Issues Related to Implementation of Course Releases For Senior Lecturer 2 and Senior Lecturer 3 Ranks

The FSU has worked with a number of members who have indicated that they are being denied the course release (CLR) mandated by 21.2 of the contract which requires one CLR per year for full-time Senior Lecturer IIs and two CLRs per year for Senior Lecturer IIIs. Specifically, one full-time member is being denied the release due to the fact that they are already 3/3 with a quarter-time assignment outside of teaching. The Administration has argued that, as a result of the CLR they are already receiving, they have fulfilled their obligations under 21.2 to provide full-tine Senior Lecturer IIIs with a CLR in exchange for additional service and do not need to grant the member an additional (i.e., 2) CLRs. The FSU Grievance Committee has asserted that, since the CLR that the member had already received was NOT for additional service, Admin was required to provide an additional CLR (i.e., two total per semester) in order to fulfill the contract. Admin disagreed with the FSU assertion. The member in question opted not to pursue the matter further. The GC asserted its right to pursue this issue in other cases should they arise.

In addition, members who teach only four-credit courses (i.e., three courses=twelve credits, or full-time) have been told that they will not receive an additional CLR since they are already teaching three courses (again, Admin is asserting that the three courses, despite being twelve total credits, fulfills the terms of 21.2). The FSU Grievance Committee has asserted that the members in question must teach only nine credits as credits ten-twelve would be the equivalent of the CLR mandated by 21.2 We filed a grievance on this issue but placed it in abeyance while we discussed an informal resolution with Admin. During informal discussions, Admin agreed that the members should be given nine credits of teaching for a full-time load. However, the parties could not agree on the AddComp amount owed to the members for teaching above a full-time load of nine credits. The GC informed Admin that we wished to go forward with a formal grievance. We were able to reach an agreement with Admin that one of the members in question would receive the total AddComp amount they believed they were owed. We are still in the process of determining how or if the members in question will be retroactively paid their AddComp.

Finally, the FSU Grievance Committee has asked Admin to address a situation for Spring 2024 that was first noted in Fall 22 regarding eligibility for CLRs. Admin had asserted that only NTT who have full-time continuing appointments will be eligible for the CLR (there are many NTT who are full-time but who have continuing appointments at less than full-time). The FSU Grievance Committee argued that all full-time NTT faculty, regardless of continuing appointment status, should be eligible. We filed a grievance and reached a settlement whereby a number of NTT faculty members who had been full-time for extended periods of time but who did not have full-time continuing appointments would be given CLRs and would be given full-time continuing appointments. However, a similar issue will arise for Spring 24. We identified a number of NTT whom we asserted should be eligible for CLRs in Spring 24 but who would not receive them as they do not have full-time continuing appointments. We have proposed a settlement agreement to Admin similar to the one just reached for the ones we identified in Fall 22. We reached an agreement with Admin to increase the percentage of time of the continuing appointment members to full-tie and grant them the appropriate course releases as of Fall 2024. The parties also agreed informally to address the issues with the contract language that gave rise to the grievance.