Instructional Managers and Faculty

The term “Instructional employees” is used to refer collectively to all employees who carry the title of faculty, instructors, adjunct faculty, community education instructors and substitutes.

Academic Freedom and Responsibilities
The District and each College upholds and respects the rights of instructional employees and their students to engage in the free and unfettered exchange of ideas that is the hallmark of an institution of higher education and their rights to access, debate, disagree and discuss all educational materials without respect to the popularity or controversial nature of the ideas conveyed.

Each instructional employee is entitled to freedom in classroom discussions in teaching his or her subject, freedom of scholarly pursuit and inquiry without undue restriction and freedom to voice and publish individual conclusions and results.  The District academic freedom policy supports the free exchange of ideas, seeking an attitude of scholarly objectivity and tolerance of other viewpoints.  Instructional employees and their family members are also entitled to speak or write as a citizen of the nation, state, and community without fear of institutional censorship or discipline.

The fundamental responsibilities of a faculty member as a teacher and scholar include maintenance of competency in the field of specialization through continued professional development and demonstration of such competence in the teaching/learning environment.

Exercise of professional integrity by instructional employees includes recognition that the public will judge the profession and the institution by the statements both in public and private life.  Therefore, instructional employees should strive to be accurate, to exercise appropriate restraint, to show respect for the opinions of others, and to avoid creating the impression that he or she speaks or acts for the District when speaking or acting as a private person.

Instructional employees should be selective in the use of controversial material in the classroom and should introduce such material only as it has clear relationship to the subject field.

A faculty member must maintain an appropriate professional relationship in his or her conduct and relationships with students.  The faculty member must maintain respect for the student and his or her role as a learner, appropriately respect of the power of his or her position and avoid any appearance of favoritism.  A faculty member must avoid a consensual relationship with a student presently enrolled in his or her course (Lone Star College System Board Policy DHE and EJA).

Important Faculty Responsibilities
Full-time faculty must fulfill certain District requirements in order to be employees in good standing:

Academic Credentials
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Higher Education Coordinating Board establish standards to which the District adheres regarding the minimum academic credentials for all members of the faculty.

• Most academic faculty must have earned and document a master’s degree with at least 18 graduate hours in the teaching specialty;
• Some faculty positions in developmental studies (reading, writing and math) and English as a second language require documentation of a bachelor’s degree with a major or minor in the teaching field;
• Qualifications for teaching occupational/technical courses require at least three years of related work experience and an associate’s degree in the teaching field are required.

Faculty must submit their complete academic credentials to their Dean, including official transcripts from each institution promptly after being hired.  The Dean is responsible to transmit the originals to the System Office Human Resource Office.  The System Office Human Resource Office maintains official personnel records

Classroom Matters

Faculty Absence
Faculty who miss class must notify their immediate supervisor, usually the Dean, and make arrangements with the appropriate individual(s) on their campus (coordinator, division secretary, etc.) to have their classes covered.  Failure to give such notification of absence, except in emergency, will be considered an unexcused, unpaid absence.  In addition, faculty who miss class must complete the appropriate forms, such as "Application for Sick Leave" and "Request and Authorization for Leave of Absence.”

Copyright Issues
Faculty members must comply with the provisions of the United States Copyright Law in preparing materials for display in or reproduction for the classroom.  The owner of a copyright has the exclusive rights to his or her copyrighted work (the reproduction, distribution, performance, or display of the work) as well as the right to authorize others to use the work.  Hence, photocopying of an article, playing of a piece of music or display of creative artwork might require the permission of the owner of the copyright.

Federal law creates some important exceptions to the exclusive rights of the copyright owner, including the fair use of a copyrighted work for teaching, scholarship, or research.  However, it is necessary for faculty to consider a number of factors, including the amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole, and the effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work to determine if the proposed use falls within this exception.  

Anytime a faculty member receives written notice from a copyright holder asserting that the faculty member violated his or her copyrights, he or she must provide a copy of the communication to the Dean immediately.

Grade Sheets
Faculty must complete checkout procedures for the end of each semester.  For each class taught, faculty must turn in both the "Datatel Colleague Grade Roster" (the bubbled grades) and the green-bar, grade book printouts.  The grade book printouts must provide clearly labeled grades for each student as well as a key that explains how the instructor formulated the student's final grade.

Course Syllabi
Faculty must provide their students with a syllabus that (1) provides the instructor's office location, office phone number, and office hours, (2) describes the course--giving course description, course title, course number, number of credit hours, required text and materials, and any prerequisites or entry skills, (3) defines the course goals and objectives, (4) details the grading procedures, (5) gives the instructor's policies on attendance and makeup work, (6) provides the District academic integrity statement, and (7) gives a detailed course outline of dates and assignments.

Final Exams
Faculty are required to give final examination in each course at the end of each semester.  Faculty are prohibited from exempting students from the final for any reason, including exemptions based on other grades earned in the course (a student with an "A" average must still take the final) or attendance (a student with perfect attendance must still take the final).  In addition, a faculty member is required to give finals during the scheduled examination period unless he or she has received written permission and made special arrangements with the appropriate Dean or academic vice president.  In other words, faculty cannot give a final the week before finals on the last day of class.

Personal Relationships
The position of respect and authority that faculty enjoy with students must be regarded as a special trust.  In recognition of that trust and authority, faculty has the responsibility to exercise particular care in their conduct and relationships with students.  Since in the faculty/student relationship the faculty member has the power and the responsibility for control, he or she must make judicious use of his or her role in the relationship by maintaining respect for the student as a learner.  In other words, a faculty member acting professionally and responsibly must not have a personal dating relationship with students currently enrolled in his or her classes.

Institutional Service Activities
Faculty must participate in scheduled institutional service activities, including opening week in-service events, conference day, and commencement exercises.  Faculty who miss any of these activities will be considered absent for a required workday and must complete the appropriate forms, either "Application for Sick Leave" or "Request and Authorization for Leave of Absence."  The Academic Vice President or the President is the only person who can approve a faculty absence for those events. Failure to receive authorization for the absence, except in emergency, will be considered an unexcused, unpaid absence.

Professional Development
One of the fundamental responsibilities of a faculty member is to maintain and improve academic excellence in their teaching disciplines; therefore, the District provides many opportunities for professional development of its faculty, including sabbaticals, Lone Star College System Professional Day. District mini-grants, colleges support for those faculty seeking grants, travel to professional conferences.  The District cannot reimburse dues paid to unions or dues paid to organizations that engage in lobbying or political activities.

Participation in the Hiring Process
One of the duties of a faculty member is to participate in the process of hiring faculty, administrative, or staff positions.  The District hiring process involves several components (job analysis, recruitment, screening, interviews, selection, reference checks, and job offer), and a faculty member may be asked to be involved in many of those components.  For example, a faculty member may be asked by his or her Dean to create a departmental profile (identifying the skills and experience needed for a faculty position within a faculty member's discipline and department), or he or she may be asked to aid in recruitment for a new faculty position. 

Full-Time Faculty

Faculty Contracts
Annually members of the faculty will have the opportunity to choose a contract for nine months or 10.5 months.  Faculty contracts are for a period of nine or 10.5 months, unless the Chancellor approves a contract of 12 month contract.

Faculty appointments shall be recommended by the College President, approved by the Chancellor, and ratified by the Board.  Contracts may be annual or multi-year appointments.

After approval by the Board, the Director of C/C will issue contracts of employment for full-time contractual personnel.  The Director of Compensation and Compliance (Dir. C/C) shall review all contracts for compliance with approved compensation schedules, contract term and other policies and procedures.  The VC/HR&GC is authorized to correct any errors or omissions in contracts of employment as they may appear and to implement the corrections. An employee who does not sign and return his or her contract may be released from his or her employment responsibilities and forfeit the contractual privileges.

Annual Contracts
Full-time faculty who are new to the District shall serve a probationary period of at least three years.  A probationary period is defined as an annual appointment that terminates at the end of the contract period.  The Chancellor may recommend extending the annual appointment status beyond the three-year period.  (See Change of Status at Lone Star College System Board Policy DDB).

Multi-Year Contracts
A faculty member who has rendered satisfactory service as rated by the appropriate supervisor for a period of not less than three full years is eligible for a two-year contract.  Tenure is defined as a multi-year contract that is reviewed and acted upon each year.

All faculty with multi-year contracts shall annually be approved by the Chancellor and ratified by the Board for a one-year extension of their contract unless they have been recommended for non-renewal or termination.

Contract Renewals
The Board shall generally consider renewal of contracts for faculty at the April Board meeting.  Ratification of the renewal of contracts for professional staff shall usually be considered at the July Board meeting (Lone Star College System Board Policy DDB).

Reduction-in-Force (RIF)
Awarding the continuation of a multi-year status to faculty whose time, employment with the District, and performance would merit continuation, may be withheld if declining enrollment (either actual or projected), financial exigency or any other RIF condition defined in Board Policy DMAC would indicate a potential reduction in staff  (Lone Star College System Board Policy DDB).

Faculty Rank
Faculty employed by the District for the years previous to 1998-99 attains rank according to the policies in effect at the time they were employed. 

Beginning with faculty employed for the 1998-99 academic year, faculty attain rank in the following manner:

• Assistant Professor appointments are made to faculty who have less than three full-time equivalent years of teaching experience at the college or university level;
• Associate Professor appointments are made to newly appointed faculty to the District who have three years or more full-time equivalent teaching experience at the college or university level;
• After satisfactory completion of three years of teaching experience at Lone Star College System and the appointment to a multi-year contract, the faculty will move to the rank of Professor (Lone Star College System Board Policy DIA).

Full-time faculty with prior Lone Star College System teaching experience will get credit for their years of teaching with the District.  Any faculty who terminates employment with the District and subsequently returns will be placed into the appropriate faculty rank depending on prior years service and their rank at the time of termination.

Faculty with the rank of Professor may be demoted to the rank of Associate Professor and returned to a one-year contract as a disciplinary action. If the faculty member is returned to a multi-year contract the following year, he or she will regain the rank of Professor. 

Faculty Load
Classroom teaching, basic institutional and community service, and professional development are essential elements of faculty academic workloads. A faculty member who elects not to negotiate an individual workload (Traditional Option) is required to meet the following workload distribution: Learning Facilitation – 70%, Institutional and Community Service – 20%, Personal and Professional Development – 10%. 

A negotiated workload consists of negotiating a different balance of the traditional workload to accommodate division and individual goals. Each of the three elements is assigned appropriate weight in negotiating an individual workload.

Faculty Work Week
A thirty-five hour workweek is used to calculate faculty workload,  and to )schedule job-related activities.  Twelve-month contract employees including counselors and librarians traditionally work a forty-hour workweek.

All full-time faculty are required to advise his or her Dean of any employment outside of the District. 

Office Hours
Full-time faculty are expected to post office hours in a place accessible to students.  The number and location of scheduled office hours should be sufficient to support student learning, accommodate the number of students, and provide easy access.

Annual Assignment
The Dean or Director is responsible for assigning faculty workload and making decisions about extra-compensation based on division goals and priorities, group consensus, individual preferences, available resources, and a concern for fairness and equity. 

• Division faculty and the administrator collaborate to determine goals and make decisions about faculty workload;
• Workload assignments are calculated for an academic year (fall and spring) and include activities in all three components of the faculty job description;
• Division faculty and the administrator evaluate the percentage or weight on non-instructional assignments considering faculty time commitment, division goals, priorities, and available resources;
• If unexpected situations arise, faculty and the administrator will make every effort to negotiate as a division in order to meet the needs of the division and be fair to individual faculty members.

Workload Review Process
Each College will address individual faculty concerns and complaints regarding workload.  Before using the college grievance process, faculty and Deans should use good faith efforts to resolve disagreements about application or interpretation of the workload policy.

Adjunct Faculty
An adjunct faculty member is responsible for instructional activities for the classes assigned including lab activities, the preparation of a syllabus, preparation of tests or other evaluative processes, regularly meeting each scheduled class and promptly turning in final grades.  An adjunct faculty member is expected to be available to meet with students but is not required to have regularly scheduled campus hours.   Adjunct faculty are not expected or required to serve on committees or perform institutional or community service.

Adjunct Faculty Load
Adjunct faculty may not be assigned more than one half of the accepted load for full-time faculty in like discipline within an academic year, defined as fall through spring semesters.  An adjunct faculty may exceed the 50% load in one semester, not to exceed 2/3 of a load; however, an adjunct may  50% of a load in the academic year.  For example:

• The standard workload in History is 5 courses each semester.  An adjunct in history could be hired to teach 3 courses in one semester and two courses in another semester, but could not be hired to teach 4 courses without being considered to be a temporary full-time benefits eligible faculty.
• A yearly load of 6 courses in Biology is considered a standard full-time load.  An adjunct faculty may not teach more than 3 such courses within an academic year.  He/she may not teach more than 2 courses (2/3 of a 50% load) in a single semester.

It is the responsibility of the Dean to monitor adjunct assignments.  Each adjunct faculty member must sign a memorandum of assignment (MOA) each semester identifying the classes assigned. Because the adjunct workload rules apply to all adjunct teaching assignments across the District, the hours at different colleges must be combined to determine eligibility for adjunct work assignments.

Any adjunct assigned a load in excess of the load described above is eligible for benefits and must be converted to a temporary faculty appointment.

Temporary Full-time Faculty Appointments
The term “temporary faculty” refers to employees assigned full teaching loads not exceeding one term and whose duties and responsibilities are similar to that of a member of the faculty.  Temporary faculty may be hired in a full-time or part-time capacity on a semester-by-semester contract basis, contingent upon the needs of the District.  Temporary faculty are expected to join departmental meetings, participate in curricular and other academic meetings, have posted office hours and schedule thirty-five hours of campus time per week.

Temporary faculty carry the title of “Instructor”.

Temporary faculty are eligible to receive benefits and will be compensated in accordance with the salary schedule for permanent faculty.  

A faculty member on a temporary contract has no right to a notice of non-renewal; his or her contract ends automatically at the end of the designated contract term. 

The time spent in a temporary faculty position is not counted toward the probationary period for purpose of determining eligibility for a multi-year contract, but is considered to determine faculty rank.  No more than two consecutive temporary appointments may be made without the approval of the Chancellor.