Faculty Compensation 5.0

1.0  Purpose

This policy establishes guidelines for compensating faculty.

2.0  Revision History

3.0  Persons Affected

3.1  All benefited faculty. 

4.0  Policy

The policy of Casper College is to ensure the following.

4.1  The college uses a uniform process to compensate faculty. 

5.0  Definitions

5.1  Contact Hours. These are the hours per week a faculty is scheduled to spend with students in a particular course. Contact hours for each course are listed in the Academic Catalog as lecture and lab hours.

5.2  Faculty. Employees who provide instruction and related activities for courses that provide academic credit.  This category includes tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenured positions.  Faculty positions are exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

5.2.1  Non-Credit Teaching Faculty.  Employees on a faculty contract who teach and/or provide non-credit instruction.

5.3  Faculty Load Data Form. A document used to calculate faculty workload for the academic year.  The form includes teaching load categories, course assignments, number of advisees assigned, reassignment of
teaching load, personal and professional development activities, and authorized overload. The faculty member and the dean sign the form.  

5.4  Faculty Request for Educational Pre-Approval Form. Faculty use this form to obtain pre-approval for credit classes and advanced degrees.

5.5  Faculty Salary Structure. The college uses this structure to determine faculty compensation for teaching credit classes. The structure consists of five columns, which represent the highest educational degree achieved. 

5.6  Instructional Unit.  The unit by which all load is measured.  The total number of overload instructional units for each academic year will be determined by the fiscal year budget.  Deans will be given a set number of overload instructional units for each of their schools to allocate for instructional and non-instructional use.  Instructional units are further defined in the Faculty Workload Guidelines.

5.7   Masters + 18. This is a column on the Faculty Salary Structure.  To qualify for this column, faculty must have completed a Master’s Degree and taken 18 additional graduate-level credits towards a second Master’s Degree, towards a Doctorate program, or in a second subject so they can teach in that subject area as defined by the Higher Learning Commission.

6.0  Responsibilities

6.1  The Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) is responsible for maintaining compliance with this policy.

6.2  The Human Resources (HR) Director and the VPAA are responsible for faculty placement and contracts.

6.3  The Board of Trustees is responsible for approving compensation recommendations given available funding.

7.0  Procedures

7.1  Initial Placement

7.1.1  The HR Director uses the candidate’s application and academic transcripts to determine column placement based on the following criteria.

7.1.1.1  Academic Degrees

• Associate’s Degree/Technical  = Column F1

• Bachelor’s Degree = Column F2

• Master’s Degree = Column F3

• Master’s +18 Credit Hours or Master of Fine Arts Degree (MFA) = Column F4

• Doctoral Degree = Column F5

The degrees and credits must be from institutions of higher education accredited by a U.S. Department of Education’s nationally recognized accrediting agency. The credits must be graduate-level in the subject discipline or related to the teaching position. Awarding of credits should be determined by a faculty member in the same or closely related discipline in conjunction with the department chair, Dean, or the VPAA. 

7.1.2  The HR Director uses the following criteria to determine a candidate’s step placement. Step 15 is the maximum initial step placement. The HR Director will confer with the VPAA during the placement process.  

7.1.2.1  Teaching Experience

• Full-time at a college: one year = one year
• Full-time at an elementary or secondary school: two years = one year 
• Part-time at a college: 15 semester credits= one year 

7.1.2.2  Employment (non-teaching) directly related to the position for which the person is being hired.

• Full-time employment equivalency:  two years = one year

7.2  Movement
 Faculty may move on the Faculty Salary Schedule by BOT approval, earning an advanced degree, or obtaining pre-approved graduate-level credits as outlined in the Master’s +18 definition.

7.2.1  BOT Approved Movement

7.2.1.1  The President may recommend to the BOT that they approve the recommended step movement for eligible faculty.

7.2.1.2  The BOT may approve the recommended movement given available funding.

7.2.2  Earning an Advanced Degree or Educational Attainment Movement to Master’s + 18 Column

7.2.2.1  Faculty complete the Faculty Request for Educational Pre-Approval form and acquire the required signatures. 

7.2.2.2  Faculty must provide HR with official transcripts by June 15 to be eligible for movement in the upcoming fiscal year. Failure to meet this deadline will result in an eligibility delay until the following fiscal year.

7.2.2.3  HR recalculates column placement for faculty who have earned an advanced degree or who have completed approved 18 graduate-level credit hours for the Masters + 18 column.

7.2.2.4  The President may recommend the BOT approve column movements for eligible faculty. 

7.2.2.5  The BOT may approve eligible column movements given available funding.   

7.3   Compensation

7.3.1  HR uses placement on the Faculty Salary Schedule and information from the Faculty Load Data form to calculate load and determine full and part-time benefited faculty compensation. Part-time
benefited faculty are compensated a prorated amount based on their teaching load.

7.3.2  HR uses placement on the Faculty Salary Schedule, information from the Faculty Load Data form, and the following compensation rates to determine adjunct and teaching overload. Contracts longer or
shorter than 9 months are prorated.

7.3.2.1  Adjunct Compensation

For the fall, spring, and summer semesters, adjunct faculty compensation is paid at a flat rate of $850 per instructional unit (IU). Adjunct compensation will be adjusted in accordance to percentage increases for overload compensation.

7.3.2.2  Overload Compensation

All overload IUs will be paid at the following rates:

Non-tenure faculty $750.00 per IU
Tenure faculty $800.00 per IU
Tenure 10+years at Casper College $850.00 per IU

The college pays overload compensation to faculty who provide services in excess of 30 IUs. The college pays fall semester overload compensation in February and spring semester overload compensation in May. Faculty may choose to teach a decreased teaching load in the spring in lieu of discretionary compensation. Overload compensation will be adjusted in accordance to percentage increases in the faculty salary schedule.

7.3.2.3   Summer Advising

The summer advising rate is $25.00 per hour.

7.3.3  Independent Study/Low Enrollment Class Compensation 

A course delivered by a faculty member to a small number of students with a delivery method and schedule to be determined.  Independent study is typically offered in one or more of the following circumstances:

1. There are no other sections of the course offered;
2. Special interest generated by a student that is not found in the catalog;
3. There are not alternative courses for the completion of the defined program of study listed in the catalog; and
4. ​The faculty member and Dean determine it essential that the course be made available to the student, and the faculty member is willing to become a mentor.

The college pays faculty who complete an independent study proposal and provide instructional services to an individual student. An Independent Study is not included in the calculation of full-time teaching load. The college pays fall semester independent study compensation in February and spring semester independent study compensation in May. Faculty must submit a completed Independent Study Proposal form to their Dean for submission to HR within the allotted time to receive compensation.