Assignments are always a moving target, for full-time faculty and part-time faculty. Course sections are scheduled, then canceled; Professor X switches suddenly, leaving a section opening; enrollments force changes; and some assignments involve labs, studios, and shared teaching.
Given this, the PATFA contract contains language that sets out the basic rules for assignments. Its assignment language is never a guarantee, but it serves as a path that should be mutually beneficial for administrators and adjuncts. The bluntest thing we will say today: Some administrators treat assignments and adjuncts like gameboard pieces, capable of being moved or tossed at will. And some administrators treat part-time faculty with professional respect, communicating clearly and trying hard to handle assignments and adjuncts with fairness and courtesy. The contract must work with both styles and everything in between.
Academic Year Appointments
New to the 2017-19 PATFA contract is the possibility of a two-year Academic Year Appointment for adjuncts who have taught at least 16 Fall and Spring semesters (“service units”) and who have taught at least two courses in the six most-recent semesters. It is the same structure as for a one-year AYA, and PATFA is aware of a number of adjuncts who have taken advantage of these.
The advantages? 1) Adjunct and administrator can plan on specific courses beyond the immediate semester; 2) the university is willing to divide pay into 12 monthly installments; 3) the letter of appointment can spell out in clear words and dollars what the adjunct will be paid for courses and non-course work as well; 4) And for some long-term adjuncts, a major incentive for an AYA and, now, a 2AYA is the System’s willingness to pay 65 percent of the health insurance premium through the UMS Cigna plans rather than the 60 percent it pays for adjuncts without an AYA who buy the same health insurance. (You must have taught at least two courses each for six semesters to qualify for the health insurance option, with or without an AYA.)
The System and PATFA agreed during negotiations for the 2017-19 contract to consider the AYA and 2AYA option as part of a four-year pilot study, with the aim of understanding its effectiveness and use. PATFA encourages part-time faculty members to talk with their supervisors about the one- and two-year AYAs. Don’t take no for an answer because the contract allows and encourages them.
Assignment guidelines
Before you read the full text of Article 12 – Assignments, here are some tips: 1) Course sections can be retracted at any time; 2) At specific points, an adjunct must be paid cancellation fees; 3) All seven universities in the System are planning their semester offerings months in advance; and 4) PATFA argues that part-time faculty members should be treated with the same professional courtesy in planning course schedules that full-time faculty receive. The smartest thing an adjunct can do in relation to assignments is to make sure that the person who does the assigning knows early and often what that adjunct would like to teach and do in the next teaching semesters. The days of waiting for the phone to ring are long gone.
Two items at the end of the Assignments article are more important than their language implies. One tries to prod administrators into providing professional courtesy by including the adjunct’s name with specific course sections used for registration. (Some chairs prefer to use “Staff” until the last minute.) The final line is designed to prod each of the seven universities to list long-term part-time faculty on their websites. (“Lists 2 and 3” means adjuncts who have taught at least six Fall or Spring semesters within the University of Maine System.)
Here is Article 12 – Assignments, full text from 2017-19 PATFA contract:
“A. Assignments shall be made by the appropriate University administrator. Such assignment shall be for a specific course or other duties.
“B. An official assignment occurs only upon receipt of written notification from the University.
“C. Unit members shall receive information regarding their proposed teaching assignment for the next semester at least sixty (60) days prior to the start of that semester when possible and shall receive the official assignment at least thirty (30) days prior to the start of that semester when possible.
“D. Changes in official assignments may be made in the event of unusual or unforeseen circumstances, in the case where a unit member with an Academic Year Appointment’s assignment has been cancelled, or by mutual agreement of the unit member and the appropriate administrator.
“E. Courses may be retracted at any time by the appropriate administrator, or may not be offered to a unit member due to lack of work, or enrollment or budgetary or programmatic considerations.
“F. Unit members shall receive a cancellation payment when an official assignment is retracted within one (1) month prior to the first class meeting. Such payment shall be five percent (5%) of the amount which was to be paid for the course.
“G. Unit members shall receive a cancellation payment when an official assignment is retracted after the first class meeting in the amount of five percent (5%) plus a proportional basis for any actual classes met.
“H. In the event the retracted official assignment was a course determined by the appropriate administrator to have required significant academic preparation or to be a course not previously taught by the unit member, cancellation payments specified above shall be ten percent (10%).
“I. When course assignments to part-time faculty are known prior to publication of a course offerings schedule, the name(s) of the unit member(s) will be published in that schedule.
“J. The names, including titles, of unit members on Lists 2 and 3 will be included in the appropriate campus catalogues or online publications.”
Here is Article 29 – Academic Year Appointment, full text from 2017-19 PATFA contract:
“A. 1. Provided there are courses available within a unit member’s area of expertise, members of the bargaining unit who have earned 16 service units or more and who have taught at least two courses in each of the last six semesters are eligible for an offer of an academic year appointment. Such appointments shall be consistent with Article 11, Section D.3. Such offers are at the discretion of the University.
“The parties agree to a four (4) year (academic year) pilot program whereby those eligible for an offer of an academic year appointment per the provisions of this article may be offered such an appointment for a duration of one (1) or two (2) academic years. Following the pilot program the University and Union will meet to assess and negotiate the possible continuation of the program.
“2. Members who decline the appointment shall retain all other rights they may enjoy under the terms of this Agreement.
“3. In accepting such academic year appointment, the unit member agrees to teach the assigned courses at the times established by the University, notwithstanding any previously expressed periods of preference or availability. Academic year appointments may include the assignment of alternate academic work duties other than teaching at the sole discretion of the University.
“4. The academic year appointment shall specify the compensation to be paid to the unit member for the duration of the appointment. Compensation may be based upon a credit hour rate or academic year salary at the sole discretion of the University.
“5. Unit members being paid on a credit hour basis may elect to have such pay distributed on a 12 (twelve) month basis.
“6. In the event a course assigned to a person holding an academic year appointment is cancelled, that individual shall be reassigned to another course if one is available, even if such reassignment results in the displacement of another non-academic year faculty member. In the event there are no courses available within the academic year unit member’s expertise, then a cancellation fee in accordance with Article 12 – Assignments will be paid and the unit member’s compensation shall be adjusted accordingly.
“7. Unit members holding part-time academic year appointments shall be considered for similar appointment in the following academic year provided that there are courses available which the unit member is qualified to teach.
“8. Unit members who are granted a part-time academic year appointment shall have no right or expectation of a subsequent academic year appointment.”
REMEMBER: This email is from PATFA, not Human Resources. Each part-time faculty member receives a “contract” from the provost that offers specific course work and specific pay. That is a contract. But the “PATFA contract” is also a legally binding document that affects you and the University of Maine System. (And don’t let anybody at one of the seven System universities say, “Well, we don’t do it that way here.” The PATFA contract is binding on all seven universities.)
From your PATFA Executive Council: Michele Cheung, USM, president; Jim Seymour, UMA, vice president; Pam Mitchel, UMF, treasurer; and Tom McCord, UMA, secretary.
Website: http://patfa.me.aft.org/
PATFA office: 311 Belfast Hall, UMA Bangor, 85 Texas Ave., Bangor, ME 04401-4340.
PATFA office phone: (207) 262-7971 (checked weekdays).
Facebook: PATFA@aftmaine
Email: patfa@maine.edu