Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines and general expectations regarding assignment of teaching contact hours and use of leave for INTO OSU instructors. It also provides guidelines by which teaching load is distributed across all INTO OSU instructors.
State, federal, OUS and OSU rules, laws, policies and procedures govern the information provided below. This document is not intended nor does it contain all such information. In the event anything in this document is inconsistent with governing rules, laws, policies or procedures, the governing rules, laws, policies or procedures shall apply and supersede the information contained in this document.
The INTO OSU academic leadership team reserves the right to assign work as appropriate to the program and to make adjustments to these guidelines when determined to be needed. We will make every attempt to make instructors aware of any changes to this document as they are made.
Annual Teaching Contact Hours and Reporting
All instructors in the INTO OSU Center are expected to teach up to 800 teaching contact hours during the academic year. 800 teaching contact hours is considered a full teaching load. The pattern of these teaching hours may vary depending on the program in which the instructor is teaching. In addition to teaching contact hours, instructors are expected to perform other instructional related duties, as outlined in their job descriptions, as part of their overall workload.
The distribution of teaching contact hours across an instructor’s appointment period is done as fairly and equally as possible regardless of the program in which he/she is teaching. The Program Manager team is tasked to report teaching contact hours at Partnership Board Meetings twice a year.
Appointment Types
OSU utilizes two types of university appointments for instructors in the INTO OSU Center: 12-month and 9-month appointments. The vast majority of instructors are appointed on a full-time, 12-month basis because INTO OSU programs run across all four terms and staffing of classes is a complex procedure.
There are three types of 12-month instructors in the INTO OSU Center:
- those who are appointed for 12-months from 1st July to 30th June each year
- those who are appointed on a term-to-term basis (sometimes referred to as pool teachers)
- those who are appointed on a short term basis e.g. to teach a special program or short course
The terms and conditions of employment are the same for all instructors with a 12-month appointment. The only factor that differentiates the three types is the length of the appointment.
INTO OSU prefers full-time appointments for operational reasons; however, the INTO OSU Center also values and is fully committed to meeting individual instructors’ work-life balance needs. Therefore, any instructor on a 9 or 12-month appointment wishing to request a reduction in FTE to achieve a specific, desired working pattern should discuss this first with their supervisor before submitting a formal request.
Use of Leave
The amount of vacation and sick leave available for use depends on the instructor’s appointment type.
• 12-month instructors appointed at 0.50 FTE or greater accrue 15 hours of vacation leave per month, pro-rated based on their FTE. They also accrue 8 hours of sick leave per month, pro-rated based on their FTE.
• 9-month instructors are not eligible for vacation leave. If they are appointed at 0.50 FTE or greater, they accrue 8 hours of sick leave per month, pro-rated based on their FTE.
Leave accrual and usage is governed by Oregon Administrative Rules and University policies. Please refer to OSU Leave Administration Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines at http://oregonstate.edu/admin/hr/leave_admin_pol.pdf for further information.
All leave requests are to be submitted by an instructor to his/her to supervisor using the OSU Employee online leave request process through EmpCenter (http://mytime.oregonstate.edu/).
All instructors in the INTO OSU Center are exempt employees under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) and, therefore, are expected to work a ‘professional work week’. Exempt employees are not entitled to overtime or compensatory time off.
FLSA exempt unclassified employees are paid an established salary and are expected to work a professional workweek, fulfilling the duties of their position regardless of hours worked. On every working day between the start and finish dates of the appointment, all instructors who are not on approved vacation leave, sick leave, or approved leave without pay are to be engaged in work assigned and outlined in their position descriptions. A leave eligible FLSA exempt instructor must use the appropriate type of accrued leave or, if they do not have leave, be placed on leave without pay if he/she is not engaged in assigned work responsibilities during their professional workweek.
Instructors follow the operating schedule outlined by their supervisors. The expectation of the INTO OSU Center is that instructors are present and available and working in the Center, as assigned, during INTO OSU’s normal operating schedule of 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. Variations may be agreed upon by the instructor and his/her supervisor, depending on the work being carried out. For example, some instructors with later finishes may have later starts or an instructor may have a block of time when grading or planning can be done more effectively elsewhere. In these cases, the instructor should inform the supervisor of their plans in advance.
Instructors who accrue vacation leave take this leave between terms during non-teaching weeks. As some instructors are needed to participate in orientation and registration weeks, a limited number of instructors will be able to take vacation during the orientation and registration periods (zero week). Supervisors will work with instructors to plan vacation leaves cooperatively in a manner that minimizes disruption to the students in the INTO OSU Center.
Vacation leave accrual is capped at 260 hours and will not accrue to the employee beyond that amount. Requesting vacation leave during a teaching week(s) for the purpose of avoiding loss of accrued hours will not be considered to be a compelling reason for approving the request. Therefore, instructors are advised to manage their accrual balance so that they are scheduling vacation leave during non-teaching and registration weeks and not losing vacation accrual due to having a maximum of 260 hours.
If an instructor wishes to apply for leave or leave without pay during orientation and registration weeks (zero week), the online leave request should be submitted with as much advance notice as possible and the supervisor alerted. All zero week leave requests submitted before 8am on the Monday of week 7 in the previous term will be guaranteed. Zero week leave requests submitted later than 8am on the Monday of week 7 in the previous term will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.
In exceptional circumstances, an instructor may have a need to request leave during term time. In this case, the instructor should speak to the supervisor at the earliest possible opportunity. Instructors are advised not to make travel arrangements before the approval process is complete. If the request is due to medical reasons or other circumstances covered by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Faculty member should request leave under FMLA (http://oregonstate.edu/admin/hr/benefits/fmla ).
Term time requests from instructors that are not covered by FMLA will be considered by the Supervisor, the relevant Program Manager(s) and the Director of Academic Programs or Associate Director on a first-come, first-served basis. Such requests are normally limited to two consecutive days at any one time with a maximum of five days total in each academic year (Fall term through Summer term). Decisions are made on the basis of three criteria:
- Is there enough notice?
- Is the reason for the request compelling and out of the Faculty member’s control? (An employee may but is not required to provide confidential information to the supervisor if the leave request is for medical or family reasons.)
- Is the INTO OSU Center able to cover the leave without disruption to students and to the academic team?
The purpose of this process is to minimize disruption for INTO OSU students and to that all instructors are treated equally and fairly.
Due to the nature of program coordination duties, Associate Program Managers may take up to 4 weeks’ vacation during term time each academic year (Fall to Summer). Such vacation will normally be taken at times of least disruption during the term e.g. from weeks 3 to 8 and avoiding key events such as mid-term exams. Such requests are considered on a first-come, first-served basis and should be submitted by week 6 of the preceding term. Associate Program Managers teaching duties will normally be covered by the Supervisor/Program Manager.
Teaching Contact Hours and FTE (full-time equivalent)
Teaching contact hours are allocated each term according to: 1) the teaching patterns outlined below, 2) a combination of those or, 3) other hours for between-term programs as and when they become available. Teaching contact hours may not necessarily be distributed evenly each term.
It is the Program Manager team’s responsibility to allocate 800 teaching contact hours per year for 12-month contracts and 600 teaching contact hours for 9-month contract instructors, pro-rated based on FTE. An instructor’s preferences for teaching assignments are taken into consideration when making assignments. If the Program Manager team does not allocate this number of hours to an instructor across the academic year, the instructor is not held responsible for not having met this standard.
Term-to-term instructors are allocated classes per term and the position FTE is calculated by dividing the number of teaching contact hours allocated per term by 200 hours to a maximum of 1.0 FTE. As with 9-month and 12-month appointments, an instructor’s FTE includes other duties in addition to the teaching contact hours.
Term weeks that include a combination of classroom time, placement testing, registration duties, participation in orientation, or processing of final exams are included in the calculation and expectation regarding completion of a full week of teaching contact hours. For each of the three main programs (Pathways, Academic English and General English), this represents 11 weeks in each term.
Three examples of how annual teaching hours are calculated for 12-month appointments are as follows:
800 contact hours are assigned to a 1.0 FTE position
600 contact hours are assigned to a 0.75 FTE position
400 contact hours are assigned to a 0.50 FTE position
Three examples of how annual teaching hours are calculated for 9-month appointments are as follows:
600 contact hours are assigned to a 1.0 FTE position
450 contact hours are assigned to a 0.75 FTE position
300 contact hours are assigned to a 0.50 FTE position
Example term teaching hours for term-to-term instructors are as follows:
18 contact hours/week for 11 weeks equates to 198 contact hours for a 0.99 FTE position
15 contact hours/week for 11 weeks equates to 166 contact hours for a 0.83 FTE position
12 contact hours/week for 11 weeks equates to 134 contact hours for a 0.66 FTE position
6 contact hours/week for 11 weeks equates to 66 contact hours for a 0.33 FTE
One variation to note is that Pathway bridge classes may have more FTE assigned to them to compensate for instructor attendance of the academic classes. In this case, the instructor will be doing fewer actual contact hours
Vacation and sick leave usage during the term
If approval is given for use of vacation leave during time that would otherwise be considered teaching contact hours or an instructor is required to use sick leave during the term, these hours are reported as teaching contact hours for the purposes of reporting teaching contact hours data. The instructor is not responsible for making up these hours. For example, an instructor on AE who is sick for one week in a year and misses 18 contact hours of classes will have completed a total of 774 contact hours in the year (44 weeks x 18 hours – 18 hours = 774). However, this will be recorded as 792 contact hours (44 weeks x 18 hours).
Preferred teaching maximums
The preferred maximum teaching hours for all instructors is 800 teaching contact hours per year, 200 teaching contact hours per term or 18 teaching contact hours per week. The only exceptions are under the following circumstances:
- Operational demands due to changing circumstances e.g. in cases where the term is shorter such as the 8-week OSU Summer term (see the Pathway teaching patterns below).
- Balancing needs due to teaching patterns e.g. in General English with classes of 9 and 6 hours. It may be possible by agreement for some instructors to have one session at 21 hours and the session at 15 hours.
- Instructor-initiated schedule variance request to his/her supervisor that is approved by the Academic Team. Such requests are assessed according to the same three criteria used to assess requests for leave during teaching weeks i.e. length of notice, reason for request and the impact on the operational needs of the Center.
Supervisors will regularly review teaching assignments with the goal of providing instructors balanced assignments and contact hours. If a supervisor anticipates that an instructor is scheduled to teach more than 800 contact hours in a year or 200 contact hours in a term because of their teaching pattern, the supervisor and instructor will work together to balance the workload appropriately.
Any timetabled, designated subbing hours included as part of term-time staffing count towards the 800 hours.
Example instructor teaching patterns: Academic English and General English
Exact dates of Academic English and General English terms are outlined in the brochure and are published around 12 to 18 months in advance.
12-month contract instructor
| Term | Teaching Weeks | TeachingHours | TotalHours |
| Fall | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Winter | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Spring | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Summer | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Totals | 44 | 792 (99%) |
9-month instructor
| Term | Teaching Weeks | TeachingHours | TotalHours |
| Fall | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Winter | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Spring | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Summer | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 33 | 594 (99%) |
Some of the 11 weeks may include a combination of teaching contact hours and placement testing, registration duties, help with orientation and processing of final exams. These weeks count as a full 18-hour teaching week.
Example instructor teaching patterns: Pathway
Exact dates of Pathway terms are outlined in the brochure and are published around 12 to 18 months in advance.
12-month instructor (example pattern 1)
| Term | Teaching Weeks | TeachingHours | TotalHours |
| Fall | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Winter | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Spring | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Summer | 8 | 25 | 200 |
| Totals | 41 | 794 (99%) |
12-month instructor (example pattern 2)
| Term | Teaching Weeks | TeachingHours | TotalHours |
| Fall | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Winter | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Spring | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Summer | 8(PW) 5(GE) | 12(PW) 20(GE) | 196 |
| Totals | 45 | 790 (99%) |
9-month instructor
| Term | Teaching Weeks | TeachingHours | TotalHours |
| Fall | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Winter | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Spring | 11 | 18 | 198 |
| Summer | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 33 | 594 (99%) |
Some of the 11 weeks include placement testing, registration duties, help with orientation and processing of final exams. These weeks count as a full 18-hour teaching week.
Due to the nature of the Pathway summer term, a Pathway instructor following example pattern 1 and doing 25 contact hours per week would effectively be teaching 11 weeks of teaching contact hours in 8 weeks. Supervisors will work with Pathway instructors to create a balance between teaching contact hours and other duties assigned outside the classroom.
An alternative for Pathway instructors who teach fewer than 25 hours a week may be to teach a certain number of hours in Session 2 of General English in the summer term (example pattern 2). This would allow Pathway instructors to spread hours out more across the term.
BG, Ver. 9, September 2014
