NTT Update

By Larry Kaye, Philosophy, FSU Vice President

FALL 12

NTT bargaining has been temporarily suspended so far this term at the request of management. The main reason for the extension is that some significant, progressive changes are being considered that require extensive discussion that exceeded the narrow time fame that was allotted to main table bargaining in an attempt to meet legislative budget deadline.

Although management delayed the start of NTT sessions until the end of the semester, we had a number of meetings between May and July. The primary topic of discussion has been the possible implementation of “continuing employment” (CE) for a large portion of current NTT faculty, roughly those who have relatively stable positions under the present prioritized course assignment system. Under this model, CE faculty would have a defined, ongoing employment status (50%, 75% or 100% time) that would not be subject to alternation based on semester-to-semester fluctuations in available courses. For such faculty, a reduction in time would require formal notice a year in advance.

We have not yet had an extended discussion about which faculty would be main CE; it is our goal to have all benefitted post-probationary NTT faculty put on this status.

Management seems eager to do CE for NTT faculty, since it will greatly reduce paperwork and will also make life easier for chairs, who will be able to assign a predetermined number of sections to many of their NTT faculty in the same way that courses are assigned for tenure stream faculty. However, we have reached a bit of an impasse since management is also insisting that those post-probationary NTT faculty who do not qualify for CE will lose their present prioritized hiring (just cause) status and become completely contingent. We see no reason why this is needed, and in any case, the FSU will not trade away rights of some of its members in exchange for an enhancement for other members. But we remain optimistic about reaching agreement on this issue, since a move to CE will be of great benefit to management as well as to faculty.

Our other main proposal is that the standard full-time load for NTT be altered from 4 courses, teaching only to 3 courses plus service or scholarship. This has not yet been discussed in detail; we will focus on this in future sessions.

The FSU NTT bargaining team consists of John Hess, Sandra Howland, Larry Kaye, Kathy Kogan, and Amy Todd, along with Mickey Gallagher (MTA).