Can I be made to work during my time off in the summer?

[Cheerful]

I wouldn't declare to students that you'll reply to emails within a particular time frame. Just be prompt.  Some students will think 36 hours is too long.  Don't box yourself in or create opportunities for complaints.  Just reply as soon as you can within a reasonable time frame.

Apologies for sidetracking the conversation. I copied that from a successful online teacher (they actually put an even longer amount of time right in the syllabus). That allows them to respond to email at the same time every afternoon, and the students are happy for a "fast" response - after a while they learn the response is coming in the late afternoon, students send all questions in the afternoon during the week, and every question is answered within a couple hours. I adopted a modified version for my in-person classes, and I've never had a complaint either to my face or in my evaluations.

<Back to your regularly scheduled discussion>

Thanks, tuxthepenguin.  I wouldn't challenge that practice if it's worked well for you and others.  It wouldn't work well for me; so I use a different approach, based on years of teaching.  No complaints, either.  I am very responsive to students.

Our exchange here shows that teaching is an art and a science, not one-size-fits-all. : )
 

[Anselm]

Ugh. If you're TT and have a contractual summer teaching commitment, it will be very difficult to get out of it.

Big Urban College is experiencing similar summer class insanity. Mismashed academic calendar. Mismashed technology advisories/mandates. Everything is a total cluster$%^& right now with most all of the summer faculty freaking out. Just yesterday they were all told that the summer and fall terms will now bump right into each other without any break at all. Someone else reported a requirement that all emergency remote classes must be delivered in synchronous format.

I don't know who's going to end up with more regrets at the end of this summer, the professors performing emergency remote teaching, or the students enrolled in emergency remote classes. Probably both. Like now I suppose, except the entire course is set up for emergency remote. Ugh.

Rarely have I been more happy that I stopped teaching summer classes a long time ago.

This is why it would have been better to throw in the towel for the entire summer.

Technically we don't have normal academic tenure, just permanent status after a two year probationary period.

[polly_mer]

This thread is different than I expected from the title.  I expected a thread relating to the reports of many institutions considering how to deal with fall and the assertions in many discussions that faculty may be expected to have in place a different modality for teaching than their regular fall courses.

That looks more like faculty of all types working over the summer for no additional pay to me.

[Caracal]

Big Urban College is experiencing similar summer class insanity. Mismashed academic calendar. Mismashed technology advisories/mandates. Everything is a total cluster$%^& right now with most all of the summer faculty freaking out. Just yesterday they were all told that the summer and fall terms will now bump right into each other without any break at all. Someone else reported a requirement that all emergency remote classes must be delivered in synchronous format.

Its confusing to me that so many places seem to be messing with the calendar. Where I teach, summer classes got moved online, but there's no change to the schedule. The summer and fall pre-registration happen at the same time, so for the summer everyone knew classes were all going to be online. The fall is still set up for in person, which keeps flexibility. It just seems like a bad idea to be adding additional complications. Everyone has to manage enough uncertainty already without screwing with the calendar.

[Parasaurolophus]

Its confusing to me that so many places seem to be messing with the calendar. Where I teach, summer classes got moved online, but there's no change to the schedule. The summer and fall pre-registration happen at the same time, so for the summer everyone knew classes were all going to be online. The fall is still set up for in person, which keeps flexibility. It just seems like a bad idea to be adding additional complications. Everyone has to manage enough uncertainty already without screwing with the calendar.

Same here, except that the reg periods were extended. FWIW, that kind of sudden change to the summer semester would likely not pass union muster here.

Also FWIW, I taught all summer and into fall with no break last year. It sucks. I don't want to have to do it again. I became pretty tired 3/4 of the way into the fall semester. But I was especially tired by March. To be fair, I was doing a lot of extra-departmental service and other stuff (including a lot of publishing), too. And my teaching load doubled mid-fall because a colleague was suddenly seriously ill (great for me money-wise, and in terms of progression up the union hierarchy, but it tanked my morale). But it was the teaching that had me down and, honestly, I was pretty unhappy with things. The coronavirus outbreak has given me a chance to rest a little, even though it's increased the workload in some respects, and that's been glorious.

Happily, this year I was able to arrange to teach all my summer courses in the first half of summer, so that I can take the last two months of summer completely off. I can't wait. I need the extended break pretty badly. And even though I loathe teaching online, the fact that my summer semester is online is actually kind of nice, too. It gives me a chance to rest further--certainly more than if I was commuting in four days a week.

[larryc]

Given what's going on, I'd suck it up.

[Anselm]

Given what's going on, I'd suck it up.

That is what I am doing now but I am still upset since I am past the legal draft age.   For all they know I might have had big plans for that time off.