Several items have come across this desk as the new semester opened this January. Among these are issues of long standing which point up the lack of ability of the college administration to modernize its procedures and take seriously the needs of adjuncts who teach more than half the classes at NCC each year.

The first of these is the need of adjuncts to know their assignments well ahead of the semester in which they will work. It is a matter of record that every other college in the area manages to provide adjuncts with a work schedule one or two semesters in advance.

Adjuncts at Nassau find out their assignments one or two weeks before the semester begins. At Suffolk Community College the adjuncts know their assignments at least a semester before the one in question. Once they commit to Suffolk they then wait on the razor’s edge to see if that assignment will conflict with Nassau. Adjuncts must have lead time to schedule their many responsibilities before committing to their teaching obligations here at NCC.

At this point, with the Banner system on board, students are permitted to register several months in advance. Students will be able to register for this coming summer in March or April. Adjuncts will put in their availability at about the same time. The courses scheduled for this summer are already up on the Banner system. Why couldn’t an adjunct sign a contract for courses scheduled for the summer of 2010 now? It is clear that the lead sections in most departments will always run.

That is, the sections whose designations are AA1, AB1, etc. will always run. Since this is the case why not assign those sections to the most senior adjuncts according to qualifications and stated availability well in advance of the semesters in which they will actually run? Why wait until the last minute and add to the chaos that usually attends the start of classes in  any given semester? Anything that can facilitate the process should be considered.

To suggest that this can’t be done because of the AFA contract and our seniority clauses is nonsense. The contract did not stand in the way of putting the availability sign up process on line. In fact that whole process was accomplished with the cooperation and close involvement of AFA officials. It is working very well.

To suggest that this can’t be done because we don’t have enough information to make assignments in advance is also nonsense. The very same process is used at CUNY where adjuncts know a full year in advance the schedule they will teach, and in Suffolk CC there is a least a full semester advance appointment in effect.

It would seem that the administration should be pressing this idea and moving to implement it since it would assist the college in its mission of serving the students and the people of Nassau County, as well as meeting the needs of the adjunct faculty.

Perhaps the parties at Nassau most directly involved in the implementation of such a change should take the time to visit the aforementioned colleges and see how their system works and how it may be applied to NCC.