Faculty Appointment Service Periods

Faculty are appointed to perform research, teaching, or service on either a nine or twelve-month basis which is referred to as the "service period."

Faculty appointments must be classified as either a  nine- or twelve-month appointment, but may not be both. In either case, salary is paid and benefits are provided all twelve months of the calendar year both to provide a consistent monthly income and to enable the provision of University benefits across the full calendar year.

Certain faculty employment  policies differ depending on whether an individual holds a nine- or twelve-month appointment and, in such cases, the relevant policies will often stipulate which benefits or privileges apply to nine-month faculty, twelve-month faculty, or both.

For specific policy provisions regarding either 9- or 12-month faculty members, refer to the Tenure Code or the detailed text of the relevant personnel policy.

The following general guidelines apply to 12-month faculty appointments:

• Effective dates of appointment may be after the final required faculty review committee (e.g., ASAC, HSAC, APT) and/or Board of Trustees approval.
• Faculty members work and are compensated for the services they perform on a twelve calendar month basis.
• Faculty are eligible to earn and use vacation, sick, and bonus leave (when awarded by legislature); for more information on leave policies, see http://hr.unc.edu/EPA/faculty/leave/faculty-leave-earnings.
• Faculty may earn "overload" pay for additional work performed throughout the year beyond normal duties as permitted under the campus overload policy. Faculty may teach in summer school but pay is awarded as "overload" and cannot exceed the relevant overload maximum amount for 12-month employees.

The following general guidelines apply to 9-month faculty appointments:

• Appointment dates begin either January 1 or July 1.
• Faculty work the nine months of the academic schedule, i.e., beginning of the Fall Semester and ending with commencement exercises each Spring.
• Faculty are not eligible to earn and use vacation, sick, and bonus leave.
• Faculty do not work during the summer months unless teaching summer school classes or engaging in summer research or service activities which are  compensated under the provisions of our faculty summer compensation  policy; such work is not considered "overload" pay since base pay for nine-month faculty is not intended to compensate work performed outside of the normal academic year.
• During the summer months outside of the normal academic year, nine-month faculty are essentially "free agents" and are able to perform work for additional pay that is not compensated as "overload".