CFA continues to look for creative ways to address the exploitation endemic to the two-tiered system, where some CSU faculty enjoy long-term job security in the form of tenure, while most do not. In our 2022-24 Collective Bargaining Agreement, there are a few important new provisions in Article 12: Appointment that open up avenues through which lecturers in the CSU might obtain tenure-line faculty positions. It is important for both lecturers and those tenured and tenure-line faculty serving on hiring committees to become familiar with such provisions. These are found in Articles 12.22 and 12.28.

Article 12.22 states that, “Recommendations regarding probationary appointments shall originate at the department or equivalent unit,” and subsequently describes various procedures for making probationary (that is, tenure-line assistant professor) appointments.

New language in Article 12.22 c. offers a path for lecturers to move into the tenure-line, as follows:

A departmental peer review committee may review and recommend a probationary faculty unit appointment for a temporary unit employee who has received an offer of tenure track employment. Such a recommendation may only occur in a department where there is no current tenure-line recruitment for which the faculty member is qualified. Such recommendation[s] shall be directed to the President or their designee for review, consideration, and response. The decision of the President or designee shall not be subject to Article 10 (Grievance Procedures) of this Collective Bargaining Agreement.

If you are a lecturer and you have received an offer of a tenure-line position at any university or community college yet you wish to remain employed at your existing CSU campus, immediately alert your department chair to the existence of your job offer and to this provision in 12.22 c. of the new CBA. While this language is permissive, requires approval by administration, and is not grievable, it does present an opportunity to keep departments who rely on a lecturer’s unique expertise intact and to retain a valued faculty member who would otherwise leave for a permanent job.

Another possible path to the tenure line for lecturers is found in Article 12.28, which states:

The department or equivalent unit shall normally develop vacancy announcements. Such announcements shall be subject to approval by the appropriate administrator. When campus search committees find a temporary faculty unit employee who has applied for a tenure track position on their campus to be qualified, that employee should be interviewed.

While this language in 12.28 – “that employee should be interviewed” – is permissive and not subject to the grievance procedure, it marks an important shift in encouraging faculty hiring committees to seriously consider, by way of an interview, their existing lecturer colleagues when a tenure-line search is conducted in areas for which they are qualified.

Do you have questions about these new provisions in the CBA? Find your campus faculty rights representative here. Learn more about the Council of Lecturers here.

Want to learn more? Become active with your local CFA chapter Faculty Rights team. Find your representative here.

  • Browse the faculty contract here.
  • See an archive of Faculty Rights Tips.
  • If you have questions about a faculty rights tip or would like to suggest a tip, please write us with the subject line “Faculty Rights Tip.”
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