Faculty Rights Tips

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.  

Article 20.37 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for:

“assigned time to faculty employees who are engaged in exceptional levels of service that support the CSU’s priorities, but who are not otherwise receiving an adjustment in workload to reflect their effort.”

This provision was a major achievement in our last round of bargaining and is a recognition by the CSU that some faculty are providing exceptional levels of service to students but are not receiving workload relief for this effort.

The collective bargaining agreement provides two methods for the filing and processing of a grievance. They are referred to as the contract grievance track and the statutory grievance track.

The statutory track provides for a Faculty Hearing Committee to review the grievance and may, as a practical matter, involve claims which range far beyond direct contract violations.

The contract grievance track does not use a Faculty Hearing Committee and, as a practical matter, tends to focus on violations of the collective bargaining agreement.

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.”

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.

Articles 22 and 24 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) cover Family Medical Leave and sick leave.

Sometimes, faculty members develop serious illnesses or need to care for family members with serious medical conditions and need to take time away from the University.

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.

You can invoke your right to have an advocate with you before or during the meeting by saying:

To assist new probationary faculty to establish their programs of research, scholarship, and/or creative activities, and to carry out other activities, CFA successfully bargained a reduction in their assigned teaching workload during the first two probationary years of their appointment.

As summer nears, we are reminded that there is a yearly rhythm and cycle to our work.

There are three types of “Work Years” in our Collective Bargaining Agreement:

• Academic Year (AY)
• Ten (10)-Month Work Year
• Twelve (12)-Month Work Year

While the individual campuses have their own particular academic calendars, they must conform to the parameters set out in Articles 20.4, 20.5, and 20.6 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement.