This college policy is intended to ensure that quality in offered courses remains high and that faculty have time to remain current in both their subject area and technology, adequate time to meet with individual students, and time to grade substantive written work.
Information pertaining to the campus policy can be found on the Office of Faculty Affairs website.
Academic Teaching Allowances by Faculty Title
Tenure-Track
Full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty may teach one additional course per semester above the standard teaching expectation for their department, including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education with one exception.* Self-paced courses taught through Continuing Education do not count against teaching limits. Faculty members holding Chair/Director and Associate Chair/Director appointments are not eligible for overloads.
Instructor
Instructors with appointments of 100% that include teaching 12 credit hours per semester, or 24 credits per academic year, cannot accept additional teaching assignments including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education.* However, they may not teach more than four courses or the equivalent in a semester, including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education.*
Instructors with appointments of less than 100% may teach up to four courses, or the equivalent up to 12 credit hours total, each semester including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education.*
Lecturer
Lecturers may teach up to four courses, or the equivalent up to a 100% appointment, each semester including courses taught on all CU campuses and through Continuing Education.*
Staff
University Staff are required to request approval from their supervisors, the Dean's office and the Office of Faculty Affairs before additional pay for teaching duties will be allowed. All regular job duties of the staff member must be performed. This may be requested semester-by-semester, or on an academic year basis. Normally no more than one course per academic year will be allowed for full-time employees. More information regarding requesting an additional job can be found under the "Additional Jobs" page for University Staff.
Information pertaining to Classified Staff requesting teaching appointments can be found under the "Additional Jobs" page for Classified Staff.
* = Exception: Self-paced courses taught through Continuing Education do not count against teaching limits.
Summer Session Teaching Allowances
Summer Session teaching appointments normally will be approved for no more than one course during any single Summer Session. Concurrent course teaching in overlapping terms is discouraged. In those cases in which a faculty member is teaching a one-credit hour course (such as a field study, seminar or lab course), the faculty member may elect to teach up to three, one-credit courses during a Summer Session term.
Administrative Appointments
Faculty on administrative appointments (Chair, Faculty Director, Associate Chair, etc.) often are given some form of teaching release in order to handle the increased service workload. College policy is that full-time tenure-line faculty on administrative appointment with a teaching release may not be paid for teaching overloads, but that instructors on administrative appointment whose standard teaching load is less than 12 credit hours per semester may be paid for no more than one overload per academic year. Faculty members holding Chair and Associate Chair appointments are not eligible for overloads.
Grant Funded Course Buy-Outs
Faculty using grant funds to buy-out of a course may not be paid for overloads.