This page is divided into multiple parts, please find the topic you are most interested in.
Contact Melissa Pardo.
The FA calendar is located on the homepage, under the “Meetings” tab or you can click here.
Please visit the team page to find a directory of all officers / executive committee / representatives.
Associate Faculty status details are found in Article 6.6 of the contract.
Not necessarily. Your chair must offer you the chance to teach another class that you are qualified to teach, but only if there is one available that is currently being taught by a non-AF instructor. No faculty member with AF status can "bump" another AF instructor, regardless of seniority. If there is a clear student need for a particular class, chairs always have the option of requesting that academic affairs open a new section. Also, remember that AF status gives you the right to an ANNUAL load, if the classes are available. If your assignment in Fall is less than usual, it may be made up in spring to ensure you meet your base load - as long as an assignment is available.
No. If an assignment is cancelled for any reason other than misconduct or a less than satisfactory evaluation, or if there is no assignment available, your Associate Faculty status is not lost. You would have to have two complete Fall/Spring cycles in a row to lose AF status due to lack of available assignment.
AF status is formally terminated in these situations only when the district has provided written notice of the reason for such termination.
Eligibility for AF status is gained by completing 5 consecutive semesters of at least 5 LHE in a given discipline at SMC, with no "less than satisfactory" evaluations (that is, no "Needs Improvement" nor "Unsatisfactory" evaluations) in that time. In the spring semester of every year, the district reviews the past service of part-time faculty members to determine whether newly eligible AF exist. If there are newly eligible AF in a discipline, and if awarding the status will not result in more than 60% of part-time faculty in that discipline having AF status, the part-time faculty member will be awarded AF status and notified by district.
The point 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 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.
For the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22, COVID-19 and class disruptions made carrying out evaluations difficult and led to huge reductions in course offerings in some disciplines which would have detrimentally affected earning and maintaining AF status. We reached an agreement with the district that if you already had AF status prior to Fall 2020, the "base" hours you are owed will not be affected by your assignment during those years. If you were on the way to earning AF status prior to Fall 2020, progress was frozen during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years and began again in Fall 2022.
