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September 20, 2009

In my previous post, “Off-campus Teaching Snafu,” I noted that the FA and SVSU have improved our working relationship. This good trend continues. Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Bachand, has been helpful resolving matters including this one. So has Director Jack VanHoorelbeke. Fewer gray hairs are growing out of my head; alas fewer hairs overall…

Since that posting I’ve uncovered new information that renders two statements inaccurate. First, I wrote that the FA has never lost an arbitration. Not true. In fact the FA has lost years ago, before I was hired (no correlation suggested!). I also mistakenly wrote, “In FA2006, the administration surreptitiously began adopting concepts and language found in Distance Learning (D29.2) and applying them to those engaged in Off Campus Teaching (D28.2).” There have been minor changes to the format of Off Campus “contracts” along with significant inconsistencies that date prior to 2006. And it was at some point prior to 2006 that the prorating formula and language of Distance Learning (D 29.2), such as the term, “travel ‘energy increment,’” was made part of the Administration’s Off Campus “contracts.” Not quite as bad as the fine print on your Mastercard agreement, the fine print and calculations for prorating a provision not meant to be prorated can seem tedious to follow or work out.

Interestingly, the Off Campus Teaching provision of the FA-SVSU Contract has remained consistent over these years. That isn’t good in all regards. Since at least 1996, payments per credit hour remain at $100 and haven’t been increased a cent since, despite quite a bit of inflation. The FA did achieve increases in the compensation portion. In the 1996-1999 Contract, compensation for the extra time and hassle you spend driving in your car two hundred miles in one day or two, through all kinds of weather, paid $250 plus the value of a round trip at $4.00 per mile. In the 1999-2002 Contract, the amount remained the same. In the 2002-2005 Contract, the FA successfully negotiated a significant increase to $500 and $6.00 per mile. However, no increases have been gained since 2002.

Another interesting note on Off Campus Teaching. Most of these courses are taught at Macomb, which is 107 miles from main campus according to Google Maps. Cardinal Direct shows the other sites offer on average only about one-fifth (1/5) as many courses. Cardinal Direct also shows that in WI 2009, faculty taught fifty (50) courses in Macomb, with eight (8) online or hybrid meeting face-to-face there from six (6) to ten (10) times during the semester. In our current semester, forty-eight (48) courses are being taught at the Macomb campus and of these ten (10) are online or hybrid and meet face-to-face from five (5) to eleven (11) times. For WI 2010, fifty-five (55) courses are scheduled for Macomb with eleven (11) being online or hybrid and meeting face-to-face from five (5) to seven (7) times during the semester.

To be sure, not all of courses at Macomb or the other sites are “Off Campus courses.” It depends on whether the faculty member must drive 30 miles or more, as part of teaching the course, from her/his designated main campus. But many of the courses at these other campuses, especially at Macomb, are in fact Off Campus.

The FA and SVSU are scheduled to arbitrate this grievance in January 2010. We’re all still working to resolve the matter in a fair way. We’ve got the whole semester and I think our optimism is reasonable.

In response to inquiries by faculty, this is an intermediate update on the Off-Campus Grievance filed last fall (see “Off-Campus Teaching Snafu” article below). Please bear in mind that these matters move at a seemingly glacial pace (global warming notwithstanding).

After the FACCG (Faculty Association Committee for Contract Grievances) voted to file the grievance, Gary Thompson and I met with Administration representatives on December 12, 2008 for the Step One meeting, per article K 2.1. The matter was not resolved and the Administration responded with a written denial within ten days.

Per article K 2.2, the FACCG met to discuss the denial, voted to appeal, and responded within ten days in writing to proceed to Step Two. Due to Winter vacation, both sides agreed to put the Step Two meeting into abeyance until early February, 2009.

The February Step Two meeting concluded with no resolution and the Administration rendered a written denial within ten days. Within ten days of receipt of the written denial, the FACCG met again and voted to appeal the Step Two denial, taking the matter to Step Three (arbitration). Our uniserve director, Saun Strobel, filed the appeal and an arbitration date has been set for January 2010. The long wait for arbitration is common.

In the meantime, information from affected faculty continued to trickle in and the FACCG discovered just recently a key difference between faculty who teach full courses Off-Campus and those who instruct Off-Campus irregularly, for example, as with an Off-Campus practicum, hybrid, or online course (instruction requiring a faculty member to travel beyond 30 miles of their designated campus).

There is no provision in D 28 or anywhere else in the Contract to prorate Off-Campus instruction. However, the FACCG concluded earlier this month (1) that the inclusion of both types (regular and irregular) in the same arbitration would muddy the waters. It also agreed to (2) to seek a reasonable Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to prorate irregular Off-Campus instruction, and (3) barring such agreement, voted to file an “Irregular Off-Campus Instruction” grievance.

Please refer to your 2008-2011 Faculty Contract, especially MOU XIII on p. 94

Last year the Faculty Association was told that the administration intended to begin to enforce two provisions of the contract which affect spring-summer teaching. D 4.1 says that faculty must teach “not less than 24 … credit hours over a three semester appointment.” This means that if you teach fewer than 24 hours in fall and winter, and teach spring 2009, the total for your supplemental appointment will be reduced by whatever is needed to make up 24 first. So, for example, if I taught 23 hours in fall + winter and offered to teach 6 hours in spring or summer, I would receive supplemental pay as per contract for only five hours. (If you have banked hours, you may use those to make up any deficit.)

Those faculty teaching in summer 2009 will need to schedule at least 24 hours for fall-winter 2009-2010 or incur a similar penalty.

The FA and VPAA negotiated an MOU (p. 94) that specified that this provision would not be enforced for spring-summer 2008, but conceded that the administration could enforce it thereafter (i.e., this year). That MOU was based on the understanding that deans and department chairs would inform faculty about this provision for 2008-2009, so that no one would be surprised this spring-summer. Evidently some faculty have been taken by surprise.

Please feel free to talk with your FA officers, board members, or floor reps if you have any questions about these contract provisions. And you should talk with your department chair and dean about the extent to which you were or were not warned that the administration would enforce this provision for spring-summer 2009.

Members of the Faculty Association (A1, p. 1) who taught off-campus any time since (and including) FA2006, are owed up to $4,000-$6000 or more by SVSU. In FA2006, the administration surreptitiously began adopting concepts and language found in Distance Learning (D29.2) and applying them to those engaged in Off-Campus Teaching (D28.2).

This change was no accident. Prior to the Committee vote to file this grievance, I tried to resolve the matter by asking some faculty to re-apply for the money owed. I also let the Administration know that we thought it was probably just an error. The Administration bypassed this opportunity to fix the problem and in subsequent talks made its official position clear: it’s not fair that faculty get paid for trips they don’t make and since no one’s caught the change during the past two years, it has become “past practice” and therefore legally binding. The problem is not one of Administration interpretation really; the Contract is quite clear. SVSU has no case.

Further, changes in practice have to be negotiated; they can’t be imposed. The FA and SVSU improved communication and the atmosphere during and since the last Contract negotiations. That’s good news and I hope that the particular type of violations and other developments that injured our cooperative efforts won’t happen again. Nevertheless, SVSU continues to violate the Contract, but we are working through these violations amicably. The Grievance Committee (FACCG) voted to pursue three violations so far this AY. Please note that Grievance Committee decisions are made democratically by elected officers, not by one or two individuals. Democratic decision-making seems to work well: the FA has never lost a grievance that’s gone to arbitration. So, if you are an affected faculty member, you may wish to read on…

There’s a big difference between the Distance Learning (D29.2) and Off-Campus Teaching (D28.2) provisions. With Distance Learning one is paid only for the number of trips made to the Off-Campus site; “the prorated portion of the amount for a full semester of travel.” This provision refers to the prorated amount as an “energy increment.” In contrast, there is no “energy increment” concept or language in the Off-Campus Teaching provision. One is paid a package of benefits in full at the start of the semester regardless of how many trips are made (with the exception of mileage, which is paid at the end of the semester if one’s own car was used, as opposed to use of an SVSU “state vehicle” in which case mileage isn’t paid at all).

To compound the confusion, SVSU administrators began using the term “energy increment” with reference to Off-Campus Teaching. Consequently, affected faculty began adopting the same language. However, to reiterate, there’s no such thing as “energy increment” in D28.2, but there is “mileage.” Conflating mileage and *compensation* is at the heart of both the violation and the confusion.

Indeed, your stipends reflect this. For one, the categories for Off-Campus remuneration have changed from year to year. Fortunately, the essential information — which class, which semester — is there. For another, there are two payments made per semester since FA 06. One may be called “travel,” the other may be called “off-campus” teaching.

In terms of trying to figure out what SVSU paid when you look at your stipen, the problem is that the “Travel” category should include only mileage (see “C” below), not the “compensation” portion (see “D” below). “Compensation” and everything except mileage should be in the “Off-Campus” category and paid at the start of the semester. Mileage should be in the “Travel” category and paid at the end of the semester (because the number of miles you actually drove, which may include driving around the area for lunch, etc., aren’t know until then).

In terms of the violation, the problem of correct payment is that SVSU began prorating the *compensation* portion in FA2006.

With this in mind, let’s review precisely what Off-Campus instructors are entitled to per D28.2 by way of explaining how affected faculty can get remunerated properly. First, you need to be clear about your own situation. You need to know:

- the credits of the class,

- whether you taught it as an overload or not,

- drove your own car or used a state car,

- the geographical “starting point” (SVSU or your home, etc.),

- your destination (Macomb, Cass City, Port Huron, main campus, etc.)

- ate lunch or not

Once you know these bits:

1. Go to Cardinal Direct and print out “Your Stipends” (only from FA2006)

On your stipend you’ll see rows with categories like “travel WI07” and “off-campus WI07” that correspond to payments. As noted above, there may be two payments, maybe one, and the categories might change each semester, but the essential information should be there.

2. Carefully read D28.2.

3. Create a calculation worksheet for each semester since FA06 like the one below. On your calculation sheet, make columns to show what was paid, what should have been paid for that category, and the overall difference between the two (what you’re owed).

The example below is for one semester and assumes one taught a graduate course (4 credits) at Macomb as an overload and used her / his own car. (I’ve added information in brackets for your understanding):

The information in brackets refers to the following items found in D28.2:

A. $100 per credit hour for teaching Off Campus

B. If taught off-campus as overload, another $100 per credit hour for “off-campus overload” (which is in addition to regular overload pay because it’s off-campus overload). NOTE: IF YOU TAUGHT AN OFF-CAMPUS OVERLOAD, YOU SHOULD ALSO SEE ANOTHER ROW FOR THAT SEMESTER FOR THE REGULAR OVERLOAD PAYMENT OF $700 PER CREDIT HOUR PER D 4.1, IN ADDITION TO THE OFF-CAMPUS OVERLOAD PAYMENT DESCRIBED HERE.

C.

No details yet, but Midland Public Schools and the Midland City Education Association have a tentative agreement for a contract. This news follows 170 days of negotiation.

Members will be voting on the TA next week.

MEA is pressing for a state-level stimulus package which would entice K-12 teachers already nearing retirement to make the move, so as to ameliorate the impact of school cuts. If you happen to be talking with a state legislator in the near future, drop a good word.

This year for the first time, MEA is conducting its elections on-line. Dates for the election are Mar. 4-11. No one from our unit is running, but the BCEA president, Kevin Stapish, is, and he’s a good guy. At any rate, Donna will have on-line voting instructions at her desk.