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Scheduling Classes & Assigning Instructors

One useful strategy for composing the class schedule is as follows:

1. Determine the number of faculty available during each semester.
2. Determine the number of courses that should be taught in order to allow students in your department—as well as other departments—to satisfy the requirements for their academic programs and to provide interested non-majors the opportunity to learn about your discipline. Be sure to coordinate any cross-listed courses (i.e., those listed with two different numbers but which meet together) with the other relevant departments.
3. Compose a rough draft of the courses to be offered each semester and assign tentative instructors for each class.
4. Discuss any unexpected assignments with the affected faculty member. (“Chris, we need someone to teach ZZ 410 and I think that you would do a very good job...”) Note that either you or an associate chair should do this; do not ask your AA to take on this burden—your faculty will expect such requests to be made at a collegial level. Adjust the assignments as necessary following your discussions.
5. Work with your AA to compose a class schedule. It is customary practice to use the previous year’s schedule as a template. You should discuss (in advance of the submission of your proposed class schedule) with Senior Associate Dean Susan Jackson any desired changes in the time slots of classes with large enrollments, since the availability of large classrooms is extremely limited. Note that, if any changes from the previous year are made, you and your AA need to check the computer version of the schedule several times by the end of January, to ensure the accuracy of the printed version of the class schedule.
6. Hold a departmental faculty meeting that focuses on next year’s class schedule. Show your faculty the draft schedule and ask for general comments and questions. (Note: If you have not executed point 4, you will probably find this to be a very long and frustrating meeting!)
7. Adjust the assignments (and perhaps the schedule, but see point 5) as needed and have your AA submit the required online scheduling forms.

If you find that, because of leaves of absence and sabbaticals, you have too few faculty to staff the courses, then you should include a plan for course coverage with your proposed class schedule in mid-October. This may take the form of a request for replacement funds to hire a part-time instructor or a visiting faculty member to take the place of professors who will be absent. Note that, ordinarily, the number of faculty in your department should be sufficient to cover sabbatical leaves with no replacements. Your request therefore needs to explain why this is not the case. The success of your request depends on budgetary considerations as well as on whether the Dean prefers that you find another solution such as delaying sabbatical leaves such that they do not have a negative impact on the academic program.