Course Banking
Revised Fall 2005 (Based on an A&S Policy memo dated 2/25/97)
Course banking is an important management tool that refers to the practice of teaching an extra course one semester and, in return, teaching one less course in a subsequent semester. The purposes of course banking serve both the instructional and research missions of the College. Course banking is an essential tool to economically manage human resources in response to unexpected circumstances. Course banking may be initiated at the request of a department or program that recruits a faculty member to teach an extra course in order to adjust to unexpected waitlist demand. Course banking may also be utilized to address an unexpected illness of another scheduled instructor. Utilizing existing teaching capacity to meet teaching demand is more economical than hiring from off-campus, often untested and on short notice. Occasionally, a faculty member may request to bank a course in anticipation of a restriction in their ability to perform the physical demands of the classroom following recuperation from a medical procedure or childbirth.
Course banking also helps the College adjust to the changing demands of national and international research and creative work. Banking may be requested by a faculty member whose scholarly or creative work planned for a future semester will have an otherwise disruptive effect on their teaching. These circumstances are sometimes associated with a heavy travel schedule related to research at distant libraries or archives, or to undertake extended visits to a gallery or theater to conduct a creative works assignment. National committee service obligations may also be reason to request course banking. The following guidelines apply:
Course banking is a privilege and not a property right of faculty.
Courses may be banked but not borrowed, except in unusual circumstances approved in advance by a Dean and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs. In other words, the overload must be taught in advance of the reduced load, and not vice-versa.
Course banking may not be used solely for personal reasons other than health, family, or parental leave.
The department's curricular needs must be met as the first consideration in any banking or unbanking decision.
Banking should be done in moderation and only used for special needs.
A faculty member may use banking to produce a semester that is free of classroom teaching. However, s/he must remain on campus during that semester unless justified by his/her scholarly work (field studies, the need to use library facilities elsewhere, etc.). Planned absences from campus must be reported as part of the request process, as must the plan for unbanking credited courses.
Banking courses during fall semester (the extra teaching is done in fall) is preferred to banking in spring because teaching needs are greater in the fall. Likewise, it is preferred that banked courses be "unbanked" during the spring. Chairs, directors and deans may deny a request to unbank a banked course in a particular semester if it is in the best interests of the College to do so.
All course banking requires prior approval from the department chair/program director and the Associate Dean. Course banking by sitting chairs or directors is highly discouraged, and requires prior approval of both the Associate Dean and the Dean.
Only one semester's worth of courses may be banked at a time.
Courses may not be banked for more than two years.
Requests for course banking must be submitted by the chair or director via the Leaves and Replacement web site, which will track requests, approvals, and any stipulated limitations placed upon the agreement. Banking and unbanking of courses must also be reflected in the annual teaching assignment report submitted to the Dean's Office each summer
