The Adjunct Faculty Reemployment provision of the contract ratified in the Spring of 2015 serves to strengthen the college by finally providing some job security for the 800 to 1000 adjuncts who work at PCC. This dedicated group of professionals teach a third or more of all the credit classes at the college and serve thousands of students each semester.

After more than a decade of negotiations, demonstrations, and actions, the PCC Faculty Association finally prevailed upon the District to grant a limited guarantee that adjuncts who had worked at PCC for six semesters and who had good evaluations would be guaranteed an offer of at least one class. The agreement does not solve all the challenges facing the adjunct. The Faculty Association continues to advocate for full employment for qualified adjuncts—that is, if classes are available, adjuncts already teaching at the college should be offered open classes until they reach their mandatory cap of a 67% load of a full time faculty member in the same area. It is both poor practice and unfair to offer a current adjunct a single class while other sections that the adjunct could teach are parceled out to other adjuncts or new hires. This practice simply means that adjuncts must further stretch their time and energy finding other classes to fill out their schedules. Such a practice wastes the time and energy of adjuncts and the college. Every semester, new adjuncts must be introduced to the college and its students and culture. In addition, the need for new adjuncts adds administrative costs of assembling hiring committee and evaluating and training new adjuncts. Nevertheless, the Adjunct Faculty Reemployment provision was a step forward.

Sadly, the PCCFA is already hearing that some adjuncts have been warned that they will not be offered classes in the fifth or sixth semester of their employment, in order to undermine the intention of the Reemployment provision. Such conduct only serves to harass adjuncts, drive away potentially valuable teachers, and subvert the intention of Reemployment, which was to build a stable and reliable adjunct faculty. Further, these negative practices demean the adjunct and create an atmosphere of frustration that cannot but impact the morale and the performance of the adjunct faculty at large. Adjuncts, who are dependent on the actions of their superiors, lose trust in their departments, their full time colleagues, and the college.

The Faculty Association reiterates the purpose and the spirit of the Reemployment provision. Adjunct faculty who are doing their job professionally and reliably, who are receiving good evaluations from their departments, and who are members in good standing of the PCC community have a right to fulfill the six semester probationary period and must be moved into the category of adjunct with a guarantee of at least one class offer per semester. To act in a way that would subvert this goal undermines the values of the college and damages the reputation of the school among its peers. The Faculty Association fully expects deans, coordinators, and schedulers to understand and follow both the letter and the spirit of Reemployment.