Staffing Priorities and Procedures

The Department Chair has traditionally been the one who assigns faculty to classes, and this is still the case. At the behest of the Adjunct Faculty Association, however, all adjunct faculty staffing is now done on-line through the eStaffing system. The class assignments are done following rigid protocols of priority.

The first ones to choose sections are the full-time faculty. Fortunately, ours is a small department and we have always been able to amicably sort out who teaches what should a conflict arise. We have decided as a department, however, that a faculty member who desires a section as part of their regular and required load has precedence over a faculty member who would like to teach that section as an overload. When notifying the Dept. Chair of which sections you would like to teach, please indicate which one (if any) is your overload section.

Once every full-time faculty member has chosen their sections, which may include one overload section, the schedule is made available for the staffing of adjunct faculty.

The eStaffing system maintains a list of who is eligible to teach a given course and their status (e.g., MSTA, HPTH, etc.). During the appropriate timeframe, each adjunct interested in teaching the following semester should log onto the system and choose the sections that they would like to teach. The system is located at: Staffing of Adjunct Faculty

The eStaffing system then randomly sorts the faculty members. Those whose names appear early in the list often get to teach the courses they want; those whose names happen to pop up later may have to settle for their second or third choice. It’s the luck of the draw. You should be notified by email when the timeframe for eStaffing will occur.

The eStaffing system groups adjuncts into distinct categories with a defined order of precedence. These are:

1. Faculty designated as "MSTA-Exception" shall be scheduled before any other multiple semester term appointment adjuncts.

2. Faculty designated as "MSTA-Exception" are then staffed.

3. Full-time faculty who wish to take a second overload section may choose them at this point. This is not really an issue in our department, since a single over-load section already puts a full-time instructor at their maximum allowable teaching load of 21 LEH.

4. Instructional Associates and College Associates are assigned sections (or would be if we had any in our department).

5. Faculty who are listed as “highest priority to hire” and who also have “senior adjunct faculty status” on an eligibility list have next preference in scheduling.

6. Faculty designated as “highest priority to hire” on an eligibility list are staffed next.

7. Finally, any remaining faculty get assigned sections. The assignment from this category must be made in an equitable manner without consideration of “senior adjunct status."

A “senior adjunct” is one who taught prior to the summer of 1999. Those designated as MSTA (Exception) had to have taught before the summer of 1999.

While this long list sounds dreadful for the folks who get to choose last, the fact of the matter is that there is still usually some variety of choices left even after everyone has been assigned. 

There are a couple of caveats about the eStaffing system:

1. Only those who use the eStaffing system can be staffed. Only after staffing is complete can any unstaffed sections possibly be offered to those who didn’t use the system.

2. You should make several choices, since you can only be offered a section that you have selected as a choice. If, for example, someone has already gotten your first choice and you have not selected any others, then you can’t be assigned anything else until after the eStaffing is complete. Choosing only one section does not increase your likelihood of getting it. The process is random and the computer is cold and heartless.

3. Make sure you have chosen sections in every discipline in which you would like to teach. For example, if you teach both astronomy and physics, please select sections in both, unless, of course, you don't want to.

Once the assignments are made, the faculty members have a chance to accept or reject their assignments.

A complete description of the eStaffing process is available at each campus office and on the Web at Staffing of Adjunct Faculty

It is also important to note that any staffing assignments are provisional. If a section is cancelled due to low enrollment, it is possible that one instructor may “bump” another depending on their staffing priority. Obviously, our department tries to avoid this whenever possible, but sometimes there is simply no other choice.