Faculty Handbook 2008-2009

The normal teaching load for tenure track and tenured faculty is five courses per year. Non-tenure track faculty normally teach six courses per year. Equivalency norms exist in the sciences (for laboratory responsibilities) and in the performing and studio arts. The supervision of Directed Studies, Senior Research and Honors projects is expected as well. Faculty members are expected to keep a reasonable number of hours for consultation and discussion with students, especially students in their classes.

Faculty should be clear and explicit as to course expectations and methods of assigning grades. While the content or coverage of material in the syllabus may change as the semester progresses, the descriptions of expectations and determinations of grades is viewed as an agreement between the instructor and students, which should be honored as stated in the initial syllabus.

See section VII. A. for the statement that affirms the value the College attaches to academic integrity and serves as a model that faculty may use or adapt in their course syllabi.

a. The evaluation of teaching effectiveness at Denison University will consist of formative and summative evaluation procedures. Formative evaluation is a means or process to help an individual assess the effectiveness of teaching and improve teaching. Formative evaluation methods should focus on the intellectual questions that inform course design and direct attention to assisting an instructor in determining what works well and what is not working as effectively. Methods of evaluation will vary depending upon the goals of an instructor, disciplinary goals, and departmental or institutional goals. The selection and use of particular formative evaluation methods will draw upon discussions between the instructor and his/her colleagues. However, the process of formative evaluation will use information collected from the instructor, colleagues, and students. Feedback and consultation are part of the formative evaluation process. In addition, formative evaluation occurs over time and also continues throughout one's teaching career.

Summative evaluation produces a judgment of teaching effectiveness. Those faculty and administrators charged with rendering personnel decisions use these judgments in making decisions regarding contract renewal, tenure, promotion, salary review, and for periodic senior review. Thus, summative evaluation continues throughout one's teaching career.

Summative evaluation is an interpretation of information collected from the instructor, students, and colleagues. Summative evaluation processes should be based on reasonable professional judgment about what constitutes good teaching in the discipline, with a focus on shared criteria for teaching effectiveness. Colleague review is both a professional responsibility and an essential element of developing and implementing consensus about teaching effectiveness.

b. Departments and programs should have the primary role in developing a formative evaluation system and should produce a written plan that describes the essential components of this system. The formative evaluation system should be sensitive to the variety of teaching contexts, goals, and methods used by the department's or program's instructors. Information regarding the purposes, operation, and implementation of a department's or program's formative evaluation system should be considered "community property" and be available to all college faculty in order to foster a climate of cooperation, professional development, and mutual enlightenment. The formative evaluation system should include the direct and ongoing participation of some or all of the instructor's department colleagues.

Classroom observation is a required component of formative evaluation. The instructor and the observer(s) should agree upon a specific schedule and the procedures for evaluation before the observations take place. Classroom observation undertaken by colleagues should occur in different courses and at different periods of time within a semester and across semesters. Thus, there will be multiple opportunities for feedback and discussion following the observations. Faculty in a department or program have the responsibility of determining the number and choice of colleagues who will act as observers and the timing of these observations for the purposes of formative evaluation.

The formative evaluation procedures should be manageable and practical within the resources of the department or program and the college. The formative evaluation plan should also be monitored and periodically assessed by the department or program and by the appropriate councils or offices of the College.

c. Classroom observation is required component of summative evaluation. Faculty in a department or program have the responsibility of determining the number and choice of colleagues who will act as observers and the timing of these observations. There will be a minimum of two observers from a department. In addition, any colleague who participates in this process should make at least two observations within a specific course. Colleagues' multiple observations should occur closely together in time or sequentially in order to provide a view of how the instructor develops and coordinates teaching activities on a given topic. The instructor's teaching will be observed in different courses and at different periods of time within a semester.

Preparation and discussion should be part of the classroom observation process. The instructor and the classroom observer(s) should agree upon a minimum of two specific days of classes. In advance of the observations, the instructor should provide the observer(s)with course syllabi, handouts, assignments or other relevant teaching materials. In addition, a brief discussion before the observation should identify the instructor's objectives and planned class activities, materials, and any other concerns or issues identified as important for the observation. A brief discussion should be held immediately or shortly after a class observation in order to get clarification or additional information about the events and activities observed.

d. A common summative evaluation form will be administered to students in every course during the last two weeks of the semester. The instructor and department or program chair will receive the evaluation results after student grades have been posted.

The instructor is responsible for providing the rating-scale summaries and the individual questionnaires (i.e., the original form with rating-scale and the written responses) when a summative evaluation is conducted for the purpose of a personnel review. Faculty can ask students to respond to additional questions. However, these questions will be presented on a form separate from the summmative evaluation questionnaire, and these may or may not be submitted in a review.

e. Departments will conduct formative evaluation of teaching of candidates during the first and second years in preparation for the third-year summative review and in accordance with the foregoing description of the evaluation of teaching courses.

Advising is integral to the role of teaching faculty and is the responsibility of all tenured, tenure-track, and visiting faculty (where appropriate) following the first year of their employment.

The chief responsibility of a faculty advisor is to assist students in thinking through their educational goals so that they may take full advantage of the resources available at Denison University. Advisors are expected to know the educational resources available at Denison, current academic regulations, and the ways particular courses may benefit students who identify certain educational goals. A general knowledge of the General Education program is essential.

Specifically, the goals of advisors are as follows: a) assisting students in formulation of long-range plans for their experiences at Denison and beyond; b) advising students on questions and problems related to their academic work; c) providing students with information and referrals regarding academic policies and procedures; d) advising students on course selection and approving students' academic schedules.

Faculty should also offer guidance well beyond these matters: helping students sort out their interests and clarify their goals, immediate and long-range; helping students understand the purpose of higher education and the rationale of a liberal arts education; exploring career goals and graduate school options; referring students to institutional resources for academic or personal support; giving advice, when appropriate, on decisions relating to personal or quality-of-life choices.

The Dean of First-Year Students should assume an active role in coordinating and facilitating the advising for majors and first-year students. In the assignment of advisees, the Dean will, in addition to other criteria, take into account the current university median of advisees per faculty.

Departments and programs should assume an active role in monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of faculty advising for majors and first-year students. Responsibilities include:

a. providing support to new faculty in the development of advising skills,

b. discussing attitudes and expectations regarding advising, and

c. examining variability in advising load among faculty within the department or program and seeking ways to reduce variability in advising loads.

Mid-semester grades must be submitted for all first-year students and sophomores. Although mid-semester grades are not required for juniors and seniors, should grades of C- or below be submitted, the Registrar will notify those students of their performance. Mid-semester grade reports will go to all first-year students and sophomores and to their academic advisors. Reports are mailed home only if parents or guardians in consultation with the student request them from the Office of the Registrar.

No final examinations (i.e., cumulative examinations having a significant impact on a student's final grade) or major papers given in lieu of a final examination, may be given during the last week of classes; final examinations may be given only during the time period assigned by the Registrar. Contact the Associate Provost (Kim Coplin) for interpretation of this regulation.

Each faculty member is required to submit a final evaluation for every student officially enrolled in his/her courses. Grades are submitted on forms provided by the Office of the Registrar. Final grades are due no later than 96 hours after final examinations. Final grades may be changed only as a result of an error in computation. All other cases of a change of final grade require the consent of the Registrar's Advisory Board.

Currently, students at Denison may be employed by departments and faculty without any specific guidelines and in a wide range of duties that may not always be appropriate to the college's mission, especially in respect to the use of students as "teaching assistants." It is questionable whether students should be in any position of grading other students, both from the perspective of federal guidelines on the privacy rights of students and from the point of view that Denison offers an education that promises a faculty attentive and committed to the needs, learning, and progress of each undergraduate. Furthermore, current practice allows for students to be paid for their services either with money or in some cases with academic credit. Providing such an option to students is also questionable as it blurs the distinction between work for learning and work for earning.

In reviewing information gathered from faculty and departments concerning the employment of students, and wishing to establish guidelines that reflect both the needs and concerns of the university, Academic Affairs Council offers the following proposal.

Given the broad nature of the employment of students as assistants to departments and faculty members, and with the understanding that such duties should preclude any major evaluative or teaching responsibility, it is proposed that the general title of "Departmental Assistants" is preferable as a description of such student responsibilities. The University then would distinguish students as either "Departmental Assistants" or "Departmental Fellows." The following guidelines should be used in the case of those students who are selected as Departmental Assistants or Departmental Fellows and who are employed to perform certain duties as a result of that selection. In addition, a third category of "Teaching Practicum" is set forth as a possibility for students to gain academic credit for doing work relating to the profession of teaching.

There are three general areas in which students may participate in the professional work of faculty and departments:

All departments and programs should submit a copy of their written guidelines for review by Academic Affairs Council.

Academic Affairs Council, March 1989

All members of departments share responsibility for sustaining a culture that is rigorous in scholarship, imaginative in pedagogy, visionary in curriculum design and collegial in spirit. The chair is the convener of the department and is responsible for leading colleagues toward fulfillment of these responsibilities. Given departmental differences in size, equipment needs, personalities, and budget complexities, the form of oversight by chairs of human and physical resources will likely exhibit a healthy variety in the approaches they adopt to fulfill their mission.

The chair takes the lead in and coordinates the full range of departmental activities, including the following:

Administration

Personnel

Curriculum

Selection and Appointment of Department Chairs

Department chairs are appointed by the Provost in consultation with the department's faculty. The term of the appointment is normally three years. Chairs may serve successive terms. If a department chair becomes unable or unwilling to serve, or in cases when conflicts within a department have become irreconcilable, the Provost may appoint a new chair or make other temporary arrangements for departmental leadership before the expiration of the term. In the third year of a department chair's term, the Provost consults with the members of the department whether the chair is willing to, and should, continue.