Policy allows reallocation of instructional duties
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Richard Lariviere has approved a policy that allows tenured and tenure-track faculty to reallocate instructional duties when personal circumstances, such as birth or adoption of a child or illness, prevent a normal work load.
The Modified Instructional Duties Policy allows faculty to reallocate Ñ but not reduce Ñ their full-time duties when providing care for an ill child or family member. It allows faculty to remain full-time but shift their responsibilities from instructional duties to others that can be completed while acting as a caregiver.
Faculty who are the primary caregiver or have equal care responsibility for a preschool age child or are responsible for caring for an immediate family member during illness are eligible. Faculty can modify their instructional duties under the new policy in addition to using sick leave where appropriate.
Modification of instructional duties can be used for one semester or split between co-caregivers if both are KU faculty. Those providing care for a child must use the policy within 12 months of the child joining the family, whether by birth or adoption.
For the full policy, visit Modified Instructional Duties.
Requests must be submitted in writing to the faculty member's dean. In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and schools with a departmental structure, applications should be sent first to the department chair, then the dean. They will then be forwarded to the provost.
Applications must be submitted at least three months before the semester in which the modified duties will be necessary, except in unusual circumstances. The requests must include a statement detailing the faculty member's caregiver status, a statement explaining the need for modified instructional duties and a proposal describing the normal instructional duties that would be modified and work to be done in their place.
The chair and/or dean will review applications.
The policy applies immediately upon employment for tenured and tenure-track faculty who are full time in the spring and fall semesters.
Lariviere expressed appreciation to University Governance for developing the policy. The policy was the result of two years work by Faculty Senate in collaboration with the Office of the Provost, Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and General Counsel. For more information on the policy, contact Mary Lee Hummert, vice provost for faculty support, mlhummer@ku.edu.
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