Faculty Obligations and Responsibilities for Health Sciences Faculty

Published July 12, 2017 This content is archived.

To:              Health Sciences Deans, Departments Chairs, Faculty

From:          Charles F. Zukoski
                  Provost and Executive Vice President
                  for Academic Affairs


                  Michael E. Cain
                  Vice President for Health Sciences and
                  Dean, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 

Date:           July 12, 2017

We are all responsible for ensuring that our undergraduate, graduate, and professional students receive the highest quality education. To that end, it is important to reiterate specific teaching obligations and responsibilities of our faculty.

The Policies of the State University of New York Board of Trustees define the academic year obligation as “an annual obligation of service for the academic year, not to exceed 10 months.” The University at Buffalo’s 2017 - 2018 academic year obligation for faculty will commence on August 21, 2017, and will conclude on May 26, 2018. During that period, faculty members are expected to be available for service, consistent with their departmental assignments, program responsibilities, and the university calendar.

Within the health sciences, many of our faculty have 12-month appointments, to which the language in the preceding paragraph does not apply. Faculty with 12-month appointments are expected to be available for service for the full 12 months of each calendar year.

UB’s Faculty Teaching Responsibilities Policy states, “Final examinations shall be offered as officially scheduled, not during the final week of classes.” The university’s final examination week for the Fall 2017 semester is as follows: December 11 - 18, 2017. For the Spring 2018 semester, it is May 14 - 19, 2018.

Finally, as part of faculty teaching responsibility for 10-month and 12-month faculty, UB’s Teaching Assessment and Improvement Policy states, “Professorial faculty from each department should directly monitor and supervise all teaching by graduate teaching assistants. Moreover, each department should have in place a mandatory teaching-effectiveness program for its teaching assistants.”

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of all UB students. Best wishes for a productive and rewarding semester.