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