Instructor Credential

First Steps of IRM - Faculty Credentials and Loading of the Instructor to the Class

(See Section B of this manual (Faculty Credentials) for complete details and credentialing criteria by disciplines.)

The first step in the IRM process is for the potential instructor to apply to the College. Once Human Resources has received the appropriate documentation and/or approval, HR completes the new employee paperwork and enters the instructor into PantherNet’s Personnel/Payroll system. If approved by the VPAA and Deans, Academic Services staff is then able to add the instructor to the IRM system and credential him/her for teaching. Only after this process is completed can the instructor be assigned to a class.

When classes are entered into the system and the department wants to assign an instructor to teach a class, the PantherNet system checks to see if the instructor is credentialed to teach the class. If the instructor is properly credentialed, and the class is assigned, the course information is automatically added to the instructor’s schedule. Each department is responsible for the accuracy of its instructors’ credentials.

After the class assignment is made, it is the responsibility of the department to make any necessary adjustments to the instructor’s load (points).

Background Information - The Concept of Instructor Load

The instructor load is referred to as the “FLA” or Faculty Load Assessment. Many different types of assignments make up a faculty load. These include:

Classes
Department Chair Release Time
Non-Department Chair Release Time (i.e., curriculum development)

Faculty may also perform other duties such as Brain Bowl for which they receive compensation but no release or overload points. The IRM system has facilities and screens to capture this type of information. The accurate collection of this information is vital to State reporting which ensures that Palm Beach State receives adequate funding for instructional activities.

Point Assessment of Classes

Palm Beach State adopted the “point” system of faculty load assessment some years ago. In its most basic format, each class is assigned points based on the lecture/lab hours that the class meets per week:

Each Lecture hour per week earns 3 points
Each Lab hour per week earns 2.25 points

Examples:

A 3-credit hour ENC1101 course meets 3 lecture hours per week:
3 lecture hours X 3 points per lecture hour = 9 points
A 3 credit ART1201C courses meets 2 lecture hours per week and 2 lab hours per week:
(2 lecture hours X 3 points per lecture hour=6 points) + (2 lab hours X 2.25 points per lecture hour=4.5 points) = 10.5 points

There is not necessarily a direct relationship between the number of credits a class has and its assigned points. The course dictionary has all the needed values pre-determined for each course.

For non-credit classes, the value of each contact hour in points is derived from a formula based on the fact that 9 points is equal to 51 hours as a basis. So, each contact hour is worth 0.176471 points, using 9/51.

Example:

A CCP class meets for 67 contact hours.

Points = 67*(9/51) = 11.82 points

All noncredit classes loaded in the course dictionary have points calculated using this formula.

Full-Time Instructor Contract and Faculty Load

In the current collective bargaining unit agreement, each full-time instructor is employed for 168 days to cover the Fall and Spring terms. A full-load of points for this contract period is 90 points to be in fulfillment of the contract. All teaching that occurs in the Summer term is outside of the collective bargaining agreement.

In many instances though, full-time instructors will teach extra classes or take on additional assignments such as department chair or developing new curriculum. These extra classes or assignments would then fall into the “overload” category of points, if the instructor has already met their contractual point amount. Under normal circumstances, all classes taught in the Summer term fall into the overload category as there are outside the contractual period. According to the current bargaining unit agreement, the associate dean and dean at the campus determine and approve the number of overload points that an instructor may have for any given term.

It is the responsibility of the campus academic dean that each and every faculty member fulfill the basic contract of 90 points and that all overload points have been approved by the associate dean and dean.

Part-Time Instructor Load

According to the current Palm Beach State Salary Schedule an adjunct or part-time faculty member may earn the following points (maximum):

111 points as a total of Fall, Spring and Summer, not to exceed a maximum of 37 points in any given term. All exceptions to this rule are approved by Associate Dean, Campus Dean, Provost and Human Resources.

The IRM system has reports that will monitor these totals and persons exceeding these totals will be generated for review.