Teaching Eligibility and Funding
Types of Introductory Seminars
and Instructor Eligibility & Compensation
To be eligible to teach an IntroSem, an IntroSem instructor must have a teaching appointment and be hired by their department into a paid position in the quarter of IntroSem instruction with a base salary that meets minimum state labor requirements. The person’s only appointment at Stanford cannot be teaching an IntroSem course.
Frosh Seminars
Frosh Seminars provide first-year students the opportunity to work closely with faculty and build mentoring relationships, and to develop an intellectual community with other first-year students around a shared area of interest. Topics are designed to be accessible to incoming students with no prerequisites.
Frosh Seminars offered in the current academic year are automatically renewed for the next academic year as part of our curriculum development process. Please email introsems@stanford.edu if you would like to make any changes to your renewal or to renew a Frosh Seminar from one or more years ago.
Eligibility & Compensation:
- Only Academic Council or UML faculty are eligible to teach Frosh Seminars.
- Frosh Seminars are offered by departments in exchange for support, in the form of billets or funding on an annual basis. They are part of Doerr, H&S, and SoE faculty’s Regular teaching load. Please note, Frosh Seminars from Doerr, H&S, and SoE cannot count as Overload teaching for the instructor.
- Starting in 2024-25, for faculty in GSB, GSE, and LAW, Frosh Seminars typically count as Overload teaching with a supplemental payment of $10,000 to the instructor, plus a $5,000 fund transfer to the faculty research account.
- Starting in 2024-25, for faculty in SoM, Frosh Seminars count as Overload teaching with a supplemental payment of $12,000 to the instructor. Please note, SoM faculty are not eligible to receive fund transfers for teaching to the faculty research account.
- To be eligible for a supplemental payment, the instructor should already have a 75% FTE appointment in a salaried position before adding the IntroSem. The base salary should also meet the minimum state labor requirements, with the supplemental payment amount not included in this calculation.
Units & Weekly Class Meetings:
- To meet university expectations regarding hours per week and to encourage more weekly face-to-face time with first-year students, a 3-unit Frosh Seminar is expected to meet twice weekly, in two 80-minute meetings for 160 minutes in class per week.
Sophomore Seminars
Sophomore Seminars aim to personalize education for second-year students considering a major or minor before they declare, and encourage a spirit of mentorship between students and instructors who may have deeper connections in the professional schools and to regional industries and the arts. May have minimal prerequisites or be targeted to an audience of non-specialists.
Eligibility & Compensation:
- Sophomore Seminars may be taught by faculty who hold an Academic Council appointment; experienced and successful lecturers/academic staff; or staff with terminal degrees with ongoing teaching responsibilities at Stanford. Such instructors typically hold teaching appointments as 'Academic Staff' or 'Staff-Other Teaching/Research.' Graduate students and postdocs are not eligible at this time.
- Sophomore Seminars are usually taught as Overload courses, going beyond the instructor’s regular teaching load. Instructors who teach an IntroSem in addition to their regular teaching load may qualify for a supplemental payment of $7500. Starting in 2024-25, Overload supplemental compensation is $10,000. To be eligible, the instructor should already have a 75% FTE appointment in a salaried position before adding the IntroSem. The base salary should also meet the minimum state labor requirements, with the supplemental payment amount not included in this calculation.
- While less frequent, Sophomore Seminars can be taught as part of an instructor’s Regular responsibilities within the hiring department. In this case, the base salary covers the compensation for the IntroSem, and no extra supplemental payment is provided to either the instructor or the department.
Units & Weekly Class Meetings:
- To meet university expectations regarding hours per week, the recommended schedule for a 3-unit Sophomore Seminar is two 80-minute meetings per week, or 160 total minutes of weekly in-class time.