The Faculty Handbook has been revised to meet legal requirements. This document is open for comments from the Faculty through February 14, 2025. No content revisions have been made to this document.
3. Faculty Obligations, Responsibilities, and Commitments
3.1. Obligations
3.1.1.Academic Year
The formal academic year begins with the opening university-wide meeting and concludes at the end of commencement ceremonies. All faculty are expected to attend both events unless excused by their school or college dean or library director. Teaching faculty may, within their contractual relationship, be asked to participate in planning activities before the opening meeting or following commencement, but within a nine-month period. All grades must be submitted before the end of the academic year.
3.1.2. General Duties and Responsibilities of the Teaching Faculty
Within the framework established here, the specific duties and responsibilities of the individual faculty members at Widener University are determined by the deans of the schools and colleges in consultation with the faculty. Such specific duties and responsibilities are contained in the individual school and college bylaws or school and college faculty handbooks. The duties and responsibilities here described apply to all full-time teaching faculty, day or evening, at the undergraduate or graduate level. They do not apply to faculty whose primary responsibility is provision of library or administrative services. In the case of librarians, specific duties and responsibilities are determined by the appropriate library director, in consultation with the library faculty.
3.1.3. Faculty Assignments
Individual faculty assignments are made semi-annually after consultation between the faculty members and their department chairs or heads/division associate deans and reviewed by the school or college deans. For librarians, individual faculty assignments are made after consultation between the faculty members and their department heads where such a position exists and is reviewed by the library director or, if no department head exists, after consultation with the library director. The purpose of the individual faculty assignment is to ensure that responsibilities are apportioned in a balanced way that reflects the individual member’s expertise and the university’s needs. As far as possible, individual faculty assignments should take into account the faculty members’ particular qualifications and their programs of professional development. Faculty are responsible for carrying out satisfactorily the duties they have agreed to by the terms of their individual faculty assignments.
3.2. Responsibilities
3.2.1. Teaching - Primary Responsibility
The primary responsibility of the faculty is teaching. General teaching loads are determined by institutional policy, as established by the Board of Trustees in consultation with faculty representatives, in keeping with AAUP practices, and by policy of the schools and colleges as established by the school and college deans in consultation with the faculty and as approved by the Provost. Specific loads and assignments are determined by deans in consultation with faculty under their direction.
3.2.1.1. Course Offerings and Content
All course offerings shall be in accord with the general requirements of Widener University, the needs of the department/division majors, and the needs of the student body. Each instructor is responsible for planning and presenting the assigned course material; establishing course requirements and making them known to students; recommending texts or other materials; preparing, administering, and grading papers or examinations; relating and explaining examination grades to students in a timely fashion; and assigning grades.
3.2.1.2. Interaction with Students
Faculty shall interact with students outside the classroom. Student advising, meeting with prospective students on campus, and sponsorship of student activities shall be arranged by the school and college deans in consultation with faculty members involved. Faculty are expected to schedule a minimum of five office hours per week.
3.2.1.3. Normal Teaching Loads
The university establishes teaching loads by unit (School/College/Division/Center). Within the unit, the dean of the school or college determines the specific teaching load of the individual faculty member.
3.2.1.4. Overload
Under normal circumstances a maximum overload of one course per semester is permitted during the regular academic year. Exceptions are made for combinations of teaching and non-teaching overloads, e.g., a faculty member teaching an evening course as an overload may also serve as an evening counselor. Academic administrators should be paid for overloads during the regular academic year provided they teach at least six hours as part of their regular load. Deans may teach voluntarily on an unpaid overload basis.
3.2.2. Participation in Governance
Faculty are expected to participate in institutional governance, as described in the Faculty Council Bylaws and in their relevant school/college/library bylaws. They are also expected to serve on such additional committees as may be established from time to time by the faculty or by the administration.
3.2.3.Professional Development
Faculty are expected to engage in professional development. Evidence of continued professional development is required for promotion. The university shall foster the proper climate for such development through its policy on sabbaticals and by assisting faculty in securing grants, fellowships, etc.
3.3. Academic Freedom
It is fundamental to the health of an academic institution and ultimately to the health of a society at large that individual persons and groups of persons exercise their responsibility and freedom to search for the truth and to speak the truth as it is discovered. In a collegial community, the university, the faculty, the administration, and the student body bear mutual responsibility to exercise professional competence and to extend to one another the trust and respect which foster an environment for the exercise of academic freedom. Widener University endorses the principles of academic freedom.
3.4. Professional Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
3.4.1. Guidance and Consultation
Academic administrators at all levels are available for advance consultation with respect to potential conflicts of interest. The university expects faculty and staff members to seek advice from these sources.
3.4.2. Code of Professional Ethics
Widener University believes that the “Statement on Professional Ethics” promulgated by the American Association of University Professors in April of 1966 serves as a useful reminder of the variety of obligations assumed by all members of the academic profession.
Since all faculty members should strive to make these recognized standards of the profession an integral part of their professional and personal lives, the guiding principles of AAUP’s “Statement on Professional Ethics” as revised in 2009 are quoted below in abbreviated form. (https://www.aaup.org/report/statement-professional-ethics)
3.4.3. External Activities
The university encourages consulting and other outside activities of a professional nature where such activities give the faculty member experience and knowledge valuable to professional growth and development. These activities may help the faculty make worthy contributions to knowledge, or contribute to their instructional programs, or otherwise make a positive contribution to the university or the community. While faculty are encouraged to engage in such activities, these activities shall be subordinate to the faculty’s teaching, advising, research, and service responsibilities. No outside service or enterprise, professional or other, should be undertaken that interferes with the faculty member’s primary responsibility to the university as defined in Sections 4.1. and 4.2.
3.4.4. Consulting
External consulting shall not exceed an average of eight hours per work week and must not interfere with classes or other faculty obligations.
3.4.5. Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest with those of the university shall be avoided in all cases. For example, conflicts of interest occur whenever faculty members are in a situation in which the prospect of direct or indirect pecuniary gain for the faculty members or members of their families could influence the employees’ judgment or action in the conduct of university business. In any instance where a conflict of interest may arise, the faculty members shall consult with their school or college deans or library director for guidance.
3.4.6. Use of University Facilities and Services
Except for the use of assigned office space and available library services, faculty must obtain written approval of their department chair/head or division associate dean and school or college dean or library director in order to use university facilities in connection with outside activities. In all cases, faculty members or their outside employers or sponsors will pay the rate established by the university for the use of the facility or equipment. For use of secretarial services, see Section 5.4.5.
3.4.7. Use of the University Name and Seal
The university’s name and seal are the exclusive property of the university and shall not be used without the prior permission of the appropriate school or college dean. Faculty members publish a considerable number of reports in the form of bulletins, circulars, scientific articles, monographs, and books, some of which are copyrighted and others of which are not. The university’s name, seal, or official stationery may not be used in connection with outside activities except academic and scholarly activities.
3.4.8.Political Activity
Faculty members, as citizens, are free to engage in political activities. Any faculty members who wish to engage in direct political activity that will involve a substantial amount of time may request a leave of absence from their dean or director of the library. The terms of such leave of absence shall be set forth in writing, and the leave will not affect adversely the tenure status of a faculty member, except that time spent on such leave will not count as probationary service unless otherwise agreed to in writing prior to the commencement of the leave. The decision as to the leave request shall be at the sole discretion of the Provost in consultation with the faculty member’s dean or director of the library.
3.4.9.Teaching Members of Immediate Family
Faculty members should avoid having members of their immediate families enroll as students in their classes. Exceptions will be made only if the course is required for the student’s program and if there is no possibility of the student’s enrolling in the course with a different instructor.
3.4.10. Employment Policy on Nepotism
No faculty member may supervise or participate in the hiring of family members. No faculty member may participate in the promotion, tenure, retention, or appeals of a family member, or in any adjudicatory ruling involving a family member. No faculty member may be involved in decisions about grants, awards, or sabbaticals affecting a family member.
“Family Member” includes a spouse, parent, parent-in-law, child, child-in-law, sibling, sibling-in-law or domestic partner of a university employee, and anyone with like status by virtue of adoption or marriage (e.g., stepchildren, stepparents). For the purposes of this document “university employee” includes all full-time faculty and all full-time library faculty, regardless of rank, appointment, or tenure status.
3.5. Violations of Rights, Academic Freedom, and Ethics
Disputes involving a charge that a faculty member’s rights or academic freedom have been abrogated or that professional ethics have not been maintained are to be settled through the established Grievance Procedures (Section VII- Grievance). While affirming academic freedom as a right, Widener University recognizes that, in some circumstances, questions of academic freedom may become enmeshed in questions of professional incompetence or irresponsibility. In an effort to distinguish between these sometimes confused issues, the guiding principle is that charges of professional incompetence or irresponsibility shall not be used to limit academic freedom, nor shall appeals to academic freedom be acceptable as a shield for professional incompetence or irresponsibility.
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