Since UC-AFT first began negotiating collective bargaining agreements for teaching faculty at University of California, the administration has refused to acknowledge (and compensate) its lecturers for all the work we do outside of the classroom. While in the case of our tenure-track colleagues, they recognize that advising students, writing letters of recommendation, serving on departmental committees, and curriculum development are part of the work of teaching, they do not extend the same recognition to us. As the number of tenure-track faculty continues to decline, that means much more of that teaching work falls to contingent faculty, who are disproportionately female-identified and BIPOC. And because lecturers often teach introductory level and core requirement classes that establish a student’s academic career, that extra time has the biggest impact on UC’s most marginalized and historically underserved student populations as well.
Knowing your rights to a reasonable workload can help you to ensure that you are compensated for all of the work you do to support students at UC. None of the information provided here is intended to be static or exhaustive. Your situation may have subtleties and nuances that are not captured by the general summary below. Or, you may simply have questions that aren’t addressed here. Contact your local chapter if we have additional questions or concerns.
Article 24 Instructional Workload sets the maximum workload for all lecturers at nine courses over three quarters or six instructional workload credits (IWCs) over two semesters. For lecturers who teach writing for foreign languages, the maximum workload is eight courses over three quarters or five (IWCs) over two semesters. Many campuses and individual departments have lower maximum workload limits than set in the contract. In addition to setting upper limits on workload, the Unit 18 contract establishes a mechanism for compensation for instructional duties that do not fit neatly into the model of a regular course, and for non-instructional duties that a department requires or clearly expects a lecturer to perform (see below for a representative list of such duties).
The contract allows for the university to compensate lecturers through means other than equivalency credit. One common way for a lecturer to receive compensation for program service, or other work that is not clearly defined as part of your course load, is to receive additional step increases in a merit review. While it is possible for a pre-six lecturer to receive a pay increase based on merit, this is more likely for continuing faculty who are in the three-year merit review process. In some cases departments may offer lecturers a stipend or honorarium. UC-AFT generally discourages these types of arrangements because they often undervalue the amount of work performed, and for lecturers working less than 100% time there could be negative implications for access to health care, service credit, etc.
Many lecturers take on work in addition to their instructional duties and receive no compensation. Some do not receive compensation for additional work like teaching large classes or independent studies because their campus doesn’t have a clear policy to handle these things. Some lecturers feel like the “extra” work is essential to their program and it won’t get done if they don’t do it. They may also have been told they cannot get paid for it, or they are made to feel like the department or division would rather not have the work performed than pay for it. Some lecturers have been told that if they receive compensation or equivalency credit for their “extra” non-essential work, then their program might have to sacrifice one of its essential core courses. Still others choose to perform additional work without compensation because they view themselves as professionals and believe that this work is just part of the job. Despite the clear language in our contract this is a complex issue and it’s a difficult area of our contract to enforce.
Equivalency credit: Some fraction of the credit you would receive for teaching a regular course. These fractions could accumulate until they are equivalent to one course. When you have reach a full one course equivalency, you could be granted a course relief. This would work well for lecturers who are full time. Work with your UC-AFT Local to encourage your department or division to develop a rubric for valuing the various types of additional work that lecturers perform, i.e. 10 independent studies is worth 1 course relief.
Equivalency credit could also be added to your part-time load for a quarter or over the year.
Consideration in annual, continuing or merit reviews: Work with your local chapter to encourage your department or division to develop a rubric for valuing the various types of additional work that lecturers perform, i.e. 3-4 independent studies is worth an extra step.
A representative list of duties which require consideration for equivalency credit or additional compensation includes:
- Committee work for department or program, e.g. standing personnel committee, curriculum development committee, exam committee. (It would not include review committees such as an excellence review committee.)
- Designated service as an advisor or mentor to undergraduate students and graduate students, e.g. thesis or dissertation adviser, undergraduate majors, honors work, or training of Teaching Assistants.
- Provision of independent study courses.
- Administration of placement examinations, e.g. writing, languages, arts, or music.
- Coordination and supervision of extracurricular activities, e.g. student publications, student organization, field trips, performances, exhibits, fundraising, and special events.
- Development and coordination of internships.
- Course coordination for instructional offerings that are delivered via multiple instructors and sections, e.g. administrative scheduling for locations and times of sections, coordination of laboratory facilities, development, compilation and management of common course materials.
- Course, curriculum or program development, e.g. on-line instructional materials, course redesign, or website content.
- Special advising, tutoring and coaching, or community outreach programs sponsored by a program or department, e.g. interactions or meetings between language and music faculty and students outside of office hours.
This list of duties is not exhaustive. Equivalencies may be awarded in any situation where a lecturer is required or clearly expected by the University to perform duties in addition to his or her assigned teaching duties. Contact your local chapter if you have questions or concerns.
Getting the full compensation you deserve can be an awkward and uncomfortable process, but your UC-AFT colleagues have your back! Your campus stewards and representative can help you come up with a plan for how to approach your department chair and/or administrators. Some steps they might recommendation could include:
- Document the “extra” work that you do.
- Establish the value provided to the department or program and share it with faculty colleagues.
- Start a conversation with the department chair. Try to come to an understanding about ways that your department might be able to compensate you going forward. (see above)
- If the department or the division makes it impossible to get equivalency credit for the additional work, include documentation of the additional work in your review file for your annual, continuing, or merit review.
If your department refuses to acknowledge the value that your additional work provides to the university by compensating you fairly for it, consider halting performance of the work.
Jean-Paul R. Contreras deGuzman, Lecturer, Asian American Studies, UCLA and UCSB
"I have lost track of how many students I’ve taught at UCLA and UCSB in 6 different departments since 2015. Whether we teach one class a year or a full load, at one campus or multiple, lecturers perform the heavy lifting of the university. In Ethnic Studies in particular we don’t just teach and grade: we guide, mentor, and empower."
