Counselor faculty often find themselves supervised by administrators who are unfamiliar with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  This can create problems in a number of areas, especially counselors’ workload and evaluation.

Counselors may find they are assigned extra work. The following provision in Article 20 (Workload, with our newest contractual language underlined below) is useful for discussions that must consider expectations and the number of hours counselors work and for which they are compensated:

20.11 The assignments and responsibilities of a counselor faculty unit employee may include but shall not be limited to individual counseling, group counseling, consultation and referral, case management (including record keeping), intern training and supervision, teaching, service on systemwide and campus committees and task forces, and activities that foster professional growth including creative activity and research. The nature of such assignments shall correlate closely with activities expected of counselor faculty unit employees in order to qualify for retention, tenure/ permanency, and promotion, and after tenure/permanency, activities expected of counselor faculty unit employees in order to maintain their roles as contributing members of the campus community.

Such assignments, including adequate time for non-direct service activities, shall be made by the appropriate administrator after consultation with the counselor faculty unit employee. This consultation shall include consideration of the amount of time necessary for the successful completion of counselor responsibilities within the counselor workweek. All such counselor faculty unit employee assignments and schedules shall be made pursuant to provision 20.15. Student mental health services expenditures include, but are not limited to, additional counselor faculty and appropriate staff.

Counselors’ supervisors may also be conducting unfair and flawed evaluations because they are unaware that evaluation provisions, requiring that expectations be set out before the reviewing period is underway, apply to all faculty unit employees. The following provision in Article 15 (Evaluation) of our CBA applies to all unit 3 faculty employees, including temporary and tenure-track counselors.

15.3 Evaluation criteria and procedures shall be made available to the faculty unit employee no later than 14 days after the first day of instruction of the academic term. Evaluation criteria and procedures shall be made available to the evaluation committee and the academic administrators prior to the commencement of the evaluation process. Once the evaluation process has begun, there shall be no changes in criteria and procedures used to evaluate the faculty unit employee during the evaluation process. Faculty members teaching online are subject to all the rights and conditions set out in Article 15 and applicable campus evaluation policies. The collection and use of online course quantitative data for evaluation purposes shall only occur when required in campus evaluation policies and procedures.

We urge all faculty members to contact chairs or immediate supervisors to learn about relevant evaluation criteria and procedures at the campus, college, and department levels.  Faculty should not be subject to expectations changing and shifting throughout the academic term and/or review period.  

If your department or unit has not made such criteria available, for any reason, we encourage you to contact your CFA Faculty Rights representative immediately.

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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