Faculty Resources

Information regarding workplace logistics, teaching, financial matters and additional information.

Enrollment and grades

Enrollment management, including adding/dropping students and grading, is done entirely online through Class Services. Once your hiring paperwork has been processed and your name shows up on the class schedule as the instructor of record, you will have access to your course rosters, iLearn, etc., in Class Services. You can access Class Services through SF State Gateway. Familiarize yourself with the functions and capabilities of Class Services. Please plan to have access to your class rosters and permit numbers at your first class meeting. To be prepared to add students by permit number, if necessary, please study how this function works. You can give out permit numbers in person or e-mail them to students.

Periodically you will receive reminders about important enrollment-related deadlines. The chief deadline is known as the “census” deadline — enrollments at that point (usually four full weeks into the semester) are the basis for University budget/financing calculations. By this date, your online class roster should match your actual enrollment.

The deadline for entering grades is normally 11:59pm on the last day of the semester. You will receive reminders. If you have trouble entering grades or if you miss the deadline, you must contact the AOC as soon as possible.

iLearn

Faculty instructions and access to iLearn are located online. Learn about more course technologies. If you would like access to the WGS iLearn page, please request access to it through the department  by emailing wgsdept@sfsu.edu

Texts

Order texts and other course materials online. You may also order texts by sending an e-mail to textbook@sfsu.edu. Try to place your orders for the next semester in a timely manner. Deadlines will be distributed frequently. Usually, the deadline for placing orders for the spring semester is October 15; for fall semester, April 15. 

Evaluation

The College requires its faculty, including lecturers, to submit student evaluations in order to benefit from the insights of students and so that the department can evaluate teaching effectiveness. This process will be conducted online. The department also conducts peer evaluations of lecturers and tenure-track faculty, including classroom visits and subsequent discussions about pedagogy and presentation, the goal being to provide lecturers with more detailed feedback and hence a roadmap for continued success in the classroom. Lecturers will be notified well in advance about setting up peer visits and will receive the resulting review letter. Review letters are forwarded to personnel files.

Office hours

Each faculty member should post office hours and teaching schedules on his or her office door, supply the office manager with office hour information, and adhere strictly to the schedule posted. Part-time faculty are expected to maintain one office hour per week for each three-unit class.

Academic Calendar

Bookmark the online academic calendar for references to key dates and deadlines throughout the semester, as well as the final exam schedule for fall and spring semesters.

Forms and petitions

Student forms and petitions are available online. Instruct students to deliver their petitions to you, filled out and ready for your signature. The Registrar provides access to most student forms and petitions. The Division of Graduate Studies stores forms and petitions pertaining to graduate students.

Two of the most frequently-used petitions for both graduate and undergraduate students are:

  • Report of Makeup of Incomplete: This petition is only to be used for assigning a grade when a student completes an incomplete. Instructors must enter grade changes in Class Services via the Grades roster. This petition must be submitted to the office in hard copy form.
  • Petition for Withdrawal from Course(s) or University: Students may present hard copy Withdrawal petitions to instructors, but instructors should enter withdrawals in Class Services via the Grades roster in Class Services, where the withdrawal request is subject to the chair’s approval electronically. Please note that a student’s record must be reviewed — if the student has already withdrawn from the course twice, s/he will not be permitted to withdraw, and you will need to assign a failing grade instead.

Accessibility of course materials

The Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI), formed in December 2006 to ensure access to resources and technology to everyone on campus, requires that all course materials and content (including websites) be accessible to everyone involved by 2012. Please plan ahead and make sure all of your students are able to access your materials. View ATI’s ACCESS project for more information, along with additional information on SF State’s Instructional Media Accessibility, in conjunction with SF State’s Disability Programs and Resource Center and Academic Technology department.

Plagiarism policy

The College of Liberal & Creative Arts website contains useful resources regarding plagiarism in the “For Faculty” area, including a policy statement that can be included on course syllabi, procedures and a form for reporting cases of plagiarism to the School and College.

Credit/No Credit Grading Option

Students may take up to 30 percent of their courses for a grade of Credit or No Credit, instead of a letter grade. Students who want to exercise this option can do so online up to a certain date (the “CR/NC deadline”). If necessary, refer students to the office for instructions. Consult with the office staff if you have questions. You will not be notified if a student chooses the CR/NC grading option, but you can pull up this information in your roster.

Disappearing students

Students who must stop attending after the University’s deadline for dropping a class may petition for an official withdrawal, resulting in a grade of for the course. If students stop attending your class and do not approach you about petitioning to withdraw, the normal grade options are NC, F or WU. Refer to the SF State Bulletin for more information on grading symbols and their corresponding grade points.

Please consult with the WGS chair for advice if needed. It is of great assistance when instructors are aware of the major deadlines, particularly the deadline for dropping a class without getting a W grade. The School will also send e-mail reminders about important enrollment-related deadlines.

Students with disabilities

The Disability Programs and Resource Center website provides information on accommodating students with disabilities, including assignment adjustments, test accommodations, electronic resources and classroom furniture.

Setting up Your Email and SF State ID

First you'll need to make sure you have received your SF State ID number.  You can look up your ID number to find out what it is, or if need further assistance you can review troubleshooting tips. Once you have your ID number, you can request to have an email created.

Parking

Specific information about applying for faculty parking permits for the upcoming semester(s) will be distributed by e-mail through the College list-serv. If you will be on campus a limited number of days per week, you might consider purchasing daily permits. During the first four weeks of each semester, faculty may purchase daily permits at a much reduced rate by going in person to the Parking office on North State Drive. You will be asked to present your faculty ID, and they only accept personal checks as payment. Unfortunately, at this time, GTAs are not eligible for faculty parking permits.

Absences

If you will not hold a scheduled class meeting, please call the WGS office at (415) 338-1388 and let us know. In the event that your class must be canceled, the office staff will post signs on the classroom door. If you have an office hour scheduled for that day, we will post a sign on your office door stating that you will not hold office hours that day. Please e-mail your students to inform them of class cancellations (iLearn allows you to email them all at once). 

Faculty and GTAs accrue sick leave credits for each month of employment. The full-time rate of accrual is eight hours a month, and accrual for part-time employees is prorated accordingly. If appropriate, the academic office coordinator will contact you with instructions about reporting your absence in the University’s online absence management system.

Financial resources are gathered here for our faculty. Topics include: paychecks, direct deposit, address change, SF State Gateway, reimbursements and travel.

Paychecks

Instructors are paid in six monthly installments per semester. The first installment for the fall semester is paid around the first day of October; the next four paychecks are paid around the first day of the months of November - February. The sixth is paid in the following summer. Instructors who do not return after the fall semester will receive the sixth installment in March. The six installments for the spring commence around the first day of March and continue monthly. 

Direct Deposit

Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of direct deposit to ensure timely delivery of pay. Application forms are available in the forms section of the HR website and can be delivered directly to Human Resources in Administration 252, or to the academic office coordinator. Often, applications are not processed in time for to take effect for your next paycheck disbursement. Pay stubs are delivered to mailboxes around the first of each month. If you have applied for direct deposit, but you do not receive a pay stub in your mailbox, check at the desk in Creative Arts 251 to see if there is a paycheck waiting for you. If you do not have direct deposit, you must ask the attendant at the desk in Creative Arts 251 for your check each payday.

Address Changes

Notify the office manager if your address changes; you will receive instructions about how to change your address in the system.

SF State Gateway

SF State’s global login page is a portal to various self-service areas for faculty and staff. Explore the Faculty/Staff links to the left.

Reimbursements

Faculty are reimbursed for expenditures in a wide variety of contexts. A few examples: for professional development, including travel; to use an allocation from the Instructionally Related Activities program for a class; for purchasing food or drink for a department event. In all cases, previous approval from the chair, or other similar notification is required. Regardless of the context, the following University procedures apply:

  • Receipts and invoices older than 90 days cannot be reimbursed. The University does not make exceptions to this policy, although travel is a slightly different situation, in that transport/lodging reservations can be made and paid for well in advance of actual travel. Receipts must be submitted within 30 days of the conclusion of the travel.
  • An itemization of expenses must be included, and if the receipt itself does not include this, please request itemization from the vendor.
  • Online purchases nearly always require accompanying proof of payment; in other words, the identity of the person who made payment must be clear. If the online receipt says that John Wayne ordered something, but does not indicate that payment by John Wayne was collected, then a credit card statement, or a printout of the transaction from the card activity must be included — and must also include a clear reference to John Wayne. Consult with the office manager about questions.
  • Items purchased with University funds must be delivered to the university. In other words, do not arrange for anything to be shipped to your home address if you will be reimbursed for it.

Travel

SF State-funded travel must be pre-approved by the WGS chair and college dean. International travel, in particular, requires as much advance notification as possible due to the requirement for University-purchased insurance. If you have applied for travel funding through the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, you will receive instructions about authorization forms and procedures for reimbursement. Funding provided by the Provost should be directed to Faculty Affairs. 

College of Liberal & Creative Arts Listserv

Disseminates information by email about conferences, scholarships, workshops, network alerts, building conditions (i.e. plumbing problems, fire alarms, etc.) and other matters of general interest to the College faculty and staff. We will forward your email address to the College so that you will be added to this listserve.

Mail

Delivered once daily. All faculty have a mailbox in HUM 125. Outgoing University-related mail can be placed in the outbox in HUM 125 and will be picked up by the campus postal service once daily.

Department Library 

Located in HUM 316. Faculty and students may check out items from our collection of books and journals as long as they stay within the vicinity of the room. Books and journals may not be taken home. The library is in an ongoing state of cataloging and organizing media. Book donations are greatly appreciated.

Photocopying

Can be done in HUM 102 or HUM 125 . Please check with the office staff about your access code for this machine. Check with the office staff; with enough notice, we can assist you with large-batch copy jobs.

Supplies

Available in HUM 125. Please ask for assistance from the office staff.

CFA Lecturer Handbook

As part of the faculty at SF State, you are collectively bargained by a union (CFA) that represents faculty on all CSU campuses. If you would like a copy of the handbook, please take a look at the California Faculty Association website.