Module 2.3

Key Policies

Understanding key college policies is essential to your role as an instructor at TCNJ. These policies help create a safe, inclusive, and academically honest learning environment for all students. Please take a few minutes to review the highlighted policies below and reach out if you have any questions about how they apply to your course.

FERPA

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Policy

If you are new to higher education, you may be unfamiliar with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This federal law guides student privacy matters and is essential for adjunct faculty to understand. If you have not done so already, complete the FERPA tutorial to discover (or review) the rules for accessing and sharing student records. You may always consult the Office of Records and Registration or your department head for clarification.

FERPA at TCNJ

FERPA is a federal law and is the touchstone of student privacy at The College of New Jersey and institutions of higher education throughout the United States. The tutorial and quiz that follows are intended to introduce TCNJ faculty and staff as authorized members of the campus community to understand the responsibilities of handling student records under FERPA. We appreciate your cooperation as The College strives to balance access with privacy.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity Policy

Your syllabus should refer to the College's policy on academic integrity. TCNJ’s Academic Integrity Policy emphasizes the positive reasons for academic honesty rather than negative consequences of academic dishonesty. Students need to know, however, that those consequences are severe. All TCNJ students must be familiar with the distinctions, procedures, and penalties contained in the Policy. Although a student may have a good grasp of the fundamental differences between academic honesty and dishonesty, there are details in the Policy that must be known before the submission of one’s first assignment. Neither ignorance of regulations nor pressures of time and circumstance is an acceptable reason for violations of academic integrity.

All cases of possible student academic integrity violations must be referred to your school’s Academic Integrity Officer.
To report suspected academic integrity violations, use the College’s reporting system, Symplicity.
For more information on the Academic Integrity procedures, please see the Academic Integrity website.

Syllabus

Syllabus Policy

All faculty are required to submit copies of syllabi for every course, every semester, to their department chair. These are critical for the department to be able to share with new faculty as examples, to determine equivalency with courses taken elsewhere, and in cases when emergency coverage is needed.

TCNJ provides a syllabus template, which you may download as a Word document. The template follows accessibility guidelines for heading levels, link text, and formatting.

Office Hours

Office Hours Policy

Adjunct faculty must hold limited office hours (one hour per week for one course per semester). For each additional course, they must hold an additional 30 minute session. While in-person meetings are preferable, these meetings can be virtual considering the scheduling constraints faced by many adjunct faculty members. To facilitate in-person meetings between adjunct faculty and their students, departments should provide appropriate spaces, even if the spaces are shared.

Absence and Attendance

Absence and Attendance Policy

The course syllabus should specifically state the instructor’s policy on classroom attendance, consistent with the College’s attendance policy. While instructors may not include attendance as a direct factor in grading, instructors may give credit for class participation. A course audit of student attendance is requested early in each semester by Records and Registration. The instructor determines the make-up policy for students absent for an exam.

Final Assessment, Reading Days

Final Assessment, Reading Days Policy

All courses must include a final exam or evaluation, which can take various forms. The final exam policy specifies the weight of the final assessment in the course grade, the form this final assessment may take, the prohibition of scheduling final assessments during the last two weeks of class (i.e., instead of during final exam week), and other details. The date of your exam(s) can be found on Canvas. If your final exam is scheduled for a day/time that you cannot be present, contact your department chairperson immediately to discuss coverage in your absence.

Class Recording by Students

Class Recording by Students Policy

This policy concerns student recording of academic classes. It explains when a student may record a class session and how a student may use this recorded information. For instances in which an instructor records their own class session, please refer to the Remote Classroom Camera/Microphone Use and Recording Policy.

Remote Classroom Camera/Microphone Use and Recording

Remote Classroom Camera/Microphone Use and Recording Policy

Remote Classrooms can be used to facilitate virtual learning experiences. In some cases, instructors may determine that students should use cameras and/or microphones to communicate within their Remote Classrooms. Instructors can also record classes that take place in the Remote Classroom and then provide access to these recordings asynchronously. The use of cameras/microphones and the dissemination of class recordings requires both consideration of privacy issues and compliance with applicable law, policy, and contract provisions. This policy deals with camera and/or microphone use, as well as virtual classroom recordings made by instructors. The Class Recording policy listed above deals with the recording of classes by students. But this policy does not cover the use of cameras, microphones, and recordings during other types of Remote meetings between faculty and/or staff and students, including those that may occur either before or after a regularly scheduled remote class time, such as office hours.

What if your class is cancelled after you are hired?

If your class is cancelled within two weeks before classes begin, you will be compensated 1.5 faculty weighted hours. If it is cancelled after you teach your first class, you will be compensated 1.75 hours.