FP 102 Revision Highlights

Revision: Workload Domain Framework

2019 Policy: Teaching, Service, and Scholarship

2025 Revised Policy: Teaching, Service, Thought Leadership, Academic Administration

Faculty Benefits: Acknowledges broader faculty contributions and aligns with FP104 promotion criteria

Revision: Workload Allocation by Track

2019 Policy: No standardized track-based load

2025 Revised Policy: Specific allocations for Teaching, Professional Practice, and Tenure Tracks

Faculty Benefits: Clarifies expectations and allows tailored workload discussions

Revision: Total Annual Workload

2019 Policy: Implicit expectations

2025 Revised Policy: Explicit workload units: 10-month = 27 SH / 11-month = 33 SH / 12-month = 36 SH

Faculty Benefits: Greater transparency and consistency

Revision: Thought Leadership Load

2019 Policy: Bound to tenure-track faculty and allocates 3 shs for tenure-track faculty engaging thought leadership

2025 Revised Policy: Broadened to be inclusive of all tracks—although only Tenure track and Professional Practice track faculty are required to engage in thought leadership activities. Teaching track faculty can request workload time to engage in thought leadership activities. Each academic year Tenure track faculty allocate 3 SHs/5 QHs for thought leadership engagement and Professional Practice faculty allocate 0-3 SHs/0-5 QHs, to be negotiated with supervisor (Chair/Director/Dean/Academic Head)

Faculty Benefits: Recognizes and guides thought leadership work for all tracks

Revision: Thought Leadership Load Allocation Guidance

2019 Policy: No formal guidance

2025 Revised Policy: In the procedure section of the policy, the Thought Leadership Load Allocation Guidance provides guidance for faculty and administrators to allocate thought leadership load based on proposed thought leadership activities

Faculty Benefits: Clarifies and standardizes an approach to allocating thought leadership load for faculty members

Revision: Term Overload Definition

2019 Policy: No formal guidance 

2025 Revised Policy: Defines overload as more than 9 SHs/15 QHs of workload in a term. Workload in a term above 9 SHs/15 QHs can be compensated as overload or carried to the next term

Faculty Benefits: Clear, consistent definition of overload. Overload = more than 9 SHs/15 QHs of workload in a term. 

Revision: Overload Limits

2019 Policy: Guides only teaching overload; cap = 6 SHs or 10 QHs per term

2025 Revised Policy: Guides teaching and non-teaching overload. Max 9 SHs or 15 QHs per term for all overload—inclusive of teaching and non-teaching

Faculty Benefits: Protects work/life balance and instructional quality

Revision: Summer Contracts

2019 Policy: 1/12 or 1/6 salary options; basic definitions

2025 Revised Policy: More detailed guidance on eligible duties, load thresholds, and compensation (See FAQ for details)

Faculty Benefits: Clearer expectations for compensation and planning

Revision: Defining Faculty with Administrative Load

2019 Policy: No standardized definition of Faculty with Administrative Load

2025 Policy: Definition of Faculty with Administrative Load, including a minimum threshold of teaching load per academic year. Additionally, the policy defines Administrative Staff as staff employees with academic administration responsibilities and no teaching workload. 

Faculty Benefit: Defines and differentiates employees with administrative responsibilities and sets a minimum number of teaching hours for Faculty with Administrative Load. 

Revision: Administrative Load Allocation

2019 Policy: Narrative description only

2025 Revised Policy: Detailed workload tables for Chairs and Coordinators

Faculty Benefits: Increases fairness and equity in admin role recognition

Revision: Course Enrollment Cap and Over-Enrollment Stipends

2019 Policy: No formal guidance

2025 Revised Policy: Guidelines for enrollment caps and over-enrollment stipends

Faculty Benefits: Ensures instructional capacity is balanced with fair compensation

Revision: Table Guiding Service Activities to Workload

2019: No standardized guidance on service activities and workload hours. 

2025: The FP102 task force is currently working on the table and will add it to the draft policy in October 2025. It is currently not complete. 

Faculty Benefit: Provides standardized workload guidance for recurring service activities to increase consistency and equity. 

Revision: Workload Planning Tool

2019 Policy: Not referenced

2025 Revised Policy: Annual workload planning and approval process formalized

Faculty Benefits: Supports proactive faculty-supervisor collaboration

Policy Launch: January 2026

Faculty Workload Planning: May–June 2026

Policy Operational: July 1, 2026 (affecting Summer 2026 forward)

The following implementation plan will guide the Winter and Fall 2026 terms. The main activity that will be impacted by FP102 in the near future is AY2026-27 load planning, which all faculty will engage in May and June 2026. The table below details the actions for each upcoming term. Any process changes related to FP102-guided processes are detailed in the Process Changes column of the table. Note: the only pending process change is that the revised version of FP102 will guide load planning. 

Additionally, FP102 will not be operational until July 1, 2026. The current version of FP102 will continue to guide workload through the remainder of AY2025-26. 

If you have questions, please contact Provosts.Office@nl.edu

January 2026 — Policy Launch

Email Announcement: Notify all full-time faculty and academic leaders that the revised FP 102 Workload Policy is now active. Include link to the FP 102 Revisions Webpage and summary of upcoming phases.

February–June 2026 — Workload Tool 

Faculty Management System Charter: Concurrently, the University will review and select a vendor partner for a Faculty Management System. You can find the charter for that work here. There are interdependencies in the two workstreams. 

The Faculty Management Core Team will conduct the following objectives: 

• Evaluate Existing Tool: Assess whether the current Workload Tool can be updated to support ongoing management of workload, overload, and summer contracts.
• Tool Selection and Implementation: Develop a recommendation, plan, and timeline to adopt a new tool or update the existing Workload Tool, ensuring the operationalization of workload terms on a term-by-term basis. 

April–May 2026 — Faculty Engagement and Preparation

College Meeting Visits: Attend college and department meetings to address faculty questions about workload categories, planning expectations, and the tool's usage.

Planning Guidance: Update FP102 Revision webpage with short guides or FAQs to support faculty with load planning under the new policy.

May–June 2026 — Workload Planning

Faculty Load Entry: Faculty submit their workload plans using the current tool. Administration is aware that the tool has limitations and cannot account for revisions of FP102. The Faculty Management System core team is exploring options for the future and will communicate progress via Faculty Senate meetings.

Chair Review: Department Chairs review and approve submitted plans, ensuring clarity and equity.

Support: Provide assistance to faculty and Chairs during the load entry process.

July–September 2026 — Full Operationalization

Policy in Effect: FP 102 governs all faculty workload decisions, including base load, overload, and summer contracts.

Ongoing Management: Current Workload Tool (WLP) and processes used throughout the year for workload adjustments and approvals.

AY2026-27 — Workload Planning Tool

The Faculty Management System core team will make a recommendation in June 2026, and the Provost's Office will release a plan to implement the recommendation during the Fall of the 2026-27 Academic Year.

If the revised policy is approved by the Board of Trustees at their December 2025 meeting, the revised FP 102 Workload Policy goes into effect January 1, 2026, and they will begin using the policy to guide workload planning for Academic Year 2026–27.

Your required annual workload is based on your appointment length:

• 10-month appointment: 27 semester hours (SHs) / 45 quarter hours (QHs)
  
• 11-month appointment: 33 SHs / 55 QHs
  
• 12-month appointment: 36 SHs / 60 QHs
  

This workload is distributed across the academic terms you work, including teaching and other approved domains (e.g., service, thought leadership, academic administration).

Workload is allocated across up to four domains:

• Teaching: Includes instruction, advising, and course-related work.
  
• Service: Includes committee work, governance, and community engagement.
  
• Thought Leadership: Includes research, publications, conference presentations, and grant work.
  
• Academic Administration: Includes roles such as Program Chair, Coordinator, or project leadership.
  

The track (Teaching, Professional Practice, or Tenure) determines how much of your load can be allocated to each domain.

Each spring/summer, faculty will use the Workload Planning Tool to propose their annual workload allocation. The proposed plan will be reviewed and approved by your Academic Unit Leader by June 30 each year.

• If you exceed 9 SHs/15 QHs in a term, you are considered “load heavy,” and the excess may qualify as overload or be carried into the next term.
  
• If you are below 9 SHs/15 QHs, you are considered “load light” but must fulfill your full annual base workload by year’s end.
• Overload is only compensated after the term expectation is met (9 SHs/15 QHs), and overload must be within policy caps—9 SHs/15 QHs.

Faculty may not exceed 9 SHs/15 QHs of total overload per term. Additionally:

• No more than 6 SHs/10 QHs may be from either teaching or non-teaching overload.
  
• Exceptions require Academic Unit Leader approval.

The term “thought leadership” in the revised FP 102 policy replaces and broadens the former use of the term “scholarship.” While both refer to intellectual contributions made by faculty, there are key differences:

Why the change?

• The new term reflects a more inclusive and flexible approach to faculty contributions.
  
• It aligns better with NLU’s mission and values — particularly equity, innovation, and community impact.
  

It also ensures that impactful work by faculty—whether academic, applied, or public-facing—is appropriately recognized and supported in workload planning.

Academic administration roles have standardized workload allocations based on the scope and complexity of responsibilities (e.g., number of students, programs, or faculty supervised). Use the Administrative Load Tables in the policy to determine release time.

Summer contracts fall into two categories:

• 1/12 contract (part-time summer work)
  Teach 3 SH/5 QH and perform additional duties totaling 1–3 SHs, or perform non-teaching duties totaling 4–6 SHs.
  
• 1/6 contract (full-time summer work)
  Teach 6 SHs/10 QHs and perform 1–3 SHs of additional duties, or perform non-teaching duties totaling 7–9 SHs.

A list of acceptable additional duties and non-teaching duties appears in the Procedure section of the revised policy. 

All other summer work and any work beyond these thresholds is compensated at the full-time faculty overload rate.

• Course by Arrangement (CBA) is not eligible for load and is paid by stipend only, unless it was part of your approved annual workload plan submitted before June 30.

Yes—courses with 5 or more students may count toward your workload if approved by your Academic Unit Leader. Final enrollment is determined after add/drop.

If your course enrollment exceeds the published cap, you may receive a stipend (not overload pay). Overenrollment stipends are calculated after add/drop, and the rate is published in the FLAC (Faculty Load and Compensation) rate sheet. The overenrollment stipend pay rate is a per-student rate and is determined as follows: the FLAC credit hour compensation for the course divided by the default doctorate cap. This rate will freeze when it reaches $250 per student. Once the freeze is reached, the University will review the rate and its logic. For the 2025–2026 year, that rate would be $189 per student for a 3 SHs and 5 QHs course, which was calculated by dividing $3402 by the doctoral cap, which is 18 students.

Yes. If your responsibilities shift during the academic year (e.g., new service or admin duties), your workload allocation can be revised in the Workload Planning Tool with supervisor approval.

The revised policy:

• Supports personalized workload plans aligned with faculty strengths
  
• Recognizes non-teaching contributions (e.g., research, service, admin)
  
• Provides transparent overload compensation and administrative load equity
  

Enables custom allocation by track (Teaching, Professional Practice, Tenure)

The table of estimated times was developed by a working group of faculty and administrators over AY 2024-25. The group reviewed NLU practices for thought leadership load assignment and carried out a review of research on faculty scholarship load. The research base called for the importance of a) creating transparent and time-based workload allocation for scholarly tasks and b) ensuring that all stages of scholarship work are reflected in time allocations as faculty work towards the outcomes of publications, presentations, and public scholarship. Please see the reference list here: Reference List (six studies)

The time estimates were drawn from the reported results of a large-scale survey study and then revised and expanded as needed through discussion by the working group.