Department of English
Section V: Research & Administrative
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Annual Report:
Written annual reviews should reflect how faculty promote the goals of their unit and the mission of the University. Faculty members must submit their annual report by the end of February each year. The University is moving to a new format for submitting annual reports. More information will be provided later in the fall semester.
After the department’s Annual Evaluation Committee reviews and evaluates all the annual reports, faculty members meet with the head to discuss their evaluation and their plans for the coming year. At this time, the Department Head provides the UNCG Report Form which is reviewed and signed by individual faculty members. See the University's Report Form.
Committee Assignments:
Departmental committee assignments are made by the head at the beginning of each academic year. The standing committees are Composition, English Education, Graduate Studies, Graduate Placement, Courtesy, Instructional Technology and Electronic Learning, Programs and Publicity, MFA Advisory, Post-tenure Review, and Undergraduate Studies. There are also advisors for the English Society and Sigma Tau Delta as well as the Computing Liaison and Library Representative. Search committees and ad hoc committees are appointed as needed. The Advisory Committee, consisting of four members, is elected in the spring. All faculty members are expected to serve on department committees. The fall 2005 committee list will be posted by August 31, 2005.
Course Selection:
Faculty identify the courses they wish to teach, based on their specialization, when they submit their schedule request for the following academic year in the fall. No faculty member has the exclusive ownership of a course. The Schedule Request Form is available as a Word Document.
Classes are taught on the hour for 50 minutes beginning 8 am through 1 pm on MWF. On MW beginning at 2 pm and on TR at 8 am classes last 75 minutes. Graduate classes can be taught for 2hours 50 minutes in the afternoons and evenings beginning at 3:30 pm. (See Schedule of Classes on UNC Genie for complete timetable.)
Writing/ Speaking Intensive: Writing and speaking intensive sections are requested by the instructor, who must receive approval of the course syllabus from the appropriate Communication Across the Curriculum committee. Once the new workload policy is established, the department may develop a more systematic way of identifying WI and SI courses.
Honors: Faculty can ask for an honors section of a survey or major level course or the Honors seminar when submitting the schedule request.
The department head or director of the program is supposed to speak with the head before asking the faculty member to teach outside the department; however, this procedure is not always followed. Faculty members should realize that their first commitment is to the department and its programs; they should consult with the head to make sure all of English’s needs are met before agreeing to take on instructional duties in another department or program.
Grants (External):
To apply for external grants and fellowships, you must first meet with Associate Dean Kevin Moore and then go through the Office of Sponsored Programs. Please refer to their website for information on how to open a ‘Green Folder’ and to begin the grant application process at UNCG.
Grants (Internal):
For information about internal funding available to new faculty, see this website. This includes information on the Summer Excellence, New Faculty, and Regular Research Grants.
Thanks to a
donation by alumna Sue Williams, the English Department has also
the Friedlander Fund to support professional development of assistant
and associate professors. This fund is expected to generate about
$4000 annually and the awards will be made in the spring for expenses
related to research, such as travel to libraries, cost of preparing
manuscripts, etc. The head will announce the deadline for proposals
and recipients will be selected in consultation with the Advisory
Committee.
English Department Lecturers
The English Department at UNCG employs instructors with the title “lecturer” in three different categories, each with different terms of employment and duties.
Continuing lecturers are those with renewable contracts for a one, two or three year term, and whose positions are defined by a combination of administrative and teaching duties (teaching loads vary). The Director and Assistant Director of the MFA Program, the Director and Assistant Director of the Writing Center, and the Director of English Education are the positions currently defined in this way. These lecturers are subject to the department's annual review process, the results of which determine their eligibility for raises, and their contracts are renewed on the basis of their continued success in the performance of their duties. There is no limit on the number of times that a continuing lecturer may be renewed.
Full-time lecturers, who usually hold the MFA or PhD, are employed for a single year, with benefits, and teach four courses per semester. They may reapply for a second year, but this is re-application, not renewal, of their employment. These lecturers receive a set annual salary ($25,000 in 2007-08) and are not eligible for salary increase, even if hired for a second year. They are supervised and evaluated by the Associate Head of the department, and are limited to two academic years of full-time employment. It is the department's policy to prefer applicants who have just completed theirMFA or PhD degree at UNCG. However, full-time lectureships are not an extension of graduate assistantships and are by no means guaranteed. The hiring process is competitive, and applicants must present evidence of thorough preparation for teaching, including evaluated teaching experience either through internship or assistantship. If they are applying for a second year of full-time employment, their performance during the first year will be a primary consideration. At the Department Head's discretion, the department may hire properly qualified applicants without a UNCG degree as full-time lecturers. Usually applicants with the MFA or PhD are preferred, but applicants holding the MA who have what the Head judges to be substantial experience teaching appropriate courses may also be hired. Applications for full-time lectureships are usually due in mid-February. The department's elected Advisory Committee and the Head, with the further advice of the Director of the MFA Program, the Director of Composition, and the Director of the Writing Center, select the following year's lecturers. Offers are usually made in early April.
Adjunct lecturers are employed and paid on a course-by-course basis. As in the case of full-time lecturers, applicants with the MFA or PhD are preferred, but applicants holding the MA who also have what the Head judges to be substantial experience teaching appropriate courses may also be hired. Even if adjunct lecturers are ultimately assigned four courses a semester for two semesters, they are not eligible for benefits. Adjunct lecturers are also supervised and evaluated by the Associate Head, and may be given course-by-course assignments for a maximum of five academic years. For instance, if an adjunct lecturer has taught both semesters for four academic years, but teaches only the fall semester of the fifth, that person has reached the five-year limit. This limit applies to FMS courses as well as to those in English, when the lecturer has been hired directly by the English department.
Former full-time lecturers may apply for adjunct work, to a maximum of five total academic years of employment. That is, if a lecturer taught full-time for two years, then course-by course employment may be available for a maximum of three additional academic years. There are two exceptions to the time limit on employment for adjunct lecturers. (1) We employ a small group of professional writers who regularly 200- and 300-level writing courses, mostly in journalism. These writers usually teach one or two course per year, and there is no time limit on their eligibility for continued teaching. (2) The department also provides an administrative home for a small number of lecturers recruited for specific programs which are not themselves academic units and so cannot hire faculty—for instance, the Freshman Seminar program, or the residential colleges. These lecturers, though technically on the English department payroll, are in fact selected and paid from outside the department, and the duration of their employment is determined by the recruiting program.
Full-time and adjunct lecturers, although not tenure-track instructors, are professionals employed through competitive hiring on the basis of their qualifications. Their work as teachers at UNCG often forms the first layer of their post-graduate dossier. The department hires lecturers with the expectation of fully professional conduct, and hopes to be able to provide strong supporting recommendations at the end of their successful employment at UNCG.
New Courses:
Faculty should consult with the head before proposing a new course. The new course must be reviewed by the appropriate committee, either Undergraduate or Graduate Studies, and if recommended, approved by the faculty as a whole. Then the course is submitted to the appropriate College and University Curriculum Committee. For information about how to prepare proposals for new courses, see the Curriculum Guide You may also view the document online at this website.
Interdisciplinary courses: Faculty in different departments can propose interdisciplinary teaching to their respective heads. Proposals for new interdisciplinary courses follow the same procedures as those outlined above, but with both departments involved.
Peer Observations:
In consultation with the untenured faculty member, the head will appoint a tenured colleague to visit two classes and write a report on her teaching. These reports are then used to inform the department’s decision about tenure and promotion and to provide evidence of a record of good teaching in the promotion dossier. See this website.
Reappointments:
The Reappointment Dossier Guidelines are available from the Department Head and as a Word Document.
Research Assistants:
A limited number of RAs are available; these are MFA students. Requests for RAs are made at the beginning of the academic year. RAs can only work for faculty for the number of hours assigned each week. If you find you do not need an RA, let the head know so the student can be reassigned. Please refer to the following documents for further detail: RA Policy, Policy Statement, Request Form (Word Document file)
The graduate student workers in the English Department office are assigned to particular faculty members. If these students are not assigned to you by the department, you cannot use them to conduct personal research.
Research Assignment:
Research assignments are not available to untenured faculty unless they have external funding and are then given an off-campus assignment. See the College of Arts and Sciences form entitled, “Policy on Off-Campus Assignments for Probationary Faculty”.
Tenure:
College policies and procedures
University policies and procedures
Travel:
Please refer to the department's Travel Allocation Policy. You must provide receipts for all expenses except food, for which only a per diem allowance is possible. Hard copies for airline e-tickets or credit card itemization are required. See Travel Request form (Microsoft Word Document).
Information on the Scholar's Travel Program for domestic travel and Kohler Fund for international travel is at this website.
The travel allocation form is available on-line as a PDF file or from the English Department Office.
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