MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Writing Conference

This memorandum clarifies the understanding of the Federation and Management with respect to the teaching load for full-time Composition/Literature faculty who primarily teach Management-designated writing courses (see Article 6.222). This memorandum is based on the expectation that the curriculum for 4-credit Writing courses will include additional student writing assignments resulting in the need for additional conference time.

1. The intention of the parties is that the typical teaching load will be three 3-credit Writing classes and one 3-credit Literature class or two 4-credit Writing classes and one 4-credit Literature class. Either configuration would result in 18 hours of student contact per week (including 2 hours of conferences per 3-credit Writing class per week or 3 hours of conferences per 4-credit Writing class per week).

2. However, situations may arise in which an instructor may be required to teach three Writing classes in a term, thereby raising the weekly student contact to 21 hours. For example, following the conversion to 4-credit Writing courses, there may not be enough available Literature classes to ensure that every full-time instructor will be able to teach a Literature class every term and/or the demand for Writing courses may require that full-time instructors teach three Writing classes.

3. Teaching three 4-credit Writing classes in a term will not put the instructor in an overload situation. Based on the premise that each conferencing hour has a teaching load factor of 0.034, the total teaching load for someone teaching three Writing classes would be 1.122, which is near the upper level of the acceptable range identified in 6.22.

4. In the event that assignments involving three 4-credit Writing classes must be made, Management will attempt to rotate such assignments fairly among faculty within the department.

Signed on 9/2/05 by Michael Dembrow, Faculty Federation President, Scott Huff, Cascade Campus Dean of Instruction and Lisa Bledsoe, Employee & Labor Relations Manager .