BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Office of the Provost
| STARTING UP The Hiring Process Eligibility to Work Housing Information Moving Expenses Getting . . . The Academic Calendar New Faculty Orientation |
YOUR OFFICE/OFFICE SERVICES Office assignments And . ...
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CONDUCT OF COURSES
Guidelines Course approval Course packets The Libraries Course management software Instructional support services Scheduling and Classrooms Grades and the Grading System Deans' Office Extensions Course evaluations |
If you are offered a position, please read your letter carefully to verify the terms and conditions, sign all pages and return the letter to the Office of the Provost. You will then be sent a brief letter of appointment by the President in the instance of tenure track and continuing non-tenure track faculty appointments and by the Provost for interim appointments.
Eligibility
for Employment at the College
Before you are eligible for employment at the College, you must present to our Human Resources Office documents that verify your identity and your eligibility to work in the United States. This procedure is required by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986; you must do this even if you are a U. S. citizen. Your visit to Human Resources is an important step in becoming an official member of the community. During your visit, all necessary paperwork regarding payroll and benefits, as well as acquiring a College ID, an e-mail account, a library card, and a parking sticker, is to be completed. To make an appointment at Human Resources, call 610-526-5161. The Benefits Manager is Marty Mastascusa (610-526-5266).
If you need information on a visa, see elsewhere and, if you wish, consult with the College's Director of International Student Advising. The College does not provide financial assistance for those needing visas.
The College is on a direct deposit system for the payment of all salaries and wages. New employees should bring to the Human Resources Office a voided check or a deposit slip for a savings account in order to facilitate the pay arrangement. Individuals who do not have a checking or savings account will need to establish one into which the College can make electronic deposits of pay.
In accordance with IRS requirements, Human Resources must verify the social security numbers of all new employees by reviewing each individual's actual social security card. All new employees must present their social security card or a receipt from the Social Security Administration indicating that she/he has applied for a card, to Human Resources prior to beginning work. New hire paperwork may be completed at the same time the social security card is presented.
Information on the telephone system is available elsewhere. To get an outside phone line, dial 9. If your call is with the 610 or the 215 calling area, do not dial 1 after the 9. You will be asked to reimburse the College for personal telephone calls. The College publishes a telephone directory each fall; if you do not find an old one in your office, let the departmental secretary know.
Mail Collection and Delivery: Campus and U.S. mail are
collected and delivered twice daily to the departmental secretary's office,
where you will have a mail slot or box. Envelopes for campus mail need the name and
office or department name; it helps to write c/m on the envelope where a stamp would otherwise
be placed. Campus mail also serves Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. Students
at Bryn Mawr have box numbers (i.e. name, C-1, etc.); at Haverford the name
suffices. Your "U.S." mail must have your name and your department or program
specified on the envelope. It will be charged to your department. You can leave
stamped personal mail and campus mail in the secretary's office for pickup or
take it to the Campus Center Post Office.
Supplies and duplicating: Small teaching-related stationery purchases may be charged to your department at the College bookstore, located in the Campus Center. Ask your department chair or departmental secretary for the budget number. Faculty receive a discount for personal purchases at the Bookshop. For large items (maps, videos, office equipment), speak to your department chair. You will need to use the department number when you place orders for duplicating at the Copy Center (Taylor basement). Ask the department secretary about the duplicating guidelines. The College observes copyright rules in such a way as not to risk any liability for illegal copying.
To create stationery on your computer with College letterhead, consult your departmental secretary.
Office Computers: All faculty offices are equipped with computers. If there is a hard- or software problem with the computer in your office, please call Computing's User Services (7435). Incoming tenure track faculty members should work with Nona Smith (5298) and User Services to obtain computing equipment.
You must register with Computing Services to open an e-mail account and have network access. Once you have your College ID, you may register for an account online. You will need to go to the Computing Center (Guild) in person to pick up your password. Please read the network security guidelines and other computing policies when you start using your Bryn Mawr account. To reach the Computing Help Desk, dial 7440 or send an email. For information on course management software and instructional technology services, see below.
New courses and your chair's review: Courses new to the undergraduate curriculum will need to be approved by the Curriculum Committee. Your chair will submit the appropriate forms to the committee, after having collected the pertinent information from you. You should review your syllabus(i) and other aspects of your course(s) with your department chair.
Course materials:
You should review how to place bookshop orders and library reserves with your chair. Book orders need to be placed well in advance of the semester's start to assure availability. If you plan to photocopy course packets or any large amounts of such materials, you will have to assemble them yourself
and charge your students for them. (Your students may ask you to put a copy of all course materials on reserve; do not do so if you want each student to have her own copy.) The Copy Center will photocopy course packets. Some faculty members use Professional Duplicating on Lancaster Avenue; they will bill your department if you so request. You should charge students at cost for packets; your department's teaching supplies budget can bear the cost of shorter handouts or an occasional article of 5-10 pages. Remember that as the semester begins the self-service machines are in heavy use and the Copy Center will take longer to fill orders. And again: the College observes copyright rules in such a way as not to risk any liability for illegal copying.
Library resources, course management tools and other forms of instructional support are readily available.
Course scheduling is worked out by the deaprtment chair and the Office of the Registrar. The norms for course meetings are as follows:
You will be assigned a classroom for each of your courses by the Registrar's Office. Call the Registrar's Office if you need to change the room (5041); its staff will try to help you. Each time your department submits its roster of courses for the next year, you will be asked to specify the equipment--if any--you need in your classrooms. The College has an array of smart classrooms; most classrooms are--at a minimum--networked.
For an explanation of and information on the College's grading system, see the undergraduate catalog, in the section entitled Academic Regulations. It is summarized in this table:
The Registrar's Office publishes this diagram with official college transcripts. A grade below Merit is liable to bring a student's record to the attention of the Undergraduate Council; a failing grade in the major subject may result in her having to choose a different major. A student may take one course per year on a Credit/No Credit basis (a decision the student makes during the first three weeks of classes), but a Merit grade must still be achieved in courses that meet divisional and other requirements. All courses within the major must show numerical grades. You will not be notified as to which students are taking your course Credit/No Credit. (The CR/NCR option is explained in more detail in the undergraduate catalog.)
The median grade at Bryn Mawr has for some time been 3.3; roughly two-thirds of all grades given are in the 3.3 to 4.0 range. Even though 2.7 is equivalent to a B-, students are disappointed with anything less than 3.0; once they have chosen a major and begun to take advanced courses, most will be trying to do 3.3 or better work. The students most anxious about their grades are likely to be freshmen; anything less than a 3.7 feels bad to a student who graduated from high school at the top of her class. These considerations should not deter you from using the full grading scale, but may help you to understand why a student is questioning a course grade or asking you how she can do better in your course. You would be well advised to specify in your syllabus how you intend to weight the various components of class participation, written work, exams and so forth, to arrive at the final grade. You would also be well advised to give each student a rough sense of how she is doing at mid-semester. You will be asked by the Dean's Office to notify them of any student whose level of performance is below Merit at that time.
Grades are due in the Registrar's Office within one week of the final examination, or within one week of the last day on which the examination may be self-scheduled by the students.
Liaison with the Undergraduate Dean's Office
Extensions
You should honor a student's request for an extension for written work that falls due on a religious holiday the student chooses to observe. Within the semester other requests for additional time to complete an assignment can be negotiated without involving the student's dean, unless you feel that the dean's involvement would help you to decide how much or what kind of flexibility would be appropriate. Permission for an extension beyond the last day of classes can only be given in consultation with the student's dean.
Course evaluations are conducted in most undergraduate courses. These questionnaires must be circulated in class during the last two weeks of the semester in each of your courses. You will be notified well in advance how to set this up. The completed forms are delivered to the Provost's Office, where you can pick them up after you submit your final grades to the Registrar. You are responsible for holding onto these forms, in their original envelope, so that you can submit them, along with the course syllabus and any comments you see fit to make, to the Provost and the Appointments Committee when you come up for reappointment. Guidelines on the course evaluation procedures are available electronically.
Restrooms in Thomas are by the main staircase on first floor and in the basement; in Taylor on first floor opposite classroom C; in English House on first floor behind classroom II, also basement and second floor; in Dalton in the basement. In Park, restrooms are available on every floor. Last updated August 22, 2005
Please consult both Responsibilities of the Faculty Member, a section of the Faculty Handbook, and the section on Conduct of Courses in the Undergraduate Catalog, as you begin your Bryn Mawr affiliation. (If your office does not have an undergraduate catalog, ask the departmental secretary to get one for you.) We summarize below some important items.
Usually a lower-level undergraduate classes begin at 10 minutes after the listed time. No undergraduate classes are scheduled between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., to allow for athletic and other student activities. Evening classes are held on Mondays and Tuesdays only.
Bryn Mawr Grading Scale Letter Grade Equivalent Explanation 4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7
2.3
2.0A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C MERIT: Merit grades from 4.0 (outstanding) to 2.0 (satisfactory). Courses in which students earn merit grades can be used to satisfy the major and curricular requirements. 1.7
1.3
1.0C-
D+
D PASSING: Counts toward graduation but will not satisfy a requirement (see above) 0.0 F FAILING
You should notify a student's dean if one of your students is absent from class more than twice consecutively without explanation, or if her written work is late, very poor, or not forthcoming. Let the student know that you have notified her dean if she appears to be falling behind. This is especially important with first-year students. Poor performance in your course may be symptomatic of a larger problem of adjustment to college life.
The Campus Center Café is open from 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. for sandwiches, coffee, etc. To purchase meals at a discounted price in the Campus Center or student dining halls, a BMC Express Card may be obtained in Cartref. The Bookshop sells various edible things, also minor stores. (The Campus Center also houses an ATM machine, a post office [9:30 - 3:00], and lounging areas. The Café re-opens in the evening at 8:00 p.m.)
There is a faculty table in the dining room of Wyndham, the Alumnae House, which is a bit more formal than the Café and has an $8.00 lunch buffet. Student dining halls are also open to faculty: the cost is for breakfast $5.00 (BMC Express $3.50), for lunch/brunch $6.00 (BMC Express $4.25), and for dinner $7.75 (BMC Express $5.50). A continental breakfast is offered only in Brecon Dining Hall at a cost of $4.25 (BMC Express $3.25). You can purchase tickets for meals in the dining halls from Dining Service in Cartref: (7400). If you are invited by students to share a meal with them in one of the dining halls they or you can obtain a meal pass from JoAnn O'Doherty in the Dean's Office (second floor of Taylor Hall).
Office of the Provost
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