REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ADVANCE ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT PCC

There is much to celebrate in the contract approved by the Board of Trustees on February 18. Not only has it moved to adjust salaries for faculty, who have not seen a raise since 2007, but the contract also granted adjunct faculty, who are almost a thousand strong on campus, a significant stake in the college by granting them reemployment rights. Reemployment rights not only provide adjuncts with job security, but strengthen adjuncts’ ability to be participants and stakeholders in the college.

Adjuncts who have been at PCC for six semesters (Fall and Spring semesters only), who have not had a break in service of over two years, and who have received satisfactory evaluations in their two most recent evaluations qualify for reemployment. Each department will have a list provided by Human Resources that lists reemployment priority based on length of service. Departments will follow this list in offering and assigning classes. The reemployment provision provides that adjuncts will be offered classes that closely match their previous teaching assignments, matching days and times. The importance of the similarity in class assignments arises from the adjunct’s need to balance class schedules at different colleges. If class assignments bounce from MW to TTH and from morning to late afternoon, adjuncts could lose classes because of irreconcilable conflicts between campuses

As the summer approaches and departments are making Fall assignments, the FA is concerned that the provisions of the new contract are followed. Please let us know if you feel that process is not within the language of the contract. The FA, the adjunct faculty, and the college have a significant interest in implementing this ground breaking agreement successfully.

SLOS AND ADJUNCT FACULTY

As the semester draws to an end, adjuncts in some departments will be receiving notifications from their deans or chairs of instruction require them to submit some kind of SLO assessment. Adjuncts should regard these requests with great skepticism. The Faculty Association asserts that at this time Adjuncts cannot be required to make or complete any assessments that are connected with Student Learning Outcomes. Such assessments are outside of the classroom responsibilities that the adjunct is paid for. In addition, many adjuncts have no training or familiarity with SLOs. The Academic Senate supports the compensation of adjunct faculty work on SLOs, but its opinion is only advisory. While the Faculty Association recognizes that SLO assessments can be an important component of the curriculum and will contributed to successful accreditation, the PCC Administration has not come to an agreement with the Faculty Association as to how the adjunct faculty will be compensated for this ancillary work. Please call the FA office if you have further questions.