The following Summer and Winter Session teaching opportunity guidelines have been developed to ensure the following:
- Academic Affairs is meeting institutional and student needs by the courses offered. Student needs include things such as offering appropriate courses, ensuring course quality, etc.; institutional needs include considerations such as effective and efficient offerings, budget considerations, academic program requirements, etc.
- There is equity of opportunity for these additional teaching opportunities
- There is better planning on what courses may be offered and how often
Discussion of the courses to be offered during Summer and Winter Sessions is determined by a combination of institutional needs/planning and faculty choice. Ultimately, the decision on what to teach, when to teach, and who will teach will be based on institutional/student needs and be made by the college/school Dean as is the case for fall and spring semesters.
Department chairs, with faculty input, create initial summer/winter schedule proposals. Final approval of the courses/sections taught and who the instructor is for each course is up to the Dean of the college/school in which the course is offered. In these decisions, Deans may consider the following:
- Do the courses meet enrollment needs?
- Are there “seat” needs justifying multiple sections of the same course?
- How do the range of courses offered within a program affect enrollments within each course?
- Are the right set of courses being offered to meet student interest/needs?
Generally, all faculty should be given the opportunity to teach during Summer and Winter Sessions. Faculty should not be assigned more than one section unless all other interested and qualified faculty have received assignments.
Many of our Summer and Winter Sessions occur over a condensed timeframe; as such, teaching multiple sections/courses during a condensed term should only occur in extraordinary circumstances.
Departments should prioritize courses that address student curricular needs however, departments should not require that undergraduate students must take Summer or Winter session courses to complete degree requirements.
Maximum course capacities for the same course should be the same across all terms unless there are compelling pedagogical reasons.