From the President

Dear Bargaining Unit Members,

As summer comes to a close there are some important issues I would like to alert you to regarding annual assignments and differential teaching.

First, the BOT-UFF Collective Bargaining Agreement states that annual assignments should be communicated to faculty no later than six (6) weeks prior to the starting date. If you have not yet received your annual assignment from your chair/supervisor, you should request it now. This annual assignment delineates your professional obligations and duties in the areas of teaching, research, and service as well as any other duties assigned for the coming year. You have the right to meet and discuss your annual assignment. The final annual assignment document should be signed and dated by both the supervisor and the employee and both should retain a copy. Your annual assignment forms the basis of your annual evaluation.

Second, annual assignments should take into consideration such things as:

  • the needs of the program/department
  • the employee’s qualifications, experiences, and preferences
  • the character of the assignment (e.g., preparation required, student enrollment, whether the employee has taught the course in the past)
  • equitable opportunity – each employee shall be given an assignment that provides equitable opportunity, in relation to others in the same department/unit, to meet the required criteria for tenure, promotion, successive fixed multi-year appointments and merit salary increases.
  • teaching schedules shall be established so that the time between the beginning of the first class and the end of the last class for any one day does not exceed eight (8) hours.
  • the University shall provide any equipment, materials (i.e., photocopies) and/or other resources that are reasonably required for the employee to carry out the assignment

The BOT-UFF policies on annual assignment are intrinsically important but also relate directly to the policies on annual evaluation.

Third, concerns have been raised regarding differential teaching. The Collective Bargaining Agreement does not prevent administrators from reducing research and service assignments and assigning more teaching. However, the contract does require that the assignments be fair and equitable.

If faculty are asked to teach more, there must be genuine changes in the annual evaluation, and tenure and promotion criteria. Again, any changes to annual assignment must be communicated prior to implementation, and annual evaluations and expectations must be modified to accommodate these changes. Differential teaching must not be unreasonable or arbitrary and must not prevent equitable opportunity to achieve satisfactory annual evaluation, tenure and promotion, successive fixed multi-year appointment or merit salary increases.

We have been through unprecedented times recently; with budget cuts, program closures, and impending layoffs of tenured faculty. Morale at FIU is at an all-time low. The implicit message we are getting from our Administration is that we should be thankful things are not worse. Nevertheless, if FIU is to move forward out of this crisis, maintain its research mission and status, and reach its future goals – faculty need to be supported. This is not the time for the administration to expect us to do so much more with so much less. Each of us must do our part to make sure that any changes (in differential teaching for example) that are made adhere to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and that our academic rights, privileges, and freedom are protected.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me or Paul Warren, our grievance chair.

Chapter President Leslie Frazier
Grievance Chairperson Paul Warren

Yours in solidarity, Leslie

Leslie Frazier
Chapter President
United Faculty of Florida - Florida International University
www.uff-fiu.org


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