Summer 2025 Faculty Guidelines

  • There is one make-up day during Summer 1. The full summer academic calendar can be viewed here.
    • Substitute Monday schedule on Friday, May 30 (due to classes being suspended on Monday, May 26 for Memorial Day). There is no make-up day for Juneteenth (however, classes will still be suspended on Thursday, June 19).
  • There are no make-up days during Summer 2.There is no make-up day for Independence Day (however, classes will still be suspended on Friday, July 4).
  • It is important to meet all scheduled classes and hold each class for its full-appointed time.
    • Summer classes should be held for the full amount of time as indicated on the course schedule and should not end early.
  • Any changes in class meeting times must be brought to the attention of the Summer Term office.
  • All students attending your class must be registered and on your class list. University policy does not permit unregistered people to “sit-in” on your courses. Students may wish to audit your class, but must be appropriately registered as such, appearing in your class list with an ‘AU’ designation.
  • Keep attendance records for your course. You may be asked to report attendance for the University’s Attendance Indicator Project. Attendance records are also frequently requested for up to a year following the conclusion of a summer course, particularly with regards to student requesting exceptions to the published refund schedule (an “Exception Request”).
  • Please plan to hold office hours. This can be done in your on-campus office or by Zoom or phone.
  • If an enrolled student tells you they do not plan to take your course, please remind them to drop the course via the MyBU Student Portal.
  • Grades are due within 72 hours of the conclusion of a course. Some guidance on Grading in MyBU can be found here.

Academic Essentials

MyBU

MyBU can be accessed at www.bu.edu/mybu

MyBU provides faculty with a gateway to a number of University and Instructor-specific tools. View and search schedules, course descriptions, reports, as well as instructor-specific course lists, course websites, and grading information. 

Here are some Faculty Training Resources you may find useful. Additional resources are published here.

Textbooks and Course Materials

Boston University Campus Store is the University’s official campus bookstore. Please submit textbook orders for your summer 2025 course as early as possible through the postal. Summer Term will be available on March 3rd, with a requested due date by April 15th.

The benefits of placing timely book orders:

  • Obtaining course material information for all courses and receiving them within our timeline ensures that course materials are available to students when they need them, and in the most affordable formats possible.
  • Early orders save students money!  Early course material requests prior to the end of the Spring semester allow us to maximize our ability to obtain used books and provide more affordable options for your students.
  • More time to solve any issues in getting the books i.e., out of print/out of stock books. It also allows us the opportunity to research any substitutions.

    Faculty and higher tier users can submit course material requests through MyBU portal ( https://www.bu.edu/mybu/). Choose either Faculty Resources or Staff Resources and click on the tab “Submit Textbook Orders”.

    How to submit your course material request:

    Materials may be submitted through Faculty Resources (https://www.bu.edu/mybu/). Access the tab that states “Submit Textbook Orders. Once on the portal, you will land on the Course List where you can easily research and choose materials for your customized list.  To complete your course material submission, you can:

    • Re-adopt from a past semester by choosing the previous term and selecting “one-click re-adopt.”
    • Easily search and discover course materials by selecting the guide me option.  With this option, you can view course material history by course and section or search by an ISBN or keyword.
    • Select “I’m not using any materials for this class” to submit that there are not any textbooks for this course.  This will provide visibility to students on the bookstore’s website so that there are not any textbooks needed for the course.

    If you are teaching a cross-listed course, please submit your book order for all the courses in the cross-list so that students have visibility to the required materials for the course they are registered for.

    For online courses, instructors should work with their designated instructional designer from BU Virtual to determine which textbooks are required. Instructional designers will then work directly with the bookstore to submit the order.

    Add/Drop

    Students may add/drop without faculty approval by the published add deadline, usually the first week of each session for standard courses. The add/drop period for the standard, six-week session ends on Tuesday, May 27 for Summer 1 and Monday, July 7 for Summer 2. Add/drop ends on Monday, June 2 for the twelve-week term. QST courses that follow non-standard dates have their own calendar. Those and other non-standard dates are posted with the course description on the Summer Term course listings or MyBU. Please confirm the add/drop deadlines for your course and list them prominently on your syllabus, so that students are aware.

    Blackboard Learn

    All faculty are encouraged to utilize Blackboard Learn course sites. Details on how to set up and use a course site can be found here.

    Blackboard Ultra – Online Courses

    As we continue to transition BU courses and programs to Blackboard Ultra, including summer courses, we are excited to share a BU-specific website – The Faculty Guide to Administering a Course in BB Ultra – designed to support BU faculty teaching fully online courses and delivering consistent and outstanding student experience: please access the guide here.

     The Guide Features: 

    • BUV-specific guidance in a FAQ-style format
    • Easy navigation to specific tasks in Blackboard Ultra, and
    • Additional support resources to aid faculty in their preparation and teaching online.

    In addition, faculty can explore the following: 

    Course Evaluations

    The University requires that course evaluations be carried out in each section of each summer course. Students should complete the evaluations, ideally during class time at the end of the summer session through the system, Blue. More information, policies, and requirements surrounding course evaluations at BU can be found here.

    Final Exams

    Final exams are generally given in the last class meeting. There is no final exam period or reading period in Summer Term.

    BU Hub Summer Essentials

    The BU Hub is the University-wide general education program that emphasizes working across disciplines to prepare for a complex and diverse world. View information for instructors new to teaching BU Hub courses here.

    Auditors

    Students may wish to audit your class. This requires instructor permission and official registration by the student (University policy does not permit unregistered people to “sit-in” on your courses). If you approve, students should submit a signed Permission to Audit a Course Form to the Summer Term office. Approved auditor names will appear on your class list followed by the designation “AU.” All auditors must register and pay full tuition.

    Pass/Fail Option

    With the approval of the appropriate pass/fail advisor, students have the option of taking some courses on a pass/fail basis. Please refer interested students to their academic advisor to discuss this option. Faculty should not give a grade of P/F: these grades are recorded by the Registrar’s office after faculty have submitted their grades.

    Evergreen

    The Evergreen Program allows learners 58 and older to sit in courses on a space available basis for a nominal fee. Evergreen students need to register at the Evergreen office. They are instructed to seek your permission to add during opening week.

    Grading

    All faculty are expected to submit their grades electronically through the Grade Roster in MyBU. You should assign a letter grade to each student on your grade sheet based on their academic performance, even if they never attended. It is important to note that grading is a two step process: you must enter grades and then approve them. Some training is available here:

    Incomplete (“I”) Grades

    An incomplete grade (“I”) is used only when the student has conferred with the instructor prior to the submission of grades and offered acceptable reasons for the incomplete work. An incomplete grade may be appropriate when the student has participated in and completed requirements representing a majority of the course, i.e. more than 50%, and circumstances prevent the student from completing remaining requirements by the conclusion of the course. A signed and completed Incomplete Grade Form should be submitted to the course department (e.g. CAS BI 107 to the Biology department), not Summer Term. However, when time comes to update the “I” grade to a letter grade, Summer Term can help assist with submitting that grade change.

    Grade Changes

    In MyBU, you do have some ability to change grades before the next semester. In the event that you need to change a student’s grade and you are unable to do this yourself, please email sumadmin@bu.edu the following information in the below format. It will be reviewed by the Summer Term Director and submitted for processing:

    • Course Code:
    • Semester:
    • Student Name:
    • Student BUID:
    • Current Grade:
    • New Grade:
    • Reason:

    Administrative Essentials

    New Faculty

    If you are a new employee to the University; or if you are a BU student graduating in May 2025; or if you have not been on the BU payroll during the past 12 months, the requirements of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 obligate us to review documents that demonstrate that you are eligible to work. The requirements of this law pertain to United States citizens as well as foreign nationals.

    If you are a new instructor, as a condition of your employment and before you can be placed on the payroll, you must present the appropriate identification and/or work authorization documents needed to complete the I-9 form. New faculty should complete their I-9 paperwork through the Human Resources office. International instructors should complete this process with the ISSO.

    Payment

    All summer faculty should direct deposit their paychecks. If you have direct deposit during the academic year, your summer payment will also be direct deposited. You can update your direct deposit and view your pay statement under the Employee Self Service (ESS) section on BUworks.

    SUM1 instructor salaries are split in two payments in June.

    SUM2 instructor salaries are split in four payments: two in July, two in August.

    Instructors teaching 12-week courses will have their salaries split in six payments: two in June, two in July, two in August.

    Graduate students are paid weekly, one week in arrears.

    However, please note that depending on certain nonstandard dates of courses, your pay schedule may be different (e.g. a one-week course that takes place in July is technically in SUM2, but it may be more appropriate to pay out the entire salary in July instead of across July and August).