CFA Pomona

Get in Touch Become a CFA Member Executive Board Stay Informed Quick Links

Resolution of CFA Pomona on campuswide unit 3 employees workload (February 2023)

Whereas the Contract of the California Faculty Association (Contract) of the California Faculty Association unit 3 employees by and
between the Trustees of The California State University, hereinafter referred to as the “CSU” or “Employer,” and the California
Faculty Association, hereinafter referred to as the “CFA,” or the “exclusive representative,” was ratified February 3, 2022 in
effect until June 30, 2024;
Whereas the parties recognize the importance of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) Section 3561(b)
of HEERA, which states:
“The Legislature recognizes that joint decision-making and consultation between administration and faculty or
academic employees is the long-accepted manner of governing institutions of higher learning and is essential to the
performance of the educational missions of such institutions, and declares that it is the purpose of this act to both
preserve and encourage that process . . .”;
Whereas Article 20.1 a. of the Contract states:
“The primary professional responsibilities of unit 3 faculty members are: teaching, research, scholarship, creative
activity, and service to the University, profession and to the community;”
Whereas Article 20.1 b. of the Contract states:
“Unit 3 faculty members have additional professional responsibilities such as: advising students, participation in
campus and systemwide committees, maintaining office hours, and/or opportunities for student consultation connected
to online teaching, working collaboratively and productively with colleagues and participation in traditional academic
functions;”
Whereas Article 20.1 c. of the Contract states:
“The performance of instructional responsibilities extends beyond duties in the classroom and includes such activities
as: preparation for class, evaluation of student performance, syllabus preparation and revision, and review of current
literature and research in the subject area, including instructional methodology. Research, scholarship and creative
activity in the faculty member’s field of expertise are essential to effective teaching. Mentoring students and colleagues
is another responsibility that faculty members are frequently expected to perform. Just as faculty members may teach
online, they may perform other duties online, pursuant to campus policies;”
Whereas Article 20.1 d. of the Contract states:
“The professional responsibilities of faculty members include research, scholarship and creative activity, which
contribute to their currency, and the contributions made within the classroom and to their professions. The
professional responsibilities of faculty members are fulfilled by participation in conferences and seminars, through
academic leaves and sabbaticals that provide additional opportunities for scholarship and preparation, and through a
variety of other professional development activities;”
Whereas Article 20.3. a. of the Contract states:
“Members of the bargaining unit shall not be required to teach an excessive number of contact hours, assume an
excessive student load, or be assigned an unreasonable workload or schedule;”
Whereas lecturer faculty campuswide workload or schedule is out of line with Article 20.1. a of the Contract which explicitly states:
“The primary professional responsibilities of faculty members are: teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity,
and service to the University, profession and to the community” and under current workload arrangement is out of
compliance with the Contract as lecturer faculty in general have no WTUs allocated for research, scholarship, creative
activity and/or service to the University, profession and to the community;
Whereas lecturer faculty campuswide have been assigned an unreasonable workload or schedule resulting from the following
workload factors:
Under the current workload arrangement, lecturer faculty are not compensated for their non-teaching WTUs (research,
scholarship, creative activity, service) described explicitly in Article 20.1 d. of the Contract as part of all unit 3 faculty’s
professional responsibilities;
Whereas Article 20.36 of the Contract states:
“[Counselor, librarian, and coach faculty] shall also receive assignments that support activities, including research,
scholarship, or creative activities, expected of these faculty unit employees to qualify for retention, tenure, and
promotion;”
Whereas campuswide, unit 3 faculty have been assigned an unreasonable workload or schedule under the current workload
arrangement, and are unable to conduct all their job duties explicitly stated in CBA Article 20.1 d.: teaching, research, scholarship,
creative activity, and service to the University, profession and to the community due to the following factors and evidence:
• institutional over-enrollment of FTES which places extraordinary and cascading workload demands on unit 3
faculty inclusive of counselors, advisors, coaches, librarians, and instructors,
• Cal Poly Pomona has the worst coinciding Student to Faculty, Student to Librarian, and Student to Counselor
(SFR, SLR, SCR) in the CSU,
• semester conversion in 2018-2019 which condensed 4 quarters workload into 2 semesters, creating
unanticipated excess workload factors,
• escalating and cascading student needs due to the impact and continued consequences of the covid-19
pandemic,
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is accredited by the International Accreditation of Counseling
Services (IACS), which recommends a minimum staffing ratio of one FTE professional counselor for every
1,000-1,500 students; CPP’s current 2,900:1 student to counselor ratio is out of compliance with industry
recommendations and requires hiring of additional tenure-line counselors to achieve compliance with industry
recommendations,
• CPP currently employs 7 tenure line librarians. CPP’s tenure line faculty librarian numbers are the smallest in
the CSU system with campuses that are comparable in FTES,
• escalating service demands that threaten the sanctity of teaching wherein unit 3 faculty are forced to conduct
service meetings which interfere with teaching, mentoring, advising, office hours, and/or prep,
• escalating student needs due to transformation of higher-ed, such as increased load on faculty prep due to
unplanned migration to online/hybrid learning management systems,
• escalating demands to deliver time and labor-intensive computer-based instruction due to the covid-19
pandemic which has become instructional delivery norm without consultation and/or compensation,
• escalating time and labor-intensive computer technological service-related demands due to campuswide rollout of novel technological platforms, without consultation and/or compensation,
• campuswide mission, vision, and values of learn through discovery (LTD) polytechnic pedagogy require labor
and time intensive high-impact practices such as intensive mentoring, dissemination of student work beyond
the classroom, service-learning, and experiential learning, which exceed the capacity of faculty within the
current WTU assignment arrangements, and service demands,
• lecturer faculty are almost 2/3 of campuswide faculty yet face job insecurity and are forced to travel between
the CSU and community colleges campuses across the region to earn a decent living and are forced to engage
in unpaid service, professional development, and/or research work to support students and maintain currency
of teaching,
• historically marginalized faculty including disabled, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, women, underrepresented, and/or firstgen faculty experience rising and continued cultural taxation in workload, teaching, mentoring, advising, and
service due to disproportionate student and institutional reliance on their knowledge and expertise,
• campuswide payroll failures in which faculty are unpaid and/or paid untimely for excessive workload or
schedule labor;
Whereas, CFA EP&R 76-36, Faculty Workload: Policies and Procedures, explicitly states:
“Variations in campus curricula require variations in the use of instructional faculty positions allocated to each
campus;”
Whereas campuswide, lecturer faculty assert that their ability to deliver high-quality, time and labor labor-intensive LTD instruction
and/or to obtain consideration for tenure-line positions in the current system is foreclosed under the current lecturer faculty model
due to the following factors:
• lack of compensation for research and publication assigned time which limits currency in the classroom and/or
forces unpaid labor,
• lack of compensation for service assigned time which limits campuswide representation and collaboration
and/or forces unpaid labor,
• lack of compensation for professional development which limits currency in the classroom, collaboration,
and/or forces unpaid labor;
Whereas campuswide, tenure-line faculty assert that their ability to deliver high-quality, time and labor-intensive LTD instruction is
foreclosed under the current 12 WTU teaching, 3 WTU service, 3 WTU research tenure-line faculty model due to the following
factors:
• exponentially increased service demands which frequently require more than forty hours per week in
department, college, and university committee meetings, preparing reports, and transmitting ecommunications, which requires unpaid labor, forces excessive workload and forecloses effective teaching,
mentoring, advising, and supervision of students,
• inability to supervise undergraduate research due to exponential service demands which limits currency in the
classroom,
• inability to adequately mentor and advise students due to exponential service demands which limits currency in
the classroom,
• inability to conduct and publish research due to exponential service demands and increasing student needs,
which limits currency in the classroom;
Whereas campuswide, due to the current workload and representation arrangement, part-time lecturer faculty are excluded from joint
decision-making and consultation which HEERA explicitly states is to include all instructional faculty, a contradiction which is
addressed in the active campus senate referral, AS EP-002-223 Academic Senate Representation for Part-Time Lecturer Faculty;
Whereas, peer institutions, such as San Jose State, have endorsed campus senate resolutions alleviating excess faculty workloadi
;
Whereas, peer institution Cal Poly SLO has endorsed CFA-SLO Statement on Workload and Semester Conversion to address
similar workload issues in the polytechnic contextii;
Resolved, that the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Academic Senate:

1. Recognizes that Article 20.3. a. of the Contract states “Members of the bargaining unit shall not be required to teach an excessive
   number of contact hours, assume an excessive student load, or be assigned an unreasonable workload or schedule” and the
   current campuswide conditions reflect campuswide unreasonable workload or schedule.
2. Adopts a campuswide lecturer opt-in or opt-out 75 percent teaching WTU / 25 percent service, professional development, and/or
   research WTU workload arrangement that lecturers have the option to select.
3. Adopts a campuswide tenure-track opt-in or opt-out 9WTU teaching load / 3WTU service / 3WTU research workload arrangement
   that tenure-line faculty have the option to select.
4. Hires sufficient tenure-line counselor faculty and tenure-line librarian faculty to align CPP with industry recommendations and CSU
   best practices.
5. That this resolution be distributed to the President of Cal Poly Pomona, the Provost of Cal Poly Pomona, VPs of Cal Poly Pomona,
   AVPs of Cal Poly Pomona, Deans of Cal Poly Pomona, Department Chairs of Cal Poly Pomona, Unit 3 Employees of Cal
   Poly Pomona, Cal Poly Pomona Poly Post, CSU Chancellor’s Office (CO), CSU Board of Trustees, Academic Senate of the
   CSU (ASCSU), CSU Campus Senate Chairs, California Faculty Association (CFA) Statewide President, CFA Chapter
   Presidents, CFA Cal Poly Pomona Chapter President, California State Student Association, ASI President of Cal Poly
   Pomona, and California State legislators.