As a research-intensive institution, UCSB’s ladder faculty members are expected to engage in research that contributes to creating new knowledge in their disciplines; bringing that knowledge to the learning experience of students. Lecturers with Security of Employment are not expected to engage in the same kind of research, but are expected to contribute to the development of pedagogy in their disciplines.

Regardless of a Senate faculty member’s track, faculty are also expected to provide a productive, supportive, and engaging learning experience for students. UCSB research, along with other research, has shown that this occurs when faculty: Make clear that they welcome their students, their identities, and their experiences as part of the learning process. This can take place via language in the syllabus, language in class, and presence in office hours.
Recognize that faculty have expertise in how knowledge is made in the course and discipline that students, who are novices, do not; then, help students to understand and practice with those knowledge making practices. This can occur when faculty identify learning goals or outcomes for their classes; connect those goals to each day’s activities and/or homework and reinforce through written and spoken language the connections for students to practice with knowledge making.
Recognize that learning is a social process that takes time, feedback, and support. Faculty can act on this by helping students to connect with each other (in class and/or via small group activities like study groups); and providing feedback via formative, low-stakes assessments (in addition to higher stakes assessments, if applicable).

As a minority-serving institution, it is especially important that faculty design courses by focusing on students’ assets – the knowledge and experience that they bring to their educations. Faculty also can understand that students’ experiences may differ from their own, recognizing the need to be curious and respectful of these differences and considering how students’ knowledge can contribute to the knowledge-making activities that are at the core of faculty members’ teaching and research.

UCSB’s Office of Undergraduate Education offers many workshops and seminars for faculty, including a New and Nearly New Pedagogy Orientation and multiple workshops at the beginning of each quarter. They also have many resources that can help faculty to put together courses and course materials. These include:

Teaching resources for course design, assessment, equity, inclusion, and more https://id.ucsb.edu/teaching/teaching-resources
Sample syllabus language https://id.ucsb.edu/teaching/teaching-resources
Summaries of research on equitable and just teaching and learning https://citral.ucsb.edu/resources

Classes and Basic Expectations

Professors are expected to meet and teach their assigned classes; post and hold office hours; hold examinations at the time specified in the schedule of classes; grade coursework fairly; and turn in grades in a timely manner. Like all U.S. postsecondary institutions, UCSB offers classes at four different levels:

General Education (GE): an undergraduate program spanning departments that is intended to help students learn to study and practice with knowledge-making practices that span disciplines such as critical thinking, writing, reading, quantitative reasoning, and oral communication. GE classes form a base for students’ learning, but it is important that faculty recognize that each of the practices that students work on in GE courses are adapted and enacted in specific ways within their discipline. There is no “general thinking,” “general writing,” or “general reasoning” that applies across all disciplines; hence, faculty members have a responsibility to show students how these function in their disciplines. Faculty can learn more about GE courses at https://assessment.ucsb.edu/data/ge
Lower Division undergraduate classes: Intended to introduce students to ways of creating knowledge in a discipline. Many lower division classes also fulfill GE requirements. Faculty can learn more about whether their course fulfills GE requirements by looking on the Learning Management System site, which will list GE learning outcomes, or by doing an internet search for “UCSB GE Requirements.”
Upper Division Undergraduate classes: Intended to provide an immersive experience in the discipline for majors.
Graduate courses: Intended to introduce and provide graduate students opportunity to develop expertise in the discipline.

Teaching Assignments

The department chair assigns faculty to teach courses based on the department’s need to offer a variety of general education, lower division, upper division, and graduate-level courses. The department chair will try to accommodate faculty interests and abilities. If you are assigned a class which meets General Education requirements, check with the department chair to determine if certain writing assignments or quantitative exercises are required. General Education requirements are detailed in the UCSB General Catalog. If you need assistance with specific requirements, contact the staff in your college’s Undergraduate Academic Advising Office.

Departments receive teaching assistantships through their college or divisional deans, based in part on lower division enrollments. The department chair in collaboration with the Student Affairs Manager will then assign TAships to specific courses, based on enrollment numbers. Discuss with your department chair and student affairs manager whether your courses are entitled to TAs; if so, how many. Individual graduate students are matched to particular courses by the TA assignment committee.

Mentoring Graduate Students

The Graduate Division and Graduate Council stress the importance of graduate student mentoring as a key element in graduate degree completion. In general, success in training graduate students depends on respect and interaction with students as junior colleagues, with opportunities provided for their professional development. Faculty can support graduate students in their professional milestones as well as their intellectual development. Give clear instructions on departmental expectations and constructive feedback on performance. Provide feedback on activities considered career milestones - ask questions they will face in oral qualifying examinations and sit in on their demonstration of the talk for job interviews. Include funds for graduate student research support in extramural grant proposals. [If you have no research grant funds to pay for employment, you may still incorporate students into research efforts through special studies courses or practice.] If you supervise graduate student teaching assistants, meet with them regularly to discuss your philosophy of teaching, the main skills or facts you want undergraduate students to acquire from the course, and your system for assigning grades. Your training of this generation of graduate students will be projected into the future as they train future students.

If you mentor students whose goal is a career in academia, encourage them to publish and present papers at conferences, improve their teaching skills, and participate in campus governance as student representatives on key committees. For students who choose alternatives to academic career paths, encourage industry, service or nonprofit internships or research experiences which will enhance their employment opportunities.

A faculty member is designated as the department’s official graduate advisor. This person’s signature is required on student petitions and other communications with the administration, although he or she may ask your opinion regarding requests from students under your mentorship. DCB has a Departmental Graduate handbooks for graduate students and/or teaching assistants. Familiarize yourself with the contents of those handbooks if you mentor graduate students or supervise TAs. The Graduate Division produces a graduate handbook. If you have questions about campus wide academic policies effecting graduate students, consult that handbook or contact the Graduate Division directly.

Note Takers

Associated Students (AS) provides a note-taking service for students in some large and medium-sized classes. If your class is chosen for note-taking, the note-taking service will contact you for permission to reproduce notes from your lectures. You may refuse, in which case your class will be removed from the service’s list. In some instances, students may have an accommodation through the Disabled Students Program (DSP) that provides them a notetaker. You may not refuse a student this accommodation; however, you will be notified in advance if a DSP notetaker is assigned to your course.

Instructional Computing

Letters and Science IT (LSIT) is a multi-faceted, centralized campus computing service for the UCSB community. They support some faculty computing needs, maintain some computer laboratory access and maintain the campus’s learning management system (through 2022-23, Moodle/GauchoSpace; after Fall 2023, UCSB Canvas). Staff will also assist faculty in the selection of software and hardware, introductory training, and scheduling. Faculty may choose to lecture in the facility, and/or they may choose to schedule separate times for students to utilize computing resources outside of class time.

LSIT offers a full range of training courses for Faculty on the use of software. A formal list of offerings is available each quarter, but if a special topic is desired, the department's "Training on Demand" program is available to provide special, customized assistance.

The Campus Office of Software Licensing (the "Software Depot") is also part of LSIT. A wide variety of popular software packages are available for academic sale at greatly reduced prices. Information on products and related policies are available at the Software Depot’s website.

Other computing services are available throughout the campus. They may be based in departments or centered within the colleges. Technical staff are available, in most areas, to assist faculty in determining which resources best meet their needs.

Class Lists and Grading

Instructors are able to monitor enrollment in courses, generate class lists (including student email addresses), and assign grades using eGrades. For more information and instructions in use of the eGrades system, go to the Office of the Registrar’s website and follow the link “For UCSB Staff & Faculty.” One of your department staff persons, typically your department’s academic advisor, will be the designated liaison to the Office of the Registrar and can usually answer questions about registration, class lists, enrollment caps, petitions for adds and drops, grading, etc.

Grading

Academic Senate regulation, Part 2 Section 2: Grades and Credit (Regs. 20-40), specifies the qualitative meaning of letter grades A-F, and a variety of codes for incompletes, withdrawals, and other actions which show on the student’s transcript. Beyond those guidelines, there is no uniform campus policy regarding grading. Some professors grade on the curve, others use absolute standards. Talk with colleagues about the norms for your department. Average undergraduate grades campus wide are B-, with a slightly lower average for lower division courses and slightly higher for upper division.

If students approach you to re-negotiate the terms of their grades, it is your choice whether to engage in such negotiations for quizzes and midterms; once the final course grade is reported, Academic Senate regulation 20 specifies the conditions under which you may or may not change a grade. Consult a copy of the Senate manual and discuss your options with other faculty in your department.

Students have a formal avenue through which to protest a grade they believe to be unfair (Senate regulation). To challenge a grade successfully, students must prove that the grade was assigned for reasons unrelated to the quality of their work, such as bias against their religious or political beliefs.

Note the UCSB General Catalog section which deals with “incomplete” or “I” grades. The procedure on this campus requires students to file a petition form with the Office of the Registrar on which you specify the terms for an “I” grade, including grade to date, percent of work to be completed, and papers or exams still due. Without the petition, an “I” grade you assign is recorded as an “F” in all classes except independent studies graduate classes in the 500 series. Both providing and filing the petition is the student’s responsibility.

Protecting student’s privacy regarding grades

Federal law protects students’ rights to have their grades remain private. You may not post grades on a bulletin board or office floor in such a way that someone else could determine what an individual student’s grade is.

Returning term papers and examinations at the end of the quarter also requires a regard to privacy. Do not leave them unattended in a box in a hall or mail room. Even if the grade is on an inside page, the student’s name and grade can be easily identified. If students want their papers or exams returned after the quarter has ended but before your office hours begin for the next quarter, ask them to provide you with a stamped, self-addressed envelope large enough to accommodate bluebooks or papers. Keep unclaimed examinations and papers on hand for at least one quarter, in case there are questions about the basis for a particular student’s grade.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

FERPA is a federal law that affords parent the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old OR enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the to the student.

Deadlines

Deadlines for adding and dropping classes are listed online on the Office of the Registrar’s website under Calendars & Deadlines.

Auditors

Occasionally members of the publics or students will ask to attend your lectures without registering for the class. You may grant or deny permission based on availability of space and your own discretion. There is no formal signup procedure for auditing during the regular school year; during summer session there is a fee. Auditors usually do not write papers, take exams, or participate in class discussion, but may do so if you are willing to permit it.

Open Enrollment Program (Concurrent Enrollment)

Members of the general public who wish to take a class and participate in class activities including papers and exams may do so without being formally admitted through the University. They register and pay a unit-based fee through the UCSB Professional and Continuing Education’s Open University Program, which is offered as a community service. You may accept or deny requests for concurrent enrollment in your classes, at your discretion. Concurrent students should be treated with the same standards used for regularly enrolled students. Occasionally prospective graduate students will register for a course or two through concurrent enrollment to help them decide whether they are interested in applying for regular graduate standing.

Independent Studies

Students will occasionally approach you to sponsor them for independent studies or field work (usually numbered in the 190s for undergraduates and 590s for graduate students). You may accept or decline independent studies requests at your discretion. If you agree to sponsor a student for independent studies, discuss your expectations thoroughly, and then have the student draft a contract, a copy of which you both keep, as to what topic he/she will study, what deliverables (e.g., book reports, research papers, lab notebooks) he/she will provide for grade assignment, in what quantity, and on what schedule.

Internships

Several offices on campus cultivate internships for students so that they can apply the theories they learned in the classroom to actual situations. Occasionally students may wish to earn academic credit for their internship by writing a paper on the experience. Treat such requests in a manner similar to request for independent studies. Sometimes faculty may wish to require an internship or field work as part of a class project. Discuss your department’s position on internships with the department chair.

Student Accommodations and Resources

Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have experienced stress and trauma that lead them to request accommodations to policies associated with attendance, homework, exams, and other deadlines. The 10-week quarter system can be especially stressful for these students. While faculty have discretion regarding accommodations, it is important to remember that any decisions about accommodations must be equitable. This can be considerably complicated, especially when dealing with students in very large classes. Faculty are encouraged to refer students with requests for accommodations to the Disabled Students Program (DSP). DSP has procedures through which requests can be made, and will provide resources for students who are determined to require accommodations to support success. Faculty will also be notified (via email) when a student who is enrolled in their class has been determined to require reasonable accommodation. This may entail receiving extra time for exams, having a notetaker in class, or other accommodation. If a determination is made, DSP will facilitate a dialogue with the instructor to negotiate a reasonable accommodation. Faculty can contact DSP or the Office of Undergraduate Education if they have questions about how to implement these accommodation requests. They should not negotiate with individual students.

Campus Learning Assistance Service (CLAS)

Biology and Chemistry study room: SRB 3274 Hours: Monday-Friday 10 Am - 5 PM. CLAS offers services specifically for CHEM 1ABC and CHEM 109ABC.

CLAS offers four categories of free services:

Tutorial Groups: course specific, require advanced enrollment, and generally meet twice a week. Regular attendance is required to maintain enrollment.
Drop-In Tutorials: tutorial labs are subject specific and do not require advance sign-up
Workshops: one-time meetings that include general study skills and course-specific study skills.
Academic Skills Consultations: focus on specific issues, such as making a study plan, but can also address more general topics, such as how to be a successful student, as well as many others.

Career Services

Career Services helps students plan careers, look for permanent jobs to start after graduation, and find part-time jobs now. They provide materials that are useful for creating résumés and job portfolios, learning about interviewing in the job market, and career planning services. The staff also maintains a placement file containing letters of reference which can be sent out on short notice for graduate students seeking jobs in academia.

Ombuds Office

The Office of the Ombuds is a resource for conflict management that serves all members of the UC Santa Barbara community, including faculty, staff, students, and anyone with a campus-related concern. The Office of the Ombuds assists the campus community with the informal resolution of any University-related complaint or conflict by offering a safe and confidential place to discuss workplace issues, interpersonal conflict, academic concerns, bureaucratic runarounds, and many other problems.

DSP -Disabled Students Program

Illness and other reasons for late work

Due to illness or family emergency, students may miss examinations or term paper deadlines. The Office of Student Life, student and parent liaison, will verify only the most critical situations. They will not verify absences related to standard treatment at Student Health or other medical facilities. In the event the staff receives confirmation of the death of a student’s parent, you may receive notification from the Office of Student Life.

Distressed Student protocol

Taken from the Distressed Students Guide:

In recent years Counseling Services and the Office of Student Life have received an increasing number of calls from faculty members, teaching assistants, medical professionals, and staff regarding students’ emotional states, learning difficulties, and safety, as well as academic and career indecision. These professionals have significant contact with students and often are the first to notice a student experiencing difficulties or distress.

Attending to a student’s concerns and providing information about campus resources can be an important intervention, which may prevent escalation of the problem or situation. A faculty member, TA, medical professional, or staff member who first becomes aware of an emergency situation involving a student may consider notifying the chair of the department; the dean of the appropriate college; Student Engagement and Leadership; assistant to the dean; and, when appropriate, Counseling Services, Career Services, and/or Student Health, Urgent Care for consultation.

In addition, UCSB employs a social worker who is available to assist students and their families. In an emergency situation, Campus Police should be called (9-911 from campus phones). In a difficult situation, an individual staff or faculty member should never feel obligated to proceed beyond his/her comfort level or handle a situation alone.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)

CAPS provides assistance to graduate and undergraduate students. They offer individual and group counseling services to help students through life and school transitions. They also offer a stress management program with resources that include the Alpha Wave Egg Chair and massage chairs.

Budgetary Implications of Enrollment

Improving your classroom performance

Academic Dishonesty