7.1.9 Terms of Faculty Employment and Workload (FAM V.F)

Terms of Instructional Faculty Employment

Unless otherwise specified in the appointment document, members of the faculty are compensated for 39 weeks, i.e., nine months of service to the College, from August 16 of one year to May 15 of the next.

Instructional Faculty Workload

Faculty of the College of Charleston are employed by the State of South Carolina to provide instruction to students. Faculty must also provide academic consultation including individual instruction and holding open office hours for student advising. Faculty members are also required to engage in research activities and other forms of professional development as well as render service to the institution and the community.

The formula used by the Commission on Higher Education (CHE) to determine the allocation of state funds to senior colleges/universities, computes one full-time faculty member equivalent (FTE), as 12 contact hours per week of classroom instruction per semester for two semesters. It does not differentiate between undergraduate and graduate instruction.
The formula assumes, therefore, that each faculty member will provide 12 contact hours of instruction in both the Fall and Spring semesters. It thus does not take into account advising, administrative duties, research, or other professional development activity, committee activity, or community activity that faculty are required to do in addition to or in lieu of the instructional workload.

The Provost delegates to the Deans of the Schools the responsibility for determining instructional faculty workload within the schools provided the following basic premises are met:

  • Role and Mission
    Faculty teaching workload is both driven by the mission of the College of Charleston and reflective of student needs. The courses faculty teach sustain the institution’s fundamental commitment to the curricular requirements for general education as well as the specialization in the major.
  • Budgetary Efficiency/Resources
    Teaching workload should be managed by the Provost, the Deans and the Department Chairs or Program Directors so that teaching workload links institutionally desired outcomes for efficiency and access with revenues. The Provost has the additional responsibility to make every effort to place in the hands of Deans and Department Chairs or Program directors the resources in roster faculty and adjunct funding that they need to fund their staffing plans. Once the budget for instruction and the enrollment goals are agreed upon, it becomes the Deans’ responsibility to ensure that there are adequate numbers of courses for students to take. (Rev. July 2016)
  • Access
    The College of Charleston remains committed to teaching in smaller classes where students can easily interact with faculty. The number of upper and lower division course offerings in all departments or programs should be carefully determined based on the role a department plays in relation to general education requirements, number of majors and whether the department has other graduate programs. Deans and Department Chairs (or Program Directors) have the responsibility of assuring that there are sufficient numbers of classes and sections to meet anticipated enrollments at appropriate sizes and levels. (Rev. July 2016)
  • Governance
    The responsibility for developing written procedures for determining teaching workload lies with each school. The Provost approves each school workload policy.
    In addition the following instructional workload requirements must be met: 
    1. The official teaching workload of the College of Charleston remains 12 contact hours.
    2. Faculty whose teaching workload is less than 12 contact hours are expected to engage in significantly more research or to be given significant additional assignments within the department as a direct result of having their normal teaching workload reduced.
      There are a number of issues and factors that affect an individual faculty member’s teaching workload. Deans and especially Department Chairs have the additional responsibility to consider the individual teaching workloads of faculty members in light of these variables. One of the purposes of school-wide teaching workload procedures is to temper concerns for access and productivity with a concern for equity.
      • number of courses
      • number of credit hours/credit hours per course
      • number of contact hours
      • number of preparations
      • number of upper/lower division courses
      • number of students
      • instructor of record by type (roster faculty, Senior Instructor, visiting, full-time or part-time adjunct, teaching assistant)
      • unique courses (seminars, independent study,
        bachelor’s essay, laboratories, studios, double
        sections, internships, interdisciplinary courses,
        team-taught courses, study abroad courses)
      • consulting, grants (reduced load)
      • off-campus, evening courses
      • undergraduate/graduate courses
      • administrative assignments
      • leaves of absence; sabbaticals
      • roster faculty compared to adjunct faculty workloads
      • calculation of research and service components (especially advising) in relation to teaching component for overall workload
      • differences in assignments and grading methods (essay examinations versus test bank questions that accompany a text, for instance)
      • test characteristics (unique and new are more time consuming than recycled tests, assignments)
      • time required for team of professors to coordinate the course and collaborate on grading (as opposed to situations where individual faculty conduct discrete portions of a course)
      • number of major advisees
      • number of non-major advisees or time committed to advising center
      • number of office hours per week held
      • number and type of special assignments undertaken.
    3. Terms of Library Faculty Employment
      Unless otherwise specified in the appointment document, members of the library faculty are compensated for an eleven-month period, normally eleven months within the period from July 1 to the following June 30.
    4. Library Faculty Workload
      Library faculty at the College of Charleston are employed by the state of South Carolina to provide and promote quality library services and operations to the academic community. Librarians have position titles and job descriptions that describe their particular roles in the operation of the library. In addition to this workload, all library faculty are expected to attend meetings of the full voting faculty and meetings of the library staff as called, to participate in the governance of the institution through membership on College faculty and library committees and to remain current in their specializations with library and information science. The compensation library faculty members receive is for their workload described in their job descriptions and all other duties.
    5. Paid Institutional Overload and Other Dual Employment
      The State Budget and Control Board issued administrative procedures and compensation limitations effective August 24, 1994 which are applicable to all state employees, including College of Charleston personnel, coming under dual employment situations. College of Charleston faculty may not earn more than an additional 30 percent of their base salary during the time they are under contract. Dual employment regulations apply to the employment of roster status faculty members and unclassified administrators who, in addition to the work for which they receive fulltime pay, also teach courses in the day or evening, workshops, Governor’s School, or who perform other additional services beyond the duties described in their letter of appointment or annual contract. The additional services can be performed within the College of Charleston, or at another state college, university or agency. Grant and contract work compensated by outside agencies is included in the dual employment limitations. 
    6. Instructional Faculty Members’ Employment in Maymester and Summer Terms
      The teaching of summer school by faculty under nine-month contract is not considered dual employment, but compensation limitations as defined by state regulations are applicable.28


28 College of Charleston institutional policy for Summer School compensation is within the regulations established in Section 19-706.04 of the State Human Resource Regulations (1994). College of Charleston faculty who contract for a nine-month academic year normally shall earn no more than an additional 22.5% of their nine-month base salary during Maymester and Summer Sessions. Each summer session is normally limited to a maximum of 15% of the nine-month base salary. (Rev. Aug. 2015)

Related Policies, Documents or Forms

7.1.9 Terms of Faculty Employment and Workload (FAM V.F) PDF

Revision Log

Web Publication Date: 1/20/2026