Office Hours Guidelines | Policies

Office Hours Guidelines

The guidelines for open office hours listed below should be followed in establishing weekly office hours:

• For full-time professorial and instructional staff a minimum of three open office hours must be made available weekly when classes are in session.   These hours should be spread out over at least two different days (e.g., 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, and 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursdays).  
• Part-time instructional staff (adjuncts and part-time instructors) must hold office hours of one hour per every class which they teach.

The following apply to both professorial and instructional staff:

1)  Office hours should occur between 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.; if office hours must be arranged outside these hours to be more convenient to students, an explanatory note must be included when submitting office hours.

2)   Additional or by-appointment office hours (e.g., for doctoral advisement) are scheduled as necessary.

3)   Open office hours should be posted on faculty office doors and on the program/department’s website.  The department should maintain a list of office hours for all course instructors.

4)   For online courses, office hours can be held via online collaboration tools such as Skype, Facetime, Webex, RingCentral, Google Hangout or by telephone. WebEx and Google Hangouts are available through TC for all instructors and students.

5)   Please respond to student emails and phone calls in a timely manner and include your expected response time in a statement in the syllabus.

6) By the second week of each academic term, department schedules of instructor office hours should be available in the department offices and posted online. 

Responsible Office: Provost

Effective Date: December 2016

Last Updated: December 2016