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Faculty Rights Tips

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Faculty Rights Tips

Find below all the Faculty Rights Tips that have appeared in CFA Headlines, CFA’s weekly email newsletter.

You are welcome to subscribe to CFA Headlines and get a Tip every week along with news and CFA views.

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Writing Rebuttals to Evaluations

By now many campuses are well into their evaluation cycles. The Faculty Contract provision below applies to all faculty undergoing any form of evaluation, but it is especially timely for probationary faculty applying for tenure or any faculty member up for promotion.

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Personal Holiday

With the approaching end of the current calendar year it’s useful to know that every faculty employee is entitled to one Personal Holiday each year. Our faculty contract states:

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Range Elevation

Range elevation is the process through which eligible Lecturers and temporary Librarians can increase their salaries by moving from one salary range to the next.

Normally, eligibility requires five years of service in current range and no Service Salary Increase (SSI) eligibility. Thanks to CFA’s Bargaining Team, range elevation has been expanded so that long-term Lecturers, even if they have not maxed out SSIs, may be eligible too.

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: What’s in your Personnel Action File? (Part 2)

Every faculty member has a Personnel Action File (PAF). It’s the only official personnel file for employment information and information that may be relevant to personnel recommendations or actions. 

Occasionally an administrator may seek to put information into a faculty member’s PAF that is not part of the regular periodic review. Article 11 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement outlines the due process that must be followed in these cases. 

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: What’s in your PAF?

Every faculty member, including instructional faculty, coaches, counselors, and librarians has a Personnel Action File (PAF). It is the only official personnel file for employment information and information that may be relevant to personnel recommendations or actions.

Article 11 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement covers the various rules about faculty Personnel Action Files. 

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Peer Review Committees for Tenure-Line Hiring

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s Article 12.22, “[e]ach department or equivalent unit must elect a peer review committee of tenured employees for the purpose of reviewing and recommending individuals for probationary appointments.”

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: What to do when you want to report discrimination, harassment, or retaliation

Article 16 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the “Non-Discrimination” article, “prohibits discrimination against faculty unit employees on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability, medical condition, or veteran status.”

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: I Need a Union Rep!

Have you (or someone you know) ever been called into a meeting with an administrator and you were not quite sure what the meeting was about? And once in the meeting realized you were being questioned or investigated about some issue for which you might be disciplined, reprimanded, or otherwise negatively affected? You need, and are entitled to have, a union representative or another advocate of your choosing with you at that meeting. 

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Lecturer Preference for Work at the Start of the Academic Year

At the beginning of each new term during the academic year the teaching assignments for Lecturers are often in flux until the last minute. It can be a challenging time for both Lecturers and department chairs.

Article 12.29a of our Collective Bargaining agreement governs the assignment of classes during the academic year (i.e. in terms other than Fall). This article provides protection for long-term Lecturers. The administration must follow the order of appointments specified in this article.

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Faculty Rights Tip of the Week: Get acquainted with your evaluation criteria & procedures

With the start of a new academic year, this Faculty Rights Tip should be of interest to all faculty including coaches, counselors, librarians, lecturers, probationary, and tenured faculty.

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Faculty Rights Tip: Summer Employment

Article 21 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement covers summer term employment for CSU faculty. Many faculty with semester, quarter, or academic-year appointments also will find summer employment in the CSU.

Summer employment can vary from campus to campus. It may take the form of state-funded year-round operations (including fee buy-down) or self-support for-credit programs offered through extension.

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Faculty Rights Tip: 125% rule

When faculty are hired, they are often told that there are opportunities for additional employment in the summer or other “special sessions.” For many faculty, this additional employment is a critical part of their income.

Article 36 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement covers the rules for additional work and places a limitation on that “overage” to 25% of a full-time position.

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Faculty Rights Tip: Who owns my electronic materials?

These days many faculty members create electronic or online content for their courses. These materials are usually placed on the web in a variety of ways, often in course management systems like Blackboard or iLearn.

Occasionally there are misunderstandings about who actually owns these materials once they’re placed online.

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Faculty Rights Tip: Grievance Filing

Did you know that you have 42 days to file a grievance if you believe your workplace rights have been violated?

Article 10.4 allows you to file a grievance no later than 42 calendar days after the event giving rise to the grievance or 42 days after you knew or reasonably should have known of the event giving rise to the grievance.

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Faculty Rights Tip: What to do if you or someone you know receives a notice of pending discipline

If you receive a “Notice of Pending Discipline” it is important to contact your CFA representative immediately. The timelines articulated in Article 19 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) move very quickly. 

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Faculty Rights Tip: Safety

Article 37 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement covers workplace safety for all Unit 3 faculty members—instructional faculty, counselors, librarians, and coaches.

It is the administration’s responsibility to ensure that faculty members are not required to work in unsafe conditions or perform tasks that endanger health or safety.

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Faculty Rights Tip: A word or two about reprimands

Article 18 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement covers reprimands. Here are some important things to know about reprimands:

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Faculty Rights Tip: Workload for Counselors and evaluation criteria for faculty

Counselor faculty often find themselves supervised by administrators who are unfamiliar with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This can create problems in a number of areas, especially counselors’ workload and evaluation.

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Faculty Rights Tip: What to do when you want to report discrimination, harassment, or retaliation

Article 16 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the “Non-Discrimination” article, “prohibits discrimination against faculty unit employees on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability, medical condition, or veteran status.”

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Faculty Rights Tip: The Fee Waiver Program

The CSU Faculty Fee Waiver program is a valuable benefit for faculty members, our spouses, domestic partners, or dependent children up to age 25. Article 26 of the contract articulates the details of the Fee Waiver Program.

The benefit is available to all tenured and probationary faculty and temporary faculty (excluding coaches) with three-year appointments.

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