THIS EDITION Volume 21, No. 4 May 01, 2003

Front Page

SACS report puts part-time faculty in jeopardy

North Lake College has been forced to make changes in order to maintain its accreditation. As a result, by next fall your favorite faculty member may no longer be teaching here.

Due to recommendations made by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the NLC administration has had to adhere more stringently to guidelines that have been set for faculty credentials, and may replace some faculty members as a result. The administration must also add full-time faculty in order to reach an acceptable ratio of full-time to part-time contact hours.

“We’re looking at a rigid interpretation of the SACS guidelines,” said Dr. Martha Hughes, vice-president of academic and student affairs. “SACS looked more stringently at what kind of degree a faculty member has. It must be a related degree (to what they are teaching).”

The consequences of these guidelines are that NLC has had to take a close look at the credentials of its faculty, department by department. Some faculty members will not be returning in the fall; others will be forced to teach developmental classes or non-credit courses rather than the classes to which they may have been accustomed.

“It appears this campus was critiqued almost microscopically by the credentialing committee,” said Cliff Bowden, a government instructor at NLC. “Going above and beyond the call of duty is unrecognized when you look at things this way.”

This comes on the heels of reductions in the hours that adjunct faculty are able to teach. Hours had to be limited due to adjuncts working full-time hours without receiving the benefits of full-time faculty. Guidelines state that adjunct faculty can only teach two classes a semester.

The changes come at the behest of the SACS visiting team which left NLC on March 19.

Failure of the administration of NLC to respond to the recommendations left by the committee could result in the school being put on a two-year probationary period, at the end of which the college could conceivably lose its accreditation.

Since the team left, the administration has been doing what it can in order to meet the standards set by the committee. Along with the review of credentials, 10 new full-time faculty positions have been opened in nine different areas on campus. Administration is searching for credentialed faculty to handle some summer courses, and are still formulating plans for the fall.

“It’s completely subjective,” said Bowden. “It’s down to one (SACS) committee member, and their opinion has powerful influence. It’s shocking to me that an uninformed party could have such an influence.”

At the same time as these adjustments are having to be made, the college faces the prospect of having to make these adjustments while dealing with more budget cuts coming in the next year. As a result, administration has been forced to be especially efficient in scheduling classes in order to spend dollars wisely.

“We’re working to re-allocate dollars from less popular programs to other vital programs,” said Dr. Herlinda Coronado, president of NLC. “If we have less credentialed faculty and budget issues, we have to be more effective in our scheduling.”

The changes must be in place for the re-evaluation of the school by SACS in the fall. It is likely that the re-examination will be even more rigorous than the first.

“We want to be sure that no one, anywhere, can question the credentials of our faculty,” said Dr. D’Ann Madewell, the interim dean of Liberal Arts. “We owe that to our students.”

Coronado expressed that this is something the college simply must do; the results would be extremely difficult for students and faculty to overcome.

“We’re looking at (losing these faculty members) with sadness. We hope these individuals are able to get their credentials.”

“We’ve got marvelous faculty here,” Coronado said.