August 27, 2009

Dear Faculty:

During the 2008-2009 academic year, Dr. Bigbee worked with the Faculty Council in updating the Office Hours policy.  The Faculty Council met on April 3, 2009 and approved the final policy.  Since we did not update the Faculty Handbook this past year, the new policy was never communicated to the campus.  Please find attached a copy of the updated Office Hours policy.  This should replace section 4.8 Office Hours in the Faculty Handbook.

Policy 4.8 Office Hours

 Each full time, teaching faculty member is expected to keep eight (8) office hours per week during regular semesters and five (5) per week in the summer term.  Office hours are times set aside for faculty members to communicate with students, advisees, and colleagues as well as complete administrative duties.  For classes that meet once per week, it is highly recommended that one of the office hours be scheduled before or after that class on the campus where the class is held.  At least one of these hours shall be scheduled each weekday that faculty have teaching responsibilities unless University commitments off campus prohibit it.  Exceptions must be approved by Department Chairs.  Part-time faculty, or full-time faculty with University obligations other than teaching, will keep a number of office hours proportional to their teaching load.  Faculty teaching online classes may maintain a proportional amount of their required office hours online.  To qualify as an online office hour faculty must be immediately available to their students at a regularly scheduled time. Faculty with reassigned time from teaching provided through a NSU Faculty Research Grant are full-time and, hence, will maintain hours indicated above, but may be authorized to maintain a more flexible weekly schedule.  Once a faculty member has established an office hours schedule for a semester, he/she will send two copies (on cards provided by the Vice President for Academic Affairs) of the schedule to his/her dean who will forward one copy to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  Faculty who are assigned as resident status at Broken Arrow or Muskogee campus will also send one copy of their office hour card to the respective campus academic affairs/administrative office.

Janet E. Bahr
Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs
Northeastern State University