Memorandum

Date: January 16, 2007

To: All Faculty

From: Daniel CannCasciato, President – United Faculty of Central

RE: Workload planning process

Here are some responses to the most frequent issues that we’ve heard about.

What is negotiable and when?

• All three aspects of workload are negotiable. There is no strict ratio within those components; that was by explicit agreement of both parties to the CBA.

• The process flows from individual faculty to the chair and from the chair to the Dean. It should be rare that a faculty member meets with the Dean. (Art. 13.4.1 and 13.4.5 a).
• When a Dean negotiates something, all agreements must be in writing. Therefore, if a Dean offers a faculty member something based on a promise for the future, be sure to submit a future plan with those specific promises on it and get it signed before committing to this year’s request. Don’t act on verbal promises. Remember, workload plans can be for more than one year at a time (Art. 13.2).
• If you are being asked to do something extra, above and beyond, you should feel free to say no or request overload pay. Overload pay is, as a minimum, compensated at the appropriate lecturer or senior lecturer rate (14.7).

Where did banked hours (faculty overload general stemming from thesis work) go?

• The term banked hours was replaced with the phrase “prior efforts”. In a meeting on Aug. 9, 2006, the collective bargaining team met with administration representatives and made it clear that the union did not bargain banked hours away. While many of our members have been told that we did, this is incorrect information.
• If you have banked hours, you should request them as needed on your workload plans.
• Please see the UFWS website for a statement from last August on this matter.
• http://www.ufws.org/central/articles/banked.htm

How much are various items worth in workload units?

• There must be commonly held ideas about how much various teaching and scholarship tasks, committee work, and other service are worth. As a ballpark:
• Teaching: 1 class hour = 1 workload unit (Cf. App. A and 13.4.3)
• Service: 30 hours of effort = 1 workload unit
• Scholarship: the faculty union needs to accumulate and analyze data in order to seek consistency in the crediting of hours. Right now we (both faculty and administration) must make a good faith best guess. Scholarship workload IS NOT subsumed within teaching workload. That would be absurd. It is a distinct component of the workload assignment.