Faculty Rights Tip: I Am a Lecturer Who Performs Unpaid Service to My University. Can I Be Compensated for This? 

Without lecturers performing unpaid work for the CSU, students would go without letters of recommendation, programs would go without coordinators, and Academic Senates would have no representation from lecturers – among other losses. As we improve our contract with each negotiation cycle, efforts continue toward the goal of reaching the ideal of “no free work.”

There is a new provision in the 2022-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which addresses the problem of lecturers performing work that exceeds our teaching (or counseling, coaching, or library) assignments.

Article 20, section titled, “Assigned Time for Temporary Faculty Unit Employees Performing Institutional Service,” states:

For each fiscal year of this agreement, CSU campuses will collectively provide a pool of 500 WTUs for each academic year, allocated based on campus full-time equivalent students (FTES), to provide assigned time to Temporary Faculty Unit Employees who perform institutional service that support the CSU’s priorities.  Such WTUs shall not be included as part of a temporary faculty member’s future entitlement base, except where such WTUs were utilized to satisfy the time base entitlement. The allocation of the assigned time will be determined by the President (or designee), and the decision shall be final.

The allocation of the pool shall not result in less than 3 WTUs for any individual campus.

We advise that you contact your Faculty Rights Representative or your campus chapter’s Lecturer Representative to inquire about being compensated for service work you perform.

On some campuses, administrators are saying, “We already do this,” when asked about honoring the new contract provision (e.g. when the call for applications will go out, what the deadline is, and so on). If that is the case on your campus, your chapter leadership should do an information request and investigate management’s claims to find out what amount of WTUs are allocated to your campus, who is getting them, and how the decision is being made to allocate the WTUs that represent a hard fought our contract win to begin to recognize, and pay for, the service work lecturers perform on our campuses.

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

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