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Normandale Community College Policies and Procedures

1.6 Academic Calendar Principles

Related MnSCU Board Policy: 3.34 Academic Semester Start Dates

Related MnSCU Board Procedure: 3.34.1 Academic Semester Start Dates

Related MSCF Contract Policy: Article 10 Work Year and Work Week

Purpose: To further outline Normandale academic calendar requirements in addition to Minnesota State Board policy and procedure and the Minnesota State College Faculty collective bargaining agreement. 

Part 1: Calendar parameters

Subpart A: Fall and Spring Semester Calendar

  1. Faculty members receive salary payments for 171 days. Faculty are expected to be on campus or available for meetings and other assignments on any of the 171 days noted on each academic year’s calendar. The 171 days are accounted for as follows:
    1.  161 instructional days will be divided between fall and spring semesters as equally as possible.
    2. Ten paid duty days are included in the 171 total days. Five of the ten duty days are administratively-planned. Five of the ten duty days are planned by individual faculty members and/or departments. Upon mutual agreement by faculty leadership and the college president, more than ten paid duty days may be included in the 171 total days.
    3. Faculty attendance and participation in administratively scheduled duty day activities is required.
    4. Examples of individual or department-duty-day activities are professional development activities and meetings with colleagues. Faculty-planned duty days may not occur on scheduled teaching days or administratively planned duty days.
    5. Up to two administratively-planned duty days may be scheduled in the summer
  2. Ten days, five in each semester, are designated as final examination days at the end of fall and spring semesters. These are included in the 161 total instructional days.
  3. Beginning dates of fall and spring semesters are specified by the Minnesota State Board of Trustees and are communicated in Minnesota State Board Procedure 3.34.1.
  4. Faculty members who are absent from teaching, meetings, duty days, or other assignments must submit leave to their supervising dean. Leave can be taken in half day increments.
  5. Part-time or adjunct faculty members will attend duty days and participate in college and department activities proportional to the percentage of their teaching assignment.
  6. The determination of the actual number and configuration of the class, test, and administratively assigned duty days in each semester shall be by agreement of the leadership of the administration and the faculty at each college. Such agreement shall be reached after two meetings or the calendar shall contain the same number and configuration of class, test and administratively assigned duty days as the previous academic year.
  7. Before the calendar is finalized, the student leadership, faculty leadership, and divisions of the college will have the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed calendar.

Subpart B: Summer Calendar

Through the Shared Governance process, the college president or designee shall establish the calendar for summer session(s).  No summer session or course shall exceed 39 days. Summer session start dates for all approved sessions will be noted on the official calendar.  The summer session(s) start and end dates will be chosen in order to accommodate students and must include at least one session beginning on the first day of the summer term.  

Subpart C: Alternate Calendars

Alternate calendars are available for faculty on special assignment, librarians, and counselors as outlined in Article 10, Section 1, Subd. 2-Subd. 3. of the MSCF collective bargaining agreement. 

  1. For an occupational or technical program that needs additional instructional days beyond the number established above, the program instructor and the administration shall mutually agree on an alternate calendar configuration. The alternate calendar may not exceed the one hundred seventy-one (171) day total. 

  2. Instructors who are on special assignment or librarians shall work at their normal duties for the one hundred seventy-one (171) day total minus the administratively-assigned duty days. Such duty days may or may not be conducted at the same time as the rest of the college.

  3. Counselors’ calendars shall reflect the same number of days as the teaching faculty at the college. The dates of the administratively-designed duty days may be different from those of the teaching faculty, but the number of such days shall be the same. The dates of the administratively assigned duty days for counselors shall be determined in accordance with Section 1 of Article 10.

Subpart D: Flexible Calendars

Flexible calendar options are available to faculty as described in Article 10, Section 3 of the MSCF collective bargaining agreement.

 

  1. All flexible calendars must maintain academic integrity as determined by the Carnegie-unit equivalency or by another measure agreed to by the faculty and administration.  

  2. Faculty shall be subject to overall workload expectations equivalent to those under a standard academic calendar. The faculty load for a course or an assignment under a flexible academic calendar shall be the same as that for the same course or assignment under a standard academic calendar

  3. All faculty members on a flexible academic calendar shall have the right to calendar breaks commensurate with, but not necessarily at the same time as, those under a standard academic calendar. 

  4. Each individual flexible academic calendar must be agreeable to the faculty member, the local MSCF grievance representative, and the local administration. 

  5. It is possible for part of a faculty member’s load to be under a standard academic calendar and the remainder of the load to be under a flexible academic calendar. Please see the most recent version of the MSCF collective bargaining agreement for further instruction.  

  6. Assignments of faculty under a flexible academic calendar that overlap the summer session(s) of the college must be agreeable to the department in which the faculty member or course is assigned. The parties agree to meet and negotiate additional details of implementation as necessary and as requested by either party.

 

Policy History:

Date of Adoption: Established prior to 2011

Date of Implementation:

Date and Subject of Revisions:

May 2023 rewritten for clarity and to reflect suggestions from shared governance

Next Review Date: 2027-2028