CFA  California Faculty Association

Cal Poly Pomona Chapter 

Gwen Urey, Chapter President; Maureen Burton, Faculty Rights Chair

Telephone: 909-869-4818 

e-mail:cfa@csupomona.edu  homepage: www.csupomona.edu/~cfa

Class Size Information

• An increase in class size is a change in workload, and if done without faculty consultation, is a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

• The administration cannot unilaterally increase class size for budgetary reasons.

• There is no contractual obligation for faculty to meet FTE targets.

• Key factors in determining faculty workload are “past practice” and faculty consultation.  For details see the CBA, Article 20.

• Case Point:  The CSU lost an arbitration (CSUDH vs. CFA, October, 17, 2007) at CSU Dominguez Hills for increasing class size without appropriate faculty consultation.

• Case Point: Class sizes were raised in a certain department at Cal Poly Pomona for winter and spring 2008, without appropriate faculty consultation.  The justification given was that “temporary” increases were necessary because of FTE targets and the budget crisis.  However, the department has a well documented “past practice”, and when the faculty was actually consulted, the department voted not to accept the temporary increase.  The increases were rescinded for spring.

• CFA’s position is that increasing class size adversely affects the quality of instruction and increases faculty workload, and non-instructional cuts should be made before instructional cuts (reducing the number of sections or increasing class sizes).

• Small, “temporary” increases in class size add up to large, permanent increases in class size and workload.

• Faculty may voluntarily add students above the class size up to the room capacity. However, doing so both weakens the argument that an increase in class size adversely affects instruction and contributes to an excessive faculty workload.