Part-Time Faculty Toolkit

The College’s pay schedule is on a lag system, which means that you get paid for two weeks of work two weeks after the period ends. The official New York State payday is Wednesday (bi-weekly). It is preferred that you use Direct Deposit; the form can be accessed on the HR payroll forms webpage. If you have Direct Deposit, you can also choose to go paperless and not receive a pay stub. If you do not sign up for Direct Deposit, your check will be mailed to your home address. Contact Donna Magill at magilldl@cobleskill.edu or at 518-255-5412 for questions about Direct Deposit or pay in general.

The School secretary will assign you an office space and put in a request to have keys issued to you. You will be notified once that request is processed and will need to pick up and sign for your keys at Facilities Management, Service Building A7. See campus map for directions. For questions about keys, contact your School secretary or Joanne Lane at LaneJF@Cobleskill.edu or 518-255-5228. You will also have access to a computer and a phone in your office. Please note that these desks and computer may be shared.

The CobyCard is the official identification card of SUNY Cobleskill. IDs are issued to all members of our community; it is required for identification and to access essential services. It also offers access to convenient prepaid accounts for making purchases on- and off-campus. You should have it with you at all times while on campus. Visit the CobyCard webpage for more information.

Parking permits (decals) are required and extend through each academic year. (They are not required during summer.) All employees can register their vehicle and pay for their decal online or from Shannon Wancewicz in Johnson Hall, the headquarters of University Police. See campus map for directions. One-day Visitor Passes are available from the School secretary.

Once your paperwork has been processed by Human Resources and the Business Office, an email account will be generated for you. You will be notified via your personal email account that your SUNY Cobleskill email account is ready. You can access Webmail in the browser.

Your School secretary will assign you a mailbox, which is typically located in the faculty work area or near your office. Mail is picked up and delivered each day. A box for outgoing and inter-office communication is available in each mail area. If your office is in Wheeler Hall, please see the School secretary for a key to the mail cabinet.

You are required to have at least one office hour for each section you teach. Your stated office hours must be on your course syllabus/syllabi and submitted to your School office via email.

School of Agriculture & Natural Resources: SchoolofAGNR@cobleskill.edu.
School of Business and Liberal Arts & Sciences: SchoolofBLAS@cobleskill.edu.

You should also provide your contact information (home address and telephone number) and indicate whether you want that information to be shared with students. Please keep in mind that some students may not able to see you during the hours you have indicated, so you should indicate how else they may contact you if necessary.

SUNY Cobleskill’s book supplier is now eCampus. To order books for the Fall 2018 semester, please contact Jeri Usatch, Bookstore Manager, directly by phone (518-255-5227) or email (UsatchJ@cobleskill.edu).

See your department chair for assistance.

Supplies are available in faculty work area. If you cannot find the supplies you need, please contact your School secretary.

You can download SUNY Cobleskill’s course syllabus template as an editable Word document. Once your syllabus is or syllabi are created, you must make them available to your students. You must also send a copy of your course syllabus to the School secretary no later than the third week of the semester. Additional responsibilities are listed in the Faculty Handbook.

SUNY Cobleskill uses Moodle as its Learning Management System (LMS). For help using Moodle, please contact Vinny Basile by phone (ext. 5849) or by email (basilvm@cobleskill.edu). You can also submit a Help Desk Support ticket online. If you need assistance with this, please contact your School secretary.

BannerWeb is SUNY Cobleskill’s online tool for recording mid-term and final grades. It also provides instructors with access to student contact information, class information, class rosters, and student email addresses. For assistance with BannerWeb, please contact the Registrar’s office.

Employee Sharepoint is a communication tool for employees. Here you will find postings in the following categories: Official/Administrative Announcements, Closings/Outages/Schedule Changes, Student Absences, and Campus News, Events, and General Interest Items. On the right side of the screen are convenient links to many campus webpages including BannerWeb, Campus Directory, Campus Reservations System, ITS Helpdesk, Moodle, Work Orders and many more.

Important dates to remember are listed on the Registrar Dates & Deadlines webpage. The Registrar’s office will send these dates by email as calendar invites for you to add to your Outlook Calendar. They will also send an email reminding you when you need to submit such things an enrollment verification or mid-term grades. Contact your School secretary or the Registrar if you have questions about these dates.

It is important for the College to know which students are enrolled in your class(es) by the end of the third week of the semester. The Registrar’s office will remind you of the deadline through your Outlook Calendar and email.

Faculty are required to submit a mid-term grade for every student in BannerWeb. The Registrar’s office will notify you via e-mail the deadline to post them electronically. If you have questions or need assistance, contact the Registrar’s office.

Students may add or drop courses on their own at any time during Week 1 using BannerWeb. They do not need your signature to do this — unless the class is full or there is a pre-requisite for taking it. However, after Week 1, they do need your permission to add or drop your class and must present you with the College’s Add/Drop form for your signature, if you consent. If your class is full, and a student wishes to add it at any time during the semester, they must obtain your permission using the Add/Drop form.

SUNY Cobleskill has a wide array of services to help students who are struggling. For academic issues, they can take advantage of any one or all of our educational support services. For health issues (physical, mental, emotional), they should contact the Wellness Center.

You may also want to warn a student with an Academic Deficiency Form. 

An instructor may withdraw a student from a course with the Course Withdrawal Form.

Students can self-withdraw from a course through their Banner Web account.

Faculty must give final exams or have a major final project due in class during the week designated for final exams. Please note that the time of your final exam may not be the same as the time your class(es) meet regularly during the semester. Additional information about Finals Week and exams are listed in the Faculty Handbook.

Faculty are required to submit a final grade for every student in BannerWeb. This includes “Incomplete” grades as well. The Registrar’s office will notify you via e-mail the deadline to post them electronically. If you have questions or need assistance, contact the Registrar’s office.

Faculty must maintain records of students’ performance in their course(s). This should include all criteria that will be used to determine their grades (e.g., attendance, participation quizzes, examinations, papers). You have the option to keep track of students’ grades through Moodle — but please remember that BannerWeb is the official means of reporting students’ final grades. For help setting up the grade-tracking feature in Moodle, please contact Vinny Basile by phone (ext. 5849) or by e-mail (basilevm@cobleskill.edu).

The College’s attendance policy is defined under Academic Policies, section 5.20-5.26. In general, an “instructor's attendance policy, as stated in the course outline, determines how absences will be treated in that course. Any anticipated absence should be brought to the instructor's attention as soon as the student is aware of it, so that appropriate accommodations regarding completion of work may be made. Illness should be reported as soon as possible. (Proof required at the discretion of the instructor)”

“Excessive absence may result in cancellation of the student's course registration. The course instructor requests such cancellation from the dean of the school in the degree program which is responsible for the course. This written cancellation results in grades of "W" or "F."

If the student wishes to appeal (see 4.26), they must do so in writing to the dean of the school in the degree program which is responsible for the course within seven days of the cancellation notice.”

Individual instructors “shall define ‘excessive absences’ in their respective course policy statements. In no instance may the definition of ‘excessive absence’ exceed being absent for two consecutive weeks or more, or for a total of three weeks or more in a semester. These limitations shall be pro-rated for modules.”

If you need to cancel a class, you should give students, your department chair, and School secretary as much advance notice as possible. If the cancellation has not been planned — in the case of an illness, for example — you should notify students and your department chair via e-mail , if possible. You must also notify the School secretary either by e-mail or by phone so that they can post the cancellation on the appropriate classroom door(s). Please be sure to tell them which classes are being cancelled.

School of Agriculture & Natural Resources: SchoolofAGNR@cobleskill.edu.

Amy Lauterbach: 518.255.5324

Pamela Strobeck: 518.255.5323

School of Business and Liberal Arts & Sciences: SchoolofBLAS@cobleskill.edu.

Susan Brodie: 518.255.5413

518.255.5892

Rooms can be reserved through the Campus Reservation System. If you wish to change (swap) rooms with another instructor, that request must be made through the Registrar’s office. As classroom space is limited, especially on Tuesdays and Thursday, this might not be possible.

School of Agriculture & Natural Resources: SchoolofAGNR@cobleskill.edu

Amy Lauterbach: 518.255.5324
Pamela Strobeck: 518.255.5323

School of Business and Liberal Arts & Sciences: SchoolofBLAS@cobleskill.edu

Susan Brodie: 518.255.5413
518.255.5892

The copiers/printers in faculty work areas are for small jobs. Larger quantities of printed materials must be done through the Print Shop in Alumni Hall, Room 104 or e-mailed directly at printshop@cobleskill.edu. You can obtain your department’s account number for print shop jobs from your department chair.

The State University of New York at Cobleskill is a residential community and must stay open at all times. Only the Governor has the authority to close the campus. However, there are occasions when a weather emergency (e.g. serious winter storm) will create the need to cancel of classes, dismiss classes early, or delay the start of classes.

In all cases, employees and students must use their best judgment in determining their own safety when traveling to and from the campus. Leave accruals must be charged unless the Governor officially closes the campus.

The official decision to declare a weather emergency will be made by the College President or designee in consultation with the Director of Facilities Management as necessary. Dr. Susan Zimmermann, Vice President for Academic Affairs, will be the designee.

An appropriate weather-related message will be distributed as follows:

• Campus Email
• Weather Emergency Hotline 518-255-6000
• Official college social media accounts
• College website homepage
• A weather emergency announcement will be broadcast over the following channels:
  
  • Capital News 9
  • WNYT TV (13)
  • WRGB TV (6)
  • WTEN TV (10)
  • WXXA TV (8)
  • WRVE 99.5 FM
  • WGY 810 AM
  • WYJB B 95.5 FM
  • WFLY 92 FM

Despite our best efforts, a class cancellation notice for SUNY Cobleskill may get listed among the "school closings" on radio and television stations. Be reminded that this normally means only that classes are cancelled, NOT that the campus is closed. If campus was closed by the Governor, we would communicate that via the voice mail system and campus email.

Plagiarism is defined in the Academic Policies as the “means representing another’s work as one’s own in including the use of work bought from a ‘research paper mill.’” View Section E for more clarification and detail. If you have questions about plagiarism or how to handle it if it occurs in any of your classes, you should speak to your department chair.

You can review all of here the College’s Academic Policies online.

Employee Sharepoint is a communication tool for employees. Here you will find postings in the following categories: Official/Administrative Announcements, Closings/Outages/Schedule Changes, Student Absences, and Campus News, Events, and General Interest Items. On the right side of the screen are convenient links to many campus webpages including BannerWeb, Campus Directory, Campus Reservations System, ITS Helpdesk, Moodle, Work Orders and many more.

The Office of Online Education offers trainings and they are there to answer any questions about online course development and instruction.To learn more visit the Online Education webpage. 

SUNY Cobleskill uses Moodle as its Learning Management System (LMS). For help using Moodle, please contact Vinny Basile by phone (ext. 5849) or by email (basilvm@cobleskill.edu). You can also submit a Help Desk Support ticket online. If you need assistance with this, please contact your School secretary.

The Teaching Innovation, Learning, and Technology Collaborative, or TILT is a teaching and learning resource for SUNY Cobleskill’s campus. TILT is a collaborative of instructional design, curriculum and teaching support, and faculty-to-faculty innovative classroom practices. Our mission is to support our excellent teaching faculty with the tools to continue to deliver high-quality college education as technology, students, and best practices in student learning and engagement evolve.

Contact Kelly Yacobucci for any questions. 

Interlibrary loan materials can be ordered online here.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are tools that educators can use to supplement or build a course. OER are free for anyone to reuse, revise, remix and redistribute and are a low-cost, tailored solution for faculty and students. This guide provides an overview of OER, how and why it is used, and resources to find OER for your courses. SUNY is currently offering some incentives for creating and using OER in your courses. Please contact Peter Barvoets at barvoepd@cobleskill.edu (x5894) for more information.

To schedule a library instruction session for your class, contact Freya Gibbon, Coordinator of Reference and Instruction, at gibbonfs@cobleskill.edu or at 518.255.5858. More information is available on the LibGuides webpage.

A wide range of resources are available to you through the Van Wagenen Library. To get help or a specific question answered, contact Freya Gibbon, Coordinator of Reference and Instruction, at gibbonfs@cobleskill.edu or at 518.255.5858.

SUNY Cobleskill has a wide array of services to help students who are struggling. For academic issues, they can take advantage of any one or all of our educational support services. For health issues (physical, mental, emotional), they should contact the Wellness Center.

“The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.”