Provost Communication, Monday, January 30, 2023

Hi everyone and happy Monday. I hope you had a nice weekend. I focused today’s communication on stateside summer schedule considerations. While this may not answer every question you have, it should help get us started. Future communications on the topic and opportunities to engage are forthcoming. 

Earlier this month, Interim CSU Chancellor Koester presented an Enrollment Target and Budget Reallocation Plan for the CSU system. The goal is to better align current and future resources with the realities of student demand and enrollment trends. National trends have shown 1.4M fewer students in public four-year universities since 2019, and this year, CSU is predicting more than 25,000 fewer full-time students below the 2022-2023 California resident enrollment target. Our budget will be reassessed based on the number of full-time equivalent students (FTES). While it appears we are in an increasingly positive position based on our polytechnic designation and the associated spike in applicants, we have a narrow window to increase FTES. Offering Summer courses at Cal Poly Humboldt stateside for 2023 is a strategic move to increase FTES for 2023-2024. The FTES generated will help us move towards the target set for our campus by the system and minimize budget losses. Moving summer courses stateside is happening at many other CSU campuses for the same reason. Additionally, moving summer to stateside opens up additional financial aid opportunities for students and provides a student experience more consistent with fall and spring. Some of the implications associated with the move to stateside summer are as follows. 

Schedule

The Summer course schedule will be set similarly to last year focusing on offering courses with higher DFW grades, high-demand courses, and courses with historically strong summer enrollment. Running these courses over the summer gives students an opportunity to get back on track with their degrees and consequently improves retention and graduation rates. This strategy was effective last summer in assisting students in making up units particularly our pell-eligible and BIPOC students. The CSU Student Success Dashboard has an excellent "In Which Courses Do They Struggle" tool under the Faculty Dashboard that may be helpful when determining which courses departments should offer this summer. 

Faculty Compensation
On Stateside Summer operations, the faculty payment structure is the same as it was when operating during self-support. Each WTU assigned will earn a salary of 1/30th of the base Academic Year salary for the faculty member. For example, if the base salary is $60,000, a 3 WTU course would have gross compensation of 3 x ($60,000/30) = $6,000. 

Similar to last summer, we will not be using enrollment-based compensation for classes. Pay will be issued as a lump sum either on or around July 15 or August 15, depending on the census date for the session in which the course takes place.

Work Spreading
Tenure line faculty who wish to use summer coursework to offset the academic year instructional assignment may do so with the approval of their Department Chair and Dean using a Workload Distribution form.  For the purpose of spreading faculty workload, Summer is considered the first term of the academic year. 

Order of Assignment

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) describes the process for assigning summer work for stateside operations (Provision 21.24); it is different from self-support which has no prescribed order. The process is summarized below:

1. The campus must offer sufficient work to tenured and probationary faculty such that they comprise at least 55% of the instructional headcount. Any program that expects to offer less than 55% of summer instruction to tenured/probationary faculty must consult with their Dean and Faculty Affairs prior to extending offers so that campus compliance with the minimum is ensured. 
2. Due to CalPERS regulations, FERP participants may not teach summer classes.
3. After meeting the tenured and probationary faculty minimums, the department must offer work to qualified lecturers who did not have their entitlement met in the immediately preceding academic year, up to their maximum entitlement. There is no differentiation between 3Y and AY lecturers in this category, and they may be appointed in any order.
4. A department must then offer work to qualified lecturers who taught in the immediately preceding academic year whose entitlements were met or those who do not have an entitlement. There is no differentiation between 3Y, AY, or semester-appointed lecturers in this category, and they may be appointed in any order. 
5. If work remains after the above, it can be assigned to any other qualified candidate, including Unit 11 Teaching Assistants.

Entitlement Impacts
Summer term service shall be credited for the determination of subsequent CSU appointments for lecturers and the WTUs worked during Summer term service shall be credited in the calculation of the appropriate time base for subsequent appointments (Provision 21.23). Entitlement is set based on the first two consecutive semesters taught in an academic year. Thus, if an instructor teaches in Fall and Spring, the entitlement is set based on the sum of WTUs from those terms, and the summer work does not contribute. However, if an instructor teaches in Spring and Summer (without a Fall assignment), the entitlement for subsequent work will be the sum of the WTUs from those assignments.

What to Expect Next

Deans and chairs are already actively discussing summer course offerings with their faculty with a goal of determining these courses by mid-February and CEEGE will enter them into Peoplesoft. Additionally, university leadership is working on a plan to again offer some free units to undergraduate students enrolled in summer courses. More details on this should be available early next week to help inform advising and planning with students. If you have additional questions or wish to help with broader university summer session planning please contact my office at OAAVP@humboldt.edu.

Thanks for all that you do.

Jenn

--

Jenn Capps, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs