News Letter and Information

American Association of University Professors
Fort Hays State University Chapter
2007-8 School Year

The American Association of University Professors welcomes you back to our campus.
We would like to update you on two important items. One, is the results of negotiations for this school year (FY 2008), and the other is the issue referred to as “Unit Clarification.”

Unit Clarification -- In December, 2004, FHSU-AAUP filed a petition for Unit Clarification asking the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) to clarify which teaching faculty should be included (and who should be excluded) from our bargaining unit. The PERB held a hearing on our campus in January, 2006 and has now reached a decision.

In July, 2007 the PERB ordered that the appropriate unit will be as described below – pending a self-determination election by the “regular part-time” faculty and so-called “temporary full-time” faculty.
Include: All full-time and regular part-time Fort Hays State University faculty members who hold academic rank as Instructor, Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor, or Adjunct Professor. Also included are employees who hold rank as Program Specialist, Librarian or Research Specialists.

This fall there will be a petition circulated to see if the “regular part-time” and “temporary full-time” faculty want to have a self-determination election to become part of the bargaining unit. If at least 30% of these faculty are interested, then there will be an election to be held later this year.

The PERB order also stated that faculty on phased retirement and those on a terminal contract are part of the bargaining unit and should never have been excluded.

Summary of changes to the MOA for 2008

1. Salary (merit) raises and Promotion Stipend.
Merit raises for 2008 will be 5.0 %. We have increased promotion stipends. This will help alleviate the problem of salary compression.

2. Summer Session and Virtual College -- This article offers some clarification regarding how departments select faculty for teaching summer courses – both Virtual College and/or on-campus courses. It also specifies the remuneration for teaching and service. This article is mostly from the Faculty Handbook but with some improvements. Getting this new article into the MOA will make it easier to improve it in the future.

3. Salary Generation -- We altered this to make it relevant to current year negotiations. This is a significant improvement.

4. Faculty-authored Textbooks -- Peer Review is recommended for such works if they are required for student purchase. This is a conflict of interest policy.

5. Merit – The major improvement here is to clearly specify that the department criteria is developed by department faculty and any changes must be approved by department. The “official” department criteria must show the date the faculty approved it.

6. Tenure. There are several changes:

a. Decrease size of tenure (and promotion) files based on a survey of tenure-track faculty and Faculty Senate recommendations.
b. Clarification regarding appeal of “final recommendations.” Makes it clear that the “final tenure decision” for early years can be appealed to the Provost and the President of the University.
c. Define and explain procedural due-process
d. Makes it clear that candidates can alter file up to the time it leaves the department level of review.
e. Changes the notification of candidates timelines back to the AAUP recommended schedule.
f. Makes it clear that Provost is not the chair of the University Tenure Committee.

7. Promotion – Changes mirror the alterations in the tenure policy.

8. Grievance - Essentially the same as the old one but with some clarifying language.

9. Program discontinuance -- The policy in the Faculty Handbook is the KBOR policy and it will now be a part of the MOA.

10. Continuing Commitment -- This will allow us to work with appropriate Administrator(s) rather than some appointed committee. Our Executive Committee can best perform this function for AAUP

11. Information to be Provided -- The way this article was worded it sounded like FHSU needed to provide only the items listed. This has been clarified, and we now have a statement that states that any information that FHSU-AAUP needs to properly and fairly represent the faculty will be provided.

12. Contract Term – Another 3-year contract that is pretty good.

13. Definitions – we defined what is meant by “days” and “faculty” in the contract language.

14. Phased retirement – The administration agreed to try a faculty advisory committee to see if it will work. They also agreed to make the selection criteria available and to inform faculty members who are rejected for phased retirement with an explanation