II-1.25(A)

UMB Policy on Faculty Workload and Responsibilities

Faculty   |   Approved November 1, 2019

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Responsible VP/AVP

Roger Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA

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Revision History

Approved by the President, June 6, 1995. Revised November 1, 2019.

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Policy Statement

I. Overview

The mission of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) is to advance knowledge in health care, law, social work, and related disciplines through teaching, research, and service; to promote partnerships and develop interdisciplinary/interprofessional programs that address critical issues in these areas; to assist in the integration and transfer of new knowledge; and to play a significant role in shaping health care, legal, and social services for Maryland and the mid-Atlantic region. The faculty is essential to UMB's attainment of this mission.

Teaching, research, and service each represents important and expected responsibilities for UMB faculty members. The UMB faculty provides instruction in baccalaureate, master's, doctoral, first professional degree, and continuing education programs in the health, biomedical science and technology, social work, and legal professions. This instruction plays a vital role in educating the next generation of practitioners, academicians, and leaders in these fields.

UMB faculty conduct research, most of which is externally funded. This research and related scholarly activities bring significant recognition and financial support to UMB. UMB faculty also provide an extensive array of direct patient care, client services, advocacy, and other services to persons and organizations in the state. These strong research and service programs are essential to the maintenance of a strong teaching program and generate significant resources for faculty salaries.

UMB faculty are expected to meet their responsibilities in teaching, research/scholarship, and service independently and in full accord with both institutional expectations and established tenets of academic freedom. The UMB Policy on Faculty Workload and Responsibilities provides the framework for the more detailed school policies and defines the process for ensuring accountability in meeting those guidelines.

II. Application

The UMB Policy applies to the following individuals:

1. All persons holding tenured and tenure-track positions who are classified as faculty and are so reported to the Maryland Higher Education Commission through the Employee Data System;

2. All persons who, while holding faculty rank, are classified as administrators and are so reported to the Maryland Higher Education Commission through the Employee Data System, and perform their administrative duties at the level of academic department or equivalent academic unit, including chairs, assistant chairs, program director, etc.;

3. All persons who, while neither tenured nor on the tenure track, are employed full time by UMB, are classified as instructional/clinical teaching faculty in non-tenured ranks with school designations and are so reported to the Maryland Higher Education Commission through the Employee Data System; and

4. All persons who, while neither tenured nor on the tenure track, are employed full time by UMB, are classified as research faculty in non-tenured research ranks and are so reported to the Maryland Higher Education Commission through the Employee Data System, and whose salaries are supported, in whole or in part, by state funds.

This policy does not apply to individuals who hold faculty rank but who are assigned to administrative duties outside the department or equivalent academic units, for example, deans, vice presidents, and president. The policy also does not apply to individuals classified as research faculty whose salary is fully supported by non-state funds, such as federal research grants.

III. Responsibilities

The UMB Policy was developed in conjunction with the UMB faculty and administration and approved by the President. The policy outlines workload expectations for faculty in each of the seven schools at UMB and describes processes used to assign and review faculty effort in teaching, research/scholarship, and service.

In the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy, the responsibility for workload assignments and accountability mechanisms resides with the Department Chairs and the Dean. In the Schools of Law and Social Work and the Graduate School, the responsibility rests with the Associate Dean and the Dean. In all schools, individual faculty assignments are made for the following academic year in the spring, based upon the instructional needs, research and scholarly commitments, clinic and service responsibilities, and administrative requirements. Faculty workload assignments are reviewed annually by each Dean or Dean’s designee and monitored throughout the year by the appropriate Chair and/or Associate Dean or Dean. Adjustments can be made, if appropriate, due to changing circumstances.

IV. Faculty Workload Expectations

Each of the seven schools has developed its own faculty workload policy. Each policy is based on that school's respective teaching, research, and service mission and enables compliance with accreditation requirements for that profession or professions taught in the school.

Four of the UMB professional schools (Dental, Law, Medicine, and Pharmacy) do not use traditional credit hour or "course unit" designations. The design of the curricula in these schools includes extensive and integrated clinical instruction on and off campus, as well as instructional units which are grouped into time periods longer or shorter than three hours and are different from traditional semester time frames. Also, faculty often teach their areas of expertise across many components of the curriculum, rather than in a specific course taught by one faculty member.

In addition, since there can be overlap in function, department chairs and faculty may have difficulty quantifying workload effort into one category. For example, clinical faculty may be providing direct patient care to a participant in a research study while also providing supervision and instruction to students, residents, or specialty fellows. Nonetheless, each of these schools has specific guidelines and/or standards which guide assignments and expectations.

The Schools of Nursing and Social Work and the Graduate School are also involved extensively in clinical education, outreach to the community, service, and research. However, the curriculum designs in the Schools of Social Work and Nursing and the Graduate School do enable use of the guidelines and conversions to course units used in the USM policy.

All seven schools define faculty workload expectations by percent of effort in teaching, research, and service. Each school's policy also defines specific factors which influence workload assignments and the process used to make assignments. Although all faculty members are expected to contribute to the mission of the school and University, relative workload effort among teaching, research/scholarship, and service may vary according to the type of appointment and nature of assignments. Therefore, each school has percentage ranges for workload expectations by type of appointment and corresponding tenure status. Annual faculty workload expectations, as defined in each school's policy and approved by the President, are specified in this document.

 

 

SCHOOL OF NURSING

	Instruction	Research/ Scholarship	Service
Tenure/tenure track
% of Effort	45-55%	35-45%	10-20%
# Course Units	5-6
Non-Tenure
% of Effort	50% - 75%	10% - 30%	5% - 20%
# Course Units	7-8

 

 

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

	Instruction	Research/ Scholarship	Service
Tenure/tenure track
% of Effort	20-60%	20-70%	10-30%
# Course Units	4-5 (Course Units)
Non-Tenure
% of Effort	10% - 80%	10% - 80%	5% - 80%

 

 

GRADUATE SCHOOL

	Instruction	Research/ Scholarship	Service
% of Effort	50% - 75%	10% - 30%	5% - 20%
# Course Units/Years (Full Time)	5-8 (Depending on Course level)

 

 

SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY

	Instruction (*1)	Research/ Scholarship (*2)	Service
Tenure/tenure track
% of Effort	25-60%	25-65%	10-20%
Non-Tenure
% of Effort	40% - 80%	5% - 40%	15% - 30%

 

 

SCHOOL OF LAW

	Instruction	Research/ Scholarship	Service
Tenure/tenure track
% of Effort	40-50%	30-40%	10-20%
Non-Tenure
% of Effort	60% - 80%	10% - 20%	20% - 30%

 

 

SCHOOL OF PHARMACY

	Instruction (*1)	Research/ Scholarship (*2)	Service
Tenure/tenure track
% of Effort	25-60%	25-65%	0-20%
Non-Tenure
% of Effort	40% - 80%	5% - 40%	15% - 30%

 

*1 Ranges of effort in these Schools accommodate the fact that significant proportions of faculty salaries in both the basic and clinical science departments are based on income generated salary from research and/or direct patient care activities. To the extent that faculty generate their support from outside sources such as grants and contracts, their percent of time and effort must reflect their commitment to that funding source.

*2 The accompanying reduction of expectations for instruction and/or service (based on non-State support) should mirror the replacement, whenever possible, of salary support by externally funded salary support. However, it is expected that faculty will devote, at a minimum, the percentage of time to teaching as noted.

 

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Faculty	Instruction /Supervision2	Research/ Scholarship	Service	Direct Patient Care
Basic Science
Tenured/tenure track	25-50%	35-70%	5-20%	0-5%
Non-tenure (School)	35-60%	30-60%	5-10%	0-5%
Non-tenure  (Research)	10-35%	50-85%	5-10%	0%
Clinical Science
Tenured/tenure track	25-50%	35-70%	5-20%	0-40%
Non-tenure (School)	30-45%	20-50%	5-10%	25-50%
Non-tenure  (Research)	10-35%	50-85%	5-10%	0-30%

 

V. Factors Considered When Workload Expectations are Assigned

Faculty assignments are determined by the appropriate Department Chair or Associate Dean and may be altered based on the following factors:

1. Instruction. Exceptions from the school's instructional expectation may be based on a number of factors including class size, development of new courses, modality of instruction (including distance education), level of instruction, degree of responsibility for administering unit of instruction, and/or type of evaluation mechanisms employed.

2. Departmental Administration. Assumption of responsibility for the functions of Chair orProgram Director or for special departmental projects may require reduction of expectations for service, research/scholarship, or instruction. The reduction is dependent on the size of the department and the scope of administrative responsibilities.

3. Departmental and Sponsored Research. If assignment of additional time for research can be supported by either departmental or external funds and with the approval of the Department Chair and the Dean, a reduction of expectations for instruction and/or service may be authorized. In those instances where the research is supported by externally funded grants and/or contracts, the accompanying reduction of expectations for instruction and/or service should mirror the replacement, whenever possible, of salary support by externally funded salary support. Reductions in research support can lead to increases in assigned teaching or service.

4. Service. Public and professional service are expected of all faculty; however, there may be certain instances when this expectation requires an unusual commitment of effort, e.g., for faculty with heavy clinical responsibilities. Assignment of additional time in areas of service and the consequent reduction of expectations for teaching and/or research/scholarship should be directly related to the duration and the extensiveness of the service commitment. Reeducation in service commitments can lead to increases in assigned teaching or research.

5. New Faculty. Assignments for new faculty must take into consideration their need to develop new courses and begin a research program in order to become established in their assigned role.

VI. Accountability

The procedures established within each school for the systematic annual review of faculty will recognize outstanding performance and establish consequences for not meeting expectations. In each school, annual reports documenting faculty workload assignments and productivity are completed each spring/summer for the previous academic year (calendar year for Pharmacy). Reports include teaching activities over the prior year; scholarly endeavors, as measured by presentations and publications from research and other scholarly work; grants and contracts submitted or awarded; public service, including clinical practice, community, and professional service; and participation in university and school governance activities. Reports submitted by each faculty member are reviewed by the appropriate Department Chair or Associate Dean, and a summary report is submitted to each Dean annually. Each Dean submits the school's accountability report annually to the President. The President then submits a campus accountability report to the Chancellor as prescribed in the USM Policy on Faculty Workload and Responsibilities.