(Email: Sept 10)
As we prepare for the new academic year, I’d like to share with you some new guidelines about class staffing and scheduling that I shared with the program chairs last month, so that everyone is aware of these new guidelines for the coming year.
Based on a framework of equity for all faculty, the AVP of Academic Affairs, the Provost and President all support the attached best practices for scheduling/staffing classes. These practices recognize that adjunct faculty play an important role in serving our students. In addition, we acknowledge that changing the current SBCTC system, which is heavily dependent on the inequities between full time and adjunct faculty, requires systematic and long-term changes at all levels. At the college level, we feel that we can contribute to this by issuing guidance on class staffing that provides a more equitable, transparent, uniform and fair system of class assignments for the most vulnerable of our faculty colleagues. Hence, you will see that a major focus of these guidelines honors the long-term contributions of all our adjunct faculty by more clearly considering how make class assignments, and how and when we communicate that information to all faculty. A major change from current practice is to schedule existing adjunct faculty for a full load (plus an additional class) before making full time moonlighting assignments. In conjunction with this we, as program chairs and as a college, need to nurture and provide feedback to adjunct faculty in their first few years (much like we do with tenured faculty) to support their success as effective instructors.
This document also provides additional guidelines on communicating class assignments, moonlights, “per head” assignments, release time, cancelations, and bumping.
With COVID and budget cuts, it was important to release these guidelines before staffing occurs for winter, hence during the summer. However, input from Faculty Council, the Positive Policies for Adjuncts Committee, and faculty discussions with the President did inform these guidelines. We will have time to discuss them further in the coming year. I also recognize that some programs and situations will require some flexibility, however, it is important that we have some standard expectations as a college, to assure that all faculty know what to expect when it comes to making course assignments. But I think it is important, especially in this time of so many unknowns, to provide more equity for adjunct faculty.
Please let me or your Deans know if you have questions, Chairs and Deans will be working with these guidelines as they work on any remaining Fall staffing, as well as moving forward with Winter scheduling/staffing and beyond.
