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Unit Policies

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Unit-Level Policy Updates

We will be reviewing and revising our respective unit policies to reflect recent changes to the CBA and a memorandum of understanding between the Administration and United Academics, including guidance on reviews for tenure-track and Career faculty, new Career categories, and the replacement of contracts for Career faculty with “an expectation of continued employment.”

The policy work may follow the schedule below:

  • AY24-25: Unit policies on tenure-track and career faculty review and promotion will be due to the Office of the Provost on June 15, 2025.
    • Unit policies will not be due in the dean’s office of respective schools and colleges before the end of the winter term of the applicable academic year. However, units are welcome to submit policies before the deadlines outlined above. In particular, units may wish to submit two parts of the AY24-25 policies during this academic year to have these policies in place by next fall: Post-tenure review (PTR) for tenure-track faculty and the criteria for continuous employment review for career faculty.

The Office of the Provost has been working on unit policy templates to ensure that revised policies will be consistent with the requirements of the CBA. The scaffolding provided by the templates is intended to simplify the work of faculty, unit heads, and deans.

Treat the provided templates as helpful suggestions—not final products. 

Faculty have different needs–even within the same department–and the Administration and United Academics are keen on rectifying long-standing issues and inequities.

Exemplars – Service

Unit Administrative Roles

Advisors (Undergrad, Grad)

Associate Head

Alumni Coordinator

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Undergraduate Studies Committee Chair

Director of Graduate Studies

Graduate Placement

Graduate Studies Committee Chair

Curriculum Director

GTF Director

International Liaison

Journal Editor

Pedagogy Director

Research Director

Undergraduate Advising

Summer Session Coordinator

Newsletter/Alumni Coordinator

SPUR

Invisible service

From UO Senate Task Force on Service report:

Helping others do their work/filling in for absences and understaffed/lost positions (office, advising)

Organizing and coordinating others’ work

Logistical planning and special events including colloquia

Governance work e.g., safety, ethics, diversity, climate, review committees

Recruiting

Onboarding, training, mentoring

Chair/participate on non-PhD thesis committees (and similar 40x courses) (should be teaching)

Roles (departmental/UO/Oregon/professional/civic) are invisible outside of the level

Good citizenship e.g., showing up at departmental events, recruiting dinners, UO recruiting events, etc.

Unit Committees

Advising (Undergrad, Grad)

Alumni Relations

Assessment

Colloq/Talks

Commencement

Curriculum

DEI/Community

Executive

Fundraising

Grad Affairs

Grad Recruitment/Admissions

Graduate Support

Grad Training/Clinical Training

Internal Governance

Instructors

IT

Library Liaison

[Minor] Director

MSCI Advisory Board

Peer Teaching Review

Personnel

Personnel Policy

Post-tenure

Publicity/Publications

Research Collaborations

Research Institutes

Scholarships and Awards

Search/Recruiting

Student Groups Support

Student Honors Chapters Support

Study Abroad

Summer Session

Teaching Awards

Teaching Effectiveness

Textbook Adoption

Travel/Visitors

UA Stewards

Undergraduate Affairs

Undergraduate Research

Website

Specific unit needs/activities

Other Service Considerations

Unit data collection/analysis

Unit student events (grad, ug)

UO recruiting/outreach event

UO advising support/advising (majors, transfer, study abroad, events, Tykeson support)

TA recruitment, assignment, training

Study abroad coordination

Transfer student onboarding

4/50x courses (or teaching)

Liaison with Oregon bodies (HECC, etc.)

“Knowledge transfer”/go to person for questions/support in certain areas

Exemplars – Teaching

Teaching Adjustments

Points system for teaching credits for various types of courses

Large courses

Independent study

Unique preps

New course development

Course with lab

Organizational demands e.g., grading, supervision

Teaching course for 1st time

Create a new course

Significant re-design of existing course

Pre-tenure appointments

Offer contract adjustments

Course enrollments

Level of class

TA support/TA supervision

# of distinct course preps

Instructor’s familiarity with course materials

Research lab funding and supervision

Service and administrative assignments

Teaching in the Honors College

Intensity of experiential learning activities

Support of essential credit or non-credit activities of academic programs

Nature of an individual’s teaching portfolio in a particular AY (e.g., unusually high number of preps,

large enrollment classes)

Core course; prereq for another course

Coordinating with other faculty instructors; UO online or other UO departments or offices

Other items not listed yet relevant to workload

Outline Responsibilities

Modernization of curricula

Class preparation

Classroom teaching

Designing student learning activities

Evaluation of student work

Advising and mentoring

Various forms of communication with students

Supervising and mentoring graduate teaching assistants

Developing learning outcomes

Assessing student learning

Additional responsibilities associated with teaching laboratory courses