Please review the following planning and budgeting guidelines for CLAS Summer Session 2027 and get in touch with assistant dean Gwen Archibald with any questions that you might have.  

Request process and timeline

• Please enter the proposed courses into the MAUI Course Planner before the end of the day on Aug. 3, 2026, when the planner closes to edits for Summer 2027.
• Please make sure to include the instructor name or instructor type (even if you don’t know the instructor name) and salary amount (using the current AY salary chart; salaries will later be updated for Summer 2027).
• CLAS Leadership will review all proposed courses after the early August deadline and plans to provide departments with summer course approvals and budgets by mid-to-late September 2026. 

CLAS educational priorities for approving summer session undergraduate courses

• CLAS Core GE courses that have had a record of strong enrollment in prior summer sessions and during the fall and spring semesters. In particular, CLAS is interested in offering courses that fulfill the Sustainability, International and Global Issues, Values and Society, Understanding Cultural Perspectives and Natural Sciences GE areas.
• Other selected undergraduate courses that have strong enrollment during the fall and spring semesters and allow students to stay on time to degree.
• Undergraduate courses that students need to fulfil requirements for high-enrollment majors (such as health science programs) and majors in other colleges (such as Tippie College of Business).
• Please note that courses that did not have enrollments above 10 students in a previous summer session will not be approved to run in Summer 2027. 

Summer course modalities, sessions and enrollments

• Courses may be offered in the following modalities:
  • in-person
  • online (synchronous or asynchronous or a blended format)
• During summer sessions, students prefer an online modality unless the course has a required in-person lab, discussion or studio section. In those cases, the entire course should be delivered in person.
• Keep in mind, that any online course offerings should be updated regularly and should use the online teaching guidelines and best practices that University of Iowa’s Distance and Online Education unit support and promote.
• Please make sure the course descriptions clearly explain the modality and attendance expectations.
• CLAS has decided only to offer courses during the 6W1, 6W2 or 8W summer sessions, so please only use these for your course planning. Get in touch with us if you have a request for something in the 4W or 12W session. 

Instructor assignments and compensation

• We encourage departments to give priority for summer teaching opportunities to instructional-track faculty, advanced TAs who are interested in gaining valuable teaching experience, visiting and adjunct instructors.
• Instructors are not permitted to teach multiple sections during the same summer session (i.e., two sections of the same course during 6W1 and 6W2). Further, CLAS aims to provide support for summer teaching to as many instructors as possible, so CLAS typically does not support the same instructor teaching over multiple sessions during the summer.   
• Please make sure that any TAs who teach have an identified mentor or course supervisor to support them during the teaching session.
• Compensation for all faculty teaching summer courses follows the CLAS summer salary chart and policy.
• If there are questions or clarifications needed about instructors or salary, please discuss with your Area Associate Dean before entering the course and instructor into the MAUI course planner. 

Note: This memo was also published on July 8, 2026.