Department Chair Resources
Department Chair’s Calendar, Handbook, and Helpful Links
Summer
- Summer Chairs-2016 Memo-jo-2-29-2016
- Summer Chair SENIOR COLLEGE Template Worksheet
Course Processes and Procedures
The course syllabus
Faculty provide a syllabus for each course during the first class session. The syllabus contains essential information about the course and relevant department policies. Departments maintain for at least two years a file of current syllabi for all classes.
- ​â¶Ä‹ (endorsed by the QC Academic Senate)
- (from the Center for Teaching & Learning)
- Procedures for
Office hours
Full-time faculty: Office hours must be scheduled and maintained by all full-time faculty regularly during the semester. A minimum of an hour a week is required. Additional office hours may be scheduled by appointment.
Adjunct faculty: ​Adjunct faculty who are paid the seventh professional hour must maintain some office hours, as indicated in this
Credit hours
- (at least 15 hours of instruction and at least 30 hours of supplementary assignments)
- ​ (no. 6, item A, p. 3)
- (from the CUNY Registrar)
- Credit hour requirements also apply during intersession and summer session
Missed Classes
All planned absences for legitimate professional or personal reasons must be approved in advance by the department chairperson or program director. In such cases, the instructor is responsible for arranging for a makeup class or alternative instructional activities. When an illness or unforeseen emergency results in the cancellation of a class, the instructor should notify the chairperson as soon as possible and arrange for notices to be posted informing students of the cancellation. In the event of an extended absence of the instructor, the chairperson is responsible for arranging for continuing instruction in the course.
Final examinations
​â¶Ä‹Final examinations and records of midterm grades and other course work for all students must be kept on file in the department office; see guidelines on of selected academic records.
- CUNY
- CUNY
- ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµ policy on
³Ò°ù²¹»å¾±²Ô²µâ€‹
Final grades are submitted to the Registrar within two weeks of the last day of final examinations in the Fall semester, and within one week of the last day of final examinations in the Spring semester.
- ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµ policies on:
- CUNY
- CUNY (December 2016)
- Grade appeals:
- CUNY policy on of academic records
-
Other ​policies
- Student Privacy: , the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Information for Students
- e-Permit:
- Faculty conduct:
- Grade appeals:
- International students with full-time enrollment:
- Privacy: , the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
- Transfer:
See also:
Courses: Final Exam Guidelines
Guidelines Regarding Final Examinations
These guidelines were developed to help chairpersons make decisions about which courses may be exempted from having a final examination during the fifteenth week of the semester, and to make the process for these decisions more transparent for faculty. While the guidelines may appear to be restrictive, they are necessary for clarity, uniformity, and accountability.
Background
In accordance with long-standing practice and the support of a sizable portion of the faculty, it is generally agreed that a final examination supports the maintenance of academic standards and is sound academic policy.
According to theÌý, a “semester hour means a credit, point, or other unit granted for the satisfactory completion of a course which requires at least 15 hours (of 50 minutes each) of instruction and at least 30 hours of supplementary assignments (…). This basic measure shallÌýbe adjusted proportionately to translate the value of other academic calendars and formats of study in relation to the credit granted for study during the two semesters thatÌýcomprise an academic year.” This definition was .Ìý(Credit hourÌýrequirements also apply during Intersession and Summer Session.)
The academic calendar at ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµ calls for a fourteen-week term, with the fifteenth week reserved for final examinations. The fifteenth week is provided to give students time to prepare for final examinations without conflicting with other course commitments. If one class has an examination in the fourteenth week, while classes are still in session, students often feel the need to “cut†their other courses so they can prepare for the fourteenth-week examination. Clearly the lack of standardization is a hardship for some students and creates inequitable conditions.
Recommended Practices
1. It is good academic practice to conclude a course with a formal final examination, or the last in a series of shorter examinations. These examinations should be given during the fifteenth week of the semester.
2. There are courses for which reasonable alternatives to final examinations exist. Such courses might include seminars, studio and performance courses, certain laboratory courses, student teaching, etc. All such courses should, however, include appropriate summative evaluation activities.
3. Classroom examinations given during the first fourteen weeks of the semester do not satisfy the requirement for a final examination or an alternative summative evaluation.
4. Whenever possible, summative evaluation activities should take place during the fifteenth week of the semester.
5. Waivers from the requirement for a formal final examination during the fifteenth week of the semester must be obtained from the department chairperson, who will judge the appropriateness of:
- an alternative to a formal final examination, such as a take-home examination, which is distributed and returned during the fifteenth week;
- an alternate summative evaluation, such as a final term paper submitted and graded during the fifteenth week, or a juried trial in art studio performed during the fifteenth week of the semester; or
- activities in special courses before the fifteenth week of the semester, such as extra field trips and reports or extra assignments and conferences with students.
At the end of the thirteenth week, the chairperson should submit a list of exempted courses and the reasons for such exemption to the appropriate Divisional Dean.
6. Final exams should be scheduled on the time and day designated by the Registrar. ÌýThe final exam schedule is published in the CUNYfirst schedule of classes, typically early in the semester. Students should be encouraged to check the final exam schedule as early in the semester as possible, so they can report any conflicts (e.g., two exams scheduled for the same time) to their instructor, who will determine the best way of resolving the conflict in consultation with the chair.
7. It is a violation of the Ìýfor a student to allow another person to take an examination in his or her place. Instructors must develop processes for verifying the identity of students taking final examinations, be these examinations in person or online, and must make these processes known to students (by describing them on the course syllabus and discussing them in class). Verifying student identity is obviously much more complex for online courses, so these may require multiple approaches, including the following:
- Use a CUNY or a QC system requiring a secure login to collect all assignments, including the final examination. Blackboard, for example, uses IDs and passwords to invoke an authentication triangulated against name, date of birth, and social security number. (These are inaccessible but generate a unique access number which is what users invoke to gain access to the system.) This secure login is a student’s only means of access to Blackboard.
- Use the features of online learning management systems to track students’ interactions with online exams or other materials. ÌýThese systems sometimes allow instructors to track students’ interactions by time and duration, by part of the site, even if there is no posting by the student.
- Use software such as SafeAssign to check for evidence of plagiarism.
- Include in-person (proctored) in addition to online (unproctored) examinations, and check for evidence of lack of correspondence between student performance in in-person versus online examinations.
- Supplement all mechanical means of verifying student identity with activities that involve spontaneous interactions between students and the instructor, including discussion boards, blogs, wikis, asynchronous and synchronous conferencing (including voice and video), etc.
8. The preceding guidelines apply to all courses, regardless of . ÌýSome specifics for web-enhanced, partially online, hybrid, online, and fully-online courses:
- Finals administered online should be scheduled during the fifteenth week of classes.
- If there will be no final (online or in person) during the fifteenth week of a web-enhanced, partially online, hybrid, online, or fully online course, the instructor should seek a waiver from the requirement for a formal final examination during the fifteenth week.
- Web-enhanced, partially online, hybrid, online, and fully online courses should specify in the syllabus the mode of administration of all assignments, including the final examination.
- Fully online courses are by definition 100% online, and therefore must not have an in-person final.
CUNY Policies
- : specifies the procedures faculty follow when encountering potential cases of academic dishonesty
- : form to be used by faculty at QC to report potential cases of academic dishonesty; completed form should be submitted accompanied by related documentation or evidence, should such exist
- : comprehensive listing of policies and procedures on information technologyÌýsecurity, use and access, file sharing, and breach reporting
- : From CUNY Computing and Information Services (CUNY CIS), this pageÌýlinks toÌýinformation and support regarding information security, including access to an online security awareness course
- : This website has comprehensive resources regarding copyright, fair use, the TEACH Act, etc.
​Copyright Infringement and File Sharing
- Ìýprepared by the Council of Chief Librarians’ Copyright Task Force
- Ìýpermissions chart
- : This policy governs intellectual property issues for the entire CUNY community, and provides guidance regarding the ownership of online courses (see section III.B.4)
- : This office provides information and support regarding intellectual property, patents, copyrights, and trademarks
Ethics
- ​
- Ìý(earlier version of document, )
- Required Forms:Ìý Day trips (trips without overnight stay)Ìýwithin the five NYC boroughs that require only use of public transportation, or private or publicly-accessible transportation alternatives for students with disabilities, and do not involve high-risk activites, don’t require these forms; the CUNY Office of Student Affairs recommends as a best practice that students participating in these trips sign the Off Campus Activity Participation Waiver and Emergency Contact Form prior to the trip
- Ìý(must be signed by Provost for academic tripsÌýand by VP of Student Affairs for student club trips)
- Ìý(must be completed by all students prior to travel)
- CUNY website onÌý
Curricular Processes
New academic programs or courses:
- Instructions from the ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµÌý
- Ìýfor a Streamlined Approval Process for a Certificate Program that is a Subset of a Registered Program – from CUNY Central
- Ìýfor preparing new graduate certificate programs and an excellentÌýÌý(thanks to the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies)
- ÌýandÌý
- State Education Department rules onÌý
- New York StateÌýÌýat ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµâ€‹
- Ìý
- Course and Curriculum Approval ProcessÌýin Education Unit
- State Education Department guidelines related to
Faculty
- For Adjuncts: Teaching and Non-Teaching please see information under section “Adjunct Faculty”
Workload
- Policy on over multiple academic years
Instructional Start-End Dates
Adjunct Faculty
- Adjunct Multi-Year Appointment:
- CUNY Rights and BenefitsÌý
- Adjunct instructional staff policy on
The Workload Form will open in EXPLORER.Ìý To open in Chrome or Firefox:
To open the forms in Chrome or Firefox please follow these steps:
-
- Right click on link
- Save link as
- Save in your computer directory
- Open file from your directory in Adobe Acrobat
- Duties of
- Ìý
- Adjunct Overload REQUEST Template
- OBTAIN WRITTEN EMAIL APPROVAL FROM THE PROVOST PRIOR TO ENTERING DATA ON THE OVERLOAD REQUEST TEMPLATE
- ​
- ​
Non Teaching Adjuncts
Faculty Appointments and Waivers
´¡±è±è´Ç¾±²Ô³Ù³¾â€‹e²Ô³Ù²õ
Distinguished Professor
- (November 19, 2010)
- Ìý (Nomination Process)
- for distinguished professor candidates
- ÌýÌý
ProfessorÌýEmeritus/Emerita
Substitute Appointments
Hiring
Distinguished Lecturer or Clinical Professor
If the request is to hire without a search, the following required documents should be forwarded to QC OCDP prior to extending the offer to the candidate:
- letter of justification for the waiver request (include effective appointment date and salary)
- position description
- current CV
- copy of the job posting
- current CV
- letter from the President addressedÌýto CUNY Central OHRM requesting approval (include effective appointment date and salary)
Hiring, Waivers, Equivalencies, Immediate Tenure, Salary Differential
For template offer, start up and other letters, please refer to “Guides and Templates” in the ResourcesÌýdropdown menu above.
For policy onÌýreimbursing employee relocation and moving costs, see “CUNY Policies”
Resignation Process
​â¶Ä‹
Faculty and Leadership Development Sessions
Fall 2019
Click for all teaching related professional development opportunities.
for these events. Light refreshments will be served.
—

SEPTEMBER
16 Event Cancelled.
25 Course Scheduling – Tools & Tips. Open to all Department Chairs/Leaders [3:00 to 5:00 p.m.]
Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
—
OCTOBER
11 Pathways to Professorship. Open to all Associate Professors [10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
22 NSF Ten Big Idea. Open to all faculty [3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] The Summit (Flex Space)
23 Budget 101 – College Budget. Open to all Department Chairs/Leaders [3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
—
NOVEMBER
8 Preparing for CCE. Open to all Lecturers [10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
14 Applying for PSC-CUNY Grants. Open to all faculty
[3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] The Summit (Flex Space)
20 Budget 102 – How to Prepare your Departmental Budget. Open to all Department Chairs/Leaders
[3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
—
DECEMBER
3 Pivot and GrantForward: Best Practices for Funding. [3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] Rosenthal Library Room 227
4 Difficult Conversations: Managing Conflict
Open to all Department Chairs/Deans/Leaders [3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
16 Tenure & Promotion. Open to all Assistant Professors
[3:00 to 5:00 p.m.] Q-Side Lounge (Dining Hall)
Helpful Guides and Templates
Useful Contacts and Webpages
Personnel File Maintenance
At-A-Glance Guide for Searches
Template Letters
- Tenure
- Offer
- ​
- Startup with Relocation
- Startup No Relocation
At-A-Glance Guide for Submitting ePAFs
Evaluation and Review
Hiring
The Hiring Budget Justification form has been replaced with the Vacancy Review Board template. For actions funded by tax levy budgets, the completed template should be submitted to your respective dean or division head for approval. Once approved, the template will be submitted to M. Watch, Office of the Provost, for inclusion on the QC Budget Review Committee meeting agenda. For requests supported by RF funds, submit the completed template to Poline Papoulis, ORSP, to confirm budget availability. ORSP will forward the template to M. Watch for inclusion on the QC Budget Review Committee meeting agenda. Approved requests will be submitted to the Central Office Vacancy Review Board for review and final approval. Deans and division heads will be notified when disposition is received.
Please review the Chancellor’s memo and relevant documents below. ​
At-A-Glance Guide for Searches
Interdisciplinary Programs, Centers, and Institutes
New Centers
Multiple Positions
Full-Time Instructional Staff Multiple Positions Policy and ​Reporting
http://bit.ly/qcmpfall2020
(deadline November 16)
http://bit.ly/mpspring2021
(deadline January 22)- If you have difficulties with the link:
- Open browser window in incognito/private mode (Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+N; Safari: Command+Shift+N; Explorer, Firefox: Ctrl+Shift+P)
- Paste the form’s link in that window.
- Enter your short-form email when prompted (e.g., jsmith@qc.cuny.edu)
Both New York State law and long-standing University policy mandate disclosure by faculty, as public employees, of certain information related to the performance of their duties and responsibilities as full-time members of the faculty. The Policy and requirements are described more fully in documents provided at the bottom of this page.
While full disclosure is required of all compensated and uncompensated activities beyond a faculty member’s regular full-time assignment, faculty need not report incidental uncompensated activities related to your membership in academic, political, religious, social, cultural, or charitable organizations, provided such activities do not require a significant commitment of time or otherwise constitute a conflict of interest with responsibilities at CUNY, or interfere with professional standing.
Faculty who plan to take on activities covered by this policy must first report the plan to their department Chair and have the plan approved by the College. Should the College learn that an individual is engaging in activities that fall under the Statement of Policy on Multiple Position without having obtained the College’s approval, appropriate action will be taken.
Departmental P&Bs and Chairs are required to conduct a thorough review of any outside activities, compensated or uncompensated, and the Chair must determine the amount of time the faculty member may expend on the activity, subject to review by the President. In no event may the amount of time spent on such outside employment, consultative work or other work exceed an average of one day per week (seven hours) or its equivalent during the academic year. Reference to this cap does not mean that authorization of this amount of time is required.
A Multiple Position Report form must be completed each fall and spring semester. The form requests information on outside employment, consultative work, overload for teaching and non-teaching assignments, or other work whether compensated or uncompensated. This required information includes grants not administered by the CUNY Research Foundation (RF) or the ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµ Foundation. Faculty must file an updated form if commitments change during the semester.
- ​Outside work cannot exceed 1 day (7 hours per week) or its equivalent during the academic year.
- Buyouts on grants administered by RF CUNY do not need to be reported, since RF has its own effort reporting processes.
- All full-time faculty must submit the fall and spring forms, even while on leave.
If you have any questions regarding the policy or need further clarification on any of its components, please call the Office of the General Counsel at (718) 997-5725.
Documents
Full-​Time Fa​culty​
Summ​er Tax Levy Research​
​±á·¡°¿â€‹â¶Ä‹s, CLTs,​â¶Ä‹ Research Associates, and Research Assistants
Adjun​â¶Ä‹ct Faculty
Notices & Calendars
- ºì¶¹ÊÓÆµ Campus Calendar
- Calendar of
- Important dates on for academic departments
- for faculty leaves and scholar incentive awards
INSTRUCTIONAL START END DATES
- (10-6-2020 Memo from Central)
TENURE AND PROMOTION SCHEDULE
ACADEMIC DEANS’ AND DEAN’S COUNCIL MEETINGS
ACADEMIC SENATE MEETINGS 2020-2021
- September 10
- October 8
- November 12
- December 10
-
- The final exam schedule and important Registrar dates and deadlines can be found on the Registrar website: here.
Research Foundation and Grant Information
CUNY and the RF have established guidelines consistent with Federal and State regulations regarding allowable compensation, including stipends, paid to faculty and staff from sponsored projects.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has revised the purchasing requirements. These changes are effective July 1, 2016:
Faculty Scholarship and Grant Information
Research and Compliance
