Faculty Handbooks
UAS maintains two types of faculty handbooks – one for full-time faculty and one for part-time, adjunct faculty. These documents provide faculty with the resources necessary to be successful in their roles as at UAS. Everything in the handbooks arises from University of Alaska Board of Regents policies and regulations, UAS policies, and faculty collective bargaining agreements. The handbooks also reflect priorities set out in the UAS Strategic & Assessment Plan 2013-2019.
Full-time faculty form the foundation of UAS. Along with providing instruction, they also play important leadership roles in research, service, shared governance, faculty recruitment and evaluation, and much more. The UAS Faculty Handbook is a comprehensive document detailing these importance processes and is intended to be the primary resource for full-time faculty.
Adjunct faculty play a major role in helping UAS achieve its mission. They comprise the majority of instructors at UAS, making possible the wide diversity of subjects and degrees available for learning. As part-time employees, they have different needs and priorities than other faculty. The UAS Adjunct Handbook reflects this difference. It contains important contact information for questions about instruction, instructional technology, administrative procedures, and more.
Other important materials regarding University planning and governance reside within UAS websites such as the Provost's Office, the Chancellor's Office, and the Faculty Senate website. Faculty are encouraged to visit these websites to be apprised of strategic planning, budget issues, and other matters of importance.
Updates*
The UAS faculty handbooks are reviewed and updated annually. The full-time Faculty Handbook is updated by an ad hoc working group created by the Faculty Senate President and Provost. This group’s recommended changes are forwarded to Faculty Senate for action no later than their regular May meeting. Once approved by the Chancellor, the resulting final handbook is posted on the Web.
The Adjunct Faculty Handbook is updated by the Provost’s Office, in collaboration with the Adjunct Faculty Union President.
Faculty Related Forms
Forms are provided in PDF format unless specifically stated otherwise.
Faculty Forms
- Academic Petitions
- Change of Grade [Revised 2019 - form is now available from the Registrar]
- Credit for Prior Learning (Guidelines & Portfolio Worksheet)
- Course Change Form
- Course Completion Contract
- Graduate Faculty Application
- Permission to Release Information on Student Ratings
- Request for Challenging a Course
- Secondary Student and Parent/Guardian Agreement
- Special Course Contract
- Title IX information for Outside Agencies
- Academic Course Substitution
- UNAC Workload template link (MS Word version preferred)
- Proposed Course Offering
Curriculum Committee Forms
NOTICE: The new CourseLeaf Content Inventory Management (CIM) system is active. Please visit the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee page.
Faculty Professional Development
The University of Alaska strives to provide its faculty members with the resources necessary to develop as educators and further their academic careers. The documents below provide information regarding some of the resources available to faculty through UAS and the UA system.
Training:
- Digital Fellows Training
- Visit the Title IX webpage
- Title IX Training Instructions
- Kognito Trainings: Recognize and Identify Students at Risk
Teaching:
- Monday Morning Mentor series (emailed to faculty group list each Monday)
- Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT)
- News Engagement Day (NED)
Financial Support:
Technology Support:
Faculty Evaluation
University Board of Regents policies and regulations, UAS policies, and faculty collective bargaining agreements provide that faculty performance be evaluated regularly. Different evaluation processes are in place for tenure-track, tenured, term, and adjunct faculty.
Tenure-Track & Tenured Faculty
Evaluation of full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty at the University of Alaska is governed by faculty union collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). Beginning in May 2018, all UAS tenured and tenure track faculty belong to United Academics.
In addition to the faculty collective bargaining agreements, the UAS Faculty Handbook is an important resource on the evaluation processes, how faculty should prepare for promotion, tenure, and post-tenure reviews, and guidelines on evaluating faculty performance in teaching, service, and research. Below is a link to the checklist fo file preparation.
The Provost’s Office provides administrative support to the various faculty evaluation processes, including maintaining tenure-track and tenured faculty review master tracking sheets that summarize when faculty are up for comprehensive evaluation reviews and evaluation planners that succinctly depict the milestones of each evaluation process.
- Faculty up for Review AY 2020
- UNAC United Academics Master Tracking Sheet AY 2021 - Please report any updates the Provost's Office
- Revised UNAC Faculty Evaluations Schedule and UNAC MOA revising evaluation dates.
For more information contact the Academic and Faculty Services Coordinator at (907) 796-6147.
Term Faculty
Term faculty (non-tenure track) faculty in the United Academics bargaining unit are subject to annual evaluation by the dean or director based on their annual activity report under section 9.2.7.a. of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the UAS faculty handbook. Section 9.2.7.b. of the CBA outlines the requirements and process for term faculty to be evaluated for promotion. These evaluations serve an important role in ensuring that UAS meets accreditation standards and its mission.
Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct self-assessment is part of UAS’ overall effort to provide constructive and timely feedback to adjuncts, focusing on continuous improvement of instruction. It is an important part of improving the quality of UAS’ teaching and learning—key to accreditation and student success. While voluntary, adjunct instructors are encouraged to complete an annual adjunct faculty self-assessment form prior to the end of their current teaching year. The completed self-assessments are subsequently reviewed by the appropriate program coordinator or department chair that then provides a response to the adjunct instructor.
FACULTY CONTRACT CALENDAR
The Faculty Contract Calendar is a foundational planning tool used to set the times for critical recurring events that are fundamental to our institution including faculty contract start/end dates, semester start/end dates, finals weeks, holidays and campus closures, spring break, convocations, commencements, etc. They are the structure upon which academic calendars are built. Faculty Contract Calendars are designed specifically to ensure UAS meets its accreditation and faculty collective bargaining agreement obligations, and to maximize student success. They are developed using the UA common calendar and approved via a shared governance process and posted on the Web years in advance in order to optimize institution-wide planning. These documents are maintained by the Provost’s Office.
UA COMMON CALENDAR
CURRENT CALENDARS