Unit Policy
Title
School of Social Work: Policy on Faculty Workload
Introduction
Purpose
The purpose of this workload policy is to describe the minimal and essential duties of faculty members at the School of Social Work (“SSW”). This policy:
- Promotes teaching and instructional excellence; scholarly and research productivity; and service and community engagement equity; and
- Recognizes that pursuing individual professional and scholarly interests must be balanced against teaching and instruction as well as service and community engagement obligations to contribute equitably to the SSW’s mission, reputation, and financial sustainability.
Although faculty members might contribute differentially across administration, teaching and instruction; scholarship and research; and service and community engagement, a workload policy must address the minimum contribution expected in each area.
Teaching and instruction; scholarship and research; and service and community engagement intersect to form an essential core of being a faculty member. In a school of our size, faculty also assume administrative roles in an ad hoc or term-based appointment.
Scope
This policy applies to all SSW full-time tenured, tenure-track, and fixed-term faculty whose appointments are greater than one year.
Policy
Policy Statement
Features of a Workload Policy
A workload policy cannot fully describe everything that tenured, tenure-track, and fixed-term faculty are expected to do, or even all that is needed to function well as a professional school in a Research I university. A school distinguished for teaching and instruction; scholarship and research; and service and community engagement require many things that cannot be codified in a workload statement, such as a collegial orientation, a scholarly atmosphere, deliberative decision-making, and generosity of spirit.
This policy appropriately uses quantitative indicators of work activity. It recognizes that such metrics are not meant to provide specific guidance about what constitutes the quality critical to determining meritorious performance but rather to provide a broad framework for evaluating work activity. Instead, this policy specifies the prerequisite conditions for meritorious performance—in essence, what is necessary for excellence, but not what constitutes meritorious performance per se. A good workload policy possesses the following features:
- Reflective of Shared Values and Mission – The policy reflects the aspirational and operational values and goals derived from strategic planning and the expectations set forth by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (“UNC-Chapel Hill” or “University”) and our field;
- Simple and Flexible – The policy recognizes the diversity in the roles filled by tenured, tenure-track, and fixed-term faculty; responds to new opportunities; and allows for role differentiation;
- Equitable and Transparent – The policy is applied fairly and is available to all faculty in writing; and
- Sensitive – The policy responds to the expectations and concerns of constituents and stakeholders who support the SSW, including the University and the State of North Carolina (“State”).
Standard Distribution of Effort
| Responsibility |
12-month Fixed-Term Faculty Instruction
|
12-month Fixed-Term Faculty Practicum
|
12-month Fixed-Term Faculty Admin
|
9-month Tenure-Track and Tenured Faculty
|
| Teaching and Instruction |
90% |
90% |
60% |
67% |
| Scholarship and Research |
-- |
-- |
-- |
16.5% |
| Service and Community Engagement |
10% |
10% |
5% |
16.5% |
| Administration |
-- |
-- |
35% |
-- |
Teaching and Instruction
Teaching and instruction refer to the activities necessary to prepare, deliver, and evaluate various educational programs. This includes:
- Developing, updating, teaching, and managing credit-bearing master or doctoral courses via online, in-person, and on-campus seminars.
- Coordinating courses with the curriculum, accreditation, and multiple sections and making changes, as necessary.
- Anticipating and responding to the pedagogical needs of students.
- Serving as a Liaison for a cohort of students in practicum.
- Serving as a Task Supervisor for a cohort of practicum students in settings lacking formally credentialed personnel.
- Developing, updating, teaching, and managing practicum seminars.
- Student advising.
- Mentoring doctoral candidates in a teaching or research practica.
- Advising doctoral students by serving as a Chair or Dissertation committee member.
- Teaching approved independent study courses.
- Mentoring or supporting faculty colleagues in teaching, research, external funding, leadership, or other areas to advance the SSW or the University.
- Presentations to SSW students outside formal classes, including guest lectures, orientation, and career development workshops.
- Presentations to audiences outside the SSW, such as guest lectures for other University departments, presentations to community audiences, or hospital grand rounds.
Scholarship and Research
Scholarship and research are central to the University’s mission. The SSW expects faculty with research responsibilities to actively create, integrate, and apply knowledge by procuring research funding, including grants, contracts, or social entrepreneurship (e.g., commercialization of intellectual property, including spinouts, startups, and consulting activities).
- Proposal and research development includes all activities related to the submission of grants and contracts (e.g., collaborating on interdisciplinary teams, conducting literature reviews, Institutional Research Board (“IRB”) preparation and approval, developing measurement models, consulting with statisticians on data analysis plans, writing the text of proposals, working with administrators during the submission process).
- Research includes funded, unfunded, conceptual, historical, evaluation, and experimental research or intervention testing. It includes all phases of the research process, including literature reviews, IRB preparation, data collection and analysis, and development of results, reports, and manuscripts.
- Community-engaged scholarship, including identifying and involving sites and partners for training and technical assistance activities and evaluation, intervention, and research projects.
- Dissemination involves sharing the results of research and scholarship through publication, presentations at professional meetings, and reports for practitioners and public audiences through testimony, media coverage, training, and outreach. It includes non-peer-reviewed dissemination activities (e.g., publishing widely adopted texts, award-winning books, policy-influencing government, or foundation technical reports) and invited lectureships and visiting professorships external to UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Chairing or serving on a national grant research panel.
Service and Community Engagement
The SSW expects faculty members to provide service and engagement to the SSW, the University, the profession, and the community. Faculty leadership and participation on SSW committees are critical to the SSW’s functioning. Involvement often varies by the seasonal demands on committees, such as the ebb and flow of faculty hiring and admissions decisions, as well as by external events, such as reaccreditation or external program reviews. Regardless, the SSW expects faculty members to attend and contribute meaningfully to SSW committee work.
Service and Community Engagement includes the following:
- Membership or leadership on SSW committees. These may be elected or appointed roles on standing or ad hoc (task force, search) committees.
- Service on University committees, including governance and ad hoc committees.
- Professional service and community engagement at the local, State, regional, national, and international levels. The SSW expects faculty to fulfill their service responsibilities within the SSW, given the SSW’s functional requirements and needs. However, the SSW Dean may grant a reduced committee load if the Dean believes the external professional service is important enough to the SSW to warrant a reduction (e.g., serving in an elective office at the Society for Social Work and Research or the Council on Social Work Education, or serving as an editor of a major professional journal).
Administration
The SSW may hire faculty with contractual administrative obligations (Dean, Vice Dean), or the Dean may appoint faculty to such roles under specific terms and conditions. In all instances, the Dean and faculty members should specify the type and duration of workload adjustments at the time of appointment.
Administrative responsibilities may intersect with service and community engagement or teaching and instruction. When administrators teach or participate in or lead committees because of their administrative appointment, the Dean and faculty member should count the effort as administration.
Administration includes the following:
- Responsibility for leadership and management of an operational unit of the SSW (Practicum, Doctoral Program, Research, Faculty Development, Academic Affairs, Dual Degree, or Advanced Standing). These appointments may include supervisory and external reporting responsibilities.
- Responsibility for the leadership and management of a Center or Institute based in whole or in part at the SSW.
- Responsibility for the leadership and management of a permanent or time limited, cross-cutting initiative or unit, such as Wellness or Global affairs. These appointments may include supervisory and external reporting responsibilities.
Variable Loads
SSW faculty may negotiate variations in the allocation of effort with the Dean at the time of hire or when required due to personnel changes, strategic priorities, new appointments, or other events. For example, tenure-track faculty may be assigned administrative roles, which would result in the reallocation of workload.
Variances in workload are typically made in 16.5% increments. For example, an associate dean appointment might reduce teaching and instruction by 16.5%. Even when not teaching a formal class, some percentage of effort may still be dedicated to other teaching or instructional activities. All agreed-upon variations from standard effort allocations are determined or affirmed in the January meetings between the Dean and faculty member and are reported in the June Faculty Activity Report (“FAR”) process for the preceding 9- or 12-month term.
Annual Workload Planning
Faculty responsibilities are executed on an academic calendar (roughly August 15 - August 14 each year) but are reported on a fiscal calendar (July 1 - June 30). Faculty workload planning and reporting at the SSW follows an 18-month calendar.
January
- Faculty prepare a report on their expected allocation of responsibilities for the fiscal year starting the following July, using the four broad categories of responsibilities (teaching and instruction; scholarship and research; service and community engagement; and administration).
- Faculty review their proposed allocation in a meeting with the Dean. These discussions should operationalize the expected efforts within each category. For example, under teaching and instruction, the number of 3-credit classes would be discussed and altered or approved, but the specific class would not necessarily be determinable at that time.
- The Dean-approved workload is recorded and becomes the contractual expectation for allocating activities to begin on July 1. Changes to the workload after that time must be approved in writing by the Dean. Recording of a faculty member’s annual workload assignment is currently done in three unique data systems and managed by three units:
- Academic Affairs Annual Course Scheduling;
- Business Office and Office of Strategic Research Partnerships (OSRP) Course Release and Research Reassignment; and
- Committee and Service Assignments. As we await implementation of an automated workload warehouse system, we are developing an integrated database that will merge all three data files searchable by faculty name. The integrated system will be temporarily housed and managed by the SSW’s HR team. Annually, faculty will receive a notification of the final workload agreement that has been recorded.
June
- Each faculty member completes a FAR reporting numerically on their allocation of effort for the past fiscal year (9- or 12-month calendar) within the four broad categories of responsibilities (teaching and instruction; scholarship and research; service and community engagement; and administration).
- At the Dean’s discretion, the FAR may include narrative information to describe the activities in depth, provide self-reflection and evaluation about the performance of the activities, or provide an explanation if the allocation percentages do not conform to the workload the faculty member and Dean agreed upon in January of the prior year. In the case of early career tenure-track faculty, the results of the FAR are summarized and given to the faculty member. The SSW retains a copy of the FAR and FAR summary within the SSW’s personnel records.
Annual Faculty Evaluation
Significant Factors
In keeping with the SSW’s criteria for promotion and tenure and the Post Tenure Review (PTR) process, a tenure-track faculty and tenured faculty’s, respectively, annual performance is evaluated in three work domains:
- Scholarship and research;
- Service and community engagement; and
- Teaching, instruction, advising, and mentoring.
Fixed-term faculty performance is evaluated in four work domains, depending on the nature of the individual faculty appointment:
- Scholarship and research;
- Service and community engagement;
- Teaching and instruction, advising, and mentoring; and
- Administration and leadership.
The SSW’s annual faculty evaluation assesses the quality and impact of individuals’ work products and contributions based on the faculty member’s approved workload plan. Regarding scholarship and research, some significant factors include originality, impact, consistent productivity, and sophistication.
The evaluation of teaching and instruction considers the faculty member’s competence and effectiveness. The SSW highly values teaching and instruction, encompassing mentoring of students. In general, the annual evaluation of this aspect of an individual’s workload concerns the faculty member’s:
- Grasp of the knowledge and relevant skills of the field;
- Ability to synthesize and communicate such knowledge and skills;
- Use of practice skills and experiences;
- Sensitivity to the learner; and
- Ability to assess learners’ performance and constructively convey feedback.
Finally, regarding service engagement, and outreach (and, where appropriate, administration), the SSW expects faculty to participate actively in school governance and operations. The contributions faculty make and how they manage administrative duties and tasks in a timely and competent manner are significant performance measures. Service portfolios that involve diverse activities, including contributions to the SSW, University, communities, and the profession, are considered meaningful and contain some of the most impactful performance measures in this workload category.
Weights Assigned to Workload Categories to Assess Annual Performance
As with promotion and tenure decisions for tenure-track faculty, the domain of scholarship and research is the most heavily weighted performance area, followed by teaching and instruction, advising, mentoring, and service and community engagement. Not all faculty members will address all these criteria in the nature and scope of their work. However, faculty members must demonstrate significant accomplishments and contributions in a critical subset of these criteria to demonstrate performance in a particular area. The faculty member’s written statement of self-evaluation using these criteria is used in the review process.
With respect to fixed-term faculty, the relative weight of the three work domains (scholarship and research; service and community engagement; and teaching and instruction, advising, and mentoring) is determined based on the faculty member’s job description. The relative weight of the three work domains is established by our business needs. Position descriptions are developed by hiring committees and SSW HR Department. Positions and related work domains are guided by our strategic plan and the SSW’s academic programming needs. Work domain factors are informed by a balance of our accreditation requirements, academic and curriculum needs, and business model.
Process and Schedule
Faculty use their FAR to highlight aspects of their scholarship and research; teaching and instruction; service and community engagement; and administration (where relevant). Annually, the dean provides guidance to all faculty so that they can prepare their FARs. The Dean meets with all tenure-track and tenured faculty. The Associate Dean for MSW Education and the Dean notify all fixed-term faculty that upon request, they will meet with them to review their FAR. The guidance that they receive to prepare their annual FAR is sent directly to them via email and it is available on the faculty intranet.
Faculty Success Plans
During the annual review, the Dean evaluates the faculty member's performance based on their approved work plan. As a result of the process, the Dean and faculty member may alter the allocation of workload or recommend revised performance criteria to better reflect a faculty member’s unique role. If a faculty member is determined not to have met one or more of their agreed-upon performance goals, the Dean or designee will work with the faculty member to create a "Faculty Success Plan."
Faculty Success Plans ("Plans") are written documents intended to be a supportive and personalized approach to help individual faculty improve their performance and excel in their role. Each Plan includes 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 Dean expects the faculty member’s performance to improve; and
- A clear statement of consequences should improvement not occur within the designated timeline.
Following the institution of a Plan and for its duration, the Dean or designee must conduct periodic check-ins with each faculty to monitor progress, maintaining written summaries of the check-in meetings.
Definitions
- Administrative excellence involves the responsibility of coordinating with internal and external (University, accreditation) bodies to facilitate the SSW’s critical functions and the safety and integrity of the SSW itself.
- Teaching and instructional excellence is defined as pedagogical effectiveness in preparing and delivering formal courses and educational activities in other settings, such as invited lectures, keynote addresses, and public testimony, that serve the profession, State, and nation.
- Scholarly and research productivity is defined as knowledge discovery, integration, application, and dissemination.
- Service and community engagement equity is defined as the fair distribution of responsibilities that serve the SSW’s collective mission. These responsibilities include serving on SSW committees, supporting doctoral students, mentoring junior faculty, and serving as SSW ambassadors through public engagement.
Related Requirements
External Regulations
Unit Policies, Standards, and Procedures
Contact Information
Primary Contact
Name: Ramona Denby-Brinson, Dean and Professor
Telephone: (919)-843-9682
Email: rdenby-brinson@unc.edu
Other Contacts
Name: Robert Hawkins, Vice Dean
Telephone: (919) 962-6469
Email: Robert.Hawkins@unc.edu
Name: Tamsen Foote, SSW Human Resources Director
Phone: (919) 962-5469 office
Email: tamsen@unc.edu