Credit hour equivalencies for operating papers

Our new contract’s Addendum B (Addendum X in preliminary drafts of the contract text) calls for each academic unit to include specific criteria for credit hour equivalencies for contact hours and/or indirect teaching in its operating paper. Now is the time for Faculty in each unit to initiate the necessary operating paper changes.

The Faculty Association has created a web page with resources for Faculty as they work on credit hour equivalencies for their operating papers: http://siucfa.wordpress.com/workload/ . This page will be updated from time to time with additional information, templates for operating paper language, and answers to questions that arise during this process.

In addition, to help Faculty with the process of establishing credit hour equivalencies, the Faculty Association has scheduled a one-hour Workload Seminar at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, February 15 in the Illinois Room in the Student Center. Please contact me if you would like to schedule a Faculty Association presentation in your own unit on Addendum B and credit hour equivalencies.

Here are a few guidelines for how to proceed:

The Faculty in each unit initiate the operating paper changes.
In Addendum B, as in the rest of our contract, “Faculty” with a capital “F” refers to the tenured and tenure track faculty in the Faculty Association bargaining unit. Chairs of departments, Directors of schools, Associate Deans, Deans, and higher administrators are not part of the bargaining unit. Addendum B specifies that the Faculty in each unit (department, school, Library Affairs) submit the proposed operating paper amendment. Set up a meeting in your unit or form an ad hoc Faculty committee to develop a proposal. The Faculty in your unit decide (vote) on the proposal to be submitted as an operating paper amendment.

Changes to operating papers under Addendum B are limited to credit hour equivalencies for contact hours and indirect teaching.
Do not combine other measures (even other workload amendments) with your credit hour equivalency amendment. The operating paper changes under Addendum B go through a process different from other amendments. The mandate of Addendum B is to provide operating papers with “complete and specific criteria for credit hour equivalencies for contact hours and/or for indirect teaching assignments”. These are the only issues that must be considered at this time.

Changes go through the approval process according to operating paper amendment procedures AND Addendum B.
Follow the amendment procedure in your operating paper, provided it is consistent with the Faculty contract. If your operating paper and the contract contradict each other, the contract overrides the operating paper. For example, if your unit operating paper requires that amendments be first proposed and voted on by Faculty (i.e., faculty in the bargaining unit represented by the Faculty Association), then this procedure satisfies the requirement in Addendum B that the proposed amendment be submitted by the Faculty. Otherwise, an initial step is required for the Faculty to vote on the proposal before proceeding with the amendment process.

Additional guidelines for developing the credit hour equivalency criteria:

Identify contact hour or indirect teaching duties for which to define credit hour equivalencies.
Are there teaching assignments in your unit where contact hours exceed credit hours? What indirect teaching duties are performed in your unit? See Section 8.01.b.1 of the new contract ( http://siucfa.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/workload-in-fa-contract.pdf ) for definitions and examples of direct and indirect teaching.

Consult credit hour equivalency policies and contract provisions at peer institutions when developing your proposed amendment.
Credit hour equivalencies in “collective bargaining contracts or adopted policies for Carnegie Extensive Research Universities, including but not limited to the University’s IBHE 1985 Peer List” should be used as “primary points of reference” in developing unit criteria. These reference points will also be used if negotiations over operating paper amendments become necessary. Links to several contracts and policies are available on the FA workload page ( http://siucfa.wordpress.com/workload/).

Express equivalencies in terms of credit hours in the faculty member’s teaching assignment.
Faculty workload assignments are based on a workload equivalent of twenty-four (24) credit hours per academic year. That is, a teaching assignment of twenty-four credit hours in a year (twelve hours in a semester) represents an assignment which is totally teaching (no research or service). Credit hour equivalencies for contact hours and indirect teaching will determine how much these activities are to count in the teaching part of Faculty members’ workload assignments, as measured in credit hours.

Bring your questions to the Workload Seminar on February 15, or email them to me at hrhughes@math.siu.edu.

2010 – 2014 Contract Signed

The new contract for tenured and tenure track Faculty represented by the SIUC Faculty Association has been signed and executed. The final edited version is available on the FA Contract page at this site: FA Contract

Tentative Agreement Ratified by FA Membership

FA members voted to approve the tentative agreement today (11/30).  Here’s a press release we’ve sent out to announce as much.

The SIUC Faculty Association (FA) is pleased to announce that its members have voted to ratify the tentative agreement with the SIUC administration reached earlier this month. Once the agreement receives final ratification by the SIUC Board of Trustees, it will be signed by both parties and serve as the contract between the tenure-track and tenured faculty represented by the Faculty Association and the SIUC administration. The four year agreement covers the period from July 1, 201o until June 30, 2014. 

“While we are disappointed that it took sixteen months of negotiations and a strike to reach this agreement,” FA spokesman Dave Johnson said, “the agreement will help us defend academic freedom, shared governance, and academic priorities on this campus, and we are proud of the hard work, resilience, and dedication by our members that has made this progress possible. We are also thankful for all the support from other unions on campus, from members of the community, and from our students here at SIUC, hundreds of whom came out to march and rally in support of their professors.”

 The following are among the important provisions of the tentative agreement.

• A transparent process ensures that tenured and tenure-track faculty can only be laid off in the event of a bona fide financial exigency.
• Conditions justifying furloughs are more clearly defined, the number of furlough days is limited, and the FA may continue to pursue its unfair labor practice charge regarding FY 2011 furloughs. 
• Faculty gain a greater say in defining their workload through departmental operating papers.
• Faculty retain the right to decide how best to teach their courses, including the decision over whether to offer a course via distance education.
• The student-faculty ratio remains unchanged, and includes distance education offerings.
• Conflict of interest policy and procedures for investigating accusations of sexual harassment will be bargained to resolution in a timely way.

“We are ready to open a new page on relations between campus unions and the administration,” Johnson added.  “We think it is in everyone’s interest, especially those of the students we all serve, for the administration and campus unions to work together. It shouldn’t take us 500 days, much less a strike, to get a new contract into place.  Last year the SIUC administration insisted on imposing its own terms on campus unions, and this fall it took a strike to reach a final agreement. We’re ready to do all we can to build a better relationship with the administration, and we hope that the administration is willing to do so as well.”

Faculty Associatio​n ratificati​on vote on tentative agreement

Dear Faculty Association Member,

The Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted unanimously (30-0) on November 17 to recommend that the membership of the FA approve the tentative agreement negotiated by the FA and Board bargaining teams. The tentative agreement goes on to the full membership for ratification.

The full text of the tentative agreement has been published on the bargaining information page of the FA web site.

Other aids for understanding the tentative agreement are also available there and direct links follow this message.

• An informational meeting on the tentative agreement will be held for the membership of the Faculty Association on Monday, November 28, 2011  from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.  , in Engineering A111.

• Voting on ratification of the tentative agreement will take place on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Sangamon Room at the SIUC Student Center.

Only dues-paying members of the Faculty Association who are currently part of the bargaining unit may vote. Absentee voting is permitted.

There will be a separate ballot on Wednesday, November 30 for members to vote on Delegates/Alternates to the IEA Representative Assembly, Ethnic Minority Delegate/Alternate to the IEA Representative Assembly, Region 2 Vice-Chairperson, and Region 2 Ethnic Minority Representative.

Sincerely,
Randy Hughes

LINKS:

Summary of the tentative agreement

Full text of tentative agreement

Full text of tentative agreement with changes highlighted

Back to work agreement

More info on the Tentative Agreement

We’ve now posted a couple of further items to help you review the tentative agreement:

Summary of tentative agreement

Tentative agreement with changes highlighted

 

DRC unanimously recommends tentative agreement

The Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted unanimously (30-0) tonight to recommend that the membership of the FA approve the tentative agreement made with the SIUC administration. A general membership meeting to discuss the agreement is scheduled for November 28, with voting to take place on November 30.  This strong endorsement by the DRC is another indication of the substantial progress made in this agreement. The agreement is already posted on the bargaining page on this site (scroll to the bottom for the latest info); further help in interpreting the agreement, including a summary of changes since the last agreement, should be posted by tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.

FA Thank You Party

In appreciation for the many contributions of our members and supporters, the SIUC Faculty Association is sponsoring a Thank You Party from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. this Saturday, November 19 at Hangar 9 (511 S Illinois Avenue). All who supported the FA during the last couple of weeks are invited to share a little food and drink and celebrate our joint achievement in reaching the tentative agreement on the Faculty Association contract. Spouses or partners are welcome to come as well.  See you there.

Tentative agreement released

The FA and administration have signed a tentative agreement, including a back to work agreement.

Links to the agreement and to the back to work agreement (which is part of the overall agreement) are posted under Bargaining Section. 

Here are direct links to the relevant documents:

Tentative agreement  |  Back to work agreement

We will provide helps to interpret these documents, including an annotated version to show what has changed since the last contact, and an “executive summary” of major changes, shortly.

Strike Ends

The DRC voted tonight to end the strike. The last proposal sent our way by the BOT bargaining team can form the basis of a tentative agreement we can submit to members. We’ll provide more details on the proposal in coming days, and the full text of the contract once it is worked out with the BOT. There will be at least one meeting to answer members’ questions about the agreement, followed by a vote by the full membership on whether or not to ratify the agreement.

In the meantime, here’s the text of a press release sent out to the media.  

Let’s keep it going

Despite the break in negotiations last night, real progress is being made at the bargaining table.  We had a great day yesterday, and we can have an even better day today.  And we will get a great agreement signed, and soon.  We’re closing in on a victory for the FA and for SIUC.

Here’s a message Randy Hughes is sending around to the FA membership.

Progress to date.  November 9,  2011

Today, Wednesday, November 9th, we’re still on strike. But there is good news, too. In twelve hours of negotiations, our bargaining team made progress on a number of fronts. We are near agreement on language that will ensure that we retain our right to pursue our Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge concerning the unilateral imposition of furlough days last spring. And there was also some progress on countering the inflammatory and disrespectful language in the BOT back to work proposal. But at 9:00 pm the two bargaining teams mutually agreed to break off work for the night and return to the bargaining table at 9:30 am on Wednesday.

Slow progress, while better than no progress at all, is frustrating. And we all want to be in the classroom rather than on the picket line. But it’s important to remember everything that our hard work and resolve has enabled us to achieve so far. We’ve protected tenure. We’ve ensured that administrators cannot force faculty to teach distance education against our own academic judgement. We’ve strengthened shared governance by strengthening the faculty’s ability to control their own operating papers. We’ve reached a workable compromise on overload pay. And we’ve established a schedule for dealing with procedures concerning Conflict of Interest and Sexual Harassment.

Most heartening of all may well be the incredible support we’ve received from SIUC students. Their support has not only helped us achieve progress at the bargaining table, but is a victory in itself – a victory for our university, its students, and the bond between faculty and students on campus.

While we’ve made much progress, several important issues remain. The BOT proposal on furloughs, while it has been improved since the terms imposed on us in the spring, still fails to provide adequate transparency and accountability. Their back to work proposal would not provide for the make up days we would like to offer to students whose classes have been covered by unqualified substitutes. While it contains new language protecting actions taken in support of the strike, it still gives the false impression that faculty have engaged in misconduct and threats. And the administration is still unwilling to offer us the same chance for securing fair share that it has offered other locals.

These issues are worth fighting for. And if we remain united in our commitment to securing a fair agreement, we have every reason to believe that we can reach one sooner rather than later.