Summary of 2002-2007 Contract Changes

The new contract covers a five-year period from September 1, 2002 through August 31, 2007. Disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge, this summary accurately describes all significant changes appearing in the new CBA. However, neither the AAUP at NYIT, Inc. nor any of officers or employees can be responsible for any possible errors or omissions. The official document you will be voting on at the Contract Ratification Meeting is the Final Contract Draft.

3. The general salary adjustments based on current Consumer Price Index figures are eliminated.

4. The AAUP-NYIT Research Fund has been replaced by NYIT’s Institutional Support of Research and Creativity (ISRC) grants.

1. Adjunct and overload teaching rates will be increased in six steps. New undergraduate rates (for faculty members who teach undergraduate courses) will be as follows:

	Minimum Undergraduate Adjunct and Overload Salary Rates (for Faculty Members When Teaching)
Rank	9/1/02	3/1/03	9/1/03	9/1/04	9/1/05	9/1/06
Professor	$53.50	$54.50	$56.50	$58.00	$59.50	$61.50
Associate Professor	$51.50	$52.50	$54.50	$56.00	$57.50	$59.50
Assistant Professor	$48.50	$49.50	$51.50	$53.00	$54.50	$56.50
Instructor	$45.50	$46.50	$48.50	$50.00	$51.50	$53.50

2. Both (a) stipends for full-time faculty and (b) adjunct/overload rate increases based on NYIT enrollment increases have been eliminated.

3. A new provision states that librarians or counselors who teach credit-bearing courses at times other than their regular working hours shall be paid at these faculty adjunct and overload rates.

4. Hourly rates for teaching graduate courses on an adjunct and overload basis have also been increased; they continue to be $2.00 higher than the hourly rates for teaching undergraduate courses (shown above). A separate hourly rate schedule continues to be in effect for: (1) regular part-time professional staff, (2) overload for full-time professional staff, and (3) faculty when not teaching. These rates will continue to be equal to 50% of the undergraduate teaching rates shown above, and will be increased proportionately as is shown on page 7, lines 5-15 of the CBA draft.

The base teaching load of faculty members is currently 12 Equivalent Lecture Hours (ELH) per semester (24 ELH in the Fall and Spring semesters combined). This combined teaching load will decrease by 1 ELH per year in the last three years of the contract, as follows:

Academic Year	ELH (Fall and Spring semesters combined)
2004-2005	23
2005-2006	22
2006-2007	21

1. Domestic Partner benefits (both same-sex and opposite-sex) will be added for all types of employee benefits including medical and dental benefits, tuition remission, etc.

2. The annual maximum reimbursement in the group dental plan has been increased from $1,500 to $2,500.

3. Sick leave and disability provisions: (a) after 9/1/02, sick leave accumulations will not exceed 6 months; (b) members returning from sick leave who are not assigned work appropriate to their stations by NYIT need not use up any additional sick leave for this reason; (c) when sick leave extends beyond 6 months, a member will be placed on long-term disability, during which time he/she may use up to 45 sick days to supplement disability payments; (d) faculty who already have over 6 months in their bank will not lose that accumulated time, (e) the positions of tenured faculty members and professional staff members with at least seven years of service who are on sick leave will be held open for up to three years; all other faculty/professional staff positions will be held open for the terms of their contracts; (f) the sick-leave provisions of the previous contract will apply to those members who are already on short- or long-term disability as of 9/1/02. Long-term disability payments have been increased to 66 2/3 % of monthly base salary, not to exceed $7,000 per month.

4. Flexible Spending Account: Flexible Spending Account benefits covering a wide range of eligible expenses are now available to all bargaining unit members. There is no longer a maximum limit on annual FSA contributions; this limit had been $4,000 annually.

5. TIAA-CREF Retirement Plan: For the TIAA-CREF Retirement Plan, (a) each member’s minimum contribution is now 3% (instead of 5%) of annual salary; (b) all members in their second through sixth years of service at NYIT will receive pension fund contributions from NYIT equal to 7% of annual salary; (c) new faculty may join the Plan in their first year, if they were employed at institutes of higher learning, teaching hospitals or research organizations immediately preceding their employment at NYIT; (d) cash withdrawals will be permitted for those still employed at NYIT and of age 70 ½ or older; (e) members may borrow from their Retirement Account accumulation to the extent that TIAA-CREF permits.

6. Long-Term Care Insurance: NYIT has made available employer-provided Long-Term Care Insurance from TIAA-CREF to its employees. The entire cost of the premium will be paid by the employee.

7. Good Friday was eliminated as a paid holiday, and was replaced by an additional holiday to be designated by the NYIT Administration (to keep the total number of paid holidays constant).

8. Tuition remission for full-time bargaining unit members may be extended to noncredit courses if space is available at the first class meeting. Otherwise, the member’s tuition cost is only the additional compensation paid to the instructor by the college.

9. There will no longer be an AAUP-NYIT committee to discuss early retirement plans.

10. Provided it gives sufficient notice and the benefits are in no way reduced, NYIT may change insurance carriers and/or consolidate its insurance plans.

1. Laboratory, Studio, and Design Sections: As of September 1, 2002, all full-time faculty members in all Schools and departments will receive full pay for teaching all laboratory, studio, or design sections. This means that they will receive 1 ELH for every one hour of such teaching. (Until August 31, 2002, full-time Architecture faculty as well as full-time faculty teaching some courses in Communication Arts and Fine Arts received only 2/3 ELH for each hour of teaching.)

2. Tutorials: The basic formula for calculating the compensation for teaching tutorials remains the same as before. Faculty members teaching tutorials will continue to receive one-half of the tuition paid for the first student, and one-fourth of the tuition paid for each additional student, but this payment cannot exceed the regular adjunct or overload teaching rate. An important simplification will be made in the new contract regarding base load teaching of tutorials. In the past, any faculty members who wanted to have their tutorial compensation counted towards their base load for that semester had to negotiate with their Chair as to how many ELH's they would be able to receive for the course. In the future, the chart shown on page 11, lines 1-10 will automatically be used whenever a tutorial is to be included in the faculty member's base teaching load.

Article X.f.(4), which addresses compensation of tutorials taught on an adjunct/overload basis, includes the provisions from a March, 2001 side letter concerning compensation of faculty teaching tutorials from which one or more students have withdrawn.

3. Workload Accounting: Faculty performing administrative duties (Chairs, Coordinators, Directors, etc.), normally receive 40% of the annual stipend in each of the Fall and Spring semesters. (The remaining 20% of the annual stipend is paid during the Summer.) The payments for this administrative work in the Fall and Spring semesters, as well as almost all other faculty compensation, will be converted to ELH's and will be counted toward the base load and/or overload. Notes: (a) ELH conversion will not apply to external grants, and released time deriving from internal grants will not affect overload policies; (b) if the ELH conversion using a blended rate results in an impermissible overload but the use of the actual rate does not, the actual rate will be used for the conversion. (Page 18, lines 1-15)

4. Overload Limit: The overload limit is no longer 8 ELH (or two courses not exceeding 8 credits) per semester. Instead, full-time faculty may teach a maximum total of 40 ELH in years 1 and 2 of the CBA and then 39, 38 and 37 ELH in years 3, 4 and 5, respectively, with this exception: those faculty who carried an overload of 8 ELH per term for at least two academic years in 1998-2002 will be permitted to teach 40 ELH per year in years 3, 4 and 5 provided they bank 1, 2 and 3 ELH in those respective years. Faculty who have received administrative stipends of at least $4,200 per year since the 2001-2002 academic year may carry a workload of 21 ELH’s per semester, averaged over three (Fall and Spring) terms, commencing with the Spring 2003 term. (Page 18, line 22 to page 19, line 19)

5. By way of clarification, a course may be taught on an adjunct or overload basis only if no full-time member in the department who is deemed qualified to teach the course wishes to use the course to satisfy baseload requirements. (Page 19, lines 26-28)

6. Faculty with administrative duties may not teach overload during the day session unless the overload ELH is needed to satisfy the baseload requirement during the day. (Page 19, lines 29-31)

7. Except for ELH reductions tied to payments from externally funded programs, full-time faculty must teach at least 6 ELH per term (12 ELH per year). (Page 19, lines 35-36)

8. Teaching schedules and course assignments shall be made reasonably and fairly, with consideration for departmental and individual faculty needs and with timely notification to the faculty. (Page 19, lines 43-45)

9. Full-time faculty will be paid for all services rendered in 24 equal installments per year (on the 3rd and 18th of each month), except that adjunct/overload payments need not be made by the first payroll period of the semester (but if not, then as soon as possible thereafter). Also, full-time faculty teaching only one semester per academic year will be entitled to 6 months’ salary and benefits.

10. Faculty may not be required to be available to teach for more than four days. (They have not been, and will not be, required to teach exactly four days a week)

11. Class scheduling should not be changed by faculty in any way from the regular scheduling, except for religious reasons or illness.

12. No teaching outside of NYIT by full-time faculty will be permitted without explicit prior permission from the President or his designee.

13. A faculty member’s bank may not contain more than 8 ELH at any time, except that faculty with more than 8 ELH in their bank as of Fall 2002 may retain their extra ELH’s.

14. Payment for banked ELH’s will be based on the rates in effect on September 1 of the previous academic year.

15. Tape recordings/electronic copies of courses may be made and/or used only with the faculty member’s advance permission, as per the old contract, except in cases where accommodations must be made pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

16. Each faculty member will receive a copy of his/her final IIS each semester.

17. In addition to classroom time, full-time faculty will maintain 1 office hour per week per each 3 ELH taught, with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 hours, for consultation with students (including academic and career advisement), committee work, registration, etc.

18. Qualified full-time faculty may apply for Scholar Incentive Awards of up to 25% of their annual salary while they are on leave carrying out externally-funded research.

F. Provisions Relating to Online Courses and Distributed Learning (formerly “Distance Learning” Classes

1. All references to “distance learning” and “computer conferencing” originally appearing in Article X of the previous CBA have been eliminated in favor of the term “distributed learning,” which includes “synchronous audio/visual linkage” and/or “asynchronous Web-based computer conferencing.” Also, sections 5, 7 and 8 of that Article have been deleted.

2. Online Courses: The old pay scale is no longer in effect. A maximum class size of 20 students for online courses has been established. Additional students will be permitted in online courses only if approved by both the faculty member and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. In that event, faculty will receive $250 extra for each additional student. In addition, faculty will continue to receive 1 ELH extra for teaching a given online course for the first time.

3. Faculty will be paid at the overload rate for time spent in training for teaching Distributed Learning courses and will also receive $250 for obtaining certification to teach these courses.

4. The composition of the committee to review DL support services will now be the VPAA and an individual chosen by the VPAA, plus two faculty members chosen by the AAUP.

G. Provisions Related to Personnel Items (Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, Tenure, etc.)

1. There has been a major reorganization of provisions in an effort to make the entire document clearer. For example, steps in the personnel process and the deadlines for those actions used to appear several pages apart. To the extent feasible, all similar items are now grouped together.

2. As per AAUP-NYIT side-letter agreement, a complete set of deadlines is now in place for all steps in the personnel decision processes for first- and second-year faculty (chart on p. 50) and for librarians and counselors (Article XVIII.9 and charts on pp. 53-56). Also, full-time faculty in their third year of service and beyond must now notify their Dean and Chair by October 16 if they intend to seek reappointment, tenure or promotion.

3. a. Article XIII now provides that Instructors (full-time or adjunct) shall be promoted to the Assistant Professor rank at the beginning of the semester following the receipt of the appropriate terminal degree in their field. For adjunct instructors in remedial or introductory Mathematics and English courses, or in Fine or Applied Arts, special degree requirement provisions have been added to the new CBA.

b. Also, the minimum degree requirements for Assistant Professor appointments have been changed in the areas of business, fine and applied arts and life sciences, and a special provision for the allied health disciplines has been added.

4. A new provision appearing in Article XIV.2 requires the Dean (or his/her designee) to initiate appointments of adjunct faculty. All new appointments are subject to review by the Dean and prior approval by the Chief Academic Officer.

5. Adjunct faculty are subject to annual reviews by their DPC’s (SPC’s, otherwise) in order to be reappointed (XVIII.7.b).

6. Article XIV.4 in the new CBA replaces Article XIV.2 in the previous CBA with language permitting full-time faculty and professional staff members to be appointed to one- or two-year terms with the agreement of the appropriate SPC or PEC and the appropriate Dean and V.P.

7. Article XIV.7 in the new CBA contains first-time provisions to cover situations wherein a faculty member has received a joint appointment to two academic departments at NYIT.

8. Article XIV.8.a reflects a side-letter correction of Article XIV.5.a of the previous CBA pertaining to the maximum length of the probationary period for faculty appointed in Spring terms.

9. Credit for full-time teaching prior to an individual’s initial full-time appointment to the NYIT faculty must henceforth be declared in writing to the VPAA by April 1 (November 1) of the first year of service for Fall (Spring) term new hires (XIV.8.b, new CBA).

10. As per the language of the AAUP-NYIT side letter of May 29, 2001, faculty have the right to apply for early tenure and if they are reappointed without tenure, to reapply later within the probationary period.

11. Article XV of the new CBA expands on the sabbatical provisions which previously appeared in Article VIII.19. It clarifies the deadlines for the review of sabbatical applications, permits one-semester delays in the start of a sabbatical term to be requested and, for those faculty who have received only one semester of sabbatical leave prior to September 1, 2002, permits application for another semester of sabbatical leave within six years from the start of the new agreement. Also, time spent on leave without pay will not count towards sabbatical eligibility.

12. The issue of whether there should be only one SPC in the School of ASC will be negotiated by NYIT and the AAUP in September, 2004.

13. To clarify Article XII.5 of the old CBA, Article XVI.5 in the new CBA provides that if candidates are available, SPC membership should be representative of the campuses represented and the number of SPC representatives from each department should be equal.

14. In SPC elections, Article XIV.6 now specifies the details of the nomination and election procedures.

15. There are new provisions (Article XVIII.2) establishing an AAUP-NYIT Committee for student evaluations of faculty teaching. Before the new evaluations may be used to evaluate faculty, a Committee majority must approve the content, mode of implementation and norming procedure, and the forms must be piloted and shown to be statistically reliable.

16. Article XVIII.3 contains new provisions for peer observations: (a) there will be numerical ratings on a scale from 1 to 7; (b) outside visitors to DL classes (and electronic access to online courses) are prohibited, without the instructor’s permission; (c) reviews of online instruction will be based solely on a set of artifacts agreed to by NYIT and the AAUP.

17. For faculty seeking reappointment, tenure or promotion, a new section XVIII.4 specifies the time table for evaluations by the Chair and written responses to them by the faculty being evaluated.

18. Beyond minimum criteria specified by the VPAA, the SPC’s are responsible for developing guidelines for preparation of candidates’ portfolios, according to XVIII.5.d in the new CBA.

19. It is no longer required that letters of reappointment contain the criteria for reappointment, tenure and promotion. However, these letters must still continue to include clearly-stated reasons for the recommendations made.

20. Chairs and Secretaries of SPC’s and DPC’s shall be elected by October 1 (not on Convocation Day) of the academic year, according to XVIII.6.b in the new CBA.

21. Article XVIII.6.c is a new provision requiring minutes to be taken at all FPC/PEC meetings.

22. The new CBA explicitly states (in Article XVIII.5.k and l) what has been NYIT’s practice that achieving the minimum ratings required for reappointment, tenure or promotion does not necessarily guarantee a favorable outcome.

23. Reports from the different levels of review must be sent to the candidate by overnight delivery (signature required) instead of by certified mail (XVIII.6.f).

24. Full-time faculty with two-year appointments are subject to Chair reviews each year but need only apply for reappointment in their second year (XVIII.8.b).

25. If the administration overturns either a positive or a negative recommendation by a personnel committee, the VPAA shall advise the committee of the reasons in writing (XVIII.10.c).

1. Regular part-time professional staff members qualify as such by working at least 15 (not 20) hours per week for 3 consecutive years. (Page 2, line 24)

2. Visiting faculty are unequivocally excluded from the bargaining unit. (Page 2, line 32)

3. In the case of AAUP members in the Counseling and Wellness Center who were hired before September 1, 1986, they work academic year contracts and have the right to take three additional vacation days as they choose between the first day of the Fall semester and Commencement.

4. The intellectual property language appearing in Article X.14 of the old CBA has been rewritten and expanded as Article XI in the new CBA. It identifies three different types of research and spells out the intellectual property rights attaching to each of these.

5. Article XVIII.11 contains a number of revisions of the Faculty Appeals Board language from the previous contract, some dealing with membership constraints and others with the review process itself.

6. Concerning reduction in force (Article XX), the only change is that the word “qualified” no longer modifies the various faculty and professional staff categories in the retention priorities.

7. Article XXII.4 presents specific criteria for designation of a faculty member’s home campus.

8. New language describes the rights and responsibilities of the faculty at NYIT in the academic governance of the school in Article XXII.7.

9. In Article XXIII.6, a procedure is specified to resolve disagreements between faculty and ADA coordinators over student accommodations.

10. Under the heading, “Exchange of Information,” NYIT agrees to provide the AAUP with a monthly listing of members’ dues deductions; the NYIT Auditor’s Certified Financial Statement; and, promptly after its approval, the NYIT Budget.

12. Appendix D presents the terms and conditions of employment for AAUP members at NYIT who teach or design courses for UNext/Ellis College. Included are the original agreement, the amendments to the agreement and a letter from Dr. Logue describing the compensation of faculty either as consultants or as subject matter experts.