Allege Improper Practice
Union Fumes Over CUNY Course Deals

By HOWARD MEGDAL

The union representing City University of New York faculty and staff has filed an improper practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board over CUNY's contracts with individual Professors to teach and develop on-line courses.

BARBARA BOWEN: CUNY move anti-education.

According to the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY asked some faculty members participating in the CUNY Online B.A. program to sign an "Online Course Development Agreement," which would provide a one-time payment of $3,000 or $5,000 in exchange for the intellectual rights to any course a Professor created, including the right to teach that course in the future.

An Ongoing Process

"The development of the course does not stop the day you type the syllabus," PSC President Barbara Bowen said in a Sept. 14 interview. "It goes on every day you teach the course. It is a degradation of the concept of teaching - it makes it into an assembly line, and negates the intellectual role played in a Professor's development of the course."

A spokesman for CUNY did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

Ms. Bowen said that beyond the intellectual issues raised by CUNY's actions, there is the clear legal concern - the individual deals with Professors are a violation of the contract agreed to by CUNY and the PSC earlier this year.

"This deals with the question of whether compensation for development and teaching of a course is part of the terms of employment," she said. "The point is that we're the union, we have a structure for it, and this is our basic work. Therefore it is part of the contract." PSC Vice-President Steve London added, "This particular issue, as far as we're concerned, has been settled for 35 years. If CUNY wants to engage in any additional negotiations over terms and conditions, they need to come to us."

Terms Already Set

Ms. Bowen pointed out that the contract stipulates exactly how PSC members are to be compensated by CUNY for any outside job with the university.

"For example, you could be a Professor, and take on additional employment as a non-teaching job," she said. "There is a formula within the contract for being compensated beyond your usual work."

But Ms. Bowen did not see extra teaching responsibilities as additional employment. "There's a means for valuing compensation for everything beyond the job," she said. "But this is, of course, so integral to the job."

Mr. London added, "It's not above and beyond their work. Many of these courses have already been taught."

Both Ms. Bowen and Mr. London expressed optimism that PERB will see things their way.

"I'm hopeful because I think the case is so clearly a violation of the contract to set up individual instances of compensation," Ms. Bowen said. "That's the meaning of collective bargaining, right?"