Boston University Arts & Sciences

Also in Faculty & Staff

• Committees & MeetingsFind agendas, meeting minutes, and committee membership applications.
  • Chairs' Calendar
  • 2008/2009 Chairs & Faculty Meetings
• Procedures & FormsFind information on academic planning, curriculum development, and budget requests.
  • Memo from the Dean
  • Academic Planning Self-study Reports
  • Curriculum Guidelines
  • Consultation on Class Scheduling
  • Faculty Expectations
  • Faculty Appointments
  • Teaching Award Nominations
  • Faculty Payroll
  • Staff Payroll
  • Student Payroll
  • Graduate Students Teaching Stand-Alone Courses
  • Performance Review Process Due Dates
• CAS Newsletter ArchiveAn e-newsletter for Arts & Sciences faculty and staff.
• Chairs’ GuideLearn about the role and responsibilities of a department chair.
  • Courses & Curriculum
    • Planning Course Offerings
    • Scheduling Classes & Assigning Instructors
    • Reviewing and Revising the Department’s Curriculum
    • Proposing New Academic Programs
    • Proposing New Courses & Revising Existing Courses
    • Syllabi
    • Grading System
  • Faculty Issues
    • Tenure-Track Faculty & Faculty Promotions
    • Non-tenure-track Faculty & Research Staff Reappointments
    • Faculty Searches
    • Sabbaticals & Other Leaves of Absence
    • Teaching Awards
  • Student Issues
  • Graduate School Issues
    • Grant Principal Investigator Status
    • Grant Cost Sharing Guidelines
    • Guidelines for Teaching Buyouts
    • Dean’s Awards
    • Termination of a Student’s Graduate Status
    • GRS Guidelines for Traveling Scholars
    • Travel Support
  • External Funding
• Instructors’ GuideFind resources to assist with teaching and administrative responsibilities.
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  • Reading Period
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• Administrative Offices & Roles Learn the roles of each administrative office, along with contact information.
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  • CAS Connections
  • Boston University Humanities Foundation

Related Links

• Provost Website
• Faculty Link

Planning Course Offerings

Planning for the following academic year begins quite early:

• Before end-September: It is very important that you consult with your faculty very early in the academic year— before the end of September—in order to meet the required deadlines; you may choose to this by devoting one of your September departmental meetings to the course offerings of the following academic year. You may find, for example, that an important course is usually taught by a professor who will not be available that year and your department needs to decide whether to have someone else teach the course or not to offer it.
• Mid-October: The class schedule form and teaching load form (which lists the course loads of each faculty member for each semester) is due in the Dean's Office in mid-October. This is to allow time for the College deans to analyze the department's plan in time for your November meeting with them.
• November: The deans will discuss with you the implications of your proposed course offerings for the following academic year with regard to staffing, budgetary impact, faculty search requests, reappointments, leaves of absence, and other issues. The deans may request modifications to your proposed course offerings and class schedule.
• January: You will need to review the schedule again in January, since your administrative assistant (AA) must finalize changes in early February in order for the correct schedule to be printed in the booklet students use to register for courses in March and April.

While it may seem ideal to offer every course every semester, practical issues (limited number of faculty, limited audience for many courses, etc.) restrict this only to courses with the highest enrollments. For courses with low enrollments, this might require multi-year cycles (e.g., offering a required graduate course once every two years or even once every three years). The Dean's guideline is that the average teaching load per faculty member should be 160 students per year. Almost no course is viable if fewer than five undergraduates or three graduate students are enrolled. On the other hand, the department should offer courses with sufficient frequency that students can complete their degree programs. But, if the enrollments in advanced courses tend to be very low, your department may need to examine the curriculum to determine whether there is a more efficient way to organize it.