ARTICLE 23

Retrenchment

 

Section A.  Retrenchment .  A retrenchment is the layoff of tenured or probationary faculty members due to System  or university  budget reductions, budget reallocations, expenditure freezes, or unfunded increases in operating costs, resulting from action by by either  the  Legislature, the Governor, or MnSCU , or program changes, or enrollment shifts, or legislative mandate.

 

The President  shall meet and confer with the Association , in accordance with the provisions of Article 6, at the time the President first considers retrenchment.  In connection with such duty to meet and confer, the President shall give the reason(s) for considering retrenchment and shall provide information of anticipated attrition, and statistics and financial data having a bearing on any such retrenchment.  The President shall consult with the Chancellor  before the issuance of layoff notices.

 

 

 

Section B.  Retrenchment Procedure .

 

Subd. 1.  Attrition .  Whenever possible, attrition due to retirement , resignation, early separation, or death should be used to avoid the necessity for layoff.

 

Subd. 2.  Retraining .  Retraining  of present faculty shall be considered by the President  to avoid the necessity for layoff.

 

Subd. 3.  Layoff .  Upon determination by the President  that attrition and retraining will not accomplish the reduction, then layoffs may be instituted.  After meeting and conferring with the Association  pursuant to Section A above, the President shall determine the particular department or program in which personnel reductions ought to be made.  Such reductions shall then be accomplished in the following order.

     

      a.   AAdjunct , community faculty, fixed term, and non-tenure track, without priority, based upon programmatic needs.

 

      b.  Probationary

 

      c.   Tenured faculty in the affected department shall be laid off in inverse order as described in Article 29.  However, in departments or programs where positions are financed by monies from an outside jurisdiction or agency and are occupied by fixed-term or probationary faculty, such faculty may continue to hold such positions in reduced departments or programs unless there are tenured faculty members qualified to fill such positions as determined by the President .

 

A tenured faculty  member  who has at least twenty (20) years of service within the Minnesota State Universities, shall remain available for assignment and shall not be laid off.  For  those  tenured  faculty  with at least twenty (20) years of service who have received notice that their position is being eliminated, the following options will be provided.

 

 

                  1.   The President /designee  may reassign the faculty member  to other appropriate duties within the university .

 

            2.   If the President /designee  determines reassignment is not available without retraining, within six months of initial notice, the faculty member  and the President/designee  shall develop a mutually agreed upon retraining program, to be paid by the university , which meets the programmatic needs of the university.  The completed plan will include timelines for completion of retraining.  The President will review the approved plan with the receiving department, and in accordance with Article 20, the department’s role is limited to that of providing recommendations only.

 

            3.                      If the President  /designee  and the faculty member cannot develop a mutually agreeable retraining plan, the faculty member ’s employment will terminate three (3) years from the date of initial notice.  During this period, appropriate duties will be assigned by the Employer .  At the end of this period, the faculty member  will receive the maximum benefits contained in Article 16, Section D., Subd.  3. if not otherwise qualified.  With this option, there shall be no layoff or recall rights.

 

      d.   If two (2) or more faculty members  have equal seniority , then those with greater length of     tenured service shall have priority for retention.

 

Should faculty members still be equal in seniority, then those with greater length of total service in the university  shall have priority in retention.  Be­yond this, the decision of which person to retain will be made on the basis of pro­grammatic needs of the university as determined by the President .

 

Subd. 4.  Advanced Notice .  Notice of layoff under the provisions of this Article for non-tenured faculty members shall be furnished in accordance with Article 25.  Ten­ured faculty members to be laid off under the provisions of this Article shall be provided notice  of layoff no later than the twentieth (20th) class day of the fall term to be effective on the last day of the next spring term.  Meet and confer to discuss layoffs shall be scheduled prior to the date of the layoff notice.

 

Subd. 5.  Sabbatical  Leave .  If a faculty member  had been scheduled for a sabbatical leave he/she shall not be deprived of his/her sabbatical leave be­cause he/she is subject to being laid off.

 

Subd. 6.  Retraining .

 

      a.   The President will consider and may ap­prove a training leave, in accordance with Article 17, Section  G, for a faculty mem­be r who has received a notice of layoff.  The retraining leave would occur during the faculty member 's terminal year and provide the faculty member with an oppor­tunity to become qualified for a position in a re­lated or allied discipline.  The President 's decision shall not be grievable.

 

b.   As an alternative , but not in addition to the retraining leave, the Presi­den t may offer a sab­batical leave to a faculty member  for the purpose of retraining in a field for which employ­ment is available at the faculty member 's university .  This sabbatical would occur during the faculty member's terminal year.  The President's decision to offer or not to offer the sabbatical leave shall not be grievable.

 

Section C.  Catastrophic Retrenchment .  If a retrenchment within a university  in­volves lay­off notice being given to more than fifteen percent (15%) of the tenured faculty in an academ­ic yea r such tenured faculty shall be entitled to reemployment rights for three (3) years with the State Universities following the same procedure used for recall in Section G.

 

Section D.  Rights .  Tenured faculty members laid off in accordance with this Arti­cle shall have reassignment rights or, as a result of Section C above, recall rights for three (3) years following the effective date of their layoff.

 

Subd. 1.  Retrenchment List .  A current list of faculty members who possess reassignment and recall rights, under Section C, will be maintained by the MnSCU  office.  Each university  will notify the System  office whenever a tenured faculty member  is given notice of retrenchment.  The System office will send an updated list to each of the universities  whenever it receives such notice.

 

Subd. 2.  Notices of Vacancies .  All tenured faculty members who have received a notice of retrenchment shall notify the System  office of up to three academic areas in which they may be qualified to serve.  The choice of areas shall be from the list contained in Appendix B of this Agreement .  Subsequently, they shall receive copies of all vacancy notices for faculty positions, in departments or programs in those academic areas, which will be included in the IFO  unit when filled unless they request in writing not to receive them.  This notifica­tion of academic areas can be updated annually, with the possibility of adding one area, within fif­teen (15) days of the anniversary of his/her notice of retrenchment.

 

Included with the initial mailing of vacancy notices will be a letter de­scribing the reassign­ment process and a form to use to notify the System  office of a faculty member 's desire to exercise his/her right of consideration for a specific position.

 

Vacancy notices for probationary positions in chosen academic areas shall be sent at least three (3) weeks prior to disseminating them within the MnSCU  or in local or national publications.  Vacancy notices of fixed-term and adjunct positions shall be sent by the university  no later than the same day that they are disseminated within the MnSCU and before such notices are disseminated in local or national publi­cations.

 

In addition, faculty members with reassignment rights shall be mailed vacancy notices by the university  for faculty positions in the IFO  unit outside of their chosen aca­demic areas at the time that they are disseminated within the MnSCU .

 

Section E.  Reassignment .  Tenured faculty members notified of layoff in accordance with this Article may exercise their reassignment rights within the Minnesota State Universities as follows.

 

1.     The faculty member  shall have three (3) calendar  weeks from the date the notice of vacancy was mailed to contact the university  and indicate his/her interest in the posi­tion and to forward the application materials requested in the notice to the Academic Vice President  or designee  of the university involved.  When the credentials of the faculty member  have been received, the Vice President or designee shall meet with the depart­ment where the vacancy exists and insure that the department is aware of and understands all the provisions of this Section prior to considering reassignment requests.

 

2.     The department involved shall make telephone contact with the faculty member  and invite him/her to visit the campus for an informational inter­view.  At the time of the visit, he/she shall also be afforded an interview with the President  or appropriate Vice Presi­den t.  The university  shall be responsible for trav­el and related expenses from the faculty member 's place of residence  if it is within the State of Minnesota or within fifty miles of the Minnesota border.

 

The faculty member  will be responsible for travel and related expenses from a place of resi­denc e beyond fifty (50) miles from the Minnesota border.  The department shall make a written recommendation  to the President  concerning the credentials of the candidate.  If the recommendation from the department is negative, the faculty member  shall be afforded a telephone call with the President before the President determines whether he/she is qualified to fill the vacancy.

 

3.     After consulting with the department, the President  shall determine whether the faculty member  is qualified to fill the vacant position. In evaluating the faculty member , neither the President nor the department will compare him/her with any actual, hypothetical, or ideal applicant, and will take no notice of applica­tions and credentials of other candidates until a decision has been reached regard­ing the faculty member seeking reassignment.

 

 

4.     The faculty member  must be awarded the position if he/she has sufficient ability, i.e