News

Last spring we welcomed the part-time career and academic counselors and librarians into the CLC-AFO. One small change that was made is that the “Teaching Preference Form” (TPF) became the “Adjunct Preference Form” (APF) in order to accommodate our new colleagues.

When completing your APF, your CLC-AFO officers suggest the following:

1. Be as flexible as possible with days, times, and locations. Several divisions have large concentrations of GFO adjuncts now, and cannot possibly honor everyone’s request for “Tuesday/Thursday” back to back!

2. List all courses that you are qualified to teach, are interested in teaching and/or have taught before. These should be in descending order.

3. Department Chairs change, administrators come and go. The new person may not know us as well as his/her predecessor did. Use the “Comment” box to make special requests or to clearly state what you’d really like to teach.

4. Watch for an e-mail confirmation from your Division that your APF has been received. When you receive it, save it to a specially created folder. If you do not receive the confirmation, contact your Division immediately.

5. Print a hard copy of your APF.

Please note that the College’s obligation to GFO adjuncts is one 3 credit hour course. And it need not be the first one listed on your APF. As long as they have made a “good faith offer” that reflects what was on your APF, they’ve met their obligation under the Union contract.

Many of us have full time jobs, teach part-time at other colleges or have other commitments that put real constraints upon when, where and what we can teach for CLC. This is understandable. However, our divisions/departments sometimes face funding shortages or low enrollment which reduces the number of classes being offered for the next semester. We adjuncts rarely know this until we get that dreaded phone call or e-mail informing us that our class has been cancelled.  And it makes it difficult for our department chairs to offer us a re-assignment if we’ve listed only one course.

Moral of the story: try to make your preferences as broad as possible in order to maximize the chances of getting an assignment or reassignment.

Amendments to By-Laws Pass

During the Adjunct Faculty Union Meeting held just prior to the General Orientation meeting on Saturday, August 20th, members voted on four proposed changes to the By-Laws.

The results are as follows:

Item 1: Article IV Officers – Section 7
A. Amend old language to: Stipends paid to Treasurer and Secretary each fall and spring semester to be increased from $200 per semester to $300 per semester.
B. New Language: Stipend of $500 to be paid to the Vice-President each fall and spring semester.
Yes = 55, No = 1

Item 2: Article V – Elections – Section 1
A. Amend old language to: Beginning 2013, elections are to be staggered, with an election held for President and Secretary that year. In 2014, an election for Vice-President and Treasurer shall be held.
B. Amend old language to: Elections shall be moved from fall semester to spring semester.
Yes = 55, No = 1

Item 3: Article 5 – Elections – Section 3
A. Amend old language to: specify that officers serve for 3 years or until the next election for their respective position.
Yes = 55, No = 1

Item 4: Article X – Amendments
A. Amend old language to: By-laws may be amended by 2/3 vote of members when a quorum casts ballots.
Yes = 46, No = 10

The revised by-laws have been posted under Documents and can be viewed in their entirety here. Thanks to all members who roused themselves out quite early to attend the meeting.

Welcome back for the fall semester! This year we will take a look at some of the provisions of our contract. Since we are beginning a new year, this is a good time to review Personal Leave.

1. How many sick days do we get?

We don’t.  At least not technically. Article 6.A of the CBA grants adjuncts “Personal Leave”.  Each adjunct gets one non-cumulative work day absence each semester without loss of pay for illness of the adjunct or to attend to important personal matters which cannot be handled during non-working hours. If you’ve taught ten semesters (fall and spring only) during or after Fall 2000 you are allowed one additional, non-cumulative day each academic year which can be used in the Fall or Spring semester.

Tell your Dean, Associate Dean or Director asap if you plan to use a personal day. If you fail to do that you may lose compensation for that day, unless it is a verified emergency.

Please note that personal days, as per the definition above, are not vacation days. Failure to use your personal days in a responsible manner may lead your supervisor to regard you in less than a professional light. Remember that when we sign the Teaching Assignment form at the outset of the semester, we are committing to teaching, to being there for our students.

2. OK, you’re sick and need a sub.

Article 3.F. says that the adjunct is to notify his/her Dean, Associate Dean or Director. The adjunct is encouraged, but not required, to propose a substitute.  The appropriate administrator must be notified in advance and approve of the substitute. Subs are paid $45/credit hour.

As an aside, unless it is an emergency, the adjunct requesting the sub should provide a lesson plan and materials. This is not in the contract, but it says something about us as professionals.

3. What other kinds of leave do we get?

Article 6 provides for Bereavement Leave, Jury Duty Leave, Military Leave, Professional Meeting Leave and Leave for Conducting College Business. See the CBA for details. Don’t have a copy? View it on this website, CLC Intranet, or contact Kaarin Engstrom, Faculty Coordinator, in HR for a copy.

Information on CLC-AFO Our contract determines many of the rights and working conditions of our teaching assignments at CLC. There are several other rights and opportunities that don’t appear in the contract. The most important of these rights are called “Weingarten Rights”.

Continue reading “Weingarten Rights”