Contract

This page attempts to summarize some basic information about the contract.

First of all, you can find the contract itself, as a pdf file: FAContract2008-2011.pdf.

In the contract, you can find answers to many of your questions, such as:

Question: How many office hours are required?

D 21—Five hours, of which four must be specified; one may be floating. The same requirement holds for spring/summer courses. There is no requirement to hold office hours during non-teaching periods.

Question: How much release time is granted for the Standing Committees?

F 10—PPC (Professional Practices Committee)—6 hours;
CAPC (Curriculum / Academic Practices Committee)—4 hours;
GEC (General Education Committee)—3 hours; Graduate Committee—2 hours.

Question: What can the Dean keep in a personnel file?
G1—There are three files to which this may refer: PPC File—the faculty member is responsible for maintaining the contents, which are normally stored by the dean. PPC files may be moved to the academic vice-president’s area for consideration by the PPC.
Personnel file—this is maintained and kept by ECS (Employment and Compensation Services)
Dean’s file—The dean may maintain a file with your CV, copies of any off-campus or spring/summer appointments, and any external letters of recommendation.

Question: What are the minimum base salaries?

N 3 specifies these by rank during the life of the contract.

Question: Can a grade be changed by anyone other than the involved faculty member?

I 12 describes this process in some detail.

Question: How is the Chair selected?

I 1—Department chairs are elected by secret ballot, by eligible faculty of the department (one-year temporary faculty are excluded) to begin their terms in the spring semester of even-numbered years. Chairs may be removed before this time in two ways: a) a petition signed by 2/3 of the voting faculty is presented to the dean; or b) the university administration informs the department of their dissatisfaction with the chair’s performance. In these cases, the department elects a new chair.

Over time, you will be able to find more information in a regular column called Know Your Contract. This feature is linked under “Contract” in the box at right.