The purpose of these guidelines is to articulate transparent expectations for faculty regarding distribution of time spent on various aspects of faculty life. This guide is based on WSU\u2019s Workload Policy<\/a>. We seek to account for the diversity of activities among individuals, providing formal recognition and value of these contributions, as well as equitable assignment of primary duties needed to run the unit (includes a school or a department at VCEA). These assignable duties include teaching, service to department\/school and university, and leadership (working group, committee), while accounting for the variable nature of research and graduate student support. It is recognized that other categories beyond research\/teaching\/service (including administration) may be delineated to the upper administration in the future, necessitating further clarification for the unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These guidelines are intended to clarify and document the broader college- and university-level policies, specifically for the unit. As stated elsewhere, these are not intended to be a measure of suitability for tenure or promotion, which are the guidelines articulated elsewhere. VCEA T&P guidelines are available online.<\/a> The guidelines apply to tenured\/tenure-track (T\/TT) and career-track (CT) faculty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, the guidelines in this document apply to faculty past their transitional periods of their respective careers. For instance, the guidelines for newly recruited tenure-track faculty are based on their respective offer letters during the pre-tenure period. Similarly, some faculty may be in transitional periods (e.g., while switching to major committee and\/or leadership roles at the department, or while the ratios between research\/teaching\/service change as reflected in any change of appointments). For such faculty, the guidelines are typically negotiated at the school or department leadership\u2019s discretion during the identified transitional period. In this document, \u201cDirector\u201d refers to the school director or department chair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following is a brief description of the three categories of effort and a justification for the proposed workload balancing process. Following that is matrix for assignment guidance. This guideline is applicable for all the units in VCEA except the School of Design and Construction (SDC). SDC will have a separate guideline commensurate with their mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The description of research for the unit is in line with that delineated in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture\u2019s (VCEA) tenure and promotion guidelines and the WSU Faculty Manual<\/em>. It consists of scholarly work with and without graduate and undergraduate students. However, for the purposes of this workload assessment, some additional weight is given to researchers\/graduate students supported by a faculty member using external funds. A faculty member\u2019s research contribution to the overall total workload is measured by Graduate Student Equivalents (GSE<\/strong>), as detailed below. An assessment of the productivity associated with research is also included at the end of this document. In the VCEA model, we explicitly include effort towards graduate student mentoring within the research (scholarship) category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The classroom educational mission of the unit is one of the key pillars of our role as a land grant institution of higher education. The teaching component of workload is measured through the number of course equivalents (classes of 3-credits) with the number of expected courses to be taught depending on the level of research productivity, as measured by GSEs, and variable administrative responsibility. We recognize that not all classes have the same nature, even with the same number of credits, and thus may not require the same number of hours per week. For instance, teaching a class for the first time, developing a class, managing many teaching assistants (TAs), running a class with one or more laboratory sessions, or having an unusually large or small number of students. These aspects vary widely among the VCEA units based on the curriculum needs and majors and hence cannot be easily generalized. The Faculty Manual<\/em> further defines teaching to include graduate and undergraduate student mentoring, online instruction (including Global Campus), academic advising, program assessment, and educational outreach. Each unit should define the granular details for maintaining equity in workload assignments for teaching, with corresponding guidance for satisfactory and meritorious performance for the different components of teaching as needed. Each unit will seek the Dean\u2019s approval for their workload policies and performance expectations. Once approved, the Dean\u2019s office will seek final approval from the Provost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The final component in this workload component is service, broadly defined as additional contributions to the department, the college, the university, or the profession. These responsibilities can manifest in a large variety of ways. It is generally expected that all faculty will contribute in some way to service. The default service workload will be 20% for most faculty (average of 8 hours per week) or will be adjusted to the value in their original offer letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Credit will be given for significant administrative service, in the form of a course teaching reduction, for leadership in specific roles like associate school director\/associate department chair, curriculum committee chair, ABET coordinators etc. Other course relief may be granted at the discretion of the Director (Head of the department) and Dean for similar time commitments for which the unit receives some benefit, either explicitly or to its reputation, and care is taken as to not negatively impact timely course offerings at the school. Please note that the University workload policy includes a category called, \u201cadministration\u201d \u2013 this category is intended for titled positions at the level of chair or higher, or for titles that serve more than one unit as defined by the Dean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The overall justification for the coefficients for the GSEs is to provide credit for the faculty who are active in research. The adjustment in credit is the same, in that they attempt to measure the individual’s various contributions to the operation, reputation, and education of the unit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Faculty at different points in their careers or with different desires or circumstances find themselves advising and funding different numbers of graduate students and other researchers. We wish to incentivize externally funded research in the VCEA, which both elevates our rank and reputation and supports the department and VCEA financially<\/em> through F&A returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n External support (grants, contracts, service centers) of research staff, post-docs, and PhD students is highly valued and contributes to overhead (F&A) returns to school\/department to help support overall school\/department operation. Teaching assistantships and faculty startup-funded students also support research and student training, but do not add supporting dollars to the department and thus represent operational costs. Similarly, for the overall reputation of the school\/department, PhD and research staff are valued more than MS students due to their overall scholarly productivity, which enhances school\/department and VCEA reputation. Other graduate students advised but not funded (such as self-supported) still require faculty time; even advising of non-thesis MS students is valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By assigning coefficients to these different scenarios, VCEA quantifies the current annual value of these research and training activities towards the overall unit\u2019s enterprise. By prioritizing externally supported students and researchers, we implicitly account for research expenditures. By also counting other student advising, we show our value of the student-centric component of research advising. At this time, we are not giving explicit \u2018credit\u2019 for supporting undergraduate researchers, given the much more heterogeneous nature of their time commitment and contributions. However, VCEA recommends below calculation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paid undergraduate students (UGs) as GSE coefficient = Total $ paid to UGs within a year \/ Total $ paid to a PhD student in the same unit. (1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unpaid (volunteer) undergraduate students (UGs) as GSE coefficient = (Total time to UGs within a year \/ Total hours of a PhD student work in the same unit)*0.25. (2)<\/p>\n\n\n\nWorkload Categories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Teaching<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Service<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Administration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Workload Allocation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Graduate student equivalents (GSE) <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Graduate student equivalents\u00a0Matrix<\/h4>\n\n\n\n