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<TITLE>RE: [COSEAfaculty] FW: CoSea overload policy</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Quick question, and you may have answered this and I missed it, but at what point are you counting hours as overload?<BR>
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-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: coseafaculty-bounces@tamuc.edu on behalf of Charles Dorsett<BR>
Sent: Sun 7/14/2013 6:34 PM<BR>
To: Coseafaculty@tamuc.edu; Linda Openshaw<BR>
Subject: [COSEAfaculty] FW: CoSea overload policy<BR>
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In my last communication to you, many important, unanswered questions were asked. Perhaps some of the answers are included in the statements below.<BR>
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In the statements below, I use myself as the example because I have the needed information. I feel certain there are those amongst us where the numbers would be even more alarming.<BR>
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>From the time of my employment at Texas A&M University-Commerce for the Fall 2003 up through this summer, I have earned 46 semester hours of overload teaching. For every one of those 46 semester hours of overload teaching, I was told by the Administration I would receive the equal amount of reduced teaching in the future as compensation. As a result of my overload teaching, the Mathematics Department continues to have a masters program. Without my overload teaching, the Mathematics masters program would today be history. As a result of my overload teaching, students were able to graduate one, and in some cases, two long-semesters earlier than otherwise.<BR>
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Let's do the arithmetic: 46/12 = 3 5/6, with a savings to the university in access of $100,000. Thus, by the Administration's own stated, well-known, well-understood, long-used overload procedure, I have earned three long-semesters of full-pay with no teaching and 10/12 of a fourth long-semester with full-pay and no teaching. How did the Administration use the savings created by the overload teaching? Long unfilled positions within the academic departments remained unfilled, class sizes ballooned upward creating much more work for faculty members, and more overload teaching was required of the faculty. At the same time, many new administrative positions were created and filled by highly paid individuals.<BR>
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Now, in a 13th hour maneuver, at a time when many faculty members are known not to be here, the Administrative timing of the 13th hour maneuver has been used as justification to force the new overload procedure upon the faculty. The new Administrative overload procedure totally vetoes the previous, long-known, long-used Administrative overload procedure robbing the faculty of all their procedurally-guaranteed, hard-earned credit for performing work beyond their job description and as required by the Administration. As witnessed by the new Administrative overload procedure, the Administration has absolutely no appreciation for a faculty member or for the many hours of past overload teaching by the faculty member. Robbing the faculty of their past hard-earned, procedurally-guaranteed overload credits was not sufficient for the Administration in their new overload procedure. Under the new, forced Administrative overload procedure, faculty members will forever be robbed of earned overload credit. These facts don't seem fair to me. Do they seek fair to you? Is such an action by the Administration legal?<BR>
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The statements above are sent by me as a concerned faculty member, a concerned citizen of the State of Texas, and a concerned citizen of the United States as an exercise of my Constitutional Second Amendment guarantee of free speech.<BR>
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Charles Dorsett<BR>
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From: coseafaculty-bounces@tamuc.edu [<A HREF="mailto:coseafaculty-bounces@tamuc.edu">mailto:coseafaculty-bounces@tamuc.edu</A>] On Behalf Of Charles Dorsett<BR>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 10:18 AM<BR>
To: Coseafaculty@tamuc.edu<BR>
Cc: Linda.Openshaw@tamu.edu<BR>
Subject: [COSEAfaculty] CoSea overload policy<BR>
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As usual for me, on Wednesday morning, I checked my email to see if there was anything requiring my attention for the day. There wasn't. At approximately 4:20 p.m., after my day slowed down, I checked my email again. An important College meeting that I would have made time to attend had been announced and had already ended without me even knowing there was a meeting. I checked and I was not the only faculty member not to know about the called meeting prior to the meeting. The first meeting was scheduled for a time I had a class to teach.<BR>
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As I stated earlier, I have taught many overloads in the past. I never complained, but the Department Head that assigned me the overloads recognized the unfairness of the repeated overload assignments and repeatedly promised me reduced teaching loads in the future in return for the many overloads taught by me. There were others like me. I never asked, but my Department Heads told me there was no money to pay for the overload teaching and that I would have to receive credit for my extra work with reduced workloads in the future. However, I am now told by a reliable source that there is at least one high ranking administrator at this University that is being paid extremely well for teaching one or more classes outside his assigned administrative duties during the time the class or classes are taught. If my source is correct, there has been a dual workload policy at our University; one for administrators that are paid handsomely when they teach and one for faculty with only promises of future consideration which is still to come, but now vetoed by the College overload policy. Will the University continue to have a dual workload policy? If not, an administrator, who has no teaching within his or her job description, will receive no pay for teaching a class, and, at the same time, without a teaching requirement, accumulate no overload credits. If the dual system is ended, do you think there will be an administrator on campus without required teaching duties that will continue to teach classes?<BR>
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Is there fairness in the workload procedures in the different Colleges? With the Administration waiting to the 13th hour to involve the faculty, there are many important questions left unanswered. The workload policy for the College has been identified as a product of the Faculty Senate, but the proposed overload procedure for our College, which is now reality, is so different from the proposed Faculty Senate overload procedure that the Faculty Senate should not in any way be included. Why did the Administration wait until the 13th hour when many of the faculty members are not even here and those that were here are busy trying to squeeze 16 weeks of work into less than five weeks to finally involve the faculty?<BR>
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As of now Mathematics is down three positions for the Fall. I suspect Mathematics is not unique in this matter. If a faculty member was to accumulate three overload credits during the Fall, would the Administration cancel a full class to allow the faculty member to use the earned overload credits or would the faculty member be required to continue teaching 12 or more hours? Overload credits earned by a faculty member, but not used during the Spring, together with overload credits earned by the faculty member during the Spring would have to be used the next Fall or be lost by the faculty member. Would the Administration cancel full classes and send students home or to another university to allow the faculty member use of earned overload credits or would the administration take away the earned overload credits, as it has done in the past, and require the faculty member to continue to teach 12 to 14 hours?<BR>
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Under the now College overload policy faculty members will be robbed of compensation for their work. Is robbing employees of earned compensation, either past or future, ever a good thing or does it only destroy all that is good? Once trust is destroyed, how do you restore it?<BR>
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I have witnessed an incredibly productive, hard-working faculty here at Texas A&M University-Commerce and have been proud to be a part of it. As things stand now, I worry about their future and the future of this University.<BR>
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Charles Dorsett<BR>
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