FSU Nuts & Bolts: Elections, On-Line Course Development, and Additional Classes
12/12/2022
Dear Member,
Ah…the last week of classes. The end of lecture preps and the beginning of final grading and of course this all happens during the holiday season. This issue of Nuts & Bolts contains an announcement and two reminders.
FSU Annual Elections: 2023 Announcement
Each Spring, FSU members elect members to the FSU Executive Committee, the governing body of your union. Election is by constituency except for the positions of president and vice-president.
The 2023 election schedule is attached. Nominations open in late January with voting before Spring break.
The great news about serving your union is union service counts as university service on your AFR! University service, working to make things better and meeting new friends – a win-win for sure.
Reminder- Developing an On-Line Course
Last March, we sent an email about developing online courses. (see below) Today, we want to remind members that the development fee is not approved until all parties have signed off on the form.
Please do not create the class until you receive email confirmation that you will be paid the development fee.
March 18, 2022 member email
We have recently been getting inquiries about the creation of online courses. Regulations around online (distance learning) courses are governed by Article 35 of the contract as well as a few other memoranda of agreement between Admin and the FSU.
You can see all of that information here.
How to Create an Online Course? The above regulations govern the creation of all online courses at UMB, regardless of whether it is a completely new course or the conversion of an existing (face-to-face) course. The process starts with this form, with the faculty member deciding whether to pursue the “department” model or “individual” model (see here for FSU discussion on models). If the course is approved by all parties, the faculty member then develops the online course, essentially following these guidelines (https://teachonline.umb.edu/), after which the stipend is paid.
Key Point: There is no other way for online courses to be created at UMass Boston. Online courses cannot be created outside of Article 35, or without paying the faculty member who develops the course a stipend. Each year, the Administration sets aside a pot of money to support the creation of online courses. Not all are approved, and approval is no doubt determined based on a number of factors (i.e. demand, needs of a department, resources, etc.).
Bottom line: online courses cannot be created apart from the regulations/system outlined in Article 35.
Reminder – NTTs and Additional Courses
Soon Department Chairs will start the process of scheduling Fall 2023 classes.
Article 21.3.a of the contract explains the process where those at the rank of Lecturer and greater, may teach classes above their continuing appointment. If after a department’s schedule is set, there becomes available more classes, these additional classes, whenever practical, are to be taught by current faculty who are determined to be qualified to teach the additional class(es).
Please note that additional work is defined as work that is generated after all of the work for those bargaining unit members already employed in the department has been assigned. An example: department X has 10 NTT who have been assigned a total of 20 courses for Fall 22. A last minute increase in student enrollments results in 2 additional sections being added for Fall 22. Those 2 additional sections must be offered to current part-time NTT in order of seniority before they can be given to anyone outside of the department. It is important to remember that the additional work clause is not a bumping clause- it does not allow part-time members of a department to get additional work via reduction in work from other members of the department, even if the former has more seniority than the latter.
The chair is to provide written notification of the additional classes to current faculty (lecturers and above) who then shall express their desire to teach an additional class.
If a new appointee is assigned one of these classes, the FSU has the right to ask why a current faculty member was not deemed qualified to teach the class.
We suggest that you might want to remind your chair of the classes that you feel you are qualified to teach.
Sincerely,
Caroline Coscia
FSU President
Senior Lecturer II
Political Science Department
For information on the FSU, links to our contract and bargaining updates, and a calendar of events, see the FSU webpage