FC/FCA Roles, Appointments & Compensation

Responsibilities of Faculty Coordinators

Cohort Leader

• Select and Orient New CIS instructors

  • Participate with  CIS liaison (described below)  in the review of instructor applications and in the interviewing of applicants.  The faculty coordinator is responsible for the final decision about the acceptance or denial of each instructor application. 

  • Provide new instructors with a discipline-specific orientation to the course prior to the instructor teaching the course for the first time.  This preparation includes a holistic overview of the UMN course’s philosophy, pedagogy, curriculum and assessments, and cohort expectations.   Formats may include:

    • Meeting as a group for a formal workshop.  

    • Meeting individually with new instructors 

    • Including experienced CIS instructors to assist in covering the content or serving as a 1:1 peer mentor. 

    • Asking new instructors to read articles or complete assignments in preparation for the discipline-specific orientation and teaching the course for the first time.
      
      

• Develop and lead a cohort of CIS instructors in required discipline specific, ongoing professional education.  

  • Host professional development workshops that focus on discipline-specific content that supports the instructors and the course content.  The CIS team provides support in planning and managing these events

  • Offer a minimum of three required professional development workshops or activities, once each term (fall, spring, summer). They may be conducted in-person, online, or hybrid.  Visit the Professional Development page for additional details about planning, support, and minimum requirements.

• Provide ongoing support to CIS instructors

  • Maintain contact with CIS instructors as needed throughout the year.  Some examples include: sending periodic newsletters or emails using the cohort Google Group, or making additional site visits to support their teaching of the UMN course. 

  • If appropriate and desirable, create a Canvas or Google site for sharing teaching resources among the instructor cohort. 

  • Mentor and connect with instructors individually by visiting and observing them in their classrooms through CIS Site Visits.  Instructors new to your cohort must be visited during the instructor's first year teaching the course through CIS.  After a successful site visit in the first year, conduct a site visit at least once every three years.  Document your visit by using the faculty site visit form/observation report or your own template and submit  through MyCIS.

  • Consult with CIS staff and instructors on an occasion of student academic misconduct or scholastic dishonesty. 

• Ensure that sections taught through CIS follow campus practice related to course content, pedagogy, and assessment

  • Review CIS syllabi from instructors each term ; determine if content, pedagogy, and assessment are congruent with campus course-specific practice.  

  • Review course evaluations (Student Rating of Teaching (SRTs))

  • Review grading in CIS sections to ensure consistency with UMN standards.  Some cohorts organize professional development around grading, asking instructors to bring examples of papers or other assignments that they consider worthy of an “A”, “B”, “C”, etc.  CIS staff provide faculty coordinators with a Grade Distribution Report to facilitate this review.

• Support student learning 

  • Plan and oversee student field days, if offered. CIS instructors and CIS events staff will provide assistance. Administer surveys to gather feedback about the student field day experience.

  • Write supporting letters for students encountering difficulty in securing recognition of their UMN credits earned through CIS.

• Fulfill administrative responsibilities 

  • Represent CIS within the University, especially as liaison to the academic department that owns the course. 

  • Advise the CIS staff and liaison to your cohort, as needed, on issues pertinent to your cohort or to the CIS program as a whole. 

  • Provide CIS events specialists with timely and essential information regarding student field days, workshops, and other professional development activities, including agendas.  

  • Participate as needed in event and program evaluation. 

Partnership Liaison

• Participate in two CIS Faculty Coordinator meetings during the academic year 

• Share successful practices, explore policy implications, provide updates on research of interest to CIS, share accomplishments, provide feedback on CIS development, etc.

• Submit annual updates for CIS website and materials regarding:

• Course: class size limits, textbooks, textbook rotation frequency, course description 

• Instructor qualifications; any changes to processes, submission requests, or new requirements

• Instructor attendance requirements

• Support the communication between CIS and the department/department leadership including:

  • Providing CIS updates and highlights to the department.

  • Signing updates and MOAS

  • Sharing  information about the college/department including UMN degrees and careers with students as a part of student field day.  

  • Sharing information regarding department happenings such as events and announcements with CIS instructors. 

• Provide CIS with documentation of your work and effort.

• Share discipline-specific professional development workshop agendas and resources with CIS staff. 

• Provide documentation related to NACEP and HLC accreditation or other resources that support the CIS program. 

• Upload Site Visit reports in MyCIS. 

• Work with CIS Staff

  • A CIS liaison is assigned to each cohort.  The CIS liaison serves to provide administrative support to the FC and to the cohort.  Some of the supports include:

    • Communicating important CIS updates and reminders at cohort professional development events and/or through Google Groups.

    • Collaboratively navigating  unusual situations, questions, or concerns.

    • Reviewing applications, co-hosting interviews, and hiring new instructors.

  • A CIS events specialist is assigned to each cohort.  The CIS events specialist serves to provide logistical support for events and for cohort budgets.  Some of the supports include:

    • Preparing for professional development events and student field days.  This includes reserving spaces and ordering food (food not provided for student field days).

    • “Day of” support including space management, parking validations, food deliveries, and more.

    • Tracking workshop attendance and agendas, cohort budgets, and follow-up activities such as speaker payments.

Sharing the Work

Co-faculty coordinators

Faculty coordinators may share the responsibilities of the Faculty Coordinator position with a qualified colleague. 

Faculty coordinator assistants

As cohorts grow, CIS provides options to assist larger cohorts in supporting faculty coordinator responsibilities with a faculty coordinator assistant (FCA). Faculty coordinator assistants are often provided when cohort membership is at 20 instructors.  Responsibilities of the FCA may vary depending up on the expertise of the person and any particular projects needed for cohort development.  Common FCA responsibilities include conducting site visits, helping to plan professional development workshops or student field days, supporting faculty coordinators with special projects, and managing other cohort leadership responsibilities.

Additional and Special Projects

FCs may request funding for instructional projects that support CIS in new ways, work outside of the regular CIS position responsibilities, or in the case of transitions. These arrangements need to be approved by the CIS program director.

For example: 

• Projects beyond the current FC responsibilities or current resources

• Technological development

• Language testing

• FC or FCA transitions

• Access to resources needed for teaching or learning.  

• Work with CIS staff on CIS program development.  Examples include:  developing CIS research or survey questions, developing models for partnership agreements, site visits or professional development.  

• A CIS instructor providing mentorship to a new instructor for the first term teaching.  This option may be especially helpful for instructors that are accepted on a short timeline or during a leave.

Other supplements

• CIS will pay a substitute instructor for your on-campus courses  in order for you to be at or conduct a CIS event (e.g. professional development or Student Field Day) or make a site visit.

• If a site visit scheduling requires an overnight stay, CIS will support the cost and per diem according to UMN travel policies.

Appointments

Faculty Coordinator (FC) Appointments

Appointments with CIS are renewed annually.  CIS requests faculty coordinators to commit to working with the program for a minimum of three years as CIS wants you to have time to learn the job and have time to build relationships with CIS instructors.  

Faculty Coordinator Assistant (FCA) Appointments

FCAs may be a graduate student, retired CIS instructor, colleague on campus, or other personnel.  They possess the experience and expertise needed to assist you and the CIS cohort of instructors.  Generally, CIS faculty coordinators recruit from their department.  Occasionally, an appointment will be posted to find candidates with special expertise.

CIS appointments for graduate students in an FCA role are 25% academic year appointments and may include tuition benefits costs.  We understand this may be more expensive, however if the department support is valuable to supporting the CIS partnership and to the student experience, we’d like to offer the opportunity on a case-by-case basis.

Both faculty coordinators and faculty coordinator assistants appointed by CIS are provided with an appointment letter documenting the role and salary during the academic year and summer terms.  Letters are typically sent mid-late August.

In all cases, talk with Kelly Meyer, Associate Director of Partnerships, about creating, making changes to, and/or replacing faculty coordinator and faculty coordinator assistant positions.  

Compensation

CIS provides an instructional salary for annually appointed faculty coordinators, faculty coordinator assistants and supportive personnel to fulfill these roles.  There are two different arrangements for compensation.

In all cases, talk with Emily Hanson, Dual Enrollment and CIS Program Director, about creating, making changes to, and/or replacing faculty coordinator and faculty coordinator assistant positions.  

Academic year roles are characterized as a three-credit or one course workload extended over the course of an academic year once the cohort has 6 or more instructors.  CIS chooses to pay the higher of these two types of salary calculations, usually dispersed on the biweekly UMN payroll calendar.

1. Typical ongoing academic year salaries are based on the faculty member’s regular academic annual salary calculated as a per credit pay rate by CCAPS multiplied by 3 (credits).

2. CIS has established a minimum threshold for salaries to allow for the complexities cohorts experience with growth and change.  For example, an increase in the number of CIS instructors in the cohort.  CIS minimums also operate as a salary floor.  Note:

   • The launch of a new course and during the pilot years, cohorts may have only a few instructors and that impacts salary rates.   

   • It is a system that may result in salary increases or decreases as there is fluctuation in cohort size.

   • We see a need to improve this system because change occur with occasional regularity, however, the options available to CIS have not alleviated possible annual shifts in payment yet.

Another variation to consider is an inload or an overload salary.  

2. • Inload is a three credit/one course “buy out” that CIS provides to your department and your CIS position is built into your regular academic workload and salary. CIS will cover the associated fringe with this type of appointment.  Inload arrangements are worked out in collaboration with your primary department.

   • Overload means the CIS salary is paid in addition to your regular position.  It does not include benefits, although there is associated fringe. 

Summer payments are calculated at a CIS professional hourly rate and encompass the hours of each summer professional education event to include time spent with new instructors (discipline specific course overview and more) and with the entire cohort (ongoing discipline specific professional education workshops).

Additional details are included in annual appointment letters such as:  specifications for GA and P&A positions and Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time benefits. 

Wage-Disclosure Protection Policy: Under the Minnesota Wage Disclosure Protection law, you have the right to tell any person the amount of your own wages. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for disclosing your own wages. Your remedies under the Wage Disclosure Protection law are to bring a civil action against your employer and/or file a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at 651-284-5075 or 800-342-5354.