We have reached a tentative agreement on two articles which impact faculty summer teaching.  In Article 8, all summer appointments will be made based on written criteria which equalize opportunities for in unit employees over time,  i.e., faculty who have taught less in the previous summer should have higher priority for summer courses.  We maintain the existing preference ordering for teaching one summer course.  The relevant language in Article 8 is as follows

8.4           Appointments.

(a)           The academic year appointment for faculty shall be for 39 weeks.  In cases where the mission of the unit warrants the conversion from an academic year appointment to a calendar year appointment, the salary conversion will be done proportionally.

(b)           Supplemental Summer Appointments.

(1)           Policy.  In recognition of the demonstrated quality and expertise of the FAU faculty, the University, at its discretion, shall endeavor, within the confines of curricular needs, student demand, and available funding, to maximize faculty teaching assignments.  No employee shall be obligated to accept a supplemental summer appointment.  An employee must accept an offer of a summer appointment within ten days of the offer or forfeit his/her preference.  Supplemental summer appointments shall be offered, either verbally or in writing, no later than five weeks prior to the beginning of the appointment if practicable, in accordance with written criteria. The criteria shall be made available in each college and shall apply to all summer appointments in that college. The criteria shall consider:

i)          The employees’ educational qualifications and experience,

ii)       With the exception of instructors with less than three years of service, equality of summer employment opportunities for all bargaining unit employees in the college over time (which could include more than one summer if necessary).  

(2)           Preference.  The University shall offer available supplemental summer appointments equitably and as appropriate, in the following order:

First Preference: to qualified full-time bargaining unit employees, without an existing summer appointment to teach a class or equivalent, in the following categories: tenured employees, tenure earning employees, employees with multi-year appointments, and instructors who have taught at the University for at least three consecutive years;

Second Preference:  to other bargaining unit employees, without an existing summer appointment to teach a class or equivalent, who are qualified.

If all bargaining unit employees qualified to teach a class have already been offered a class to teach or equivalent assignment, the University may offer the supplemental summer appointment to anyone who is qualified (e.g., adjuncts).  At its discretion, the University may offer bargaining unit employees with an existing summer appointment an additional summer appointment at any time, based upon the criteria in 8.4 (b) (1).

We also reached agreement on Article 19:  Conflict of interest.  There is a change in the reporting provisions.  Faculty are only required to report compensated or uncompensated professional practice, consulting , teaching, or research for which the university has provided no compensation and which occurs during a period in which the employee has an appointment with the university.  In addition, teaching employment with another educational institution will only constitute a conflict of interest if it takes place during a period in which the employee has an appointment with FAU.

This will leave employees free to seek teaching employment with other institutions during the summer if they so choose.

While we are not pleased with the changes in the summer appointments article, we felt that this was the best we could achieve this year.

In Solidarity,

The UFF-FAU bargaining team.