Requirements for First-Year Writing Faculty

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All first-year writing faculty are required to:

1. Meet classes on time, instruct students according to program guidelines, and provide appropriate and clear assessment of students’ work in class. 
2. While adjunct faculty are not required to hold office hours (half-time and instructor-faculty are),  all faculty are required to be available for student consultation.
3. Submit book orders and syllabi to the English Department for review.
4. Attend one opening meeting each semester.
5. Attend one workshop each semester.
6. Cooperate along department guidelines for regular (though for veterans, increasingly less frequent) reviews of performance through student evaluations and faculty observations.  As well, through electronic means faculty grades will be reviewed. 
7. Use Blackboard, at least minimally for announcements, posting of assignments and syllabi. Faculty must at least set up Blackboard so that students can be notified in the event of an emergency or a last-minute change.

The English Department will support first-year writing faculty primarily through the Director of First-Year Writing and the assistant directors, but also through the secretary, department administrator, and the Chair.   Administrative questions should be sent first to the department secretary.  All questions about teaching, students, and continuing employment should be directed to the Director.  It’s most effective to contact the Director first through email, but best efforts will be made to follow-up email contact through a meeting or at least a phone call.  (With over 60 first-year writing faculty and just one director, support will not always be as we’d like it to be.)  The English Department Chair works closely with the Director, and can provide guidance when the Director is unavailable. 

The English Department seeks to re-hire successful faculty to the extent that administrative and legal rulings allow, and to the extent that we have courses that need faculty.   If the Department observes problems or issues with an individual’s teaching, our first action will be to consult with faculty and work together to understand the issue, and if necessary, make changes. 

Administrative Limits to Re-Hiring:

Adjunct faculty are hired semester-to-semester, and can work, indefinitely.

Half-time faculty are hired on a year-to-year basis, on a two-year limited expectation; English Department policy mandates a two-year limit, with exceptions for exemplary faculty, as needed.

Lecturer faculty are hired on a year-to-year basis, with a limit of three years.  There is no exception to this policy; it is set by the administration in connection with state law and union contracts.  

June 2009