Frequently Asked Questions

It is expected that a faculty member will have at least ten uninterrupted years of distinguished service at California State University, Los Angeles prior to resignation/retirement in order to qualify as a candidate for Emeritus status, although exceptions may be made for faculty with fewer years of service who have made outstanding contributions. The successful candidate for Emeritus status will have maintained an instructional and professional profile that demonstrates a high level of achievement. In addition, the candidate is expected to have made significant contributions to the University.

Faculty granted Emeritus status shall enjoy all the courtesies accorded retired faculty plus the following benefits: inclusion at the head of the corresponding department's/division's/school's faculty list, as well as in the consolidated Emeriti list in the General Catalog; recommendation for life membership in the Alumni Association; a special identification card; receipt by mail of copies of the University Reports, Calendar of Events, and similar informational publications (unless declined); selective invitation to participate in campus councils as consultants, where appropriate and legal; free admission to musical, dramatic, athletic and other University performances; access to electronic communication and information as long as they are legally and fiscally feasible; faculty library borrowing privileges; access to campus rooms and facilities for meetings and reunions of Emeriti; and a faculty parking permit and office space on a space available basis.

Posthumous nominations for faculty who meet the criteria may be made on behalf of the deceased faculty by a faculty member in their department/division/school. Please follow the regular application process.

Evaluations of part-time Lecturers must include:

1. student evaluations of teaching performance for those with teaching duties
2. evaluations by appropriate administrators and/or the department chair
3. an opportunity for peer input

Part-time Lecturers appointed for one semester may be evaluated at the discretion of the department chair, the appropriate administrator or the department. If you are a Lecturer appointed for one semester and the department does not plan to evaluate you, you may request an evaluation for your file.

Please also see our page on Lecturer Faculty Evaluation.

Lecturers with three-year appointments are required to be evaluated only once every three years but may be evaluated more frequently at their request or the request of appropriate administrator.

Evaluations of Lecturers eligible for an initial or subsequent three-year appointment must include:

1. student evaluations of teaching performance for those with teaching duties
2. peer review by a department faculty committee (for most Lecturers, this includes a classroom observation)
3. evaluations by appropriate administrators

Please also see our page on Lecturer Faculty Evaluation.

Evaluations of full-time and part-time coaches must include an opportunity for peer input and evaluation by appropriate administrator.

Tenured instructional faculty, library faculty, and Student Health Center Counselors, hired before 1/1/2011 and have reached the age of 55, hired between 1/1/2011-12/31/2012 and have reached the age of 60, or hired on or after 1/1/2013 and have reached the age of 62, and have decided to retire but have not yet done so, are eligible to participate in FERP. The program is not available to coaching faculty unit employees. FERPing is an entitlement, as long as the relevant procedures are followed and courses appropriate for the faculty member are scheduled or other appropriate work is available.

Your retirement date must be before the start of the academic year in which you wish to enter the FERP program. If you retire during the academic year, you must wait until the following academic year to participate in FERP.

FERP faculty may choose to participate in FERP for up to five years, at up to 50% of your regular time base in the last full year preceding retirement. If you worked full-time in the last full year preceding your retirement, your regular time base was the equivalent of 30 semester units, of which 24 are weighted teaching units (WTUs) for course instruction, and 6 are SETUs (Standard Equivalent Teaching Units) for indirect instructional activity (advising, service, and other faculty responsibilities). Therefore, FERP faculty may work up to 15 semester units per year (12 WTUs and 3 SETUs), performed in one semester or split evenly between the Fall and Spring semesters.

No. You cannot exceed the 50% time base limit (or 960 hours per academic year) for CalPERS retirees. Participants shall not be eligible for other CSU appointments while in FERP. This includes all university-funded compensation, including Professional and Global Education summer session and special sessions, other stipends, and additional pay. Participants in the FERP may be appointed in a CSU auxiliary, provided the auxiliary does not participate in CalPERS. Such appointments shall not exceed the limits on additional employment established in Article 36 of the CFA CBA. 

A FERP participant may request a reduction in the time base (units) of the FERP appointment. This is done by submitting a revised FERP Participation form, which must be approved by your chair, college dean, and the AVPFA. Once approved, the reduction in unit entitlement is permanent, and will continue for the duration of your FERP appointment.

FERP Faculty earn sick leave credit on a pro-rata basis for each active pay period. A maximum of one hundred and sixty (160) hours of sick leave may be accrued during FERP. At the end of the FERP appointment, any remaining sick leave is forfeited and may not be converted to service credit. If you would like to ensure that you have more sick leave available during FERP employment, you may decide prior to retirement to carry over up to 48 hours of sick leave credit for use during FERP participation.

FERP participants are eligible for one leave of absence without pay for personal illness for all or part of the period of employment. Although ineligible for CSU Family Medical Leave, FERP participants are subject to federal and state family medical leave statutes. However, time spent on leave status counts towards the five year employment duration under the FERP program.

FERP participants may serve as department chairs during the period of FERP employment. This includes faculty who were not serving as department chair at the time of retirement. Appointment is at the same rank as at retirement. However, the timebase may not exceed the allowable FERP timebase.

CSU Paychecks are issued by the State Controller’s Office (SCO) at the END of the month. Academic Year Faculty are paid on a twelve month cycle- six pay checks for each semester. The general pay cycle is as follows:

*For actual pay dates, please see the Payroll Faculty, Graduate Assistants, and Teaching Associates Pay Schedule.

*For actual pay dates, please see the Payroll Faculty, Graduate Assistants, and Teaching Associates Pay Schedule.

*For actual pay dates, please see the Payroll Faculty, Graduate Assistants, and Teaching Associates Pay Schedule.

Temporary faculty must have 6.0 WTUs or more in a semester are eligible for benefits during that term.

For any questions contact Benefits at [email protected].

Lecturers become eligible to apply for a range elevation when they have at least five years of service in their current range and have no more eligibility for a service salary increases (SSIs). Campuses notify Lecturers who are eligible to apply for a range elevation at least 30 days prior to the campus deadline for submitting the range elevation application.

For more information, please go to our Range Elevation page.

To prepare for a range elevation application, keep copies of documents showing your professional contributions in your teaching (or other assigned duties) as well as any other contributions you have made to the department, campus, or your discipline.

Range elevation increases shall be effective at the beginning of the academic year following the range elevation review procedure established by the campus.

31.18 A Service Salary Increase (SSI) refers to upward movement on the salary schedules. Such adjustments shall be determined by the CFA and CSU during negotiations annually, and shall be limited following appointment or the most recent promotion to no more than:

a. four (4) steps on the salary schedule in effect prior to the 1995-98 Agreement, or

b. eight (8) Service Salary Step Increases under the salary schedule(s) in effect since that Agreement, or

c. a combination of both (a) and (b) preceding that does not exceed a total of eight (8) Service Salary Step Increases on the salary schedule.

SSI eligibility is determined by multiple factors: 

1. If faculty member is determined by the appropriate administrator to have performed in a satisfactory manner.
2. If faculty salary falls below the SSI max.
3. Faculty members job classification (i.e., temporary faculty or tenured/probationary faculty).

If you are a temporary faculty: Pursuant to Article 12.10, who completed 24 units in a range on a semester campus since the last SSI in the same department are eligible to receive an SSI. In addition, pursuant to Article 21.23c, units taught in a state support summer sessions shall be credited towards SSI eligibility.

If you are a tenured or probationary faculty: Unit 3 employees who meet other eligibility criteria and has at least one year of qualifying service since either (a) an appointment to the range or (b) an award of the last SSI in that range would be eligible for an SSI on the employee's anniversary date.

Yes. A faculty employee who is assigned temporary substitute duty of a short duration, which shall normally be up to twenty (20) calendar days, shall be compensated at the faculty substitute rate. Temporary substitute assignments of a longer duration, which shall normally be greater than twenty (20) calendar days, shall be compensated by an appropriate workload reduction as soon as practicable or, if the employee is not employed in the next academic term, the employee shall be appropriately compensated upon separation for the class hours taught. For compelling reasons, a faculty employee may decline such an assignment. Nothing in this provision shall preclude faculty employees from making informal voluntary substitute arrangements of short duration with a University colleague, subject to the approval of the department chair.

No. A temporary faculty unit employee who is granted a leave of absence without pay shall maintain any rights under provisions 12.3, 12.7, 12.9, 12.10, 12.12 and 12.13 in the same manner as if that employee had taught his or her scheduled courses rather than taking a leave. Faculty who replace the temporary faculty member during the leave period will not accrue rights under provisions 12.3, 12.7, 12.9, 12.10, 12.12 and 12.13 for work performed as a replacement for the temporary faculty employee on leave.

Yes. A TA can be paid as a substitute. TAs can be paid as a substitute using job code 2453. Substitute Teaching Associate assignments shall be made for a range of hours, and shall be compensated at the employee’s existing hourly rate.

No. A TA can only substitute for another TA.

TAs, GAs and ISAs can work up to 20 hours per week during the academic year and up to 40 hours per week during Winter, May, and Summer Intersessions.

No, because a Unit 11 employee cannot work in two different Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) at the same time.

Yes. Exceptions will include mandatory coursework for: a) accreditation requirements; b) approved curricular requirements; and c) required training per University Executive Orders.

That depends. If the course is not a curricular requirement, you must build it into term workload (in effect, pay students for the time they spend) each time they enroll. To the extent that the course is an actual degree requirement, it is not necessary to build it into workload because it would fall under exception (b) above. However, if the student is only required to take 1 unit, and you require subsequent enrollment, the TA must be compensated for time spent in the course as part of their workload.

No. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provides that, if a public sector employee (including a CSU employee) is otherwise employed by the agency to perform the same type of services as those for which the individual proposes to volunteer, the employee shall not be considered a volunteer. As such, a CSU employee may not volunteer to take on additional duties related to their primary job for which he/she could be paid. The term "same type of services" shall be defined as any duty or responsibility that is closely related to the duties performed by or responsibilities assigned to the compensated CSU employee.

For more information, please refer to https://csyou.calstate.edu/Policies/HRPolicies/HR2015-10.pdf#page2

Yes. They still get to continue the remainder of their appointment, and the classes declined count toward their entitlement units that year. If the faculty member declines all their entitlement units during the last year of their three-year appointment, their entitlement has been met and the appointment ends. They will remain in the pool and offered work if there is work available.

It depends. If their appointment is in year one or two, their entitlement will remain the same for the remainder of the appointment. If their appointment is in year three, the entitlement for their next three-year appointment will be the units that they taught in the last year of their three-year appointment.

No. If a leave without pay is granted, they will still maintain any rights under provisions 12.3, 12.7, 12.9, 12.10, 12.12 and 12.13 in the same manner as if they had taught their scheduled courses rather than taking a leave.

In the event there is no work available to satisfy the time base entitlement during any academic term of a three-year appointment, the temporary faculty employee shall continue to maintain this contractual entitlement for the duration of the three-year appointment.

If no work exists in the department to support the initial or subsequent three-year appointment of the temporary faculty unit employee, or if the time base of the temporary faculty unit employee was zero during the third year of her/his three-year appointment, s/he shall be placed on a departmental list pursuant to provision 38.48. When such a temporary faculty unit employee is officially notified that no work exists to support the initial or subsequent three-year appointment, the official notification shall also inform the temporary faculty unit employee of the right to be placed on a list for a period of three (3) years. No later than July 1 of each year during the period the temporary faculty unit employee is on the list, the temporary faculty unit employee must inform her/his department chair of the temporary faculty unit employee’s interest in and availability for employment. Included in this written notice shall be current, accurate contact information. Failure to notify the chair shall result in removal from the department provision 38.48 list.

The period in which the employee was on the department provision 38.48 list shall not constitute a break in service regarding rights previously accrued under Article 12.

Yes.

No, because the chair, college committee, dean, and provost all reviewed based on a one semester leave. The leave approved must be consistent with the term length indicated.

A standard monthly rate is used for the minimum instructor salary. That monthly rate is $5,507.

Calculation: Monthly salary of T/TT faculty - Minimum Instructor (A) Salary

DIP Calculation: Your monthly salary minus $5,507= The amount you will be paid during your DIP (6 months for AY faculty taking a one semester DIP) (12 months for AY faculty taking a two semester DIP)

A two semester sabbatical means that the faculty is on full leave for the entire two semesters, but receiving half-time salary during that time. There should be no committee service or instruction at this time.

Article 22 of the CBA indicates that a leave of absence can be granted for up to two (2) years. An extension of such leave may be granted for up to one (1) year at a time.

No. Lecturers cannot bank supervision or s-factor units. They should be paid for the work done during a given term. Due to the complexities of entitlements there is no ability to bank units.

For general questions, please email the Office of Faculty Affairs at [email protected].

For information or questions about Additional Employment, please refer to our page Additional Employment or email us at [email protected]

For information about Faculty Evaluation (RTP), please refer to our page Faculty Evaluation or email us at [email protected]