Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing

Faculty Workload Plan

Effective Date August 1, 2023

 

  1. Overview and Guiding Principles

The mission of the university broadly guides the expectations associated with the faculty member's responsibilities, with appropriate adjustments as necessary to fulfill college or department needs. Faculty workloads must meet the needs of delivery for the required coursework in the programs offered by the college. At Montana State University, tenurable and tenured (TT) faculty have responsibilities in areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. Individual assignments in each of these areas may vary within the college. Non-tenure track (NTT) faculty have responsibilities in the areas of teaching/learning and service/outreach. Similar to TT faculty, individual assignments in each of these areas may vary within the college.

The Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing (MRJCON) recognizes variability in effort required to teach different types of courses (e.g., classroom, clinical, online, etc.), advising of undergraduate and graduate students, mentorship of graduate student scholarly projects, and service obligations. This workload plan address principles to account for this variability recognizing that faculty also commonly adjust their teaching methods in order to account for certain degrees of difference in number of students, course structure, contact hours, grading requirements, etc.

Campus Directors are responsible for assigning faculty teaching and service workloads, subject to approval of the Dean. Scholarship workload for TT faculty is assigned by the Dean in collaboration with the Associate Dean for Research and Campus Directors.

All TT faculty and NTT faculty are expected (0.50 FTE or greater are required) to use Faculty Success to log teaching, scholarship, and service activities and to develop a self-assessment report for the annual review. Successful annual reviews require submission of all required materials by the deadline set by the respective MRJCON Campus Director.

       II. Types of Appointments

    1. Tenurable and Tenured Faculty

Tenurable and tenured faculty members' teaching, scholarship, and service responsibilities are allocated as percentages of faculty members' total effort. The effort assigned to an area of responsibility is referred to as "Percentage of Effort" (POE). The total apportionment of POE across all areas will be 100%. The usual POE distribution for TT faculty is 30-35% scholarly activity, 60-65% teaching and 5-10% service. Percentages may be adjusted based on college needs, performance** and available resources.

Expectations and performance indicators for teaching, scholarship, and service are defined within the MRJCON Role and Scope document that guides retention, tenure, promotion, and annual reviews. Broadly, teaching encompasses classroom, online, and clinical students. Scholarship encompasses the creation of original intellectual work including publications, presentations, patents, and other dissemination products. Scholarship also encompasses securing and administraton of grants and contracts. Service encompasses the contribution of faculty knowledge and expertise to assist and engage individuals and organizations. Service activities fall roughly in three broad categories: college/university service, professional service, and public service.

In the College of Nursing, for TT faculty, a full teaching assignment generally means five (5) instructional courses or alternative modes for teaching per academic year (or approximately 15-16 workload units over the academic year).

      B. Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Non-tenure track faculty workload policy is set by the collective bargaining agreement. The full-time equivalent (FTE) workload for NTT faculty is based on 15 workload units per AY semester (see Article 7: Workload of the 2023-2025 NTT collective bargaining agreement).

III. Assigned Percentage of Effort (POE) Requirements and Changes

    1. Temporary changes in POE due to external funding: Tenurable and tenured faculty are encouraged to seek internal and external funding. In general, MSU prefers that grant funding buyouts be managed by pivoting portions of a faculty's teaching assignment from the classroom to mentoring additional graduate students; in this case, a change of POE is not necessary.

There are exceptions in the Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing to this approach to managing buyouts because TT faculty in the MRJCON work with relatively larger numbers of professional doctorate students, which requires additional coursework that is not typical of mentorship of research-focused PhD students. Consequently, in the MRJCON a change in POE may be warranted for a faculty who obtains or leads a large external grant that requires a larger POE than is available in their assigned research POE. This temporary change to POE may be for a semester or academic year. All temporary changes in percentage of effort must be approved by the Dean in writing and are considered in light of other designated responsibilities including administrative assignments.

Typically, faculty must invest twelve (12) percent of their salary from external funding sources to temporarily reduce their teaching responsibilities by one 3-credit course over the academic year. Faculty may invest up to a maximum of 55 percent of their salary to temporarily reduce their teaching and service obligations thereby maximizing their annual scholarly pursuits. All faculty however must maintain a minimum of one-course teaching per year and five (5) percent service responsibilities. 

Temporary changes due to external funding to a faculty member's POE should be reflected in the annual review evaluation process so that both teaching and scholarship expectations are adjusted.

B. Exceptions for sabbatical and other approved leave: All TT MSU faculty whose FTE salary is paid entirely from MSU general funds receive a teaching and service assignment with the exception of faculty who are granted sabbatical or other leave approved in advance by the Dean and Provost.

IV. Teaching

    1. General rule: Typically, and instructional course is 1 WLU per credit in which the instructor's responsibilities include prep, lecture, review, grading assignments and examinations.
    2. Undergraduate practice teaching: Larger workload (1.5 WLU per credit) is assigned for undergraduate practice course teaching in which the instructor's responsibilities include maintaining partnerships with external agencies (e.g., hospitals, public health departments, schools, clinics, etc.), identifying clinical assignments for students, supervising student clinical practice, supplementation of clinical learning with skills/simulation learning, communication with agency preceptors and/or staff, maintaining patient safety, and assessment for student learning.
    3. Skills and Simulation Labs: Larger workload (1.25 WLU per credit) is assigned for skills and simulation labs.
    4. Other College Labs: R/D sections and seminars are not eligible for increased workload.
    5. CRRN Coordination: CRRN coordination WLU is assigned when the faculty member oversees Clinical Resource Registered Nurse (CRRN) clinical teaching. CRRNs contribute to student assessment but CRRN coordinators are responsible for clinical evaluation and assigning grades. For coordination of 1-2 CRRNs, faculty receive an additional .5 WLU; for 3-4 CRRN receive 1.0 WLU.
    6. Online courses: Instructional courses taught entirely online are assigned 1 WLU per credit.
    7. Graduate student project mentorship: Mentorship of DNP and MN projects is considered teaching and is integrated into course workload assignments.
    8. Service learning experiences: Service learning is considered teaching. Generally this is included in course workload.
    9. Academic program leadership: Program leadership is considered alternative teaching and includes roles such as the family nurse practitioner program lead, psych-mental health nurse practitioner program lead, master's program lead, and specialty coordinator/s.
    10. Academic Advising: Advising undergraduate students is considered a part of teaching, and will be added as general service referenced in Section V Service: Part B.
    11. Workload modifications generally not given for special circumstances: Additional workload is not given for teaching a course for the first time. Workload is not reduced or increased for reasonable variances in clinical section size (e.g., 6-10 students) or for variances in instructional course sizes across the MRJCON (e.g., 8-56).

             V. Service

    1. General service expectations and definitions: All faculty (TT and NTT) and CRRNs who are greater or equal to .50 FTE are expected to engage in service which includes regular attendance at MRJCON individual campus and MRJCON general faculty meetings. These faculty have voting privileges and are expected to be active participants in the MRJCON faculty governance. In addition, general service includes serving on MRJCON faculty standing committees, undergraduate student advisement, undergraduate student project mentorship, assisting with applicant review, course coordination with faculty, etc. All faculty are expected to coordinate teaching with other faculty teaching the same course, teaching to the same cohort of students, or teaching in the same area of focus to maximize the quality of education delivered to students.
    2. WLU for general service expectations: All NTT faculty who are .50-.74 FTE receive .5 WLU each semester for general service expectations. All NTT faculty who are greater than or equal to .75 FTE receive 1.0 WLU each semester for general service expectations.
    3. Non-tenure track faculty who are less than .50 FTE: All NTT faculty and CRRNs who are less than .50 FTE are invited to attend CON campus and CON general faculty meetings, however, they do not have voting privileges.
    4. Part-time faculty: Except in unusual circumstances, part-time faculty (<.50 FTE) should not receive service workload.
    5. Maximum service workload: Non-tenure track faculty should not receive more than 2.0 WLU for service per semester, except in unusual circumstances.
    6. CON committee workload: Faculty leadership (President of the Faculty, UAAC chair, and GAAC chair) are assigned an additional .5 WLU/ semester to recognize the exceptional effort and need for summer coverage.
    7. MSU service obligations: In general, MSU service obligations are fulfilled by TT faculty (e.g., Research Council, Faculty Council, etc.). In some cases, NTT faculty who fulfill significant MSU service obligations will have workload assigned.

 

**Post-tenure TT faculty who have low research productivity can be assigned higher teaching loads following conversation with the Dean and Campus Director, with appropriate adjustments to the POE, contingent on positive teaching evaluations that meet or exceed departmental standards. Refer to departmental Role and Scope documents for expectations regarding quality in execution of teaching assignments and quantity and quality of scholarship outputs.

 

This Workload Plan may be revised at any time and shall be reviewed to determine if revisions are necessary for a program review or accreditation process in the college. Any revisions to the College's Workload Plan shall be submitted in writing to the Mark & Robyn Jones College of Nursing Dean.