AF status is a designation awarded to eligible part-time faculty. The intention of Associate Faculty status is to provide some level of job security to part-time faculty members who have provided satisfactory service to SMC over a period of time. Part-time faculty with AF status have earned the right to a "base" of hours determined by their previous loads at the college. If there are assignments available for which you are qualified and in the time frame that you request, you have the right to those assignments before any non-AF part-time faculty member.
If an assignment you accepted is canceled, you have the right as an AF member to take the assignment of a non-AF member who has an assignment for which you are qualified. This is often referred to as “bumping”. If such an assignment exists, your chair should alert you to the possibility of bumping your non-AF colleague and ask you if you wish to do so. They should first try to offer you a replacement assignment within the timeframes you originally requested, but if no such assignment exists, they can offer something outside that timeframe.
No AF member has the right to bump any other AF member, regardless of seniority.
If there are not enough assignments for all AF to receive their base hours in a given semester, department chairs must consider seniority among the criteria used in determining to whom an assignment should be offered.
There is no contractual right that forces the SMC administration to create more sections to help AF meet their base hours. The administration may decide that there is not enough student demand, or they may decide to allocate resources elsewhere. What is guaranteed is that any section or assignment that is added must first be offered, by seniority, to Associate Faculty members who have not yet met their base assignment.
