< All Policies and Guidelines

CALS Academic Instructional Staff Teaching Load Policy

Rationale

The primary job responsibility of academic instructional staff is teaching, as opposed to tenure-track faculty members, who have a wider range of job duties. Academic instructional staff are therefore expected to have a heavier teaching load of group-instruction than research/instruction tenured and tenure-track faculty members. 

Scope

This policy applies to academic instructional staff, including job titles of lecturer, teaching faculty, and teaching professor. Relevant job descriptions are available through the UW–Madison HR standard job descriptions (https://hr.wisc.edu/standard-job-descriptions/)

Responsibilities

Implementation of this policy is a shared responsibility between college leadership and department Chairs. Chairs are responsible for:

• Assigning or overseeing the assignment of teaching duties
• Ensuring equitable and effective implementation of the department’s teaching load policy
• Adjusting teaching expectations proportionally based on appointment percentage (e.g., 50% appointment carries 50% of the standard load)

College Teaching Load

The minimum teaching load for all instructional staff (lecturers, teaching faculty, and teaching professors) is:

• 9-month appointments:           12 credits over Fall and Spring semesters
• 12-month appointments:         15 credits total, with 3 credits typically taught in summer

Department Teaching Load Policies

Each department must maintain and share with the college a teaching load policy that meets or exceeds college expectations. The standard teaching load in each unit reflects the department’s curriculum, enrollment demands, accreditation considerations, and overall instructional portfolio to support its programs.

Assignment Process

Each department will maintain a teaching load policy. The department chair is responsible for or designating an individual to coordinate assigning teaching duties and ensuring that the timeline and process for determining those assignments are communicated to faculty and staff before the start of the academic year.

Enrollment Minima

As part of the college’s teaching mission, departments should also be focusing on maximizing teaching effort by meeting course enrollment minima, offering some low enrollment courses every other year, and updating curricula. These are the current enrollment minima for group-instruction courses:

• Courses numbered below 300: 15 students
• Courses numbered 300 to 699 for undergraduate or undergraduate/graduate audiences: 12 students
• Courses numbered 300 to 699 limited to graduate audiences: 8 students
• Courses numbered 700 and above: 8 students