Important Dates
Dates and deadlines for our School of Cinema faculty and staff to be aware of.
Workplace Logistics
This section offers information about setting up your email, office assignments and keys, parking, and absences.
Setting up Your Email and SF State ID
First, you'll need to make sure you have received your SF State ID number. You can look up your ID number to find out what it is or if need further assistance you can review some troubleshooting tips. Once you have your ID number, you can request to have an email created.
Office assignments and keys
The School of Cinema has a small number of rooms that are used as shared offices for GTAs and lecturers. The department’s office staff will contact you with information about your office assignment and phone number. A staff member will order any keys for you (including for your classroom if necessary), and you will be notified by e-mail about picking these up at the Facilities office. If you lose your key(s), please contact the staff.
Parking
Specific information about applying for faculty parking permits for the upcoming semester(s) will be distributed by e-mail through the College list-serv. If you have not had a parking permit before and would like to get one, contact the Cinema academic office coordinator. If you will be on campus a limited number of days per week, you might consider purchasing daily permits. During the first four weeks of each semester, faculty may purchase daily permits at a much-reduced rate by going in person to the Parking Office on North State Drive. You will be asked to present your faculty ID, and they only accept personal checks as payment. Unfortunately, at this time, GTAs are not eligible for faculty parking permits.
Absences
If you will not hold a scheduled class meeting, please call the Cinema office (415-338-1629) and inform us. In the event that your class must be canceled, the office student/staff will post signs on the classroom door. If you have an office hour scheduled for that day, we will post a sign on your office door stating that you will not hold office hours that day. We also encourage faculty to e-mail their students to inform them of class cancellations.
Faculty and GTAs accrue sick leave credits for each month of employment. The full-time rate of accrual is eight hours a month, and accrual for part-time employees is prorated accordingly. If appropriate, the academic office coordinator will contact you with instructions about reporting your absence in the University’s online absence management system.
Teaching
This section will cover topics related to teaching, such as: enrollment and grades, iLearn, texts, evaluation, office hours, academic calendar, forms and petitions, accessibility of course materials, plagiarism policy, credit/no credit grading option, disappearing students, and students with disabilities.
Enrollment and grades
Enrollment management, including adding/dropping students and grading, is done entirely online through Class Services. Once your hiring paperwork has been processed and your name shows up on the class schedule as the instructor of record, you will have access to your course rosters, iLearn, etc., in Class Services. You can access Class Services through SF State Gateway. Familiarize yourself with the functions and capabilities of Class Services. Please plan to have access to your class rosters and permit numbers at your first class meeting. To be prepared to add students by permit number, if necessary, please study how this function works. You can give out permit numbers in person or e-mail them to students.
Note about classes offered through the College of Extended Learning: in Class Services, make sure you choose “Extended Learning” in the drop-down. This is where you need to be in order to view rosters, assign grades, etc. for students in courses that are supported by CEL (summer session; winter session; online certificate programs).
Periodically you will receive reminders about important enrollment-related deadlines. The chief deadline is known as the “census” deadline — enrollments at that point (usually four full weeks into the semester) are the basis for University budget/financing calculations. By this date, your online class roster should match your actual enrollment.
The deadline for entering grades is normally 11:59pm on the last day of the semester. You will receive reminders. If you have trouble entering grades or if you miss the deadline, you must contact the AOC as soon as possible.
The office staff can assist you with any questions you may have regarding enrollment and grading issues.
iLearn
Faculty instructions and access to iLearn are located online. Learn about more course technologies.
Texts
Order texts and other course materials online. You may also order texts by sending an e-mail to textbook@sfsu.edu. Try to place your orders for the next semester in a timely manner. Deadlines will be distributed frequently. Usually, the deadline for placing orders for the spring semester is October 15; for fall semester, April 15.
Evaluation
The School requires its faculty, including lecturers and GTAs, to submit student evaluations in order to benefit from the insights of students and so that the School can evaluate teaching effectiveness. This process will be conducted online. The School also conducts peer evaluations of lecturers, including classroom visits and subsequent discussions about pedagogy and presentation, the goal being to provide lecturers with more detailed feedback and hence a roadmap for continued success in the classroom. Lecturers will be notified well in advance about setting up peer visits and will receive the resulting review letter. Review letters are forwarded to personnel files.
Office hours
Each faculty member should post office hours and teaching schedules on his or her office door, supply the office manager with office hour information, and adhere strictly to the schedule posted. Part-time faculty are expected to maintain one office hour per week for each three-unit class.
Academic Calendar
Bookmark the online academic calendar for references to key dates and deadlines throughout the semester, as well as the final exam schedule for fall and spring semesters.
Forms and petitions
Student forms and petitions are available online. Instruct students to deliver their petitions to you, fill out and ready for your signature. The Registrar provides access to most student forms and petitions. The Division of Graduate Studies stores forms and petitions pertaining to graduate students.
Two of the most frequently-used petitions for both graduate and undergraduate students are:
- Report of Makeup of Incomplete: This petition is only to be used for assigning a grade when a student completes an incomplete. Instructors must enter grade changes in Class Services via the Grades roster. This petition must be submitted to the office in hard copy form.
- Petition for Withdrawal from Course(s) or University: Students may present hard copy Withdrawal petitions to instructors, but instructors should enter withdrawals in Class Services via the Grades roster in Class Services, where the withdrawal request is subject to the chair’s approval electronically. Please note that a student’s record must be reviewed — if the student has already withdrawn from the course twice, s/he will not be permitted to withdraw, and you will need to assign a failing grade instead.
Accessibility of course materials
The Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI), formed in December 2006 to ensure access to resources and technology to everyone on campus, requires that all course materials and content (including websites) be accessible to everyone involved by 2012. Please plan ahead and make sure all of your students are able to access your materials. More information on ATI’s ACCESS project, along with additional information on SF State’s Instructional Media Accessibility, in conjunction with SF State’s Disability Programs and Resource Center and Academic Technology department.
Plagiarism policy
The College of Liberal & Creative Arts website contains useful resources regarding plagiarism in the “For Faculty” area, including a policy statement that can be included on course syllabi, procedures, and a form for reporting cases of plagiarism to the School and College.
Credit/No Credit Grading Option
Students may take up to 30 percent of their courses for a grade of Credit or No Credit, instead of a letter grade. Students who want to exercise this option can do so online up to a certain date (the “CR/NC deadline”). If necessary, refer students to the office for instructions. Consult with the office staff if you have questions. You will not be notified if a student chooses the CR/NC grading option, but you can pull up this information in your roster.
Disappearing students
Students who must stop attending after the University’s deadline for dropping a class may petition for an official withdrawal, resulting in a grade of W for the course. If students stop attending your class and do not approach you about petitioning to withdraw, the normal grade options are NC, F or WU. Refer to the SF State Bulletin for more information on grading symbols and their corresponding grade points.
Please consult with the Cinema chair for advice if needed. It is of great assistance when instructors are aware of the major deadlines, particularly the deadline for dropping a class without getting a W grade. The School will also send e-mail reminders about important enrollment-related deadlines.
Students with disabilities
The Disability Programs and Resource Center website provides information on accommodating students with disabilities, including assignment adjustments, test accommodations, electronic resources and classroom furniture.
Financial Matters
Financial resources are gathered here for our faculty. Topics include paychecks, direct deposit, address change, SF State Gateway, reimbursements, and travel.
Paychecks
Instructors are paid in six monthly installments per semester. The first installment for the fall semester is paid around the first day of October; the next four paychecks are paid around the first day of the months of November - February. The sixth is paid in the following summer. Instructors who do not return after the fall semester will receive the sixth installment in March. The six installments for the spring commence around the first day of March and continue monthly.
Direct Deposit
Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of direct deposit to ensure timely delivery of pay. Application forms are available online and can be delivered directly to Human Resources in Administration 252, or to the academic office coordinator. Often, applications are not processed in time for to take effect for your next paycheck disbursement. Pay stubs are delivered to mailboxes around the first of each month. If you have applied for direct deposit, but you do not receive a pay stub in your mailbox, check at the desk in Creative Arts 251 to see if there is a paycheck waiting for you. If you do not have direct deposit, you must ask the attendant at the desk in Creative Arts 251 for your check each payday.
Address Changes
Notify the office manager if your address changes; you will receive instructions about how to change your address in the system.
SF State Gateway
SF State Gateway is a portal to various self-service areas for faculty and staff. Explore the Faculty/Staff links to the left.
Reimbursements
Faculty are reimbursed for expenditures in a wide variety of contexts. A few examples: for professional development, including travel; to use an allocation from the Instructionally Related Activities program for a class; for purchasing food or drink for a department event. In all cases, previous approval from the chair, or other similar notification is required. Regardless of the context, the following University procedures apply:
- Receipts and invoices older than 90 days cannot be reimbursed. The University does not make exceptions to this policy, although travel is a slightly different situation, in that transport/lodging reservations can be made and paid for well in advance of actual travel. Receipts must be submitted within 30 days of the conclusion of the travel.
- An itemization of expenses must be included, and if the receipt itself does not include this, please request itemization from the vendor.
- Online purchases nearly always require accompanying proof of payment; in other words, the identity of the person who made payment must be clear. If the online receipt says that John Wayne ordered something, but does not indicate that payment by John Wayne was collected, then a credit card statement, or a printout of the transaction from the card activity must be included — and must also include a clear reference to John Wayne. Consult with the office manager about questions.
- Items purchased with University funds must be delivered to the university. In other words, do not arrange for anything to be shipped to your home address if you will be reimbursed for it.
Travel
SF State-funded travel must be pre-approved by the Cinema chair. International travel, in particular, requires as much advance notification as possible due to the requirement for University-purchased insurance. If you have applied for travel funding through the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, you will receive instructions about authorization forms and procedures for reimbursement. Other questions about travel funding may be directed to the Cinema chair or office manager.
Additional Resources
The College’s list-serve, guest speakers, lost and found, mail, Cinema media library, photocopying, social media and the Cinema website, supplies and technical support are discussed on this page.
College of Liberal & Creative Arts List-serve
Disseminates information by e-mail about conferences, scholarships, workshops, network alerts, building conditions (i.e. plumbing problems, fire alarms, etc.), and other matters of general interest to the College faculty and staff. We will forward your email address to the College so that you will be added to this list-serve.
Guest Speakers
Must be arranged for in advance. Contact both the chair and the office manager to request funding for a guest speaker and for guidance regarding logistics.
Lost and found
Located in the Creative Arts Building. If you find a valuable item, bring it to the Cinema office and we will send it to the lost and found.
Delivered once daily. All faculty and graduate teaching assistants have a mailbox in the faculty lounge, located in the Cinema office. Outgoing University-related mail can be placed in the outbox in the office and will be picked up by the campus postal service once daily.
Department Media Library
Located in Fine Arts 349D and is staffed during the semesters. Faculty and students may check out items from our collection of DVDs, BluRays, laserdiscs, VHS tapes, 16 mm films, and more. The library is in an ongoing state of cataloging and organizing media. Also, faculty members are welcome to use the Bill Nichols Reading Room, a collection of books, journals, and other media donated by Professor Emeritus Bill Nichols. Check with the Cinema office about how to contact a media librarian or how to access the Bill Nichols Reading Room.
Photocopying
Can be done in the faculty lounge. Please check with the office staff about your access code for this machine. If you plan to do a larger duplicating job (20 or more copies), you should not use the photocopier due to the expense. There are more suitable machines located in Humanities 125. Check with the office staff; with enough notice, we can assist you with large-batch copy jobs.
Social Media and Cinema Website
Sources of a wide range of information about the School of Cinema, its curriculum, facilities, faculty, and students from our website link to our pages on Facebook, Word Press, and more.
Supplies
Available in the Cinema office. Please ask for assistance from the office staff.
Technical Support
Cinema's facilities, including computer labs and Coppola Theatre, are coordinated by Arthur Farkas. In Arthur’s absence please contact the Instructional and Technical Support.