4.1 Teaching Assignments
4.1.1 Course Assignments and Teaching Schedules
It is the responsibility of the department chair to recommend course offerings and course assignments of the members of his or her department to the appropriate academic dean. Variations from the normal teaching load must be approved by the deans; final assignment of courses will be made by the deans in consultation with the provost and department chairs.
Preparation of the class schedule is the responsibility of the registrar. Department chairs will be asked to prepare their own class schedules according to the guidelines submitted by the academic deans. Course assignments for the fall and spring semesters for the next academic year must be in the hands of the academic dean in late January. Materials for the interim term will be requested by the Dean for Instruction or his or her designee, normally with a deadline for submission of the department's proposals in early February.
4.1.2 Standard Teaching Loads
The normal teaching load for a full-time faculty member is 21-24 semester hours. This includes the teaching of an interim class that counts for 3 semester hours. Twenty-one hours is only considered a full load if it consists of seven three-hour courses. Normally, for the purposes of computing teaching load, a course will carry the same number of hours of teaching credit for the faculty as it does academic credit for students. Other responsibilities, such as teaching laboratory sessions, giving private lessons, and supervising student teachers, are assigned credit towards teaching load by the academic deans. With prior approval of the department chair and academic dean, teaching a course at Calvin Theological Seminary will normally be incorporated into the regular teaching load of a faculty member. The policy governing such shared teaching appointments is available in the Office of the Provost.
It may not always be possible to assign each faculty member a teaching load in the range described above in a given year. With the approval of the academic dean, a teaching load of 21 or 25 hours will be considered a full load and the department will be asked to compensate for the slight overloads or underloads that result by the assignment of appropriate loads in future years.
4.1.3 Reductions in Teaching Load
Individual faculty members may have their teaching loads reduced from their normal full load for a variety of reasons. Some of these are listed below.
- Most faculty members who are department chairs have their teaching load reduced. The amount of reduction depends on many factors: number of faculty, number of students, number of programs, level of support services, and others.
- Some faculty members' teaching loads are reduced in order for them to carry out special assignments or to work on a special college project: placement of student teachers, directing the Rhetoric Center, editing, directing the athletic program, coaching, and the like.
- Faculty members may be given a reduced load to provide them with time to work on specific scholarly projects through one of the programs of the college.
4.1.4 Teaching Overloads
Although the teaching of overloads is discouraged, it may occur occasionally. Persons who have a particularly small student load may be expected to teach an additional course as part of a normal teaching load. On other occasions when adequate staffing of the courses is not possible through the appointment process, faculty members may be asked to teach an overload. When the faculty member agrees to do so, he or she will be compensated with additional salary equivalent to teaching that course in a summer session. In other cases, a faculty member may be expected to teach a heavier than normal load one semester to compensate for a reduced teaching load in another semester.
4.1.5 Summer School Teaching and Faculty Load
Three three-week and two four-week summer sessions are held each summer. Department chairs submit a tentative summer school schedule in October preceding the summer school sessions. Faculty members are solicited to teach these summer school courses. Summer school teaching is not considered part of the normal teaching load and is compensated for separately according to the schedule described in Chapter 7, Section 7.9.1. Normally a faculty member will not be permitted to teach more than one course during the summer.
Faculty members in the Education Department who are required to teach courses and workshops in the graduate education program in the summer are allowed to count such teaching as part of their regular academic year load. Normally, such summer school teaching should not exceed one course. However, summer loads up to six semester hours are permitted by this policy. For the purposes of staff planning in the Education Department, there might be as much as a one-year delay in crediting summer school teaching to an academic year load.
4.1.6 Independent Studies and Tutorial Projects
Calvin College provides the opportunity for undergraduates to do independent research or reading when they have demonstrated their competence in the academic discipline involved and have shown the ability to study on their own initiative. An independent study must include substantial research or reading in an area not covered in the regular course offerings of that department.
Projects for such study must be defined in advance of registration and must be approved by the instructor directing the study, his or her departmental chair, and the registrar. Such courses must be completed within the semester and must be subject to the supervision of the instructor during that semester. Because such projects require considerable time of the instructor as well as of the student, no instructor is obligated to approve an independent study and is expected to limit the number of students accepted each semester. Instructors will be paid for supervising such courses only when they are taken in the summer.
Because students in the M.Ed. graduate program are required to do graduate thesis and project work, to engage in graduate independent study, and to complete courses not scheduled, faculty members teaching in these programs are obligated to offer these courses and are paid whether they are taught during the summer or academic year.
An independent study shall carry credit of 2-4 semester hours. No more than 8 semester hours of such study may be applied toward graduation requirements.
To be eligible for an independent study in a department, a student must have completed at least four courses in that department with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 in those courses. Application forms are available from the Registrar's Office.
4.1.7 Regular Course on a Tutorial Basis
In unusual situations, a student may register on a tutorial basis for a course listed in the catalog when that course is not among the regular offerings of that semester. However, no instructor is obligated to accept supervision of a tutorial. Such registration is a privilege and is subject to the following conditions:
- To be eligible to register for a regular course on a tutorial basis, a student must:
- hold junior, senior, or graduate status;
- have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0; and
- have completed all of the prerequisites for the course.
- A student must give a valid reason(s) why registration for the course cannot be postponed until the semester when it is regularly scheduled.
- A student's work must be subject to regular faculty supervision.
- A regular course taken on a tutorial basis must be completed within the semester in which the student registers for it.
- Regular courses cannot be taken on a tutorial basis during the interim session.
Requests for a regular course on a tutorial basis must be approved by the instructor, department chair, and registrar. Application forms are available in the Office of the Registrar.
Faculty will not be compensated for supervising undergraduate tutorial study projects during the regular academic year; they will be compensated for such supervision during the summer sessions. Faculty will be compensated for supervising graduate tutorial study regardless of when students enroll in them.
