Guidelines for Tutorial Rotations (5/14/04)
In keeping with our goal to include as many faculty as possible as instructors in the English Tutorial Program, the following guidelines outline the procedure for tutorial rotations.
- Tutors will be selected from among the tenured (Group I) faculty in the department, except in circumstances where tenured faculty are unavailable or disinclined to participate. The extended contact hours (up to 12 hours of instruction per week) required of tutors might adversely affect the research agendas that probationary faculty must adhere to, so their participation in the program as instructors is not recommended. However, probationary faculty are more than welcome to direct the final thesis projects of English Tutorial students.
- Because continuity is extremely important to the operation of this program, tutors must ideally be able to teach three successive sections of the same tutorial. A longer or shorter time commitment may be allowed in exceptional circumstances. For instance, the lack of available tutors in a particular area might warrant a longer term from a faculty member, while a tutor's decision to retire, go on sabbatical, take family/medical leave, or accept a different administrative position might warrant a shorter term. A tutor's inability to complete a three-year term will require the Director of Studies to appoint another faculty member to that position as either a permanent or temporary replacement.
- The procedure for selecting new tutors is as follows:
- No later than the end of fall quarter of each academic year, the Director of Studies (DOS) will solicit the names of tenured (Group I) faculty who express a desire to teach in the program.
- After meeting with the DOS for a basic review and explanation of the program, prospective tutorial faculty must discuss at length the responsibilities of the position with the current tutor in the faculty member's area of expertise (a prospective tutor in the Renaissance will meet with the current Renaissance tutor, etc.). These sessions are meant to insure that prospective tutorial faculty understand the requirements of the job, and have ample opportunity to determine if would suit their teaching methods and goals.
- When these meetings are completed, prospective tutorial faculty will contact the DOS with their final decision of whether or not they choose to join the program at this time. If they decide to participate, they will be slated to teach in the program as soon as the term of the current tutor has expired, or as scheduling permits. In the event that two prospective tutorial faculty who have never taught in the program apply for the same position simultaneously, priority will be given to the faculty member with the longest tenure in the department.