[AAUP-ULL-List] [ALFS-Alexandria-Summit] Very short mid-summer poll

[Kevin L Cope]

An interesting feature of this snippet of administrative language is that it turns heavily on the faculty handbook.  In most universities, the faculty handbook has no legal standing.  It is usually a compendium of and index to policies that do have legal standing, but it itself is only a guide.  I believe that the UL System officials would have a hard time finding policies or any other legal documents that would accord so high a standing to the faculty handbook as is claimed in the quoted passage.  Thus, it would seem that a records request of the form “please provide any documentation indicating the legal status of the faculty handbook or explaining how it pertains to faculty contracts” might be in order.  Behind this issue, too, is another policy lacuna.  Most universities have either or both a workload policy and a compensation policy (and many also have supplemental compensation policies to cover everything from faculty moonlighting to grant-contract income and on to extra work done for the university).  Again, it would be a good idea to review those policies so as to assess the validity and standing of the broad claims made in this excerpt.  Finally, most universities of any quality have faculty committees or faculty senate delegates who review work-related policies.  It would be interesting to discover the authorship and the edition history of the faculty handbook.  With best wishes,  KEVIN   Kevin L. Cope

From: alfs-alexandria-summit <alfs-alexandria-summit-bounces at lists.louislibraries.org> On Behalf Of kuyperush--- via alfs-alexandria-summit
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2018 7:25 AM
To: aaupla at lists.louislibraries.org; aaup-ull-list at lists.louisiana.edu; alfs-alexandria-summit at lists.louislibraries.org
Cc: kuyperush at aol.com; stevenrushing321 at gmail.com
Subject: [ALFS-Alexandria-Summit] Very short mid-summer poll

Dear Colleagues,

I have only one question-primarily for our colleagues under the University of Louisiana System.

1.  Does this language (or anything similar) appear in your annual appointment letters?

"Your specific job-related duties, responsibilities and assignments are described in the Faculty Handbook and elsewhere (e.g. the University Catalogue and departmental evaluation procedures) are subject to modification as needed and are determined by the administrative officers of the institution."

Thanks for participating,

Stephen Rushing
President of the Southeastern Louisiana University Chapter of the AAUP
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