FSU and Admin Agreement on Temporary Modification To Senior Lecturer 3 Promotion Process

8/9/2022

Dear FSU Members,  

We are attaching a memorandum of agreement (MOA) that the FSU negotiated with the Provost’s office regarding those Senior Lecturer 2s who will be submitting an application for promotion to Senior Lecturer 3 on or before January 27, 2023 (those NTT who will be applying for promotion by January 27, 2023 were required to indicate their intent to apply prior to this past May 27, 2022; contact the FSU if you have any questions on this).  

Our collective bargaining contract (aka the contract) includes a new non tenure track rank of Senior Lecturer 3 (see Article 21.10 of the contract).  Both sides agreed to this new rank very late in bargaining.  At the time, we agreed that promotion to Senior Lecturer 3 would follow the same process as promotion to Senior Lecturer and Senior Lecturer 2 (the NTT promotion process is enumerated in 21.12).    

An unexpectedly large number of Senior Lecturer 2s indicated their intent to submit promotion materials in January 2023. There are 34 in CLA alone.    

Why did the FSU take this action?  

NTT promotions include review by the DPC, Department Chairs, CPCs, College Deans, and the Provost.  The timeframe for CPC review does not change based on the number of applications.  Asking CPC members, including NTTs who are the primary reviewer of NTT applications, to review many more applications in the same time frame is not right and can impact the reviewer’s teaching responsibilities.   

We believe this MOA achieves a necessary balance between reducing the overwhelmingly large increase in workload for NTT on promotion review committees resulting from the anomalous number of promotional applications and ensuring that applicants to the Senior Lecturer 3 rank undergo a fair and thorough review. 

(Note that this agreement is for promotion to Senior Lecturer 3 during the 22-23 academic year only- procedures for promotion to Senior Lecturer and to Senior Lecturer 2 are unchanged; the normal review process for promotion to Senior Lecturer 3 will be reinstituted after the 22-23 academic year). 

We want to acknowledge and thank Sana Haroon and Brian White who worked with us, and whose input was invaluable in securing this agreement.   

Sincerely, 

Caroline Coscia                                 Jeff Melnick 

FSU President                                   FSU Vice President 

Senior Lecturer II                              Professor 

Political Science Department         American Studies Department

For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage