Dear SDCCD Adjunct Faculty,
If you have been teaching in the San Diego Community College District for six or more semesters, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of an important job security benefit your union had previously won for you called “Priority of Assignment” (POA).
Any adjunct faculty member who has taught for six or more semesters (only fall and spring semesters count) is eligible to participate. All you need to do to initiate your participation in this program is to email your dean and chair (recommended to cc dean’s secretary also) to begin this process. This must be done during your sixth (or later) semester of service.
Once you have put them on notice, three semesters hence (beginning with semester nine) you will begin to have re-employment rights ahead of others who are less senior than you. That means that as new assignments become available, either through growth or attrition, you will be given first right of refusal to increase your load before assignments are offered to someone with less seniority than you. However, it does not mean you get to choose your own schedule. It just means you get offered an available assignment ahead of a less senior adjunct faculty member. Seniority is determined based on the date you first requested to participate in POA, so it pays to request this as soon as you begin your sixth semester of service.
Being in POA means you are guaranteed the average load (FTEF) you have had over the past two semesters. Once in POA, if you accept additional assignments, your annualized load increases accordingly.
Once you gain POA status, you can only be terminated if due to budget cuts all less senior adjunct faculty have been eliminated first, or if you have two consecutive “needs improvement” evaluations.
I have attached the complete language from the CBA to this email for more detail, in addition to a template below you can utilize to send to your dean and chair.
It is in everyone’s interest to participate in this program. Please let me or your AFT site rep know right away if you are being discouraged from applying from either your dean or your chair.
We hope you take advantage of this valuable (and hard-won) Job Security benefit. This program we have in place now is one of the strongest adjunct re-employment preference agreements in the state.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or encounter any problems with securing these rights.
In Unity,
Jim
Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they suppress.”
~Frederick Douglass
TEMPLATE # 1 (for adjunct faculty in their sixth semester):
Dear Dean ______ and Department Chair ______,
I am writing to request Priority of Assignment (POA) status in my discipline of ______. At the end of this current semester, I will have completed my sixth semester teaching in this discipline, and therefore I am submitting my POA request to take effect following the conclusion of my eighth semester as per our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please acknowledge your receipt of my request by replying to this email.
Thank you, NAME OF INSTRUCTOR (NOTE: cc to the Dean’s secretary.)
TEMPLATE # 2 (for adjunct faculty who have already completed six semesters or more):
Dear Dean ______ and Department Chair ______,
I am writing to request Priority of Assignment (POA) status in my discipline of ______. I have completed more than six semesters teaching in this discipline, and therefore I am submitting my re-employment preference request at this time which I understand will take effect at the completion of two semesters hence as per our Collective Bargaining Agreement. Please acknowledge your receipt of my request by replying to this email.
Thank you, NAME OF INSTRUCTOR (NOTE: cc to the Dean’s secretary.)
*** Make sure you save a copy of your email for your records. Let us know if you do not receive a response. ***