Policy Statement - 02-11 Summer Term With Year Round Operation, Policy on Scheduling and Staffing
POLICY ON SCHEDULING AND STAFFING SUMMER
TERM WITH YEAR ROUND OPERATION
This new policy was recommended by the Academic Senate on May 16, 2002 and approved by the President on June 4, 2002.
The intent of year-round operation (YRO) is to increase access of matriculated students to high priority courses such as general education, foundation, and remedial courses and critical major requirement courses (bottleneck courses) by decreasing the cost of summer term attendance to a level comparable to the two regular terms. Without YRO, increasing numbers of students could potentially experience difficulty in getting courses required for graduation during the fall and spring terms. Hence, the following set of guidelines shall be considered when scheduling Summer Term courses:
1. Courses that have the greatest demand during the fall and spring terms for which there is more demand than seats available, and courses that are essential for graduation or progress toward a degree for a significant population of students, have first priority in scheduling for summer term.
2. Schedules shall be made with a view toward student needs rather than faculty preferences. Courses should be scheduled so students will have the greatest possible access to the largest number of courses. For example, a department should not schedule all morning courses or all evening courses. Nor should it schedule all courses in just one of the three summer sessions. Likewise, efforts should be made to avoid overlapping of course times.
3. For faculty, summer term employment is not an entitlement. Under YRO, departments and colleges shall hire faculty members who are best qualified to teach the classes for which there is the greatest demand or need.
4. As in the fall and spring terms, departments are given budgets and enrollment targets for summer term. To meet these targets inasmuch as possible, there should be a cross-section of faculty in the summer term that is similar to the mix of faculty in the spring and fall terms.
5. Department chairs have authority and responsibility for scheduling courses in their departments for summer term, just as they do for the fall and spring terms. Department chairs shall make recommendations to deans regarding the assignment of courses. Final authority for those appointments rests with the deans.
6. Colleges, departments, and faculty alike have the obligation to ensure that the quality of summer term offerings is commensurate with the fall and spring terms. The fact that the course time frames are compressed is not a justification for
diminishing the quality of the educational experience.7. Chairs shall have discretion when scheduling courses that would not be suitable in a compressed time frame. However, chairs should also keep in mind that it is possible to schedule courses during the summer term for more than six weeks duration. The appropriate department faculty shall be consulted about the duration of any class.
EFFECTIVE: Summer 2003
