Faculty Responsibilities

(According to the 2007-2008 Agreement between the State and the AFT. For full text see Article XII)

Institutional responsibilities of the faculty shall include teaching responsibilities and other responsibilities as defined below. The basic academic year teaching load shall be assigned over thirty-two weeks of instruction and shall occur during the period of payment which commences September 1 and ends on June 30, and may not exceed such thirty-two week period unless otherwise agreed to by the concerned faculty member.

After consultation with the Local Union, a College/University may begin classes up to one calendar week prior to September 1, in which case the commencement of the period of payment for 10-month employees may be advanced pursuant to negotiations with the Local Union, subject to the proviso that the period of payment shall not commence prior to the beginning of classes. When there is an advancement, the end of the period of payment shall be correspondingly advanced such that the annual salary will be distributed over the same number of days as it would have been had there been no advancement, and the second part of the across-the-board salary increase for the fiscal year shall be advanced so that affected employees receive the same annual compensation as they would have received had there been no advancement.

Policies and practices at a College/University granting (or not granting) compensation for employees performing duties prior to the beginning of classes shall not be affected by the application of this Subsection.

Teaching Responsibilities

The basic academic year teaching load for full-time faculty shall be twenty-four teaching credit hours. All overload for full-time faculty shall be voluntary and overload rates shall be paid for all voluntary teaching assignments beyond twenty-four teaching credit hours. No full-time faculty member may be assigned more than fifteen teaching credit hours per semester within load. The teaching load for part-time faculty shall be a minimum of one half the teaching load for full-time faculty.

The teaching assignment of a faculty member shall not require more than three different course preparations in any semester, except where it can be demonstrated that the course offerings and class sections in a department cannot reasonably be scheduled on this basis, or where a faculty member's schedule includes one or more two student-credit-hour-courses. Under such circumstances one additional course preparation may be assigned.

It is recognized that one-student-credit-hour courses and activities such as, but not limited to, supervision of or instruction in independent study, internships, practice teaching, studio or physical activity programs do not lend themselves to computation of numbers of preparations as described above. However, it is recognized that every effort will be made when assigning such activities to arrive at an overall assignment of responsibilities which substantially and equitably equates to the model set forth in the paragraph above. Disputes concerning that paragraph may be submitted to binding arbitration pursuant to Article VlI of the contract. In the event that a violation is found, the remedy shall be the award of a payment equal to one overload credit for each additional preparation found to have been improperly imposed.

Faculty members assigned duties involving modes of instruction other than classroom, such as, but not limited to, independent study, supervision of internships or practice teaching, or assigned to teach regularly scheduled courses for which collegiate credit is not granted, shall receive teaching credit hours for such activities according to the policies and practices currently in force at the respective Colleges/Universities unless specified otherwise in this Agreement.

Other Responsibilities

Faculty responsibilities which have been traditionally performed by the faculty and are reasonable and consistent with sound academic practice shall be continued consistent with previous practice. Disagreements concerning their specific nature shall be resolved by the Local Union and the College/University. These responsibilities shall be performed within the academic year, provided that assignment outside the thirty-two weeks of instruction referred to above shall not be made individually or collectively on an inequitable basis.