Office of Academic Affairs

Realignment of Faculty Workload

This page has information on an initiative to realign faculty workloads at Marshall in light of our increasing focus on creativity, scholarship and research, and our move to R2 status.

Summary and Rationale

This procedure is a step by Marshall University to realign faculty workloads in a way that supports our mission and R2 status. A key component of the university’s mission is to “maintain a dynamic intellectual, artistic, and cultural life by promoting and supporting research and creative activities.” The university’s continued growth in scholarship was recognized by the R2 Carnegie Classification in 2018.

Faculty productivity and the choices faculty make about which projects to pursue are directly affected by the time the university provides for research and creativity. Some faculty would choose to pursue additional scholarship if additional time was provided. At the same time, a number of Marshall faculty prefer to teach. The assignment of teaching loads should accommodate the varied interests, competencies, and expertise of the faculty.

Workload assignments must also live within budgetary constraints. The university is not financially able to reduce all faculty teaching loads at this stage of our growth. This procedure is a step towards reduced teaching loads, allowing some faculty to devote additional time to scholarship, allowing other faculty to choose to focus on teaching, and ensuring each unit can offer the classes needed for students to progress with their degrees. As the university continues to grow, our procedures will continue to be revised to ensure workloads are aligned with faculty and university goals.

This procedure establishes a framework for faculty to apply for a portion of their workload to be reassigned from teaching to other duties that support the university’s missions. This procedure subsumes many existing procedures that many units have developed to grant reassigned time, although it is not intended to reduce resassigned time that has historically been granted across the institution.

Faculty may apply for reassigned time annually. The approval process will be merit-based, selective, and multi-layered. Particular focus will be paid to the concrete products and outcomes of the reassigned time. The reassigned time awarded from this procedure will be funded through increased efficiency of class scheduling within each unit granting reassigned time, and will not require additional budgetary funding.

Procedure document and application form

Frequently asked questions

  1. Where can I send feedback? Feedback can be shared with your chair or dean; the Council of Chairs, Faculty Senate, or Graduate Council; or with Carl Mummert, mummertc@marshall.edu.
  2. Will this reduce the reassigned time I was already given? The goal of this procedure is to help realign workloads across the university, not to limit reassigned time that was already being used for scholarship and creativity. Units that already granted reassigned time will continue to do so, using the dynamic form to document it. We do not anticipate this procedure will significantly decrease or increase release time in those units. The procedure will allow units that did not previously award reassigned time to begin doing so, based on the projects proposed and the availability of release time in the class schedule.
  3. Will faculty with administrative release time need to complete the form?Reassigned time will continue to be granted for administrative activities, such as department chairs, as well as some leadership programs, competitive fellowships, and other university-sponsored activities. Faculty do not need to “apply” for time that is already guaranteed as part of these activities. However, the same form will be used to document this administrative reassigned time and to apply for additional research and outreach reassigned time. Keeping all kinds of reassigned time together simplifies departmental reporting and provides a comprehensive picture of the workload of each faculty member.
  4. Is there flexibility for exceptional cases? There will certainly be a small number of exceptional cases, which could include faculty who historically have had more than 3 hours of research release, or faculty with unusual administrative releases. Faculty in these situations should discuss the situation with their chair.