While most full-time faculty have 9-month academic year appointments, all faculty have year-round responsibilities. The "Conditions of Employment" section of the Faculty Handbook stipulates:

All regular members of the teaching staff of the University are fully engaged for the whole year of fifty-two weeks. While normally members of the teaching staff are required to teach for only nine months annually, responsibilities of faculty to the University do not cease during the summer months. The summer period is provided for reading, study, research, and travel related to the professional development of the faculty member as well as for providing a reasonable period for relaxation.

Many faculty on 9-month academic year appointments utilize the summer to concentrate on programs of scholarship and research, both externally sponsored and unsponsored. Indeed, the books, articles, papers, technical reports, professional presentations, and other creative contributions produced are the result of continuing effort throughout the year and often across many years. These achievements are important elements of the faculty's record of scholarly and research achievement, and they are reviewed and accorded weight in decisions on contract renewal, promotions and tenure, and merit allocations.

If specifically permitted by approved departmental workload policies, a faculty member on a 9-month academic year appointment has the opportunity to request that performance in a summer program of sponsored or unsponsored scholarship and research will be included in the annual faculty evaluation. The request from the faculty member to the department chair must be made on an annual basis during the workload planning process.

If the request is granted, the agreement must be documented as part of the individual's workload plan for the subsequent year. Documentation must include a statement of the summer program of scholarship and research and the expected products of that program, and it must stipulate the duration of the summer program up to three months.

A chair may turn down a faculty member's proposal on substantive grounds related to the content of the proposal, the appropriateness of the proposed program as part of the workload for the faculty member, or the department's needs and priorities. No request from a faculty member for inclusion of a summer research program in evaluation and merit can proceed without the chairperson's approval and the inclusion of this program in the faculty member's workload plan.

When it is a part of the individual's annual workload plan, this summer program of scholarship and research must be considered in computing the overall percentage distribution of faculty effort in teaching, research, and service for the year, with a weighting appropriate to the agreed duration of the summer program up to three months. For those with an approved summer program, the computed overall distribution of faculty effort must be accorded appropriate weight in the annual evaluation and in the application of the department's approved metric for merit allocation.

For example, a faculty member on a 9-month academic year appointment may have a workload distribution of 50% teaching, 40% research/scholarship, and 10% service. If the faculty member's request for a 2-month summer research program is approved and included in the workload plan, the revised workload distribution for purposes of evaluation would be 41% teaching, 51% research/scholarship, and 8% service.

The request by a faculty member on a 9-month academic year appointment for approval of a summer program of scholarship and research must be entirely voluntary and it must be renewed on an annual basis. The department chairperson or other academic administrator may not assign such an obligation, nor may such an obligation be adopted by a department as a standard expectation of all faculty in that department. An approved summer program of scholarship and research must have no impact on the faculty member's workload assignments during the two academic semesters. Under no circumstances will the responsibilities associated with the approved summer program be transferable with responsibilities during the academic year. During the period of an approved summer scholarship and research program, the faculty member is not eligible to teach for compensation or carry out other responsibilities inconsistent with the approved program. (Approved by the Provost and the AAUP Executive Committee 05/24/02).