College of Arts and Sciences: Music Policy on Faculty Workload

Unit Policy

Title

College of Arts and Sciences: Music Policy on Faculty Workload

Introduction

Purpose

The main purpose of this document is to establish expectations and guidelines about the work of departmental faculty. This policy will allow the department to report on the work of our faculty in a consistent manner and in a way that aligns with the College of Arts and Sciences guidelines.

Scope

The policy applies to all full-time tenure-track and tenured faculty and teaching-track faculty with multi-year appointments in the Department of Music.

Policy

Part 1: Standards for Research/Creative Activities

I. Introduction

The principal aims of the Department of Music are to preserve, increase, and transmit knowledge and understanding of music. These aims are furthered by the scholarly, creative, and performance activity of the faculty, and by their teaching of a variety of courses at different levels to undergraduate and graduate students. In all personnel actions, the Department seeks to maintain its high standards of scholarship, artistic endeavor, and teaching. It also requires service to the Department, the University, the professional community, the state, the nation, and the world as appropriate for that faculty member’s expertise and professional profile. As appropriate, it also encourages engagement with groups outside academia. The Department of Music seeks to be objective, fair, and honest in evaluating research/creative activity, teaching, and service. It reaffirms at this time its goal of quality combined with diversity.

II. Defining Standards

Some of the standards that this Department applies to the evaluation of faculty are qualitative and cannot be expressed quantitatively. Therefore, they inescapably entail subjective judgment. As a result, it is not possible to reduce the evaluation of academic personnel to a purely objective enumeration of expected accomplishments within a specific period of time.

Quality research, creative activity, teaching excellence and a commitment to service are important areas of evaluation of faculty by the Department of Music. In addition to long-standing criteria for such evaluation, innovative faculty work in these areas should also be considered when germane.

As a public university, we recognize the importance of faculty engagement. Engagement may be embedded in one or more aspects of a faculty member’s research/creative activity, teaching, and service activities. Faculty engagement refers to scholarly, creative, pedagogical, and service activities directed toward persons and groups outside UNC Chapel Hill and outside the usual spheres of professional academic work. Such activities typically take the form of collaborative interactions, include partners outside the University, and seek to enhance the “public good” or “public life” of the state, nation, or wider world. When present, engagement should be recognized as a significant component of a faculty member’s professional achievements.

Interdisciplinary work provides opportunities for creating knowledge in new and unanticipated ways, often representing cutting-edge scholarship and teaching.

Since many challenges and problems require skills and perspectives from multiple academic and professional disciplines, evidence of innovative inter- and cross-disciplinary research, teaching, and service should therefore be valued in the review of a faculty member’s workload.

A. General Standards

The following standards will be employed in evaluations of a faculty member’s work:

1. A demonstrated commitment to, and achievement of, research excellence or its equivalent form in artistic performance and creative activity as appropriate to the faculty member’s specific disciplines and expertise.
2. A demonstrated commitment to, and achievement of, teaching excellence,
3. Effective service to the Department, University, community, state, nation, and world, and to one’s academic profession.

B. Standards of Research and Creative Activity

The Department of Music expects its faculty to be actively involved throughout their careers in achieving scholarly research excellence and/or its equivalent form in creative artistic activity. Scholarship is understood as the advancement of knowledge and understanding and consists substantially of original research or interpretation that is part of a coherent project.

 One common documentation of scholarship is publication. The Department of Music expects such publication as one obvious way of extending knowledge and of sharing the fruits of scholarly thought and investigation with a wider audience that can be both critical and appreciative.

Creative artistic activity—e.g., artistic performance and professional recording, or musical composition and its performance, and other publicly accessible forms of expression— demonstrates creativity and engenders its continued growth on a distinguished professional level. The Department of Music expects such creative artistic activity as a way of sharing the fruits of artistic endeavor with a wider audience, and is for some faculty in the Department what published scholarship is for others.

The Department of Music insists on regarding quality of publication and/or creative artistic activity as more important than quantity.

Engaged scholarship refers to research on projects that include collaborative interactions with partners outside the University. In order to satisfy the criterion for engaged scholarship, the faculty member’s work must meet rigorous standards. In the Department of Music, the criteria for evaluating the quality of engaged scholarship or equivalent creative activity include publication, presentation, or performance in professionally recognized national and/or international outlets, forums, or venues, external competitive funding, and peer review by experts in the field.

The Department of Music recognizes faculty who conduct or publish their research digitally for their innovation and for moving beyond traditional formats. The standard for excellence is the same for digital and non-digital work and may include influence on a scholarly field or its equivalent in creative activity, and rigorous peer reviews or other evaluation by experts in the area. The overall quality and contribution of the work must be measured independent of the mode or medium of publication.

The research of faculty engaged in innovative interdisciplinary research shall be given formal consideration and due credit. For faculty with interdisciplinary interests hired within the Department of Music, the main criteria for review and judgment lie within, rather than outside, our discipline broadly defined. In the case of joint appointments, reviews must include multi- departmental evaluations. For faculty hired as joint appointees, the main criteria for review and judgment of scholarship and/or equivalent creative activity shall encompass work across the units of appointment and related interdisciplinary work, assessed according to appropriate high standards.

C. Standards of Teaching

The Department of Music expects and encourages teaching of the highest quality. Although it is not possible to enumerate here all criteria of highly effective teaching, such teachers prepare their courses with discrimination and skill. They responsibly formulate the objectives of the courses and use imaginative pedagogical methods to achieve their goals. Effective teachers engage their students, stimulate their interests, broaden their perspectives and improve their thinking. To the extent that it is possible, they also make their students active rather than passive participants in the learning process. Excellent teachers demand substantial accomplishment and high standards of work, grade all work fairly, and base what they teach on evidence and sound method. They are articulate, resourceful, and reflective. In addition, where appropriate, such teachers conscientiously provide advice and guidance to both graduate and undergraduate students on an individual basis; they also direct theses, dissertations, and/or artistic projects, and serve on committees that critically examine and evaluate them. In short, the Department expects colleagues to be generously involved in teaching and training.

Engaged teaching refers to pedagogical practices that typically take students outside the traditional classroom. Such teaching may include courses that help students engage with non- academic communities, participate in service-learning programs, or interact with public schools and government policymakers. To satisfy the criterion for “engaged teaching” and for engaged teaching to be considered in evaluations, the faculty member’s courses should include analytical and reflective components and carry academic credit.

Evaluation of teaching excellence should consider how the faculty member contributes to the curricular mission both of the department and of the college. Courses should align with the goals of the curriculum and fill the educational needs of the students, which in the case of some courses will be those specifically earning degrees in music (majors and minors), in some cases will be those taking courses as part of their general liberal arts education, and in some cases will be a combination of those populations.

Evaluation of teaching excellence should also consider faculty contributions to different forms of interdisciplinary teaching where appropriate. Such endeavors greatly enhance the intellectual life of the University and provide a sense of common purpose and community among students and faculty.

Evaluation of teaching may take into account evidence such as peer evaluations of the effectiveness in teaching, reviews of syllabi and learning outcomes, contributions to the department’s and college’s curriculum in the form of innovative course offerings, contributions to the department’s and college’s curriculum via innovative approaches to delivering existing courses with new methods of improving learning outcomes and student success, and/or additional documentation of effectiveness in achieving learning outcomes and fostering student success.

D. Standards of Service

A service assignment should be pursued diligently, imaginatively, and responsibly, with concern for deadlines and appropriate results. Conscientious and efficient performance combined with collegiality, tact, and resourcefulness bring credit to the individual and the Department and will be recognized.

Assistant and associate professors without permanent tenure are expected to undertake those service functions the Department Chair may assign. Although they should focus primarily on teaching and research, untenured members of the Department will be called upon to perform a number of service activities such as work on departmental or appropriate University committees, or other service areas relevant to the Department’s mission. Associate professors with tenure and full professors may be expected to undertake a wider range of service functions.

Engaged service refers to activities that are informed by the faculty member’s scholarly and/or creative expertise and include interactions with groups and projects outside the professional and scholarly organizations of academia. In the Department of Music, we value engaged service related to the faculty member’s professional expertise, such as community engagement, lectures, performances, competition adjudication, and other services offered to non-academic audiences or groups not considered and evaluated under “research or creative artistic activity” above.

Faculty may be involved in interdisciplinary service in one, two or more units, depending on the nature of their appointment(s) or interdisciplinary approach. In cases of interdisciplinary service, the Department of Music, the other units involved and the faculty member will establish standards and expectations clarifying the extent of service expected from the faculty member for the Department and the other unit(s).

These standards and expectations shall be reviewed, evaluated and, if necessary, modified on a regular basis. The same general standards of evaluation shall be employed for interdisciplinary service as for service within a single unit.

Part 2: Workload by Appointment Type

Tenure-track and tenured faculty: the basic expectations for workload for tenure-track and tenured faculty is 40% research/creative activity, 40% teaching, and 20% service, which together constitutes the 1.0 FTE expected for the appointment.

Teaching-track faculty: the basic expectations for workload for teaching assistant professors, teaching associate professors, teaching professors, and professors of the practice is 80% teaching and 20% service, which together constitutes the 1.0 FTE expected for the appointment.

Research/creative activity is not part of the workload for teaching-track faculty. However, teaching-track faculty may choose to engage in research and creative activity outside of their expected teaching and service, and such efforts are supported in various ways by the Department and by the University through grants and other opportunities.

Variable workloads: In rare cases, workloads may vary from the standards above with permission from the Dean’s Office. One example is an enhanced service load. Service to departments, the College, and University further the mission of the University and are critical to students, faculty, and staff. For example, a variable reduction in research and creative activity and/or teaching, in accordance with College policies, may be assigned for administrative roles including Chair, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Chairs.

Part 3: Metrics for Research/Creative Activity

In the annual review process, each faculty member will present a plan for their research/creative activity that aligns with the standards expected within the Department of Music. The process takes into account that many types of research and creative activity require multiple years from conception through completion, and many projects have interconnected aspects such that one defined project may also encompass parts of one or more other projects. As such, the plan will explain what aspects of projects will be undertaken during the academic year, with descriptions about (a) how the work undertaken during the academic year fits into larger projects with a longer timeline, and (b) how the overall projects demonstrate accountability to the standards for research and creative activity defined above.

At the conclusion of the academic year, each faculty member will account for the work that was identified in the plan for that year and contextualize the work done in the scope of longer, multi-year projects as relevant. The report on the faculty member’s workload will identify the research/creative activity for the academic year as meeting or not meeting expectations.

Part 4: Metrics for Teaching

In the annual review process, each faculty member will present a plan for their teaching load that aligns with the standards expected within the Department of Music. Total teaching loads include both the credit hours and courses taught by a faculty member and the additional, often unquantified teaching undertaken by faculty in both tangible and intangible ways, which can take the form of course development work, additional contact hours with students such as independent studies, honors thesis advising, graduate advising, and other forms of teaching outside the formal classroom. The University’s workload policy defines teaching load as credit hours and courses taught by a faculty member.

Teaching loads are assigned by the Chair in order to meet the instructional needs of the department; at the same time, to whatever extent possible, course assignments take into account the interests, expertise, and teaching strengths of the faculty member. Teaching loads are expected to meet the quantities defined below.

At the conclusion of the academic year, each faculty member will account for the teaching load that was identified in the plan for that year and contextualize their teaching within the scope of long-term plans for pedagogical and curricular contributions to the department. The report on the faculty member’s workload will identify the teaching activity for the academic year as meeting or not meeting expectations.

Part 5: Metrics for Service

In the annual review process, each faculty member will present a plan for their service load that aligns with the standards expected within the Department of Music. Service loads include both service within the Department, which is assigned by the Chair, and service to the University, community, state, nation, and world, and to one’s academic profession. The Chair assigns departmental service to accomplish the necessary administrative functions of the department; such assignments are given as fairly as possible, taking into account past service, current obligations of service outside the Department, and the stage of a faculty member’s career and professional development. Service loads are expected to meet the standards defined above.

At the conclusion of the academic year, each faculty member will account for the service load that was identified in the plan for that year and contextualize their service within the scope of multiple communities: Department, University, community, state, nation, world, and academic profession. The report on the faculty member’s workload will identify the service activity for the academic year as meeting or not meeting expectations.

Part 6: Reporting on Workload

• Position description,
• Summary of role,
• Rank, and
• Essential duties of the position.
• Specific Outputs and Efforts for:
  • Teaching,
  • Research/creative activity,
  • Service, and
  • Other (e.g., professional development).
• Workload Expectations
• Allocation of time/percentage for:
  • Teaching,
  • Research/creative activity, and
  • Service.
• Assessment
  • Determine how goal achievement/success/progress will be measured.
• Timeline, with specific deliverables.
• Resources needed to achieve goal(s).

During the review at the end of the academic year, the Department Chair will evaluate the faculty member's performance based on their approved work plan as either meeting or not meeting expectations in each of the areas of research/creative activity, teaching, and service, as relevant to their rank and appointment type. Department Chairs must provide any faculty member who is rated as “Not Meeting” on one or more of their agreed-upon performance goals with a "Faculty Success Plan” to get them back on track.

Faculty Success Plans are intended to be a supportive and personalized approach to help individual faculty improve their performance and excel in their role. Each Faculty Success Plan must be in writing and include the following components:

• Specific steps designed to lead to improvement;
• Targeted resources the faculty member can use to help them improve (e.g., Center for Faculty Excellence, etc.)
• A specific timeline during which the Department Chair expects the faculty member’s performance to improve; and
• A clear statement of consequences should improvement not occur within the designated timeline.

Faculty Success Plans must be approved in writing by the faculty member’s second-level supervisor.

Park 7: Teaching Load Standards

The University’s policy on faculty workload defines teaching load as the number of semester credit hours or courses an individual faculty member is assigned to teach in a semester or an academic year. The total amount of teaching undertaken by all faculty members will generally exceed that which is documented by credit hours and courses taught, as it will also encompass curricular development, preparation for teaching, additional contact hours, and unquantified teaching that comes from engagement with students. Nonetheless, this policy acknowledges that the metrics and accountability for workload at the University level request quantifiable credit hours, courses taught, and contact hours in the scope of those courses.

Music as a discipline demands specialized approaches to pedagogy which, in many cases, are not compatible with standard quantization of credit hours and minimum enrollments. These pedagogical approaches are the professionally accepted norm across American institutions of higher education, and require additional explanation here.

Individual lessons: a core part of many music students’ education is individual lessons (often called studio lessons) on their primary instrument (including voice). These lessons are taught one-on-one by a faculty member with professional expertise on that instrument. In many cases, students study with the same primary teacher for eight semesters. Many music students also study a secondary instrument in one-on-one lessons. The workload calculations explained in this section are specifically designed to enable this critical part of our students’ education. In particular, for individual lessons, our workload policy aims to keep the number of students in each faculty member’s studio as consistent as possible from one semester to the next to ensure continuity of instruction for the students.

Ensembles: a core part of almost all music students’ education is performing in an ensemble. Both our BMus degree and our BA in Music degree require multiple semesters of ensemble enrollment. These ensembles typically rehearse for several hours a week, and directing (conducting and teaching) these ensembles is a major part of many of our faculty members’ professional expertise and teaching assignments. However, as is the norm in music programs within institutions of higher education, these ensemble courses are often assigned only one credit hour to allow students to fit them into the other requirements of their degree programs and prevent credit-hour overloads; credit-hour overloads generate significant problems for students who receive financial aid, and disruptions in students’ ability to progress through their degree programs would negatively affect time-to-graduation. Thus, the faculty member who is conducting the ensemble has multiple contact hours each week, which does not match the credit-hour allotment for these courses. Furthermore, different ensembles have different cultural and performance traditions that require different rehearsal structures and time commitments. Our ensembles also vary in size, from small chamber-music groups of only a few students to large bands with several hundred participants, and these enrollments align with the cultural and performance tradition of those particular ensembles. For these reasons, our workload policy takes into account enrollment size along with credit hours and contact hours when defining appropriate workloads.

One-credit-hour courses: music programs nationwide include skills-development courses such as musicianship skills, diction, and keyboard skills, which are often assigned only one credit hour but whose standard meeting pattern includes multiple contact hours per week. The courses are assigned one credit for the same reasons as ensembles: to prevent credit-hour overloads and mesh with other degree requirements. These courses teach essential skills that require direct contact-time with instructors to develop. In these cases, contact hours are included in the determination of appropriate workloads.

The Department adopts the following principles in the distribution of teaching loads:

1. The standard teaching load for tenure-track and tenured faculty is two teaching units per semester, or a total of four teaching units per academic year. The standard teaching load for teaching-track faculty is three teaching units per semester, or a total of six teaching units per academic year. Those teaching units are defined in Table 1.

   Table 1: Definition of Teaching Units in the Department of Music

   Type of Teaching	Teaching Unit Credit
   1 three-credit-hour course	One teaching unit
   7 individual (studio) one-hour lessons (two half-hour lessons = one one-hour lesson)	One teaching unit
   5 individual one-hour lessons	Two thirds of a teaching unit
   4 individual one-hour lessons	Half of a teaching unit
   3 individual one-hour lessons	One third of a teaching unit
   Group lessons with 10 students and more than 1 contact hour (group lessons with fewer than 10 students are underenrolled courses)	Half of a teaching unit
   1 one-credit-hour course with 2 contact hours	Half of a teaching unit
   1 one-credit-hour course with 1 contact hour	One third of a teaching unit
   Ensemble with enrollment of 15+ students and 3+ contact hours	One teaching unit
   Ensemble with enrollment fewer than 15 students but with 3+ contact hours	Half of a teaching unit
   Ensemble with any enrollment and 2 contact hours	Half of a teaching unit
   Ensemble with any enrollment and 1 contact hour	One third of a teaching unit
   Chamber ensemble with 1 contact hour	One third of a teaching unit

   At the chair's discretion, teaching-track faculty may be assigned an administrative role such as area head or chamber-ensemble coordinator as one half of a teaching unit.

2. Individual teaching loads, and their constitution, are allocated by, and at the discretion of, the Chair acting on the advice of the Associate Chairs; they are subject to College minima and other constraints, but have no maxima beyond that defined in the UNC Policy 400.3.4. According to this policy, the standard teaching load for research universities is measured in credit hours or equivalent contact hours per academic year, along with routinely expected faculty duties.

3. The Chair will normally allocate teaching loads according to the definitions presented here save when forced otherwise by programmatic or similar needs:

4. Team-taught courses will normally be allocated to teaching loads (including the lead-instructor’s) according to the course credit-hours divided by the number of instructors.

5. All underloads will normally be compensated by additional course credit-hours, ensembles, or lessons completed by the end of the following academic year.

6. For individual (studio) lessons: studio teachers shall average the number of studio lessons they will teach in fall and spring semesters within a given academic year in order to meet their teaching loads while preserving essential continuity of instruction for their students. For instance, a studio teacher whose teaching load indicates 7 individual lessons in the fall and 14 individual lessons in the spring will instead plan to teach 10 individual lessons in the fall and 11 in the spring. In instances where a teaching load dictates a fractional number of lessons, instructors will round up.

7. Additional academic and/or applied mentoring and teaching is expected from all faculty members as a routine part of their teaching beyond the calculation of teaching units each semester. Such mentoring and teaching includes but is not limited to thesis/dissertation advising, supervising independent studies and internships, holding weekly studio class, and coaching recital and competition preparation.

8. Any faculty member who wishes to voluntarily take a teaching overload may petition the chair to do so. Overloads will be documented in the faculty member’s personnel file. The chair will normally not allow teaching overloads for faculty who are still in their probationary period before the review for tenure to ensure appropriate time for research and creative activity.

9. Changes to the meeting pattern or contact hours of a course or ensemble must be approved by the curriculum committee and the department chair.

10. Courses must meet the minimum enrollment set by the College of Arts and Sciences (currently 10 students for undergraduate courses; 5 students for graduate courses) in order to count toward teaching loads. Exceptions to this policy are individual lessons and small chamber ensembles whose enrollment is dictated by particular performance traditions. Courses that do not meet the minimum enrollment may be granted an exception by the Senior Associate Dean for compelling programmatic reasons. Faculty may also petition the chair for permission to teach courses that do not meet the minimum enrollment as voluntary overloads.

Related Requirements

External Regulations (if applicable)

• Is this Policy connected to any Policies, Laws (federal, state, local, regulations), and/or Accreditation requirements?
• Are there any related UNC System-wide Policies?
• Is this Policy connected to any UNC-Chapel Hill Policies, Procedures, or Standards?
• Are there any other resources or materials readers of this Policy might likely refer to or need to follow or understand this Policy?

Unit Policies, Standards, and Procedures (if applicable)

• Is this Policy connected to any other Unit Policies, Procedures, or Standards?

Contact Information

For questions about this policy, contact the Business Manager of the Department of Music.

Additional Contact

Office: Dean's Office

Telephone: 919-962-1165

Email: artsandsciences@unc.edu