UNCW Department of History
Course Banking Policy
Adopted March 27, 2006
A. Rationale
For several years now the College of Arts and Sciences has operated under Guidelines for Faculty Workload (accessible at http://www.uncw.edu/cas/policy) that provide for the assignment of additional Credit-hour Equivalents (CHEs) for "courses not taught in the standard lecture format or for courses in which content and/or pedagogy requires a different load measurement than their published credit hours." Typically, departments may grant "credit" to faculty members for such work as supervision of internships, master's and honors theses and "classes that require more preparation than regular classes. . . " These credits are accumulated, or "banked" until they amount to at least 3 CHEs, which can result in a one-course reassignment, depending on "curriculum needs and . . . subject to the approval of the department chair and dean."
Given the fact that History faculty undertake many of the kinds of teaching outlined in the CAS policy, and that it may become increasingly desirable that the faculty undertake these kinds of assignments in the future, the time has come for the History Department to articulate its own Banking Policy, within the parameters of the CAS policy.
B. Policy and Implementation
1. Where the CAS Workload Policy suggests CHE for specific types of work, the History Department adopts these equivalents (on p. 1 of Section 111-2-2 of the CAS Policies and Procedures Manual):
Supervision of master's thesis = 1 CHE awarded to primary adviser upon student's completion of oral defense.
Supervision of honors thesis (499 or 599), DIS (491 or 591) or internship (498 or 598): 1 student credit hour = 0.2 CHE (so that for a 3-hr course the instructor earns .6 CHE).
Additionally:
HST 290 (4 hrs): 1 CHE per section.
2. Bankable CHE may also be earned for courses that require more preparation than classes of comparable course level and content. Ordinarily a 3-credit course will not receive additional CHE. Allocation of CHEs for such assignments will be determined by the departmental Planning Committee in consultation with the chairperson and presented to the department for its approval. Any department member may bring a request for such consideration to the Planning Committee.
3. Department members will be responsible for completing a Record of Banked CHEs for each semester in which these CHEs are earned and submitting this form to the department chair. The department chair will keep a copy of each of these forms in the faculty member's file and return a signed copy to the faculty member. When a faculty member has accumulated 3 CHEs s/he may petition the department chair for a one-course reassignment, subject to the chair's determination of instructional needs. Except in extraordinary circumstances it will be understood that a faculty member will not be required to wait more than 2 semesters after banking 3 CHEs to receive the course reassignment.
4. A faculty member may bank CHEs as compensation for teaching overloads.
5. A faculty member will be limited to "cashing in" up to 6 CHE in any one semester.
6. The department will reevaluate this Banking Policy within five years of its adoption.
