Dec. 2014 Advocate – Should District adjuncts get hiring priority?

Part-Timers

Should District adjunct faculty have an advantage in hiring for full-time positions?
Let us know what you think

 
At November’s AFT 1493 Executive Committee meeting, a faculty member from Skyline College proposed that adjunct faculty should receive priority status for full-time job interviews. The proposal reads as follows:

All Adjunct Faculty who have been teaching within the district for a minimum of 5 years and meet all evaluation expectations be given a “Priority Interview Status”.  This status awards additional points to the application screening status for determining who to interview, provided that the applicant has properly filled out and submitted all the required documentation and meets the minimum job qualifications.
In addition it should be noted that adjunct faculty applying for a job cannot be knocked down in points for criteria that cannot be applied to all applicants, such as personal information.

    This issue had been discussed at length at October’s Executive Committee meeting. Some faculty agreed that some sort of priority treatment in full time hiring was warranted for adjunct faculty, but others felt that hiring committees, which are, in fact, chaired by and composed of faculty, currently follow a rigorous process that does not discriminate against current adjunct faculty.
    Faculty in these discussions at the AFT meetings have also suggested that AFT and the Senate host hiring workshops for adjunct faculty. It is the case that applying for full time jobs requires a very particular set of skills, and like all skills, they can be improved through instruction and practice—both in presenting oneself in the paper work and in the interview itself. AFT is very interested in developing such a workshop.
    AFT needs to hear from more faculty about their experiences in hiring—as hiring committee members and as adjuncts or former adjuncts applying for full-time positions. We would like to have a fuller discussion of this issue in an upcoming issue of The Advocate.  Please share your experiences and observations with AFT. Submit your opinions to Dan Kaplan, AFT 1493 Executive Secretary, at: kaplan@aft1493.org.