Non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) are hired on limited, but typically renewable, appointments to fill specific needs related to each hiring unit’s particular mission and to the mission of the university as a whole. These needs vary from unit to unit and from year to year. Therefore, hiring units should routinely re-assess the role that NTTF play in the fulfillment of their mission and should document, both in their governing bylaws and in their communication with individual NTTF members, the contributions that NTTF are expected to make to the unit’s mission and the responsibilities that NTTF must assume in order for the unit and the university to function effectively.
Non-tenure-track faculty appointments can be categorized by their primary academic responsibilities as teaching, research, clinical, practice, and extension positions, or as adjunct, visiting, or joint appointments.
4.0.1 Assigned Workload
The university requires that each member of the faculty perform a reasonable and equitable amount of work each year. The normal maximum teaching responsibility of a full-time faculty member engaged only in classroom teaching is 12 credit hours each semester. The precise teaching responsibility of each individual will be based on such things as class size and the number of examinations, papers, and other assignments that require grading and evaluation. In addition, the number of different courses taught and other appropriate considerations will be used to determine teaching responsibility. Classroom teaching responsibility should be reduced by the department head for other justifiable reasons including student advising, active involvement in research and/or creative activities (with publications or other suitable forms of recognition), direction of graduate theses or dissertations, teaching non-credit courses or workshops, administrative duties, and institutional and/or public service.
The assigned workload for full-time NTT faculty may consist of a combination of teaching, advising, research / scholarship / creative activity, and institutional and/or public service depending on the needs of the unit. Because the individual mix of these responsibilities varies by appointment, responsibilities are negotiated and determined annually by the department head and faculty member, with review and approval of the dean and chief academic officer.