Faculty Roster

Discipline Credentialing FAQs

1. Can lawyers, individuals with Juris Doctorates, teach political science, criminal justice or business law?

   To teach political science, an individual must have 18 graduate semester hours in political science; a Juris Doctorate can teach business law (BUL) and criminal justice law (CJL) courses.

2. Can social workers teach sociology?

   A Master’s degree with 18 graduate semester hours in the discipline, specifically sociology, is required to teach this subject. Social work clinical courses cannot count towards meeting the graduate semester hour minimum. In most cases; a M.S.W. does not have the credentials to teach sociology.

3. Are guidance counselors eligible to teach psychology?

   A Master’s degree with 18 graduate semester hours in the disciplines of psychology or counseling psychology is required to teach this subject. Graduate hours in educational guidance counseling may not be applied.

4. May graduate courses in Mathematics Education, with a prefix of EDU(C), count towards the requisite graduate hours in mathematics?

   Mathematics Education graduate courses may be counted as graduate hours towards the discipline of mathematics only if the course title strongly suggests that graduate mathematics discipline content was covered. Courses with emphasis on pedagogy or teaching methods cannot be used to qualify an individual to teach college level mathematics. Please see Appendix B for courses from Nova Southeastern University that will count towards the 18 graduate semester hours in mathematics.

General Credentialing FAQs

1. Do all persons teaching need to be credentialed, even CCE and avocational?

   Yes, all faculty need to be credentialed through the process established in the credentialing manual. Associate Deans/Deans can directly credential faculty for CCE and avocational; all program based (credit, developmental education and CCP) will need clearance through the Academic Deans and the VPAA.

2. I’m just updating an existing instructor for an additional course – do I still need approval from the VPAA and Academic Deans?

   Yes. For example, if a person has been teaching MAT 1033 Intermediate Algebra, their credentials would need to be reviewed to see if they could teach other math classes. It is best to prepare a faculty roster from the start with all possible courses a faculty member is qualified to teach even if they might not initially be teaching those courses.

3. What should the sequence be for hiring an instructor – is it important?

   Yes, very important. For any potential instructor, the first step should be for the person to complete an application online at www.palmbeachstate.edu/employment and confirm their eligibility to work in the U.S. The second step should be to obtain an official or unofficial transcript and prepare the faculty roster for Academic Deans’ review for submission to Academic Services. The third step should be adding the person to the class as a primary or secondary instructor. The fourth step should be to create the pending assignment through the IRM process with Human Resources. If events happen out of sequence, delays will occur. For example, if you have someone’s credentials approved BEFORE they have applied to HR, there is no way that the person’s credentials can be loaded onto PantherNet because they do not exist in the HR system. Academic Services personnel then have to check daily to see when the person is loaded as an applicant or employee and then add the credentials.

   Steps:

   Step 1. Potential instructor should apply through this employment link, www.palmbeachstate.edu/employment/default.aspx

   Step 2. Review of faculty credentials – Academic Services adds to PantherNet if approved

   Step 3. Add person to class as instructor (see Section C of the manual)

   Step 4. Create pending assignment in PantherNet using the IRM process (see Section E of the manual)

4. What if I am not sure if the person qualifies under the credentialing criteria, or I think the criteria are incorrect or incomplete?

   The purpose of the VPAA and Academic Deans’ review is to gain input from colleagues on an instructor’s credentials to teach, given our written criteria. Our goal is to use the credentialing manual as written for the 2023-2024 academic year.

5. Does Academic Services perform a “final check” against the credentialing manual, and keep files for the submitted faculty rosters?

   No, Academic Services personnel do not re-check any credentialing eligibility – the credential is added or updated and a date notation is added to the electronic file. Faculty roster forms are not kept.