Our union negotiated a Memorandum of Agreement that brings back faculty participation in course scheduling. Below is a summary of its major points.
- Gives faculty the right, prior to the development of a class schedule, to advise chairs (or program directors) of when they are unavailable to teach as a result of scheduled University, School, and departmental obligations, including professional obligations relating to service, research, and scholarship.
- Defines “University, School, departmental, and other professional obligations” to include, but not be limited to, regularly scheduled departmental meetings; regularly scheduled School meetings (e.g., meetings of committees identified in the School’s bylaws, chair meetings, and undergraduate program directors meetings); regularly scheduled University-level meetings (e.g., meetings for active members of the New Brunswick Faculty Council, Promotion Review Committee, and University Senate); regularly scheduled research and scholarship obligations (e.g., regularly scheduled meetings with research partners/team; regularly scheduled, fixed research time outside the University; regularly scheduled clinical hours; regularly scheduled participation as a fellow at research centers; regularly scheduled departmental and/or School research seminars; and regularly scheduled departmental and/or School teaching and research seminars.
- Restores the “human hand” in the scheduling process by giving chairs the ability to submit changes to the schedule, under the closed ranks process, to account for a leave of absence, religious or ADA accommodation, or a professional obligation that is approved after the schedule is created. Chairs can also make time/day changes for newly emergent professional obligations for a faculty member or their submitted time/day preferences. The chair’s requested schedule changes will be approved unless no room is available at the requested time/day and provided the dean or head of unit does not disagree with the Chair’s request. If no room is available at the time/day requested, the scheduling office will negotiate with the department chair to find a satisfactory solution.
- Provides a process for reasonable accommodation in the scheduling of courses for a qualifying disability or as a result of a sincerely held religious belief or practice.
- Establishes accommodations in scheduling for approved leaves of absence for personal illness, pregnancy, post-pregnancy, disability, parenting, caregiving, family illness, or family leave.
- Department chairs will provide faculty members with their schedules as far in advance as possible, and in accordance with standard departmental practice.
- Provides a process of appeal for faculty members with an objection to the faculty member’s schedule. The faculty member may raise the objection with their chair. If the objection is unresolved, it may be appealed to the dean.
- Requires the University to give the Union notice of proposed changes to the guidelines and to meet and discuss those changes.
- Provisions of the MoA that are mandatorily negotiable may be grieved as Category One grievances under Article 9 of the collective negotiations agreement. Academic judgments made pursuant to this MoA that are not mandatorily negotiable are not grievable.
- AAUP-AFT does not waive its rights to assert that the implementation and administration of a course scheduling system is mandatorily negotiable.