Question:  Do I need to fill out and sign a time sheet?  Probably not.  See the following memo to all faculty.  Note:  the "cost center clerk" referred to in the memo may be your administrative assistant or department secretary.

May 6, 1999

TO:  All UAFT Faculty                                                

FROM:   Bob Congdon, President

RE:  Faculty Effort Certification Statement

You may be asked by your secretary, Cost Center clerk, or Director to sign a Faculty Effort Certification Statement.  You do not need to sign this statement.  Anyone else, like the Cost Center clerk, may sign, and they have been so instructed by Statewide management.

Management wants your signature so that they can certify their reports to the Federal Government regarding payroll for certain grant and restricted fund faculty time.  If you are not on a grant or restricted funds (you will know if you are), you definitely need not sign.  Management is reaching beyond that which is required or allowed by our contract.  If you are funded by a grant or restricted fund you may have already agreed to certify payroll, or to see that such certification is done if you are a principal investigator, for example.  Again, however,  the Cost Center clerk can sign.  If you feel you must sign, be sure that you have independently verified that each fact on the Statement is true and that you understand each code and the source of funds designated.  

We recommend that you not sign the Statement. Signing this Statement may foster an impression among the impressionable that is incorrect.  Management might use these Statements to represent to the Federal Government that “100% Effort” is based upon a 40 hour workweek.  (See the “for office use only” box).  You are not an hourly worker—you are a salaried professional.  You no doubt work over 40 hours per week.  You no doubt work over 8 hours on several days per week.  Is “100%” 40 hours?  55 hours?  Your signature would certify that your pay comes from a certain fund or funds.  Do you really know from which numbered funds your pay comes or to which your “effort” is attributed?

Some of you have signed bi-weekly statements for many years and you may be told that this statement merely replaces the bi-weekly statement.  That is probably correct, but there was no need for you to sign the bi-weekly either.

The Percent of Effort or “Distribution of Effort” language in the Statement is not defined in our contract nor has management requested a meeting regarding what this language means and how it will be used.  It is not management’s right to demand that you certify that management is properly managing the funds it receives.

Remember two things:  1.  while your manager may be insisting that you sign, other managers are just signing themselves or having the cost center clerk sign and sending these things on and many of us never hear about these statements.   2.  If anyone in management threatens you regarding witholding your pay or that you won’t get paid if you don’t sign, document the statement, time, place, source, and context and fax to the UAFT office.  If you are given a direct order to sign, sign and write “as ordered” next to your signature.  Fax UAFT a copy.  Always keep a copy of whatever you sign.

Feel free to share a copy of this e-mail with your Dean, Director, and Cost Center personnel.

Question:  What is Time Off and how is it used?

Time off is to be used at the faculty member's discretion generally when classes are not in session and otherwise during the contract period (academic year).  No time sheets need be filled out nor other record kept, just as no record is kept of regular work done on weekends, holidays, late at night, or other regular work times for professors.  Time off may be used when sick leave would not apply and when classes are otherwise covered.

Time off is not to be used when attending conferences, faculty governance or union meetings, doing community, university, or professional service, or other endeavors which are a normal part of a professor's workload.

A professor generally does work rather than goes to work.  Work is what we do, not where we are.

Question:  How should the service part of workload be determined and categorized?

Service is an integral part of each faculty member's workload.  In recognition of that, we count service as a "fifth part" of a regular "four part" workload.  The fifth part is designed to provide recognition for the service that faculty members do.  It is not designed as a catchall category for managers to assign committees, curriculum revisions, advising, directed studies or independent studies.  Faculty members generally determine the service they perform and account for it in workload agreements and annual activity reports.  Substantial changes in service during an academic year may occur (for example, you may end a term on one professional board and assume a responsibility in a community service area) and are generally accounted for in the annual activity report. 

Student advising is generally considered service and may comprise most of a given faculty member's fifth part. 

A given service might comprise all of the fifth part and take up a part or more of the regular four part workkoad.  Larger amounts of service are worked out with the department chair/dean and documented in a workload agreement.

Measurement of service is difficult.  That is why it is a designated "fifth part."  As a rule of thumb, about 4 hours per week, averaged over the year, might be given to service.  As most faculty members realize, one service project may take place in two weeks before classes start and comprise the entire year's service part if measured in hours.  Others may regularly participate in weekly faculty governance obligations or monthly professional committees.  Still others may invest heavily in service one year and devote greater attention to classroom or research projects in other years.

Evaluation of individual service is done by peers and supervisors annually.  Evaluation also takes place during department meetings and by professional peers in professional organizations.  It is also done in anticipation of tenure or promotion and as a part of program evaluation, university accreditation, and discipline approval or certification processes.  Service evaluation is, in these ways, almost constant.

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