For Faculty

Faculty Responsibilities During Summer School

The responsibilities of faculty members employed during Summer School begin on the first day of classes.Faculty members must be present for final examinations and remain accessible to students until the grades are submitted within 72 hours after the final exam..

A faculty member can add an independent study or a directed readings course in summer in accordance with the respective unit’s or College’s guidelines for those courses. Faculty members are expected to file grades for those courses in ConnectCarolina at the end of each session.

Teaching Contract

All instructors in summer must submit a signed copy of the contract letter to Summer School prior to the first day of their class. Expectations, session dates, and payroll information are included.

Travel waivers and Fees

Faculty who leave campus whether for the day or overnight to provide field or other experiential learning in conjunction with their classes must have students sign travel waivers. Those waivers should be kept by the faculty member or within the department. Templates approved by University Counsel can be found online here depending on whether the travel is required or voluntary, a day trip or an overnight trip. Faculty can fill in the appropriate information for their courses and trip locations.

If the travel is more than one day and requires a fee to cover costs, check with your Summer Administrator about a budget that is submitted to Summer School. Any fee should be noted in the course description on the Summer School website. Summer School will provide information on fee collection and relevant procedures.

Promoting Your Course

Faculty are in the best position to promote the specific content of their courses. While Summer School promotes broadly through campus media, faculty can produce flyers for posting in their unit’s building or have electronic flyers or even videos attached to their course description on Summer School’s website; develop communication to be shared through unit listservs to students; tell students in their spring classes what they will teach in summer; and ensure their unit has a link from the unit website to summer course offerings.

Office Hours

Faculty members are expected to hold office hours, provide syllabi, and perform other teaching-related duties in summer just as in the academic year. Faculty should consult their unit’s Summer School Administrator for any questions regarding how many office hours, etc., are appropriate in summer and where to send summer syllabi for unit archives.

Grades

Grades for all courses, including independent studies and directed readings as well as dissertation and thesis credit, must be posted for each course each session and in ConnectCarolina within 72 hours of the final exam. If a post-baccalaureate student is taking your course to satisfy pre-requisites for a graduate program and your course is below 400-level, a graduate level grade will need to be submitted. However, this will need to be updated per student’s request for an undergraduate grade. In this case, a post-semester registration/drop/add/form will need to be filled out to replace the graduate level grade submitted to an undergraduate level grade. Once the form is filled out by department and instructor the form will need to be forwarded to the appropriate Dean’s office for signature and will be sent to the Registrar’s office.

Support

Faculty can find a variety of support, including workshops and printed and online materials, from the Center for Faculty Excellence.

Course Cancellation

Because Summer School is receipts-based, tuition from enrollments is used to pay instructor salaries. Generally, a course with fewer than 10 students will be canceled. Faculty would be notified one week before the start of classes if the course is to be canceled after consultation with the faculty member, unit Summer School Administrator/chair/dean, and Summer School. Faculty who are concerned about course cancelation should contact their unit’s Summer Administrator.

Things to Know About Students

Students in any class should be registered. Do not accept excuses for not being registered. Faculty should check enrollment the first day because of the short time period to add a class. Some students might wait until the first graded assignment to determine their grade potential, and then seek a retroactive add. A student’s registration status can be checked anytime online.  Students who are not registered are not allowed to attend class unless they have permission to audit.  See below for audit procedures.

Visiting Students

Students may add a course up to the second class day in a session and only the first day in Maymester. Visiting students in particular might not obtain textbooks or learn about computer access for library reference, Sakai, email, etc., until the first or second day of class.

Drop/Add and Withdrawals

Procedures regarding drop/add, withdrawal, and grading in Summer School correspond to those in the fall or spring terms. Deadline dates are proportional to the length of the session. Students need to make load reduction decisions prior to the Deadlines to Cancel, Drop or Withdraw calendar.

Audit

Auditing of courses is permitted only in lecture-based courses and never in courses that include laboratories or performances. Auditing is not permitted in courses that focus on the development of written or oral communication skills or that rely heavily on class participation. Auditing is not permitted in independent studies courses, internships, special topics, directed readings, or similar courses. Auditing is not permitted in classes that are offered primarily as online classes. High school seniors are not eligible to audit courses. For information on the process for auditing, go to https://registrar.unc.edu/guide/registration-policies/auditing-a-course/.

Pass/Fail

By action of the Faculty Council, students cannot opt for Pass/Fail grading in summer courses, except when courses are regularly offered only on a Pass/Fail basis.

University Policies

All the usual academic policies hold in the summer term. See ‘University Policies’ on our website and also refer to the Undergraduate Catalog at http://catalog.unc.edu/.

Honor Code

The Honor Code of the Instrument of Judicial Governance is in effect during the summer. Information can be found at honor.unc.edu. Faculty should be sure to include in their syllabi information about Honor at Carolina and expectations of UNC-Chapel Hill and summer visiting students.