1. The parties will enter into a pilot program beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year through the end of the 2023-2024 academic year. Three-year appointments made within the pilot shall remain in effect for the term of each appointment. The parties will meet no later than June 30, 2023, to determine whether to continue the pilot program as specified in this Agreement or to modify the pilot program. If the parties are unable to agree to continue or to modify the pilot program, the terms regarding adjunct appointments will revert to those expressed in the 2007-2010 collective bargaining agreement.
2. An employee who has served as a teaching adjunct and who has taught at least six (6) contact teaching hours per semester within the same department of the college for the 10 most recent consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions) preceding the effective date of the three-year appointment shall be considered for a three-year appointment, subject to the comprehensive review and assessment referenced in paragraph “4” below. Up to four semesters of substitute service in a teaching title within the same department of the college may be counted as qualifying service. The first three-year appointments shall begin in the Fall 2017 semester and three-year appointments will continue to be available starting in each fall semester through Fall 2023. Adjuncts shall be notified on or before May 15th concerning appointment or non-reappointment for a three-year period.
With the start of the Fall 2019 semester, the following eligibility criteria, in addition to the criteria in the paragraph above, shall be in effect. An employee who has served as a teaching adjunct and who has taught at least six (6) contact teaching hours per semester within the same department of the college for at least 10 of the 12 most recent consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions) preceding the effective date of the three-year appointment shall be considered for a three-year appointment, subject to the comprehensive review and assessment referenced in paragraph “4” below, provided that the adjunct was initially assigned to teach at least six (6) contact hours in the semester(s) resulting in the lack of continuity and that the adjunct lost no more than one course owing to insufficient enrollment or reassignment of the course to another faculty member and/or that the adjunct lost one or more courses owing to medical reasons in the semester(s) at issue. A teaching adjunct who believes that his or her service in at least 10 of the 12 most recent semesters counts as qualifying service as set forth herein must self-identify to the college Human Resources Office and the department chair no later than the end of the second week of the Spring semester in which he or she would be considered for the three-year appointment; the college shall determine whether the adjunct meets the eligibility criteria set forth herein for consideration for a three-year appointment and shall notify the adjunct whether he/she is eligible to receive consideration for such appointment.
In rare instances in which a department Personnel and Budget Committee determines that an eligible adjunct will not be reappointed to a three-year appointment but could benefit from a one-year appointment and additional guidance, the adjunct shall be appointed to a one-year appointment. At the end of the one-year appointment, the adjunct must be considered for a three-year appointment.
3. As a one-time transition due to the implementation of this pilot program, those adjuncts who have taught at least six (6) classroom contact hours per semester within the same department at the same college for 14 out of the last 18 consecutive semesters (excluding summer sessions) preceding the 2016-17 academic year—including the four semesters (excluding summer sessions) immediately preceding the 2016-17 academic year—and who are eligible for a two-semester appointment for the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters under Article 10.1.(a)3.,—shall receive a two-year appointment for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years, without the necessity of a comprehensive review, but subject to sufficiency of registration and changes in curriculum. Up to four semesters of substitute service in a teaching title within the same department of the college may be counted as qualifying service. An adjunct who believes that he/she meets the eligibility requirements for this two-year appointment must file a notice of interest with his/her department chair no later than October 15, 2016. Filing a notice of interest shall be a pre-condition to receiving consideration for a two-year appointment. It is understood that adjuncts who receive these initial two-year appointments will receive a comprehensive review during said period and will be considered for a three-year appointment effective beginning in the 2018-19 academic year, on the same basis as other adjuncts, as set forth in paragraph “4” below. Adjuncts who file a notice of interest shall be notified on or before February 1, 2017, confirming their appointment to a two-year appointment or notifying them of their lack of eligibility therefor.
4. To receive a three-year appointment, an adjunct who meets the service requirements must receive the positive recommendation of his/her department P&B committee and of the college President, or his/her designee [e.g., Provost, Dean]. The recommendations shall be based upon a comprehensive review of the adjunct’s performance and the fiscal and programmatic needs of the department and/or the college.
5. Adjuncts who receive three-year appointments shall be considered for a subsequent three-year appointment, subject to a comprehensive review of the adjunct’s performance and an assessment of the fiscal and programmatic needs of the department and/or the college, as referenced in paragraph “4” above. Consistent with paragraph “2” above, if an adjunct serving in a three-year appointment is appointed to teach as a substitute in the same department of the college within the three-year period, such substitute appointment shall not serve to disqualify the adjunct from consideration for another three-year appointment as an adjunct at the conclusion of the current three-year appointment period or thereafter, if the substitute appointment continues beyond the conclusion of the current three-year appointment period but ends within the pilot period. Consistent with section 6.4.d of the Bylaws of the Board of Trustees, there is no presumption of continuous appointments. Adjuncts shall be notified on or before May 15th of the third year of their current three-year appointment concerning reappointment or non-reappointment for a successive three-year period.
6. During the three-year appointment period, the adjunct shall follow existing departmental policies regarding student evaluations; it is understood that the weight to be accorded student evaluations in the comprehensive review process is a matter of academic judgment. At least one 50-minute teaching observation shall be conducted during the three-year period.
7. During the three-year appointment period, the adjunct shall be assigned a minimum of six (6) classroom contact hours in each Fall and Spring semester, but shall have no entitlement to a particular course(s) or schedule.
8. Should a department be unable to offer an adjunct a minimum of six (6) classroom contact hours in a given semester, the department chair shall offer the adjunct either: A) an academically appropriate non-teaching adjunct appointment in the current semester for an equivalent number of hours at the non-teaching rate; or B) an additional teaching assignment of the number of hours of the contact hour deficit within the following two semesters or summer session. For those adjuncts who receive their primary health insurance by virtue of their adjunct employment at the college and who would lose the health insurance if their assignment at the college fell below six (6) contact hours in any given semester, department chairs shall make every effort to give such adjunct a non-teaching assignment in the same semester as the contact hour deficit sufficient to maintain health insurance; for these purposes only, one non-teaching hour shall be deemed equivalent to 0.4 teaching contact hour.
A semester in which an adjunct’s workload falls below six (6) contact hours for reasons other than his/her declination to teach continues to count as 6 contact teaching hours of service toward eligibility for the following: subsequent three-year adjunct appointments; movement in salary schedule (Article 24.2.(b)); waiver of tuition (Article 29.3); Adjunct Professional Development Fund (Appendix B).
9. An adjunct may discuss with his/her department chair his/her course and scheduling preferences. The department chair may consider the adjunct’s expressed preferences—just as the expressed preferences of full-time faculty are considered—but the department chair retains the final authority to determine who will be assigned to teach which courses and when the courses will be offered. If an adjunct declines to teach more than one course as assigned by the department chair during the three-year period, the three-year appointment shall be considered null and void.
Notwithstanding the above, an adjunct serving in a three-year appointment may seek to be excused for up to one semester upon the submission of documentation satisfactory to the college’s Office of Human Resources establishing the need for such owing to 1) the adjunct’s own illness; 2) the need to care for an ill member of the adjunct’s immediate family; 3) the need to care for a newborn child or a newly adopted child, adopted at up to five (5) years of age; or 4) receipt of an academic grant or fellowship that involves full-time commitment or absence. If approved, such one-semester break in service shall not serve to disqualify the adjunct from consideration for another three-year appointment at the conclusion of the current three-year appointment.
10. Adjuncts who receive a two-year or three-year appointment under this provision will earn 12 contact hours per year of personal illness/emergency leave, which may be accrued up to a maximum of 36 contact hours. Adjuncts who are reappointed to a three-year appointment may carry over up to 36 contact hours of leave. An adjunct is not entitled to carry over the leave to an appointment other than a three-year appointment, nor is an adjunct entitled to receive a payout for unused days.
11. Adjuncts who receive a three-year appointment continue to be subject to discharge for just cause, subject to the Grievance and Arbitration article (Article 20) and not to Article 21 of the collective bargaining agreement.
12. The second paragraph of section 10.1(a)3. of the collective bargaining agreement, regarding two-semester appointments, remains in effect.
