By Scott Laderman
UEA Contract Administrator
We have lately been addressing an issue in the College of Education and Human Service Professions (CEHSP) that, when positively resolved, will benefit nearly the entire faculty of that college.
We thought it fitting to bring this to everyone’s attention because much of the work UEA does is often done out of sight of the larger membership. There are exceptions, such as our resistance to the EVCAA’s recent workload proposal. Indeed, one of the benefits of being a unionized faculty is that the administration cannot unilaterally impose its will on us.
We have legal power.
But most of what UEA does is kept quiet either because it involves individual personnel matters for which discretion is essential or because, perhaps unwisely, we have not made it a practice to draw attention to the many important things we accomplish.
So let us tell you about the issue in CEHSP. CEHSP has, for some time, been out of compliance with our collective bargaining agreement. It’s a complicated issue to explain, and I can’t fully do it justice here, but at some point the administration began treating the workload limits in the contract as workload norms.
The limits exist for emergency situations. The norms, which should be approximately 85 percent of the department/program/area contact hour limits in the contract’s Table 1, are what people should expect to teach on a regular basis. (For nonregular faculty without research expectations, the instructional load can be up to fifty percent higher.)
So if, for example, the contact hour limit for a department is 19, the normal instructional load should be approximately 16 contact hours. If the limit for a department is 20, the normal teaching load should be approximately 17. And so on.
CEHSP, which at some point had taken to treating the limits as the norms, is, we believe, in clear violation of this portion of the contract. One result has been interference with the University’s research mission, which has frustrated many faculty to no end. Another has been faculty burnout. These are both unacceptable.
After UEA learned of this situation it brought its concern to the administration. We received assurances from the EVCAA and the chancellor that the problem would be fixed. We also met with the new dean of CEHSP, who assured us that she intends to comply with the collective bargaining agreement.
We thus expect this situation to be resolved shortly. When it does, most CEHSP faculty should see their instructional workloads decrease.
Unfortunately this will not resolve all of our issues at UMD. Other problems will undoubtedly arise. They always do. So please be sure to let us know when you experience or hear of any contract violations. Better yet, join us in our continuing efforts to make UMD a model workplace. If you’re not a member, become one. And if you’re already a member, get involved. We have elections coming up soon and are always in need of good people to step up and serve.
Scott Laderman teaches history and is the UEA-D Contract Administrator.