Part-time faculty voting in departments

[Marla Allegre]

Hi everyone,  

We have had a request from our part-time faculty to develop a proposal that allows them to vote in department activities, such as curriculum development.  They cannot vote for or hold the office of department chair, per district board policy.  Our Academic Senate is in support, as long as there is some limit on the number of pert-time faculty who can vote (maybe one per department, or proportional representation).  I know that an article in Rostrum a couple of years ago noted that over 50% of CCs allowed part-time voting in departments, and I am curious how other colleges structure this.  Is there a senate or board policy that outlines the process? How do you keep departments or disciplines with small numbers of full-time faculty from feeling threatened or "overrun" by potentially large numbers of part-time faculty?

Any advice and information will be appreciated!

Thanks,

Marla Allegre

Academic Senate President

Allan Hancock College

mall...@hancockcollege.edu

(805)922-6966 x3518

[Elizabeth Romero]

I would assume you would need to structure your operating agreements to include part time faculty.  We have part time faculty on our student success, enrollment management, Academic Senate and our College Council committees.  We also usually include only one as we don’t like to burden part time faculty and it is for the most part a voluntary appointment.  Although for the last year, we were able to pay our adjunct AS representative to attend AS and College Council  at their hourly rate, per an agreement with our college President. Is this what you were asking?  Because we don’t typically vote on anything unless it is in a committee.

Liz

 

Liz Romero

Academic Senate President

Child Development Instructor

Clovis Community College

559-325-5247

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[Shaw, Leigh Anne]

Skyline College has had the opposite problem – we have many adjuncts whose voices we desperately need to hear,  but in the past they were not compensated to attend meetings or take positions of leadership, so they rarely participated. We have never heard full-timers fearing being “overrun” by part-timers – if anything, full-timers are desperate for anyone else to help out and carry the load of everything we do since many of our departments are between 10-30% full-time.  Fortunately, with the intensified focus on accreditation and SLO tracking (the need for more hands on deck), now the college encourages adjuncts to participate and fill out timesheets for their attendance and work.  In departments with no full-time faculty, deans usually find a way to compensate adjuncts to do things like program review or SLO tracking for their departments. 

 

Our district has never barred adjuncts from participating, but it was generally agreed in the past, due to lack of compensation, that they would not be solicited and pressured to participate.  Our senate is looking at revising our by-laws to allow up to three positions on the governing council to be filled by adjuncts, and we have adjunct reps on the union.  We do have regulations regarding who can serve on tenure committees, hiring committees and equivalency committees, and they mostly specify full-time, but there are cases where, if no conflict of interest is evident, an adjunct may serve (i.e., the department has no full-time faculty).  It’s not a perfect situation, but it’s going in a good direction of including more part-time voices and expertise.

Leigh Anne Shaw

Professor, English for Speakers of Other Languages
Coordinator, English Language Institute
Secretary and Past President, Skyline College Academic Senate 2014-2016
Skyline College - 3300 College Dr., San Bruno, CA 94066

(650) 738-4408  Sh...@smccd.edu

Our mission is to empower and transform a global community of learners.

 

From: cccse...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cccse...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Marla Allegre
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 12:33 PM
To: CCCSenates
Subject: [Google Group CCCSenates] Part-time faculty voting in departments

 

Hi everyone,  

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[Marla Allegre]

We have three part-time representatives on Academic Senate who can vote, and the  part-time faculty are represented on committees and shared governance councils by their union appointees.  They have always been encouraged to attend and participate in departmental activities like SLOs assessment and regular meetings, and have on occasion been compensated.  They have not, however, been able to vote--even to approve minutes.  That is what they are asking for, and department chairs are hesitant about the potential change, especially as it relates to curriculum.  (Part-time faculty do attend our curriculum committee but only as nonvoting members.)

[Mike Fino]

This is a timely question for us.  At MiraCosta, we don't have any specific policy on how departments conduct themselves -- they're given autonomy in that.  The senate could certainly encourage adoption of effective or inclusive practices.  I haven't heard of this particular concern at our college though.

What I have heard is a request for part-time faculty to have a whole vote (not proportional) on the Academic Senate President election.  We have a statement in our bylaws that the ASP represents all faculty and the part-time faculty, as such, believe they should have a vote in the election of that person.

We've had a sustained initiative to be more inclusive of part-time faculty and have them on most governance committees, including our senate -- they have 5 of 17 seats.  We have a subcommittee researching the issue right now.

My best,

Mike

ASP

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 12:33:21 PM UTC-7, Marla Allegre wrote:

[Holliday, Ann]

At Coastline Community College the part time faculty have the same rights (vote for vote) both in the Senate and in departments, as full time faculty. The contract protects the scheduling choices of full time faculty.

 

Ann Holliday, Professor

Coastline Community College

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From: cccse...@googlegroups.com [cccse...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Mike Fino [mike...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2015 3:56 PM
To: CCCSenates
Subject: [Google Group CCCSenates] Re: Part-time faculty voting in departments

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