January 20, 2012. Faculty cannot be forced to teach extra courses in a subsequent contract year unless employee and management agree to such.
Every employee is given an annual assignment. Often when an employee has a course cancelled the employee is told that they can make up the course the following year with an extra course. Forcing an employee to teach an extra course the following year is not allowed unless the employee and management agree to it. The university administrations in the state have admitted, even asserted, on many occasions that assignments cannot be made beyond the current assignment (i.e., the university cannot agree to give you an extra course or a course reduction in the future beyond the current assignment). If an employee has a course that is cancelled then the employee should immediately demand that they be given other duties (e.g., extra service, administrative duties, advising, research, etc.) to compensate for the loss. An employee could theoretically be asked to make up a course cancelled in the fall during the spring semester, since the change would occur during a single assignment period; but even in this case an employee has a right to ask that their current assignment be changed to include additional duties rather than making up the course. –Doug Broadfield, UFF-FAU Contract Enforcement Chair