Hiring Adjunct Faculty

Definition of an Opening

1. A new class that is being added to any program.
2. An opening does not occur until there are fewer instructors than classes offered in any given program.

Announcing an Opening

When there is an opening in his or her program, the program coordinator announces it by emailing all instructors, the chair, the ADA, and office staff. In fairness to all instructors, there should be no switching between programs coordinated by different people without an official announcement.

Hiring Current Adjunct

The coordinator selects an adjunct instructor who would be the most suitable for the program. However, according to the union contract, adjunct faculty who meet professional standards of performance and demonstrate a continuing commitment to the educational programs of Palomar College shall receive preferential consideration for continuing part-time assignments. Our dept. has established a preferential consideration list for each of its three disciplines (ESL, Adult Basic Ed, and Citizenship). An adjunct faculty member is added to the list when he or she has earned:

1. six or more assignment credits (one accrued for each regular semester) in a discipline within the preceding six consecutive academic years
2. a rating of "high professional performance" or "standard professional performance" on two consecutive peer evaluations (conducted once every three years).

Here are the pertinent articles in the contract:

20.10.2.1 All faculty members on the preferential consideration list for a given discipline shall have equal standing. For the purpose of assignment and scheduling, no part-time faculty member shall receive preferential consideration over a full-time faculty member.

20.10.2.2 A faculty member on the preferential consideration list shall be offered an assignment in that discipline before that assignment is offered to any person not on that list.

20.10.2.3 When two or more faculty members on the preferential consideration list are qualified for an assignment, the Department Chair/Director or Dean may select the faculty member who will be offered that assignment. This selection shall not be subject to the grievance process.

After the program coordinator makes the selection, he or she

• emails the adjunct's current coordinator to inform him or her that the adjunct will be changing to a different program
• emails the chair, the ADA, office staff, and contract instructors to tell them who is going to be changing programs, whom the person is replacing, and what level the person is going to be teaching
• email the ADA if a classroom key is needed
• provides a program orientation and copies of the books that will be used.

Hiring New Adjunct

If no current faculty members respond to the opening announcement by the specified deadline, the program coordinator looks through the new adjunct applications on file or advertises the opening to the outside world via HR web page, CATESOL Job Bank, etc.

The coordinator contacts the most qualified applicant and sets up an interview. The coordinator asks the applicant to complete an application packet and to submit it along with copies of his or her transcript to the chair, who reviews the qualifications, determines if an equivalencies letter needs to be written, checks off minimum qualifications section, and signs it. The packet and other required documents are returned to the ADA for further processing, including with HR.