenty per cent scholarship, ten to
thirty per cent service.
(iv)
New tenure track assistant professors will have a fifty
per cent teaching workload substitution in the first two years of employment
and a twenty-five per cent reduction in year three, resulting in the following
workload distribution:
(a)
Year one and two: twenty per cent teaching, seventy per
cent research, ten per cent service
(b)
Year three:
thirty per cent teaching, sixty per cent research, ten per cent
service
(b)
Requests for
exceptions to the foregoing general guidelines will be referred to the provost
for review and determination.
(c)
To the extent a
faculty offer letter sets forth workload distributions different than stated in
this rule, the dean will recommend a revised workload distribution that aligns
with the tenets of this rule to the provost for review and
determination.
(d)
Activities eligible for credit under this policy are
listed in appendix A to this policy. University-approved committees, along with
maximal allowable service credit for each committee, are listed in appendix B
to this policy. The provost must approve any additional activities not listed
in appendix A to this policy or any workload credit beyond what is stated in
appendix B to this policy.
(e)
Faculty may
request a workload substitution, when external funding offsets the teaching the
faculty member ordinarily would have done. The amount of payment must be
consistent with the funded salary support. The external funding will be
transferred from the office of research and sponsored programs' grant index to
a university personnel index. The substitution in teaching workload for
research-active faculty is limited to no more than seventy-five per cent of the
faculty member's teaching effort per academic year, unless approved by the dean
and the provost.
(f)
Tenured or tenure track research-inactive faculty will
have a sixty to eighty per cent teaching workload, with the remainder of their
workload allocated to service, at the discretion of the department chair and
approval of their dean and the provost. Research-inactive faculty may develop a
plan in consultation with their department chair, which is approved by the dean
and the provost, to return to research-active faculty status. The faculty
member may return to research-active status after they receive an APE score of
"meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations" along with the approval of the
dean.
(g)
Tenure track research-inactive faculty who do not
complete a plan to regain research-active status or who complete a plan but do
not achieve an APE research score of "meets expectations" or "exceeds
expectations" after doing so will be moved to part-time employment status
commensurate to the reduction of their research workload distribution, or if
tenured, addressed in compliance with the post-tenure review
process.
(h)
This rule will align with the FEP as well as the FIP
and RIP. Adjustments to compensation or workload may occur in the following
circumstances:
When a faculty member has a teaching overload, the department chair may recommend a compensation adjustment to the dean to reflect the faculty member's increased productivity. department chairs will assess both the degree to which the faculty member exceeds teaching workload requirements as well as the quality of their teaching. The amount of proposed compensation adjustment will be discussed with the provost to ensure equity across all the colleges. Compensation will be from college funds and will be only for the current year. Faculty must qualify each year to receive consideration for additional compensation.
(2)
Teaching
expectations and the APE
(a)
High quality education is critical to achieving the
university's mission and, as such, is a requirement of all teaching faculty.
Among factors considered to assess teaching quality, student evaluations will
comprise at least twenty-five per cent of those factors. Faculty members should
have high scores on those evaluations and the preponderance of comments about
their teaching should be strongly positive. All faculty are expected to
participate in the university's educational programs through teaching. To
maintain teaching privileges, faculty are required to maintain an APE teaching
component score of "meets expectations" or "exceeds
expectations."
(b)
Faculty who receive an APE teaching component score of
"does not meet expectations" will have their teaching responsibilities
temporarily suspended and within two months must successfully complete a
teaching excellence course designated by the provost and consult with the
institute for teaching excellence on matters related to optimal course content
design. After the director of the institute for teaching excellence confirms
the successful completion of the teaching excellence course and consultation
with instructional design staff, the faculty member may resume teaching
duties.
(c)
If a faculty member receives a second teaching score of
"does not meet expectations" on their ape within a three-year period, teaching
privileges will be revoked until they are able to complete a comprehensive
plan, developed by the department chair and approved by the dean, to improve
their teaching skills, at which time they may request reinstatement of their
teaching privileges. The faculty member may regain teaching privileges at the
discretion of the dean following successful completion of all elements of the
plan and after a successful, minimum three-month trial period and observation
by the department chair.
(d)
Tenured faculty members who have had their teaching
privileges revoked will be addressed in compliance with the post-tenure review
process. Non-tenure track faculty who have their teaching privileges revoked
may have their employment terminated.
(3)
Research
expectations and the APE
(a)
All tenure-track and tenured faculty are expected to
engage in research as appropriate for their disciplines and rank to earn
distinction in their respective fields. Non-tenure-track faculty are expected
to have a research workload of at least ten per cent which may include
scholarship, creative activities, or professional development, unless otherwise
excused by the dean and provost.
(b)
Research-active
faculty are expected to show evidence of peer recognition for their research
through some combination of the following activities:
(i)
An ongoing
program of scholarship;
(ii)
Demonstrated track record of grant proposal
submission;
(iii)
Obtaining external grant funding;
(iv)
Dissemination of
scholarly contributions in peer-reviewed or other respected academic journals
or scholarly books;
(v)
Presenting at scholarly conferences or other public
venues at a level that is consistent with expectations for peers at research
universities; and
(vi)
Developing a plan for scholarly productivity in the
coming year.
(c)
Faculty will be considered "research-inactive"
beginning the semester following any of these occurences:
(i)
Absence of any
peer-reviewed publications in the past three years; or
(ii)
In the absence
of external funding, no new applications for external research funding in the
past three years; or
(iii)
A lack of any research presentations (lectures or post
presentations) at peer conferences in a three year period; or
(iv)
The receipt of
an APE with a research component score of "does not meet expectations" on two
evaluations within a three year period.
(d)
Tenure track
research-inactive faculty may be moved to part-time employment status equal to
their teaching responsibilities. Tenured faculty will be addressed in
compliance with the post-tenure review process. Non-tenure track faculty who
become research-inactive faculty may have their employment
terminated.
(4)
Service expections and APE
(a)
The list of
approved faculty activities is contained in appendix A. Approved committees for
which faculty can receive service credit, along with maximum allowable credit
for each committee, is contained in appendix B to this policy.
(b)
Department,
college, and university service. For the department to achieve its mission, it
is the responsibility of each faculty member to be engaged in service aligned
with the university and college missions, regardless of rank. Service includes,
but is not limited to:
(i)
Leading and serving on university
committees;
(ii)
Serving as the official advisor to a student
organization;
(iii)
Participating in self-study or other accreditation
processes;
(iv)
Participating in student recruitment events, student
orientation and culminating experiences;
(v)
Directing
educational programs; and
(vi)
Serving on a
dissertation/thesis committee.
(c)
Administrative
service. This consists of formal administrative roles authorized or assigned by
the dean, provost, or president.
(d)
Professional and
community service. Engagement in professional and community service activities
provides benefits far beyond the university and are essential to having a
well-developed faculty. Professional and community service does not exempt a
faculty member from the requirements to fulfill required university service
needs and will only be approved toward service workload if the university needs
have first been fulfilled and if such service supports the university mission.
The type and amount of workload credit for such service will be approved by the
dean and provost. Professional and community service activities may include,
but are not limited to:
(i)
Leadership roles in professional organizations related
to the faculty member's area of scholarly expertise or the university
mission;
(ii)
Serving on advisory boards;
(iii)
Serving on
journal editorial review boards;
(iv)
Serving on grant
review boards or ad hoc peer reviews of articles, books, and grant
proposals;
(v)
Participating in student community outreach/engagement
events; and
(vi)
Serving on community boards or in other similar roles
with mission- aligned organizations.
(e)
Faculty
citizenship, as reflected through engagement and collegiality, is an
expectation for all faculty members in proportion to their appointment. Faculty
citizenship includes, but is not limited to, the following activated:
(i)
Attending all
faculty meetings and major university assemblies and
ceremonies;
(ii)
Supporting faculty searches; and
(iii)
Engaging in
department seminars/colloquia.
(f)
Service
obligations require the full participation and attendance of the faculty member
assigned to the service role to count toward their service workload. Activities
or deviations from the following standards establishing "full participation"
must be approved by the dean and provost:
(i)
Attending, and
active participation, in at least seventy-five per cent of assigned sanctioned
university committee meetings or events (to include dissertation/thesis
committees);
(ii)
As a student organization advisor, meeting at least
quarterly with the leaders of an assigned student organization and attending at
least seventy-five per cent of organization meetings or events;
(iii)
Attending and
participating in at least seventy-five per cent of any assigned self-study or
accreditation meetings, activities, or processes;
(iv)
Attending and
actively participating in at least seventy-five per cent of all student
recruitment events, student orientation events, or student culmination
activities, along with attendance at a minimum of two student activity events
per year; and
(v)
As an assigned educational program director, attending,
leading, and participating in at least seventy-five per cent of program
meetings, events, and activities.
(5)
Measurement of
workload
(a)
All
faculty workload elements are defined in terms of credit hours equivalents with
a full-time twelve-month workload minimum equal to thirty credit hours. As
defined in state statute, one credit hour equals fifteen contact lecture
hours.
(b)
Credit hour equivalents for the expected types of
teaching, research, and service commonly performed by faculty are set forth in
appendix a and established utilizing the guidelines in appendix C to this
policy.
(6)
Workload determination procedures
(a)
The department
chair will review and determine each faculty member's workload annually as part
of the annual performance review and forward it to the dean. Modifications to
the distribution of effort in the workload assignments will be negotiated with
the department chair to be compliant with all university workload policies and
approved by the dean and provost, then forwarded to human resources for
processing each year no later than March first.
(b)
Special
situations including, but not limited to approved sabbaticals and paid leaves
will be processed in accordance with university rules.
(E) Process to address workload concerns
Faculty wishing to discuss concerns regarding their workload assignments should first bring their concerns to the attention of the department chair. If unable to resolve at this level, faculty may bring their concerns to the dean. Any deviation from the standards in this policy must be approved by the provost so that there is equity across all colleges. After discussion with the provost, the decision of the dean is final.
(F) Policy compliance and updates
(1)
Individual
faculty workloads and instructional responsibilities will be assigned by the
department chair and reviewed for compliance by the respective dean who is
responsible for monitoring implementation and workload equity throughout the
college. All workload expectations will align with the university and college
appendices for appointment, promotion and tenure and ensure department
productivity, advancement, and mission attainment. Oversight of and compliance
with this policy is the responsibility of the provost, who will work closely
with the university faculty council to ensure the policy remains reflective of
current activities and practices of the university.
(2)
The board of
trustees has expressly authorized the president, provost, and deans to update
this policy as needed to comply with any statutory or university requirements
that may be imposed over time.
(3)
Willful failure
to comply with workload policy requirements may subject faculty to the
disciplinary procedures set forth in rule
3349-3-77 of the Administrative
Code.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Ohio may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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