At the beginning of each new term during the academic year, teaching assignments for lecturers are often in flux until the last minute. It can be a challenging time for both lecturers and department chairs, and the uncertainties we face with regard to our COVID-19 public health crisis only compound lecturers’ precarious experiences.

Article 12.29b of our Collective Bargaining Agreement governs the assignment of classes during the academic year (i.e., in terms other than fall).  

This Article provides protection for long-term lecturers. The administration must follow the order of appointments specified in this Article.

If you are a lecturer who has been told you may be losing classes in the coming term or if you are a department chair making class assignments of available work for this coming fall term, we urge you to review Article 12.29b and contact your campus CFA chapter faculty rights representative if you have questions.

The primary difference between 12.29b and 12.29a (which governs fall terms) is that lecturers on one-year appointments in spring terms have a higher preference for work than do term-appointed lecturers, which means that their entitlement base must be met before providing careful consideration to term-appointed lecturers. 

It’s useful to know that lecturers with a three-year or one-year time-base entitlement have enforceable contractual rights. They must have their time-base entitlements met before any work is assigned to incumbent lecturers who are lower in the preference-for-work order.

During this period of the pandemic, with the prospect of lower enrollments and uncertain fall repopulation plans upon us, be a vigilant guardian of your entitlement rights, and contact your campus CFA faculty rights representative if you have questions about your entitlement rights for Fall 2021.

CFA continues to advocate for ever-stronger appointment rights for lecturers during negotiations for a new contract. On February 26, CFA passed a five-year contract proposal to the CSU, which would provide greater long-term stability and permanency in employment for thousands of lecturer faculty in the form of expanded five-year appointments. Currently, lecturer faculty go through six precarious years of review before getting a three-year appointment. CFA proposes that after the initial three-year appointment, upon satisfactory review, temporary faculty would then move into subsequent five-year appointments. You can keep up on our bargaining process at CFAbargaining.org.

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

  • Browse the faculty contract.
  • 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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