Institutional Responsibility

Paying part-time faculty for shared governance shows that all faculty voices are welcome and valued.

Below is a side by side comparison of institutional responsibility obligations for Part-Time and Full-Time Faculty.

Part-time Faculty – Institutional Responsibility	Negotiations WINS for PT faculty August 2022	Full-time Faculty – Institutional Responsibility
No requirement	No change	5-hours a week, required by contract
Only 8 committees pay for Part-Time faculty to serve. This pay is $15 per hour.	13 committees pay for Part-Time faculty to serve. Pay is now at faculty’s non-instructional rate per hour *This means our PT faculty will see an increase of $53.20 - $85.33 per hour, depending on their pay grade and step	Compensated as part of annual salary
Faculty Senate Part-Time Senators paid $250/semester	Faculty Senate Part-Time Senators paid $500/semester
Often recommended, so as to be more competitive for Full-Time positions

Part-Time Committee Participation

Unlike Full-Time faculty, there is no requirement for Part-Time Faculty to participate in Institutional Responsibility. As of Fall 2022, Palomar College’s shared governance system has a total of 354 faculty positions on various councils and committees. However, of these positions, only 275 positions could be filled part-time faculty (as 79 positions are “Full-Time faculty” or “Tenured” designated) with specifically only 16 of those positions named as “part-time faculty” positions. These 16 named positions include the 4 Senate positions and the 5 PFF positions for part-time faculty.

Part-Time faculty that hold positions on the Senate and PFF are offered a stipend for the semester. The Senate PT positions meet once a week for 1.5 hours and receive $250 for the semester. Before taking into consideration all the reading and work to be done outside of the meetings, this is roughly $10 an hour. Those that hold positions on the PFF meet twice monthly for 2 hours (at most 8 meetings/semester) and receive $500 a semester. The PFF positions compensate the best, paying $31.25 per hour (again, before considering reading and additional preparation work).

Other than Senate and PFF, of the 50 known councils, committees, and subcommittees only 13 of them offer compensation for Part-Time Faculty at the non-instructional rater. These committees are:

AB 705 Committee
CALM Committee
College Council
Curriculum Committee
Distance Education
Distinguished Faculty Award Committee
Education for Equity, Diversity, and Cultural Consciousness
Employees, Community, and Communication Council
Equity, Education, and Student Success Council
Infrastructure and Sustainability Council
Institutional Effectiveness, Planning, Fiscal Stewardship Council
Professional Development Committee
Tenure and Evaluation Review Board

What this means for Part-Time Faculty

Part-Time faculty are often encouraged to get involved in shared governance, often being told it will help them in their quest to be hired as Full-Time faculty. Many of our Part-Time faculty also wish to be involved in the campus community and want to serve on committees. However, there are very few opportunities for Part-Time faculty to receive compensation for their service on shared governance committees at Palomar College. While it is possible for Part-Time faculty to claim Professional Development hours for service on committees, many Part-Time faculty exhaust their PD hours during the plenary sessions at the start of the semester. This means all work on committees that do not compensate Part-Time faculty is conducted as a volunteer.