THE BASICS
The information below is for all instructional personnel in the Graduate School of Education. After you review this information, please contact the Dean's office, secretarial staff, or your Program Coordinator if you have questions.
Academic Calendar | Academic Honesty | Adjunct Faculty Appointments | Advising |Blackboard | Book Orders | Cancelling Classes| Classrooms | Copying | Electronic Study Groups | Evaluation of Teaching | Examinations | Grades | Grievance Procedures | Parking and Vehicle Registration | Research involving Human Subjects | Promotion and Tenure | GSE By Laws | Syllabus Preparation | University ID Card and Computer Account | University Ombudsman |
The University Academic Calendar includes a schedule of classes, recesses and academic deadlines.
The faculty's "academic year obligation" is the period, from just before the start of Fall classes through Spring commencement, during which full-time faculty members are required to be available for advising students and addressing other program needs. The Provost notifies the faculty of the specific dates each year.
All members of the University community have the responsibility to maintain and foster a condition and an atmosphere of academic integrity. Specifically, this requires that all classroom, laboratory and written work for which a person claims credit is in fact that person's own work. The annual University Student Handbook publication has detailed information on academic integrity.
See further information on Academic Honesty and Dishonesty at GSE Academic Honesty Procedures and at http://www2.binghamton.edu/grad-school/faculty-and-staff/policy/academic-honesty-policy.html
Adjunct faculty will receive an offer letter from the dean's office prior to the beginning of each appointment. To indicate acceptance of the offer, one copy of the letter needs to be signed and returned to the dean's office. Additional forms must be completed for initial appointees and returned with the offer letter.
Adjunct faculty will receive salary checks every other Wednesday. Arrangements can be made for direct deposit with the Payroll Office or checks can be mailed to the faculty member’s home address or held in their mailbox. Indicate a preference to the secretaries. No one can be placed on the payroll without completing an I-9 form IN PERSON at the Payroll Office (Couper Administration Building, second floor).
The role of faculty with respect to advising students is to:
Faculty in GSE are encouraged to use Blackboard, a web-based course management system. If you are familiar with BlackBoard, you can start building your course by using your BU username and password to log in at Blackboard.
If you are not familiar with BlackBoard, the University Center for Training and Development offers workshops and technical assistance for faculty.
Textbooks for the following semester should be ordered as soon as possible, to allow time to correct errors and increase student access to used books. Book order forms (MSWord, 46.0 KB) should be submitted by email to the University Bookstore at bingtext@bncollege.com with a copy sent to Diane Hinckley at dhinckle@binghamton.edu. Book order also may be submitted to the Bookstore directly (see University Bookstore) but a copy also should be submitted to the Education office for our files.
If it is ever necessary to cancel a class meeting, notify a secretary so a note can be posted on the classroom door.
The University usually cancels classes only in cases of severe weather or other emergencies. Faculty should cancel individual classes only if they or a majority of students cannot reach campus safely. Closings and other updates are available in real time at the BU Alert Line, by registering to receive email from Emergency Alerts, or by calling 607-777-7700.
Other than AB-124 and AB-234, all classrooms are assigned by the Office of the University Registrar. When a faculty member is not familiar with a classroom, it is advisable to visit the assigned room as soon as possible after assignments are made. If there is a problem, please contact one of GSE's secretaries, who will make a formal request for room change.
For information on classroom size, layout, and media, see Educational Communication Center.
Material to be duplicated by office staff should be left in the Dean's Office copy room, AB-133, at least three working days before class.
Use of the copy machines in the offices must be limited to no more than 10 copies. If you have a project that requires more than 10 pages, request copying via a work order in the Dean's Office.
GSE cannot accommodate student copying. If additional copies of student work are requested by faculty, it will be the students' responsibility to copy the material at their own expense. Public copy machines are available throughout the library. Students can also use the University Copy Center, LNG-22, for personal copying.
Faculty who wish to have articles photocopied for student purchase can use the University Copy Center which will copy material and make packets available for student purchase. Request Copy Center duplication via a work order placed with the secretaries.
Faculty should be familiar with the current copyright laws and all requests for duplicated material for classroom use should be within the bounds of the copyright law.
The University policy on the duplication of copyrighted material can be found in the Handbook for Faculty and Professional Staff.
All faculty need ongoing feedback to develop their competence and to derive a sense of satisfaction from their teaching experiences. Faculty are strongly encouraged to regularly gather input from students, both formally and informally. The Student Opinion of Teaching (SOOT) is a University-sponsored survey that asks questions about faculty teaching and classroom activities. Each semester, faculty will be invited to request SOOTs for their courses. Please request paper copies, have students complete them in class, and have a student collect them and deliver them to one of the Graduate School of Education offices. (Whether evaluations are paper or electronic, return rates are much higher when evaluations are completed in class.) Computing Services tabulates results and sends a summary report to the individual faculty member through Blackboard. Tenure track faculty members should retain survey results as evidence of their teaching effectiveness. Adjunct faculty members should share results with the program coordinator and submit a copy to the dean's office. In addition to the SOOT, faculty often find it useful to design their own evaluation that asks questions specific to their course. The SOOT and self-designed surveys can provide information that is useful to improve course design and methods of instruction.
Periodic examinations are given at the discretion of each instructor.
University policy specifies that no examinations, including unit or chapter exams, are to be administered during the final week of classes. Faculty who wish to give a final examination in their course during the final examination period should submit a request to the Registrar. The Registrar assigns the day, time, and location of final exams, which may differ from the usual class meeting. The Graduate School of Education assigns use of AB-124 and AB-234.
Graded exams, papers and other projects that were not returned to students in class may be left in the Graduate School of Education office (AB-230) for student pickup. Student work should be kept for one semester following the end of the course.
The Handbook for Faculty and Professional Staff addresses policies related to grading, including incomplete grades, missing grades, changing grades, and complaints concerning grades.
All students should be familiar with the University policy on Academic Honesty, which prohibits submitting the same work for more than one course, as well as presenting someone else's work as their own. The Binghamton University Writing Center also provides guidance about The Use and Acknowledgment of Sources in order to avoid plagiarism.
The Graduate School of Education strongly supports a range of efforts at mediating grievances before they are channeled formally.
GSE has a standing Grievance Committee that has membership from among the faculty, administrative, and graduate student constituencies. It is this committee that acts as a hearing board for student-initiated grievances involving GSE faculty, administrators or students. This committee meets on a grievance or complaint only after attempts to remedy the grievance have been undertaken, first with the party who is the subject of the grievance, and then, if necessary, with the student's faculty adviser who will attempt to mediate the situation.
If the student has consulted with the party and the faculty adviser and has been unable to obtain consideration of and/or an acceptable remedy to the grievance, the student may next request in writing that the Grievance Committee be convened.
BACK TO TOPFaculty can also have course listservs or electronic study groups (ESG) established for courses. An electronic study group or listserv makes easy communication to all class members possible with a single message. Faculty may communicate from existing e-mail accounts or have special course accounts created for each course. For more information on listservs, ESGs, or faculty computing accounts, see Computing Services.
All faculty, staff and students are required to register any vehicles driven on campus. Anyone parking on campus must display a valid University parking permit 24 hours a day. Vehicles may be registered for a single day, a semester, a full-year, with the option of an evenings-only pass.
Tenure-track faculty members in the Graduate School of Education undergo periodic review for tenure and promotion. (Currently there is a formal review in year three and the promotion/tenure review in year six.) The policies and procedures for these reviews are outlined in the Binghamton University Handbook for Faculty and Professional Staff, section IV. Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures. The Provost also outlines Faculty Personnel Information including guidance for preparation of Personnel Cases. The Provost's Faculty Personnel Action Summary provides the organizational framework for materials prepared by the Initiating Personnel Committee and sent forward to the Provost's office.
The Initiating Personnel Committee (IPC) of the Graduate School of Education has outlined the steps GSE follows to implement the policies and procedures listed above. In addition, GSE has developed Guidelines for Renewal, Promotion, and Tenure (.doc, 55kb) to provide examples of how faculty might address the three criteria established for promotion and tenure: teaching, scholarship and service.
Faculty being considered for promotion and tenure must provide a curriculum vitae that provides information corresponding to the promotion and tenure criteria. To assist faculty in meeting these expectations, the IPC has prepared a model vita(.pdf, 112kb). The candidate's vita must follow this format. Each year, there is an information meeting hosted by the IPC that covers the procedures, explains which materials should be included and answers questions faculty members may have about the process.
The Human Subjects Research Review Committee must approve all research projects that involve human subjects. The Committee meets monthly during the academic year and reviews protocols that involve research presenting some risk or threat to human subjects. An expedited review process provides a quick review for research projects that do not involve significant risk to subjects. The guidelines for Human Subject Review at Binghamton University, conforming to the requirements of such agencies as National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health and the Department of Education, are available in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Some Federal agencies require assurance of approval of the research protocol by the institution's human subjects review board before the proposal will be considered for funding. Questions regarding the review of protocols should be directed to the Chair of the Human Subjects Research Review Committee.
For more information see Human Subjects Research.
The Graduate School of Education By Laws (.pdf, 833kb) outline the policies and procedures by which the Graduate School of Education operates. Interested faculty, staff, and students may obtain a hard copy version through the Dean's office (AB133).
Students with identified disabilities are entitled to accommodations to support their learning. Faculty may, at their own discretion, make some accommodations for any student who reports having a disability, such as preferential seating for a student with vision or hearing impairment, or universal design for learning. For accommodations that are more extensive or would not be granted others in your class, students should be asked to register with theOffice of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), which will clarify necessary and appropriate accommodations based on the individual's specifically diagnosed disability. SSD, faculty, and staff are required to treat Information about a student's disability as confidential. (Also see Syllabus Preparation).
Employees with disabilities also are entitled to "reasonable accommodations" in order to perform the "essential functions or duties" of a job. When GSE faculty faculty have concerns about whether a student with a disability is able to perform the essential duties of a teacher in her/his field, SSD should be contacted for advice - to make sure that responsibilities to both the student and the profession are addressed.
All course syllabi should be e-mailed to Tami Mann at tmann@binghamton.edu no later than two weeks prior to the beginning of the semester, to post with course listings on GSE's website. Attachments should be in MSWord or rich text format. Please send a copy to Diane Hinkley at dhinckle@binghamton.edu for GSE's course files.
Students should print their own copy of the syllabus. Faculty are encouraged to use Blackboard to post their syllabi, assignments, course materials ("handouts"), etc.
While a syllabus may range from one or two pages to many, it should provide students with clear and accurate representation of the course content and requirements. Faculty should discuss the syllabus during the first class meeting and, when due dates or assignments are adjusted or clarified, changes should be posted on BlackBoard.
A syllabus should include all the components below. Notes about the educational environment, accommodations for students with identified disabilities, academic honesty, and grievances are recommended.
After confirmation of appointments, adjunct faculty should obtain a Binghamton University ID card in order to access the many services available on campus (i.e. library access and multimedia/audiovisual reservation through the Educational Communications Center) and to identify themselves as affiliated with the University should they be requested to do so. Adjunct faculty will also need to obtain a BU e-mail account in order to use Blackboard to facilitate instruction (please visit the Human Resources office, 2nd floor Couper Admin. Bldg.) .The Dean's Office will assist with any issues related to obtaining necessary ID cards and e-mail accounts.
The University Ombudsman provides impartial, objective and confidential assistance with informal complaint resolution, problem solving and communication. The ombudsman advocates, not for any particular individual, organization or position in a dispute, but for the fair, equitable and humane treatment of all parties. The ombudsman approaches each case without prejudice, and as neither advocate nor critic of any cause, but with a commitment to fairness, equity and the missions of the University. For more information, see University Ombudsman.
