Academic Policies
Class Cancellation Policy
Faculty who miss class and claim sick leave must report the absence as soon as possible. Any request for cancellation or re-scheduling of classes must be made in advance by the faculty member for prior approval by the department chair. The department will report vacation for 12-month faculty or sick leave as appropriate.
Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Policy
International students (either undergraduate or graduate) take part-time CPT at up to 20 hours per week during the academic season (Fall and Spring semesters). Following international regulations, students may be eligible for CPT once they have completed 2 academic (Spring and/or Fall) semesters in their degree program. Such CPT can be approved for one semester at a time, and must begin and end during the semester in question.
Under either of the following circumstances, an international student may take a full-time CPT, working between 20 - 40 hours per week:
- Student is performing CPT during Summer sessions, during a window of time which is completely non-overlapping with both Fall and Spring semesters
- Student is performing CPT in their final semester, with an approved Part-Time Course Load, and with the approval of the Department Chair. If the student is a Master's student, the chair of their thesis committee must also approve a full-time CPT.
Students may take up to 3 CPTs in total, any of which could cover a Fall semester, a Spring semester, or a Summer session.
Students should enroll in CPT course CECS 594A, which at the time of this writing can be taken up to twice for 1 unit each time. A course modification is in proposal stage to allow CECS 594A to be taken three times (as a 1-1-1). Until this modification is approved, the Department may use their own prior CPT course (example: COMP 494A) as the Academic Internship course during one of the three CPT semesters.
Faculty Office Spaces Policy
The following are items related to the allocation of faculty office spaces:
Faculty Members who teach as rehired annuitants through FERP are assigned a faculty office during the semester in which they teach full-time. In the semester in which they don't teach, this space is to be reassigned to other faculty members. In the case where a faculty member spreads their FERP assignment over both Fall and Spring semesters, the faculty member shares an office with others during both terms. (Additionally, please note that Section 600 provides clear guidance on the assignment of offices for emeriti faculty when space is available)
Faculty members who are (1) appointed to management (MPP) positions or (2) reassigned for 50% or more their time to administrative coordination roles, with an office for that role, do not retain a separate faculty office. This latter category includes chairs of academic departments.
Managers of Academic Resources have the authority to ensure that space is redeployed to accomodate incoming tenure-track faculty members. In the event of this not occurring, the dean and their designees will take appropriate action as necessary. Any disputes will be handled through the Office of the Provost.
Minimum Teaching Load Policy
Beginning in the Fall 2024 semester, there will be new teaching requirements for all tenure-track and tenured faculty. Regardless of research funding, all faculty members will be expected to teach a minimum number of units, either at the undergraduate or graduate level, during an academic year.
For tenure-track faculty, the minimum teaching requirement will be 6 units per academic year. For tenured faculty, the minimum teaching requirement will be 3 units per academic year. Please note that this policy does not include supervisory or independent study courses.
Online Offering Policies
Assignment of teaching, including online, distance learning, service-learning, and laboratory courses is determined by the appropriate administrator after consultation with the department Chair or designee and/or the individual faculty member. Decisions about assigning online courses, who is qualified to teach them and when to offer these courses are based on the programmatic needs of the College and the Department. For the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the following procedures are to be followed in the assignment of online courses:
- Unless the University is operating on the whole in remote or adjusted remote format, no CECS faculty member may teach more than two online courses per year. Exceptions will be made if directed by HR.
- Freshman level courses, graduate and undergraduate labs, and senior design project classes are strongly encouraged to be taught in-person. Both the Dean and the department Chair should approve the offering of such labs/courses if offered online. For any lecture lab combo course taught by a single faculty will be considered as one course.
- Undergraduate courses offered online are strongly encouraged to have at least one section that is offered in-person.
- Courses should not change modalities once enrollment has begun.
- The department must set a deadline by which faculty must notify their chair if they are interested in teaching online.
- If there are more faculty interested in teaching online than courses available and are qualified to do so, a rotation schedule will be established.
- If a faculty is denied teaching online, the Chair will document the reason for the denial within 10 business days.
Peer Review of Online Classes
Consistent with Section 600 and 700, student evaluations are required for all faculty, including faculty who teach online courses. For faculty who teach online classes, the department chairs and Department Personnel Committees (DPCs) are encouraged to implement a minimum of one student evaluation for an online class annually.
Peer class visits of online courses should take place as part of the performance or periodic review process for both part-time and full-time faculty including reviews for RTP, appointment or reappointment, or post-tenure review.
It is the responsibility of the Department Chair and the DPC to conduct peer class visits according to the department personnel procedures, including peer visits of online courses. The person conducting the peer visits should be a tenured faculty member, and in the case of peer visits of associate or full professors, the peer reviewer should be at the rank of full professor. If the department does not have faculty able to perform this task, a faculty member from another department may be recruited to conduct the peer visit.
Each department is asked to develop a peer evaluation process specifically for online courses by Fall 2022. Each department is expected to consider developing a rubric in consultation with the Dean and CPC specifically for online courses.