Many faculty have 25% or 50% effort in a second department. With a four-course load, this is easily managed, but with a three-course load, it is more complicated. We recommend using the multi-year planning process equitably to distribute teaching, for example by alternating two- and one-course years in each department. Cross-listing courses can also be a useful mechanism to ensure that commitments to multiple departments are met.

Service is an important part of every faculty member's job and should not need to be incentivized any more than teaching or research should. Nonetheless, some service roles require greater time and effort than others.

Department chairs in three-course load departments will continue to teach a two-course load. They should also expect a significantly reduced service load for several years after their term in recognition of the significance of this job.

Directors of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies will generally continue to teach a three-course load. Like chairs, directors should expect a reduced service load after their term has finished. 

In the cases of chairs and directors, Brown's teaching loads mirror those of all of our peer schools and are not unduly burdensome.

Brown has reduced its reliance on temporary teaching in the past few years and will continue to staff the vast majority of its courses with permanent and full-time faculty. Most departments should devise three-year curricular plans without the assumption of temporary teaching funds beyond those already committed for long-term visitors. In rare cases, temporary teaching funds may be allocated to cover unexpected departures or absences or to address structural shortages in the short term until additional permanent faculty can be hired.

In this case, faculty should teach two courses when they are in residence. This is a longstanding policy at Brown.

Chairs should plan with the assumption that faculty will be reappointed. If they are not, our office will work with you to cover their teaching.

Chairs should not assume their own reappointment or make assumptions about who will follow them as chair.

We will honor the term of offer and retention letters.

While lecturer-track faculty will not receive a reduced teaching load, we expect service burdens to be more evenly shared across the faculty, so in many cases lecturer-track faculty may see their share of departmental and University service lightened.

You should make your curricular plan based on the regular faculty members in your department. If you currently have a search open that you feel is likely to yield a hire who will start in the coming year, you can include their teaching in your multi-year plan.

We hope that the planning tool will become public record in your department so it may be useful to provide an extensive list of service to show the equity (and inequity) of service burdens and to recognize faculty for the work they are doing. Service that is a routine part of every faculty member's job may not merit inclusion.