Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR)

Faculty Activity Reporting is moving to OnBase

• Faculty Activity Reporting in OnBase

  Starting with the AY 2024-2025 collection cycle, Faculty Activity Reports will now be collected in OnBase. Faculty will recieve an email that contains a link to a personalized FAR for each term of the reporting cycle. More information to come.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Who needs to complete FARs?
  All tenured and tenure-track faculty are encouraged to review FARs and make any neccessary adjustments.
• Why am I being asked to acknowledge a Faculty Activity Report?

  All universities within the State University System (SUS) in Florida are required to participate in Faculty Activity Reporting. This reporting is required to the following Florida Statute: Florida Statute 1012.945.

  Faculty are given the opportunity to review and update the data that is used for this important collection each year in OnBase. 

• What is Percent of Effort?

  Percent of effort is the unit of effort used in Faculty Activity Reports and should sum to 100%. 1% of effort should represent 1% of an individual’s work effort for that position.

  For instance, if a faculty member/administrator works 40 hours per week in a given term, 20% of effort would represent 8 hours worked per week. If a faculty member/administrator works more than 40 hours per week in a given term, 20% of effort may very well represent more than 8 hours worked per week.

• How is the information on my Faculty Activity Report populated?
  Institutional Research (IR) will populate the Faculty Activity Reports for faculty based on the typical allocations applicable to the majority of faculty. However, the faculty member, in working with his/her chair or director, can adjust the effort percentages to reflect appropriate activities performed.
• What are the typical activity allocations for faculty at UNF?

  EXAMPLES OF TYPICAL EFFORT ALLOCATIONS

  • Tenured or tenure-track faculty member teaching courses: 75% classroom instruction, 20% departmental research, 3% university governance, 2% public service (Most Common)
  • Non-tenure-track faculty member teaching courses: 96% classroom instruction, 4% university governance
  • Senior-level administrator holding faculty rank—e.g., Provost, Associate Provost, Associate Vice-President, or Dean—with no teaching assignment: 100% academic administration 
  • Associate Dean or Department Chair teaching courses: 25% classroom instruction, 75% academic administration.  
  • Librarians with no teaching assignment: 75% academic administration, 20% departmental research, 3% university governance, 2% public service

  Summary of Guidelines by Category:

  Activity Category	Typical Range (%)	Typical Assignment (%)	Note
  Instruction	0-100 95-100	50-75 96	Tenured/Tenure-Track Non-Tenure-Track
  Other Instructional Activities (non-credit generating)	0-30	0	Varies, but often zero
  Academic Advisement	0-50	0-10	Often zero
  Departmental Research	5-25 0	20 0	Tenured/Tenure-Track Non-Tenure-Track
  Externally Funded/Sponsored Research	0-100	0	Varies, reflecting extent of externally funded research and contractual requirements, but often zero
  Public Service	0-8	2 0	Tenured/Tenure-Track Non-Tenure-Track
  University Governance	0-5	3 4	Tenured/Tenure-Track Non-Tenure-Track
  Academic Administration	0-100	0	Varies by unit size and complexity, as reflected in course releases granted
  Leave of Absence	0-100	0	Varies, but often zero
  Total Percent Employed	100	100	Should always equal 100 percent

   

• How do I know which activity category I should choose for my activity?

  ACTIVITY CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS 

  Instruction

  These activities should be preloaded into the FARs by the Institutional Research. Instruction activities include: 

  • A. Classroom Instruction 
  • B. Thesis / Dissertation Supervision (section types T and G, respectively) 
  • C. Directed Independent Studies and Honors Theses (section types Z) 
  • D. Supervision of Student Internships and Supervised Cooperative Education (section type I) 
  • E. Supervised Teaching / Research (section type S and R, respectively)

  If you have any questions regarding the percent of effort that was assigned for a given instructional activity, see FAQ: What are the typical percent of effort allocations for instructional activities?

  Other Instructional Activities (non-credit-generating)

  Appropriate activities to place in this category include but are not necessarily limited to: course releases, area curriculum revision, and development of new programs or courses.

  Pre-populated data should be verified and adjusted by faculty if needed.

  Academic Advisement

  Undergraduate and graduate coordinator assignments should be listed under this heading if/when the chief task is formal academic advising. The percentage assigned for being the graduate or undergraduate coordinator should vary by size of the department and program. As general guidelines, the effort percentage should be 25-30% for a large program, 15-25% for a midsize program, and 5-15% for a small program. 

  Departmental Research

  This category is for research activities that are not externally funded and not handled through the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs. Typically, over the course of an academic year tenure-track faculty members should have some research assignment (minimum of 5%) under this category, sponsored research, or both. 

  A percentage above 25% is appropriate if the faculty member has been given an additional course release to support development of their research program (e.g., for tenure-track faculty in their first and fourth year). 

  Public Service

  This service includes service to students unrelated to credit instruction such as writing letters of reference; service to the profession such as being a journal editor, reviewer, conference organizer, conference session chair, or conference discussant; service to the community, state, or nation such as work with public schools, technical assistance to government agencies, or serving on national public advisory boards, etc. Work that involves any remuneration from third parties is not considered public service. Moreover, the service must be professional and/or discipline-related, and must benefit groups, organizations, or individuals. The upper limit of this range may be exceeded in circumstances such as when a faculty member is president of a national professional association, is editor of a leading journal in his/her discipline, is a member of a Presidential Commission, or otherwise has an especially heavy commitment in public service.

  University Governance

  Committees requiring low investments of time should not be considered as university governance. Major short-term committee assignments such as heading up a department self-study, chairing a major committee, or serving on a search committee or a college or university task force may justify exceeding the upper limit.

  Additional release time for specific university governance-related activities, limited to Faculty Association President, President of the IRB, Faculty Athletics Representative, and Academic Programs Committee Chair,  should be verified and adjusted by faculty if needed.

  Academic Administration

  For department chairs, associate deans, and higher-level administrators, typically this assignment will replace the instruction category (if not teaching) and is typically 75%. However, the percentage may be adjusted to reflect the number of hours worked per week and/or non-teaching activities such as research and public service. As examples:

  • A department chair with no teaching assignment in a given term would claim 75% for academic administration and 25% combined effort in categories not involving instruction (i.e., in research, public service, etc.).

  For academic administration that doesn’t necessarily involve course release(s), such as for some program or center directors, the usual percentage of effort should be 5-10 percent.

  Faculty administrators engaging in curriculum planning should have that portion of their work reflected in other instructional activities, as opposed to having such efforts included in academic administration.

  Academic Administration can also include activities conducted by University Librarians and Library Faculty to further the mission of the university. 

  Pre-populated data should be verified and adjusted by faculty if needed. 

  Leave of Absence

  Leave of absence with pay would normally include professional development leave, sabbaticals, disability leave, and annual/sick leave when the leave exceeds 20 work days. 

• How is Sponsored Research populated in my FARs and should I adjust it?

  Any faculty paid from Sponsored Research Funds will have those activities pre-populated under ‘Sponsored Research’. Please note that this information is pre-populated based on payroll information and should be reported as such. For example, if you worked on a grant during the summer and fall, but were only paid out of the grant in the summer, no grant information will appear, or should be reported, for fall under Sponsored Research.

   

• I had a course release or activity that was not pre-loaded into FARs, what activity category should I choose?

  FAR Classification	Activity Description
  Academic Advising	Academic Advising
  Academic Administration	Activity related to assigned duties of Dean, Chair, Program Director, or other Upper Level Administrator
  Academic Administration	Activity related to assigned duties of Center Directors, E&G funded
  Academic Administration	Activity related to administrative services to the department or college, such as assessment, E&G funded
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Sabbatical
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Leave With Pay
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Leave Without Pay
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Administrative Leave
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Medical Leave
  Leave of Absence	Release time for Professional Development
  Public Service	Release time for Public Service
  Departmental Research	Release time for New Faculty, granted in first year of employment
  Other Instructional Activities	Release time for Course Banking
  Departmental Research	Release time for additional, internally funded, departmental research that falls outside the standard allocations
  Other Instructional Activities	Release time for curriculum development, E&G funded
  Departmental Research	Release time for faculty in the fourth year of employment
  Other Instructional Activities	Release time for activity related to Student Academic Success initiatives, E&G funded
  University Governance	Activity related to select faculty service leadership roles: Faculty Athletics Representative, President of IRB, President of Faculty Association, and APC Chair