employees / Senate Handbook / 3.024 Faculty Reduction Due to Declining Enrollment

3.024 Faculty Reduction Due to Declining Enrollment

This policy will apply when full-time faculty do not meet their 30 hour load for an academic year due to declining enrollments.

If fulltime faculty in a program/discipline are unable to meet load for a given semester, the academic Associate Dean of the affected division will contact the faculty concerned to notify them of the load issue and discuss the faculty contingency plan(s). This situation will not initiate 3.024.

Exception: There are times when a faculty member will not make their 30 hour load for an academic year for a variety of reasons that do not relate to declining enrollments. The appropriate academic Associate Dean, the Dean of Teaching of Learning (DTL), when appropriate the Dean of Career Education (DCE) will consult to make this determination. If there is agreement that declining enrollments are not responsible for the failure to meet load, 3.024 will not be initiated.

The College shall request and consider voluntary faculty job sharing, part-time work and layoffs first.

This policy is not intended for release of faculty for cause based on performance, misconduct or other causes (See Senate Policies 3.020, 3.021, 3.061 or 3.062).

Process for Reduction of Faculty due to Declining Enrollment
1. The committee to examine declining enrollments will be comprised of the following members:
  1. Dean of Teaching and Learning (Chair)
  2. Dean of Career and Educational Partnerships
  3. Appropriate academic Associate Dean
  4. Program/Discipline leader
  5. Program/Discipline representative (as voted by the Program/Discipline when the Program or Discipline has eight or more fulltime faculty)
    The 3.024 committee will meet to discuss the ramifications of the declining enrollments. The 3.024 committee will make a recommendation to the Chief Academic Officer (CAO). The 3.024 committee must include a rationale and supporting data in the recommendation to the CAO. The Committee will determine:
  6. Whether the enrollment decline is “short term” in nature. If yes, an Action Plan, complete with timelines, will be recommended to increase enrollments. The committee might also recommend faculty layoffs when drops in enrollment warrant or
  7. Whether the enrollment decline is “long term” in nature. If yes, the committee will recommend that a reduction of faculty may be necessary.
2. The CAO will review recommendation from the 3.024 committee and provide recommendation to the President.
3. The academic Associate Dean, and the academic program and/or discipline faculty will receive written notification from the CAO when he/she recommends a reduction of faculty to the College President.
4. The College President will recommend the reduction of faculty due to declining enrollments to the Board of Trustees, sharing the results of the 3.024 committee.
5. The CAO, the Dean of Teaching and Learning (DTL), and when appropriate the Dean of Career Education (DCE) will meet to discuss the number of faculty to be reduced as a result of declining enrollments.
6. The CAO and DTL will consult with the academic Associate Dean and Human Resources on the criteria for the reduction of full-time faculty.
7. The CAO, in consultation with the DTL, and when appropriate the DCE, will develop a final recommendation and send it to the College President. If the College President does not accept the recommendation, a reason must be provided with an alternative recommendation to be discussed with the CAO, DTL and DCE.
  
  The College President or his/her designee will notify affected faculty member(s) of their reduction in a face-to-face meeting if possible. The notice will be confirmed in writing to the address then current in the Human Resources file, both electronically (email) and via U.S. Mail, certified and return receipt requested, sent within three business days of the decision, or as soon as reasonably possible. Rationale for the decision will be provided upon request of the affected faculty member(s).
Order of Reduction within an Academic Division/Program/Discipline
1. Reduction of part-time faculty
  The part-time (adjunct) and one-semester appointment faculty are classified as “at will” and shall be released first.
  1. Adjunct faculty may be retained and utilized if the total number of courses needed is less than the thirty equated hours per academic year in the affected division/program/discipline.
  2. There are special situations where programs may need to retain multiple adjuncts to cover areas of specialization where the total credits are in excess of 30 hours.
2. Reduction of one-year renewable faculty
  One-year renewable faculty are classified “at will” and shall be released second.
  1. If there are two or more one-year renewable faculty and not all are being released, the one-year renewable faculty will be released in order of lowest to highest rank achieved. In the case of a tie in rank, the criteria for full-time tenured faculty reduction in Section III below will be applied.
3. Reduction of full-time tenure-track faculty without tenure will occur third.
  1. If the release of full-time tenure-track faculty without tenure within an academic program/discipline is necessary, the full-time tenure-track non-tenured faculty will be released first in order of lowest to highest rank achieved. In the case of a tie in rank, the criteria for full-time tenured faculty reduction in Section III below will be applied.
4. Reduction of full-time tenured faculty will occur last.
  1. If the release of tenured faculty is necessary, the tenured faculty will be released in order of lowest to highest rank achieved. In the case of a tie in rank, the criteria for full-time tenured faculty reduction in Section III below will be applied, subject to the following exceptions:
    
    Exceptions to the above may be made in academic divisions/programs/disciplines where tenured or full-time non-tenured faculty is/are being evaluated under Senate Policy 3.061 and/or 3.021. The academic Associate Dean, DTL, and the CAO will consult each other concerning the relevance to the current faculty reduction.
    
    Exceptions to the above may be made when essential skills are needed to maintain course offerings and where a faculty member’s area of specialty within a division/program/discipline warrants retention.
Criteria for the Reduction of Full-time Faculty
In the event that two or more full-time faculty members in the same category (i.e., one year renewable, tenure-track, or tenured) are identified for potential layoff and are tied in rank, the criteria used for the reduction of full-time faculty shall be in the following descending order of priority (these criteria shall be applied in a successively exclusive manner so that the criterion shall be used only if the preceding criterion or criteria are equal):
1. Months and years of service in rank;
2. Date of appointment as a full-time faculty member at Delta College;
3. Total years of other teaching experience and/or equated work experience (as approved by, and on file with, Delta College’s Human Resources);
4. Date of continuous employment as a part-time (adjunct) faculty member at Delta College;
5. In the event that there is still a tie, the CAO will use objective criteria including but not limited to: education level achieved, certifications specific to discipline, other qualifications and pending promotions to formulate a recommendation for full-time faculty reduction/s.
6. The CAO, in consultation with the DTL, will develop reduction recommendations and submit them to the College President. If the College President does not accept the recommendation, a reason will be provided with an alternative recommendation to be discussed with the CAO and the DTL. Following this discussion, the College President will make the final decision. (As supported in Senate Policy 1.025.)
7. The College President or his/her designee will notify affected faculty of their reduction in a face-to-face meeting, if possible. Notice of the decision will be confirmed in writing electronically and via U.S. Mail, certified and return receipt requested, to the most recent address on file with the Human Resources’ office, within three business days or as soon as reasonably possible. Rationale for the decision will be provided upon request of the affected faculty member(s).
Reassignment
1. When a faculty member is identified for layoff, he or she may document their qualifications for reassignment to another discipline or division. If there is a need for faculty in the identified discipline or division, the faculty member will be considered for reassignment.
2. Reassignment will be approved in consultation with the appropriate academic Associate Dean, the DTL, CAO, and College President.
Appeal
1. Any faculty who receives a notice of reduction may request, in writing, within five business days of the receipt of the decision, a review by the Chief Academic Officer or a representative at Dean level or above designated by the Chief Academic Officer. The review will be based on an examination of the record of the process within five business days of the receipt of the request, or as otherwise mutually extended. The affected faculty may request that an FEC member(s) advocate for him/her during this appeal process.
2. If dissatisfied with the CAO’s decision based on the review, the affected faculty may, within three business days, appeal the decision to the College President. The College President will affirm or reverse the reduction within five business days of receiving the request for reconsideration, or as soon as reasonably possible.
3. The decision of the College President will be final and binding on the parties. If the College President reverses his/her prior decision and the faculty’s reduction is withdrawn, another faculty member may be selected for reduction.
Effective Date of Reduction
Reduction will take place after the College President has made the final approval and notice. To the extent possible, faculty reductions will occur with the least disruption to the College and the students.
1. Part-time (adjunct) faculty (One semester appointments) notice will be immediate and release will occur at the end of the current semester.
2. All full-time faculty will be notified by the tenth week of the fall semester that their position is being considered for reduction. The College President will notify the faculty member/s of his/her final decision by no later than the end of the fifth week of the winter semester. The reduction will occur at the end of the current academic year.
Recall
The College will return a faculty member(s) to work if/when need is demonstrated and according to the following:
1. A division/program/discipline where classes have been offered by adjunct faculty for less than two years increases in enrollment sufficient to support a full-time faculty member, and the College determines that the likelihood of such increase will be maintained.
2. Recall is within two years, or the affected faculty’s length of service to Delta College, whichever is less.
3. Faculty will be recalled in the reverse order in which they were released, at their pre-existing rank, providing there is a need in their division/program/discipline and the recall occurs within two years or the affected faculty’s length of service, whichever is less.
4. Human Resources, in conjunction with the academic office, will maintain records and information regarding appropriate order of recall of full-time faculty. This policy governs all adjunct, non-tenured and tenured faculty reductions and order of reduction due to declining enrollments and supersedes any prior policy language, any conflicting policy language, past practice or procedure, specific to adjunct, non-tenured or tenured faculty reductions due to declining enrollments.

This policy does not impact or govern any policy, past practice or procedure, as it pertains to adjunct, non-tenured, or tenured faculty reductions or release, or order of reduction, for reasons other than declining enrollments.

If this policy is reviewed for possible revision(s), Senate Policies 3.022 and 3.023 must also be reviewed for possible revision(s).

See Procedures Manual - Vitality Study and Steps to Follow When Eliminating a Program

This policy must be reviewed in September 2020.

Board Action 5262 – December 11, 2018
Board Action 5044 – February 18, 2014