It’s that time of year again: the process for the assignment of duties is underway. We have created a Fact Sheet about the process that you can download from the USFA website.

Highlights include:

·         Each Department and non-departmentalized College is required to have Guidelines for the Assignment of Duties (Article11.5).

·         Duties are assigned by the Department Head, or Dean in a non-departmentalized College, “following consultation with departmental [College] faculty in committee.” This means you must have a face-to-face meeting of faculty at which assignments of all duties are discussed (Article 11.1).

·         Yearly assigned teaching must be distributed as evenly as possible across two terms (T1: fall, T2: winter, T3: spring and summer) with one term designated a non-teaching term (Article 11.2.1).

·         No employee is required to teach during his or her non-teaching term and doing so is rewarded with extra compensation ($5500 for 3 credit unit course) or reduced teaching at other times during the year (Article 11.2.1(a)).

·         No employee is required to teach in T3 more than once every three years (Article 11.2.1(b)).

·         Duties are to be assigned equitably and must take into consideration the full range of academic responsibilities (Article 11.4).

Get to know the process for the assignment of duties! Knowledgeable participation is the best way to ensure transparency and fairness in, and smooth functioning of, the assignment of duties.