If a college professes to foist on its professors a three or even a four course teachingload, a closer examination will show far less because of reductions given for almost any reason.
And expectations differ across those scholastic landscapes: A professor at a teaching-heavy liberal arts university, for example, might have four or five times the teachingload, course planning, and grading of one at a large research-oriented institution but less in the way of sweating late nights, winter breaks, and most summers over hitting research grant deadlines.