The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences is a vibrant, inclusive community of faculty, staff and students driven by curiosity to understand how Earth's systems, energy and materials interact with one another and society. Our vision for EMS is a destination where convergence happens; where students learn to plumb the depth of their chosen field while integrating their understanding across disciplinary boundaries to discover and innovate; where our faculty increasingly translate their scientific discoveries into practice, improving people's lives; where our staff, with a strong sense of belonging, support those efforts and find new solutions as challenges arise.
Our vision can be realized only with a faculty that is strongly committed to inspirational teaching, cutting edge research, and service through engagement with colleagues, scientific institutions, government, and the public. Excellence in all three of these areas is expected from each tenure-line faculty member. Non-tenure-line faculty (NTL) typically focus on a specific mission area in which they are expected to excel, although they may contribute to the other mission areas depending on the conditions of their appointment.
The EMS faculty workload guidelines stated below provide a framework within which each faculty member should productively perform their duties while meeting the broad expectations of the College and University.
The standard workload distribution for tenure-line EMS faculty is 40% teaching, 40% research, and 20% service. These standards can be adjusted at the discretion of the department head to align with discipline specific norms for the department and to recognize unique individual contributions to the overall mission of the university.
Teaching expectations should satisfy department and college curricular needs (based on degree requirements), educational philosophy, professional expectations and values, and priorities. In accordance with department guidelines, teaching load may be met by a combination of resident and online instruction.
Course credit hours
The standard teaching load for a 36-week appointment is 12 credits per calendar year— typically, two 3-credit courses in each of the fall and spring semesters (e.g., 2-2 teaching load).
Co-Taught courses count towards teaching load based on the faculty member’s proportional contribution to the shared effort. For example, if effort is split 50/50, then each faculty member would receive 1.5 credits for a 3-credit course.
Independent individual study courses do not count toward the teaching load.
Under-Enrolled courses (per University policy) do not count toward the teaching load unless the faculty member is required by the subunit head to teach the course for extenuating circumstances (e.g., facilitating timely student degree completion).
At their discretion, the department head, with the permission of the dean, may choose to provide a reduction in teaching assignments for high-profile, time-intensive instructional, administrative, service, undergraduate and graduate student advising, or research activities.
Discipline-Specific Norms. If the national disciplinary norm for a subunit is below the 12 credits per calendar year expectation, the department head, with the permission of the dean, may decrease the teaching load for tenure-line faculty in the entire subunit in order to ensure effective retention and recruitment.
Substantial Grant-Funded Research. A subunit head may modify a faculty member’s workload if they are engaged in research that exceeds the expectations that normally comprise research workload.
Extensive Service Obligations. Faculty members may take on a service obligation that exceeds the obligations that normally compose service workload. This may justify a deviation from the standard workload.
Early Career Support. A department head may modify a faculty member’s workload at an early point pre-tenure to allow the faculty member to establish a research program.
Administrative Duties. Faculty members may assume administrative duties or roles related to academic operations, program oversight, faculty governance, and institutional initiatives. Some faculty members may hold formal administrative roles that require designated time and compensation.
Late Course Cancellation. If a class is cancelled too late to assign the faculty member a different course that semester, the department head may redistribute the faculty member’s teaching load to another semester.
Effort Deficiencies in One or More Areas. If, in the judgement of the department head, a faculty member is not contributing meaningfully to the research or service missions of the department, teaching load may be increased to that expected of a full-time, NTL teaching faculty member (see below: typically a 3:3 (18-credit) load).
Teaching/Course Releases. Department heads may temporarily reduce the standard teaching load of individual faculty members to allow them to engage in high-visibility instructional, service or research activities; deliver service courses with high enrollment; or prepare for new teaching assignments.
Buyouts. Faculty buyouts allow individuals to reduce teaching or service obligations by exchanging a portion of their department salary with compensation from externally funded research or other institutional sources. Buyout policies will be set in each department, consistent with department needs, and subject to approval by the Dean. Policies must ensure adequate department compensation for the time being released.
Supplemental Pay. Supplemental pay is provided when faculty take on additional responsibilities that exceed their standard workload. See EMS Salary Guidelines for Summer and Online Courses.
Workload Rebalancing. Each department may establish a “Workload Bank” whereby a faculty member’s workload will be rebalanced in a subsequent semester or academic year following an overload or underload in a particular semester. For example, faculty may “bank” credit hours earned from overloads to secure course reductions in subsequent semesters or to offset teaching loads that fell below the standard load in prior or current semesters.
Note: Any faculty workload adjustments must be documented in writing (e.g., in email including the department head, faculty member, and department administrator) with the rationale, amount of adjustment, and effective academic semester(s). Faculty members, regardless of course releases and buyouts, must teach at least 3 credits each calendar year.
Tenure-line faculty are expected to maintain active research or creative activity programs that advance knowledge, engage students in scholarly work, and contribute to societal benefit. Research effort typically includes activities such as developing and conducting scholarly investigations, preparing and submitting proposals, mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, disseminating findings through peer-reviewed publications and other scholarly venues, and translating discoveries into broader impact.
Consistent with University effort-reporting principles, research workload reflects the proportion of a faculty member’s professional effort devoted to research activities rather than specific outcomes. Evidence of research productivity may include peer-reviewed publications and other scholarly outputs, externally sponsored research funding where appropriate to the discipline, and the training and mentorship of graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and other researchers.
Departments may provide additional guidance reflecting disciplinary norms, including how activities such as supervision of graduate students registered for research credit contribute to documented research effort and, where appropriate, may support adjustments to teaching workload.
The unit’s definition of ‘research productive’ is based on the faculty member’s level of external research funding and scholarly output relative to disciplinary norms. For faculty members who are not research productive, workload will be adjusted to include greater teaching and/or service responsibilities.
As members of the tenure-line faculty, individuals are expected to contribute meaningfully to service as one component of their overall academic effort. Service expectations should be commensurate with rank and may evolve over the course of a faculty member’s career.
Faculty should pursue service activities at the commensurate level with their rank:
External service activities should align with the faculty member’s disciplinary expertise and professional standing and may include participation in professional societies, editorial boards, review panels, accreditation activities, and other forms of professional engagement.
Service typically constitutes a meaningful component of a tenure-line faculty member’s workload and commonly represents approximately 20% of overall effort, encompassing both institutional and professional service. Actual levels of service effort may vary based on career stage, disciplinary norms, administrative responsibilities, and other workload assignments.
Departments retain discretion to provide additional guidance reflecting disciplinary expectations and operational needs.
Some NTL faculty may be engaged in alternate teaching activities in addition to, or instead of, the standard teaching workload, based on department needs and individual job descriptions, including:
Course credit hours
NTL Teaching Faculty: The standard teaching load for a 36-week appointment is 18 credits per calendar year The standard teaching load for a 48-week appointment is 24 credits per calendar year. Distribution of these teaching loads by semester may depend on job description and subunit needs.
NTL Research Faculty: None.
Co-Taught courses count towards teaching load based on the faculty member’s proportional contribution to the shared effort. For example, if effort is split 50/50, then each faculty member would receive 1.5 credits for a 3-credit course.
Teaching multiple sections of the same course simultaneously may result in a standard teaching load in excess of the standard teaching load.
Courses carrying an extreme instructor workload (e.g. a 1-credit lab course that meets for several hours per week or a large enrollment course) may be given greater weight in the instructor’s overall workload in consultation with the subunit head, possibly resulting in a standard workload of less than the standard teaching load in some cases.
Independent individual study courses do not count toward the teaching load.
Under-Enrolled courses (per University policy) do not count toward the teaching load unless the faculty member is required by the subunit head to teach the course for extenuating circumstances (e.g., facilitating timely student degree completion).
At their discretion, the department head, with the permission of the dean, may choose to provide a reduction in teaching assignments for high-profile, time-intensive instructional, administrative, service, undergraduate and graduate student advising, or research activities.
Late Course Cancellation. If a class is cancelled too late to assign the faculty member a different course that term, the subunit head may redistribute the faculty member’s teaching load to another term.
Extensive Service Obligations. Faculty members may take on a service obligation that exceeds the obligations that normally comprise service workload. This may justify a deviation from the standard workload.
Administrative Duties. Faculty members may assume administrative duties or roles related to academic operations, faculty governance, and institutional initiatives. Some faculty members may hold formal administrative roles that require designated time and compensation (e.g., Associate Head for Undergraduate or Graduate Studies, Associate Head for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Program Coordinator/Director, or other similar administrative roles).
Extensive Non-standard Teaching Responsibilities. These may include academic advising, new course development, college-wide student learning support, extensive student engagement activities, or other learning design activities that are not part of the standard teaching workload.
Effort Deficiencies in One or More Areas. If a faculty member fails to devote the standard effort for their appointment type to one or more areas of their workload, the subunit head may readjust the proportion of effort devoted to one or more areas of effort accordingly.
Teaching/Course Releases. Subunit heads may temporarily reduce the standard teaching load of individual faculty members to allow them to engage in additional non-standard instructional, service, or research activities as needed.
Buyouts. Faculty buyouts allow individuals to reduce teaching or service obligations by exchanging a portion of their subunit salary with compensation from externally funded research or other institutional sources. Buyout policies will be set in each subunit, consistent with subunit needs, and subject to approval by the Dean. Policies must ensure adequate subunit compensation for the time being released.
Supplemental Pay. Supplemental pay is provided when faculty take on additional responsibilities that exceed their standard workload. See EMS Salary Guidelines for Summer and Online Courses.
Workload Rebalancing. Each subunit will establish a “Workload Bank” to ensure long-term equivalency to the standard teaching load, whereby a faculty member’s workload will be rebalanced in a subsequent semester or academic year following an overload or underload in a particular semester. For example, faculty may “bank” credit hours earned from overloads (e.g. more than 9 credits in one semester) in order to secure course reductions in subsequent semesters or to offset teaching loads that fell below the standard load in prior or current semesters.
Note: Any faculty workload adjustments must be documented in writing (e.g., in email including the subunit head, faculty member, and subunit administrator) with the rationale, amount of adjustment, and effective academic semester(s).
Research faculty are expected to maintain active research programs that advance knowledge, involve the training and mentorship of students and postdoctoral scholars, and disseminate findings through peer-reviewed publications and other scholarly venues. Research effort includes activities such as developing and conducting research projects, preparing and submitting proposals, communicating results, product development, software development, other creative accomplishments, stakeholder engagement, and/or research-related outreach.
Consistent with University effort-reporting policy, research workload assignments reflect the proportion of a faculty member’s professional effort devoted to research activities rather than specific outcomes. For NTL research faculty supported primarily by sponsored funding, it is generally expected that a portion of effort (typically 5–15%) will be allocated to non-sponsored institutional activities, including proposal preparation, professional service, and other responsibilities that are not allowable charges to sponsored projects. Appointments with 100% effort on sponsored awards may occur only when the position is demonstrably limited to work on those projects, such as when proposal development and related activities are carried out by a supervising faculty member.
Some subunits may further specify in their guidelines how supervision of graduate students registered for credit demonstrates research activity.
If a faculty member fails to devote the standard effort for their appointment type to one or more areas of their workload, the subunit head may readjust the proportion of effort devoted to one or more areas of effort accordingly.
Expectations for service should be commensurate with rank, position description, and the source of funding supporting a faculty member’s effort. Also, subunit heads retain discretion in defining appropriate levels and types of service for their faculty.
External service activities should align with the faculty member’s disciplinary expertise and professional standing, and may include participation in professional societies, editorial roles, review panels, or community engagement activities relevant to the faculty member’s field.
Service effort for NTL faculty will vary by position description, teaching assignments, and funding sources. In general, NTL teaching faculty are expected to extend 10% of their efforts toward service. Teaching faculty exceeding this minimum are eligible for reductions in their standard teaching workload as described previously. NTL research faculty may be involved in service activities to the extent that their funding sources allow; however, for research faculty supported by sponsored projects, service effort must be supported by appropriate non-sponsored funding sources. Therefore, some may have no service activities as their funding may not support it.
Subunits may provide additional guidance reflecting disciplinary norms and operational needs.
Note: Some language in this document has been taken from similar guidelines of the College of Education and the College of the Liberal Arts.
College of Earth and Mineral Sciences: April 8, 2026
Revised: November 10, 2026
