Expectations for Faculty

Full-time lecturers in the Writing Program are expected to teach a 3-3 load consisting of three courses each semester (fall and spring), typically entailing two different preps each semester and contribute to service within the program. Courses will be allocated in accordance with our program-wide scheduling policies. Please also refer to our expectations for attendance, feedback, and other interactions with students here, and review the additional pages in this section, linked from the menu at right.

Syllabi Submissions

• Syllabi for new levels or topics should generally be submitted via the form here two to three weeks before the start of each semester (mid-August for fall syllabi and mid-December for spring syllabi). Syllabi will be reviewed by the directors and the curriculum coordinators. You may be asked to make revisions. Once the semester has started, all instructors will be asked to submit final versions of their syllabi for the program’s records. This is mandatory.
• The Writing Program requires that certain sections of syllabi be common across sections. When preparing your syllabus, please refer to the current requirements and templates. Be sure to include the important semester dates for each semester. As the official description of your course, your syllabus should be a clear, comprehensive, formal document. Your syllabus should be distributed the first day of class and posted to your Blackboard site (or other approved course management site). Changes should be announced clearly. Keep your syllabus updated throughout the semester.

Communications with Office Staff/Directors

• A directory of administrative faculty and staff is available on the Writing Program’s external site. The Writing Program directors and administrative staff receive email sent to wpadmin@bu.edu, an email address intended solely for use by Writing Program faculty.
• We encourage you to consider wpadmin@bu.edu as your first point of contact with the Writing Program office and to use it as a vehicle for all your program-related questions. By sending messages to this email rather than to individual staff members, you will be helping us to increase our internal communication while also ensuring that your messages are responded to as efficiently as possible. You may of course contact any of the directors or staff members directly if you feel your question warrants that person’s specific attention or if your question addresses an issue that you regard as sensitive or confidential in nature.
• Please be alert for messages sent from wpadmin@bu.edu to all Writing Program personnel. We will flag our messages to the list as IMPORTANT from time to time, and we ask that you attend carefully to the contents. If you do not have an email account, we ask that you set one up and provide us with the address.
• Please do not give the wpadmin@bu.edu email address to students. This address is a “hotline” to the directors and administrative staff. Students should use writing@bu.edu.

Service Expectations

Each year FTL are expected to do service that contributes to the shared work of the Writing Program. Follow the link above for  information about service for full-time lecturers. While we welcome PTL to be as much a part of the WP community as they are willing and able to be, we want to be careful not to impose expectations of service on them. For this reason, PTL won’t be assigned to FIC, curriculum, or search committees, which provide necessary service for the program as a whole, but they are more than welcome to attend meetings and contribute to these committees’ efforts. They are also welcome but not expected to lead faculty seminars and to join and play leadership roles in CMI, affinity groups, and other opt-in community-building groups and efforts.