Intent

This procedure is intended to provide a process for implementation of System Policy BP 3-20 Due Process.  In case of any conflicts between this procedure and BP 3-20a, the provisions of BP 3-20 shall prevail.  Employees to whom this policy applies are designated in BP 3-10 .

Implementation Dates

July, Annually

College issues faculty contracts

September 1, 1988

Establish service credit records for faculty

September, even years

Elect a 13 member peer review panel.  See Peer Review Process in BP 3-20

October 15

Notify faculty of program area assignment.  Notifications should be in writing and a copy placed in the personnel file

November 30 (as necessary)

College gives notice of certain reductions in force

January 15 (as necessary)

Faculty member submits a current resume to the appropriate Dean.

February 15 (as necessary)

The Dean submits a letter of recommendation and supporting documentation regarding removal from probationary status to the college president.

March 15 (as necessary)

The college president makes a final decision of those probationary employees being removed from probationary status and notifies the faculty member and the Personnel Office.  College gives notice of nonrenewal

Definitions

Regular Faculty - see CP 3-10 and SP 3-10a for definition.

The contract must be for at least 50% of full-time service.  Duties and evaluation of the work assignment are included in CP 3-22 and CP 3-27.  Probationary regular faculty are those in the probationary period.  Non-probationary faculty have been removed from probationary status.  Regular faculty members have due process rights under BP 3-20.

Limited Faculty - See CP 3-10 and BP 3-10 for definition.  

Those faculty members whose contracts are expressly limited so as to carry no expectancy of continued employment beyond the term of the contract, as determined by the president.  Limited faculty members do not have due process rights.

Instructors - see CP 3-10 and BP 3-10 for definition

Those hired to teach on a temporary basis at an hourly rate with a range established by the Board.  Any one such appointment shall be for less than an academic year.

Evaluation:  The evaluation process is that described in CP 3-27.

Reassignment

BP 3-20 defines the college President's right to reassign faculty.  Such reassignment is not subject to review.  However, employees on a faculty contract shall not be assigned duties in violation of the college faculty workload policy (CP 3-22).

Probationary Period

Employee shall serve a probationary period from the date of employment until the completion of employment under three consecutive full-year regular contracts.  The period may be extended for an additional year if an employee has received a less than satisfactory rating during evaluation and the president determines that additional time should be allowed.

A probationary employee shall be non-renewed at the end of the probationary period unless the president recommends and the Board approves removal from probationary status.

Procedures for Removal from Probationary Status

College procedures to be used for removing from probationary status for faculty serving their final year of probationary status are as follows

1. The faculty member submits a current resume to the appropriate Dean by January 15.

2. The Dean submits a letter of recommendation and supporting documentation regarding removal from probationary status to the college president by February 15.

3. The college president makes a final decision and notifies the faculty member and Personnel office by March 15, of those probationary employees being recommended for removal from probationary status.

Nonrenewal

A probationary employee's contract may be nonrenewed without cause at the end of any contract.  A non-probationary employee's contract may be nonrenewed on grounds of below standard evaluations for two consecutive years.

Procedure:

1. Notice of nonrenewal shall be given by the president no later than March 15 preceding the end of the contract term.  The effective date shall be no sooner than the end of the then current contract.

2. There shall be no review of nonrenewal of a probationary employee's contract.

3. A nonprobationary employee whose contract is nonrenewed shall have the right to request, within ten days of service of notice, a peer review as provided below and in BP 3-20.

Dismissal, Suspension, or Other

 Disciplinary Action

for Cause Grounds

The following shall constitute grounds for dismissal, suspension, and other disciplinary action:

• Insubordination

• Neglect of duty

• Conviction of a felony or acceptance of a guilty plea or a plea of nolo contendere to a felony

• Moral turpitude

• Incompetence after notice and opportunity to improve

• Mental or physical disability which, even with reasonable accommodation, substantially interfered with the person's ability to perform the essential functions of the job in question.  Termination under this ground shall be in compliance with Federal law which prohibits discrimination against handicapped persons

• Failure to fulfill provisions of employment contract, or

• Other good and just cause as determined by failure to meet reasonable written and published standards.

Notice of dismissal, suspension, or other disciplinary action may be given by the president at any time and shall state the grounds and effective date.

An employee who is dismissed or suspended in excess of fifteen work days under this policy shall have the right to request within ten days of service of notice a peer review as provided in BP 3-20.

Reduction in Force Grounds

The grounds for reduction in force shall be as described in BP 3-20, Section 7.

The college president shall determine whether one of the listed grounds will require a reduction in force.  The criteria will be applied uniformly to the existing program areas.  Note that as a program is discontinued, BP 3-22 must be followed.

• justifiable lack of work

• justifiable reduction in a program area, or

• a reduction or elimination of funds received from a school district for purposes of providing secondary vocational education, as determined by the president; and/or

• a Board declaration of a fiscal emergency as defined in this policy

Procedure

The following steps shall be followed to determine whether a reduction in force is necessary:

1. Determine Staffing Needs:  A list of all regular faculty in each program area with respective service credit shall be distributed to each faculty member in each program area.

 

a) Teaching Faculty:

Overstaffing shall be determined by an analysis of the number of faculty/student ratio in the program area.  All student FTE generated in the program area shall be included (e.g., on-campus courses, telecourses, off-campus courses, weekend college courses).

 

b) Faculty on Leave/Post Retirement Assignment

All faculty on sabbatical and other leaves shall be included in the staffing analysis.  Temporary part-time faculty, who replace faculty on leave, and faculty on limited contract who replace faculty on leaves shall not be included in the staffing analysis.  Faculty fulfilling post-retirement work obligations shall be included in the staffing analysis.

2. Determine program areas to be affected by a RIF.  If a reduction in force is determined to be necessary in accordance with SP 3-20a, the college president on recommendation of the appropriate Deans shall examine the nature of the various programs, the relationship of each program to the role and mission of the college, the cost of the program relative staffing and enrollment patterns, and the need for a full-time faculty person/coordinator to satisfy credentialing requirements (if applicable).

3. The president shall report on program areas in which reductions in force will occur. 

4. Determine the normal attrition which is expected.  The college president, on recommendation of the Dean shall next determine whether normal attrition or reassignment will correct the overstaffing in the affected program area.

5. If, after allowing for attrition, it is determined that there is an excessive number of faculty in a program area and a reduction in force is necessary, all temporary part-time faculty on limited contracts and faculty holding regular contracts of less than 50% shall be reduced within the affected program area prior to the effective date of the reduction in force of any regular faculty holding a contract of 50% or greater.

6. Determine number of regular faculty to be impacted in the RIF in the affected program area.  If, after removing all temporary part-time faculty, faculty on limited contract, and faculty holding regular contracts of less than 50% from the affected program area, an excessive number of regular faculty still exists, the college president on recommendation of the Dean shall determine the number of regular faculty positions to be Reduced in Force.

7. Eliminate regular faculty holding probationary contracts.  If, after removing all faculty holding non-regular contracts, an excessive number of regular faculty still exists, the faculty holding regular contracts that are probationary shall be Reduced in Force following the procedure outlined in paragraph 10of this section.

8. Re-assign qualified faculty who are affected by reduction in force to understaffed areas.  Faculty who are affected by a RIF and are qualified to work in another area may be re-assigned by the college president using the following process:

1. By February 15 of each year faculty will provide the Dean of their primary area assignment with information and documentation regarding qualifications to teach courses in other program areas.

2. Assign qualified faculty who are affected by the reduction in force to other program areas, using the following criteria:

(1)  The faculty member must be qualified to teach/work in the area, as determined by the College President.

(2)  The reassignment must adhere to sound educational practice and financial or fiscal management.

(3)  A faculty member cannot be reassigned to a position which is already encumbered by a faculty member on a regular contract.

(4)  The assignment is considered voluntary unless the College President approves an involuntary reassignment. In the case of an involuntary reassignment, the following criteria will be met:

(a) The program area change is expected to be long term.

 (b) The faculty member is fully qualified to teach a wide range of the courses in the program area.

 (c) The impact of the reassignment on other faculty members in the program area has been fully analyzed and considered.

Note: In case of voluntary reassignments, faculty do not carry prior service credits to the new program area. Faculty members involuntarily assigned to another program area shall be allowed to carry to their new program area the service credit earned in their original program.

1. Regular faculty with two out of three unsatisfactory ratings in the most recent three years shall be reduced in force next.
2. Regular faculty who have the least service credits in the affected program area(s) shall be reduced in force next.
3. In cases of equal service credit in the affected program area, the faculty who have not earned satisfactory service evaluations in any of the prior three years shall be reduced in force next.
4. After applying the factors in 1, 2, 3, affirmative action considerations shall be made.

Notification

In the case of a reduction in force based on fiscal emergency or a reduction or elimination of funds received from a school district for purposes of providing secondary vocational education, a minimum of sixty days written notice of termination shall be given. In all other cases, notice of reduction in force shall be given by the president no later than November 30 of the academic year at the end of which the reduction shall take place.

Review

Rehire

Regular employees who have been reduced in force under this policy shall have the right to request that their name be placed on a systemwide rehire list maintained by the System President. When there are openings in regular positions at any state system community college and there are no employees who have the right to rehire under the above provision, the president of the hiring institution may decide to waive the institutional hiring procedures and hire directly from the rehire list. If the president hires from the rehire list he may require a one-year probationary period. Other terms and conditions of employment shall be negotiated at the time of employment.

Determination of Service Credit and Program Area

1.  Determine Program Areas of the College

Program areas will be determined by the College President on recommendation of the Dean. A program area is a curricular or support area which meets these four criteria:

1. Shares a common prefix or commonality or purpose.
2. Represents a generally recognized, specific body of knowledge.
3. Requires special training and skills to teach the content or provide the service.
4. Contributes to the mission of the college.

2.  Assign Faculty to Program Areas and Notify

1. New faculty shall be given written notice of program area(s) assignment at the time of employment (with a copy placed in the personnel file).
2. By October 15 of each academic year faculty will be given written notice of their academic year program area assignment or reassignment (with a copy placed in the personnel file) including notation of whether a reassignment is voluntary or involuntary.
3. If program area reassignments occur at any time, faculty shall be given written notice within 10 working days (with a copy placed in the personnel file) including a notation of whether the change is voluntary or involuntary.
4. When program area reassignments are made, they shall be considered voluntary unless the College President approves an involuntary reassignment. In the case of an involuntary reassignment, the following criteria will be met:

(1) The program area change is expected to be long term.

(2) The faculty member is fully qualified to teach a wide range of the courses in the program area.

(3) The impact of the reassignment on other faculty members in the program area has been fully analyzed and considered.

3.  Determine Service Credit and Notify

See BP 3-20 for service credit earned prior to September 1, 1988. Effective September 1, 1988, BP 3-20 specified how service credit will accrue, based upon each contract year's assignment.

By October 15 of each year faculty members will be notified of anticipated service credit disposition for the year, based upon projected Fall/Spring workload.

For purposes of service credit, a teaching faculty member's workload is portioned according to the number of credit hours taught in a program area, with release time equivalent for program area coordination, staff development activities (including sabbatical and other paid leaves), curriculum development, and Faculty Senate representative factored in. No work done on an overload contract is considered when computing workloads as assigning service credit.

Appropriate Dean will keep records of each faculty member's workload so that during the annual evaluation the program area(s) in which service credit for that contract will be given can be reviewed with the faculty members. Disposition of prior year service credit due to involuntary transfers will also be reviewed at this time. Information about service credits will then be forwarded to the Personnel Office.

By March 31 of each academic year faculty will be given a Service Credit Report (with a copy to personnel file) showing the program areas in which service credit exists and those in which current contract year service credit will be earned.

Faculty members involuntarily assigned to another program area shall be allowed to carry to their new program area the service credit earned in their original program. However, the service credit earned for any one year shall not be counted twice in the same program area. Specifically, if a faculty member concurrently earned 1 year service credit in a primary area A and 0.25 in a secondary area B, and then was involuntarily transferred to area B from Area A, only 0.75 year service would be transferred from area A to area B since 0.25 was already entered in area B for that year. The remaining 0.25 would stay in area A.

4.  Notify Faculty of Service Credit of all Faculty in Their Program Area

As per BP 3-20 Program Areas, upon request, any faculty shall be given a list of faculty members in his/her respective program area(s), with notation of service credit earned under this policy by each.

Peer Review Panel

The review panel will follow System procedure set forth in BP 3-20 and the January 9, 1989 memo to the State System Community College Presidents.

Table of Contents