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Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President

Appendix Y: Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Workload Policy


Approved by Faculty Senate on December 12, 2023; Effective term Spring 2024

Purpose:  

To establish the University-level workload policy for tenured and tenure track faculty for all Kansas State University campuses and reporting units. The workload reflects the University’s status as a research-intensive University.  

Definitions: 

  • SCH is defined as “section credit hours” or the number of credits listed in the course catalog. See University Handbook F115 and F115.1.
  • ESCH means an “equivalent section credit hour,” which is defined in college- and/or unit-level documents.  
  • Workload means the respective fraction of faculty time spent performing duties in the areas of teaching, research, service, and extension during the period covered by the faculty member’s contract. Workload is often presented as a percent.
  • DAW means “different allocation of workload.” *
  • A “unit” or “academic unit” indicates an academic department, division, or school embedded in a college as defined below.
  • A “unit lead” refers to a unit head, chair, or director.
  • The term “college” refers to an entity led by a dean.
  • “University” refers to “Kansas State University.”

Policy: 

Kansas State University is a public land-grant institution that holds the Carnegie Classification of “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity”, meaning it is among the highly active graduate degree granting institutions in higher education. Faculty are leaders in research, creative activity, discovery, innovation, and scholarship and they are active in the dissemination of knowledge in their respective disciplines. Kansas State University also expects its faculty to produce engaged scholarly activity that contributes to the greater good on a global scale. 

Acknowledging the complexity and diversity of faculty workload, and recognizing how workload affects Carnegie R-1 designation, the University representative workload distribution for tenured and tenure-track faculty on nine-month contracts is 40 percent teaching, 40 percent research, and 20 percent service as these areas are described in the University Handbook Section C.1-C7. Other contract lengths such as twelve-month appointments may include varying workload distributions. In addition, engaged scholarly activity can be embedded in teaching, research, extension, and service percentages.

This guidance responds to a request for a policy that captures instructional workload, which is not simple when attending to the realities of faculty appointments. For instance, research and extension faculty regularly adjust these percentages to accommodate the demands of larger research projects and in the case of extension the needs of the communities they serve. Normally, neither colleges nor units should establish standard teaching, service, extension, or research workloads of less than 10 percent. However, there may be exceptional cases when this is appropriate.

Colleges and units shall account for differing expectations in research, creative activity, discovery, innovation and scholarship, extension, engagement, and service. In addition, units should attend to the particularities of instructional workload like differences in class size and levels, instructional modalities, undergraduate mentoring, graduate student mentoring, advising hours, lab instruction, studio sections, and other applied or engaged learning activities in their policies. This will maintain flexibility and provide more accuracy in the measure of workload for faculty.

As an example, 40 percent teaching may commonly translate to the teaching of 12 section credit hours per academic year or equivalent contact hours including undergraduate mentoring, graduate student mentoring, advising hours, lab instruction, professional or continuing education, zero- or nonzero-credit micro credentials, studio sections, and other applied or engaged learning activities.

To maintain flexibility, increase transparency, and measure these unique operations, tenured and tenure-track faculty workload policies shall be established in every college and unit using a shared governance process and reported to the Provost for final approval. The report to the Provost must include a description of the process used to create the policy.All approved workload policies will be published on the Provost Website. Each policy shall contain the following:   

  1. College Workload Expectation as it relates to the University R-1 Carnegie Classification and the University guidance listed above. Each college shall establish workload-to-section credit-hour conversions and explain its standard of workload expectations for teaching, research, extension, and service for tenured and tenure-track faculty. If it varies from the university guidelines, there should be a clear rationale based on the college’s goals, mission, and typical operations.
  2. Process for units to establish and seek approval for workload policies if they require different measures from those established by the college. While each college workload policy will establish a norm for tenured and tenure-track faculty workload measurement, there may be instances when an academic unit requires other measures of time and effort. Upon approval by the college Dean, these policies should be added to the Departmental Evaluation, Promotion, and Tenure Guidelines / Documents and submitted to the Provost’s office for final approval.

If a faculty member requires a different allocation of workload than that established by the college or unit workload policy, the guidelines and process follow below.  

Guidelines & Process for Establishing Different Allocations of Workload for Individual Faculty: 

Kansas State University recognizes that the specific contributions of tenured and tenure-track faculty members to a unit’s mission may vary depending on individual strengths, career stage, performance, or unit needs. Accordingly, Kansas State University permits different allocations of workload, in accordance with KBOR policy and University policy on faculty evaluations, and in response to changing circumstances for faculty members or units.  

In accordance with Section C of the University Handbook, proposals to establish different allocations of workload should be discussed during the annual review process, when supervisors review prior faculty performance and goals for the upcoming academic year. Either the faculty member or the unit lead may initiate a discussion about a proposed different allocation of workload (DAW). However, a discussion about DAW may be initiated at any time that the faculty member’s or the unit’s circumstances change. For example, a faculty member who receives a new grant with funds to buy-out teaching may request a DAW to increase the allocation of effort for research, or a unit lead facing unanticipated instructional needs may ask a faculty member to assume additional teaching responsibilities. Discussions should occur at the earliest possible time so that appropriate arrangements can be made by the unit and/or faculty member for covering course offerings or other obligations. 

The following guidelines outline the policy and process for establishing a different allocation of workload (DAW): 

  1. A DAW may be negotiated on a year-by-year basis or more frequently if warranted by faculty member circumstances. Those on research, sabbatical, or other leave may hold this conversation either prior to departing or at an agreed upon moment the semester prior to their return.
  2. A DAW proposal may be initiated by the faculty member or unit lead.
  3. The unit’s needs take precedence over faculty member preference when making decisions to alter a faculty member’s allocation of workload; such redistribution must be consistent with the best interests of the unit. 
  4. A DAW must reflect changes both in workload and in evaluation criteria. A reduction in one area—teaching, research, extension, or service—must be offset by augmentation in another area.
  5. DAW adjustments shall be reflected in annual evaluations and merit salary recommendations. Unit criteria for promotion and tenure reviews should reflect how DAW adjustments will affect faculty evaluation. See university guidelines for implementation examples.
  6. Colleges may adopt college-specific DAW guidelines and procedures for approval consistent with this policy.
  7. Any changes in faculty allocation of workload must be approved by the unit lead and must be documented in the faculty member's personnel file.
  8. Elements of the DAW request shall include: the current and proposed FTE for teaching, research, and service; rationale for the reallocation of effort; an effective period; and the endorsement of the appropriate administrator(s). All DAWs are reported and approved annually to the Dean's Office of the school or the college.
  9. Conflicts between a unit lead and faculty member regarding DAWs should be directed to the appropriate member of the Dean’s office.  
  10. If unable to resolve the conflict, the parties involved shall follow the process for unresolved differences in the guidelines for evaluating faculty as described in University Handbook, Appendix Q, Section B and University Handbook Sections C45.1 through C45.3 University Handbook Section C48.1-48.3.
  11. DAWs shall be automatically reauthorized upon contract renewal unless otherwise renegotiated.

*Policy process and guidelines for different allocation of effort modified from University of Kansas Differential Allocation of Effort (DAE) policy and Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Teaching Workload policy.