I. Statement
The University recognizes three broad areas of faculty endeavor – teaching, scholarship, and service – and expects that faculty members will be active in each of these areas, as described below.
II. Teaching
During assignment of the teaching load to an individual faculty member, the nature of the department/discipline, mode of curriculum delivery and assessments, class size, review and updating of existing courses, development of new courses, administrative support, coordination of different departments with each other, supervision and counseling of students should be carefully considered.
III. Scholarship
Scholarship is a core activity of the University, and all faculty members are expected to be productive scholars. Included in the University’s definition of scholarship are the scholarships of:
- Discovery: scholarship that adds to the field of knowledge of a particular discipline or combination of disciplines;
- Pedagogy: scholarship that adds to the knowledge and understanding of teaching;
- Integration: scholarship that makes connections among existing ideas within and/or across disciplines to provide new understandings;
- Application: scholarship that applies knowledge to issues of contemporary social concern ina manner that generates new intellectual understandings;
- Engagement: scholarship that applies knowledge and skills to elucidate the relationship between theory and practice in order to address significant local, national, and global issues.
IV. Service
Faculty service is the foundation upon which effective shared governance is nurtured at the University. All faculty members are expected to engage in activities at the department, College, and university levels that contribute in a substantial manner to the important work of the institution. Additionally, faculty members are expected to contribute their disciplinary expertise to address issues of importance in the region, state, and nation. Further, all faculty members are expected to engage in academic advisement and/or mentoring of students. Of particular importance are activities in regional, state or national organizations relevant to their field of expertise, providing professional expertise to the community beyond the University, and to deliberations about important regional, state and national issues. The University expects that faculty members will become increasingly active in service, assuming increased responsibilities over the course of their careers at the University.
While most service activities are considered to be part of a faculty member’s normal responsibilities, there are times the faculty member might be asked to assume a mission-critical responsibility that is beyond what would normally be expected of a faculty member. In these cases the, faculty member may receive reassigned instructional time to perform her or his responsibilities.