CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY,
LOS ANGELES

Department of Political Science
 

 AN INFORMAL HANDBOOK FOR PART TIME FACULTY

Winter 2003





Part time faculty are valued members of the Department of Political Science, who contribute a special dimension to our students’ education.   We are aware that your role as adjunct faculty is not always easy, as you are balancing many other commitments, and the time you spend at the University is limited.  However, we are concerned that you should feel part of the Department, and should take advantage of whatever facilities we can offer.  You are invited, but not required, to participate in Department faculty meetings, and to share in all Department activities.

This informal Handbook is designed to help you to cope with the policies and procedures of the University and the Department regarding your employment, and also to help you in making your teaching assignments both enjoyable and effective.

This year is the first year of a contract between the California State University and the California Faculty Association which has formalized and changed many of the rights of part-time faculty.  This Handbook does not deal with the details of the contract, which are quite complex.  A good way of learning where you stand is to refer to the California Faculty Association Lecturers’ Handbook 2002-2004, or to check their website at http://www.calfac.org.  You should also check the policies relating to part-time faculty in the University Policies and Procedures for Faculty Appointment, Retention, Tenure and Promotion.

The Department of Political Science is committed to treating all of its part time faculty fairly and considerately.  Should you have any concerns at all, you should feel free to bring them to the attention of the Department Chair, Dr. Naomi Caiden (323-343-2237 or ncaiden@calstatela.edu).

1. Getting Appointed.

To teach part-time in the Political Science Department at Cal State LA you need to apply to the chair with a letter, vita, three letters of recommendation, an official transcript indicating the receipt of your highest degree, and any teaching or research related materials that you feel the part-time committee should review. Once we receive your materials, the committee will review your materials, and if we feel that there is a realistic expectation of your being appointed, we will have you in for an interview. After the interview, you will receive a letter stating whether or not you are being placed in the part-time pool. Once you are in the pool, the chair may appoint you to teach courses for which you are qualified.

You can get a sense of whether you have a realistic chance of teaching for us if you send a letter of interest and vita to the Department chair.

In general, we require all part-time faculty to have a PhD in Political Science, except for public administration practitioners, who have a Master of Public Administration or the equivalent and significant official responsibilities and experience.

Once you are in the pool, you should talk to the chair one to two quarters in advance of the quarter in which want to teach about your availability, courses of interest, hours when you can and cannot teach, etc. If you have not taught for a while, you should remind the chair with a phone call or email asking about the possibilities.

Once you are in the pool, you should talk to the chair one or two quarters in advance of the quarter in which you want to teach about your availability, courses of interest, hours when you can and cannot teach, etc.  If you have not taught for a while, you should remind the chair with a phone call or email asking what the possibilities.

To be reappointed, you must apply.  Unless you have a three year appointment, you should expect to apply every year in advance of the first quarter in which you wish to teach.

You are assigned based on field of specialty, professional accomplishment in the field, and teaching experience and success.  The priority rules for work allocation to part time instructors are governed by the current CSU/CFA contract.  The Department gives careful consideration to all applicants.

All appointment letters come from the Dean – when we tell you that we want you to teach a course next quarter, we are recommending to the Dean that you be appointed.  There are a lot of forms that have to be signed in the Department office; you will receive word when you should come by to do them.  The SU-6 form, which deals with what you're teaching here and what you are teaching at other schools, is particularly important; the later it comes back, the later you get paid.  You must sign and return the appointment letter before you begin to teach.

You are always subject to being cancelled.  That can happen as late as the beginning of the second week of classes, although our practice in recent years has been to take care of cancellations before the quarter begins.

See the union contract (http://www.calfac.org) and literature for the rules on one and three year contracts for part-timers.
 

 2. Now that you are appointed. A. The quarter system.  
If you haven't taught on the quarter system, you will find it is very fast-paced. There are 10 weeks of classes, and 11th week for final examinations, and then grades are due in the department office the next Tuesday. You have some time off at that point (although for Winter and Spring quarters, it is only 3 days), and then the next quarter starts. Watch the calendar!

Your quarter by quarter appointment requires that you meet the 10-week class meetings plus an 11th week final examination. If you do not meet the 11th week, School of Natural and Social Sciences policy is that you may not be paid 1/11th of the designated salary. Final examination times are posted in the Schedule of Classes for the quarter; check with the Department office or with another faculty member for more information.

You need a university id -- check with the office staff on how to get one. Ditto with a parking permit.
 

 B. Classrooms.  
You get assigned, and we don’t always have a lot of choice. But if you have strong feelings about a classroom one way or the other or you have special needs because of small groups, a simulation, etc., tell Ms. Isabel Garza, our Department secretary, or the chair, and we will see what we can do. Computer labs are difficult to obtain; you need to request one early if you want one.  The Department microcomputer lab, which is suitable for a visit from a small class, is available as of Spring, 2002.
  C. Books.
  The graduate secretary will notify you of the deadlines for book orders, usually before the fifth week of the quarter preceding the quarter you are teaching.  You may then either type or e-mail back your order, which should include:
 


Always submit your order with an ISBN; there are 3 different authors and publishers for the title "We the People"....  Many books have the same titles, and in some areas, there are multiple editions, etc. If you don't have the ISBN, you can get it from the book itself or from www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com (ask Prof. Anagnoson for advice on using these sources if you have not used them yourself).

You will also need to indicate how many copies you will need.  If the book is out of print or unavailable for any reason, the Bookstore will notify you directly, and you should immediately take action to order a replacement, and inform the graduate secretary.

We have a syllabus file in the office so you can see what books have been used before in the course you are going to teach. This is FYI only. We don’t have a uniform book requirement in any course, except in POLS 150, where you must have a book that covers California politics in addition to your regular textbook or readings.
 

 D. Teaching Assistants.  
We have a TA only in the large lecture section of POLS 150, Government and American Society, with up to 190 students. Other than that, we don’t have any TAs. Of course, the other side of that is that we theoretically have a maximum of 40 students in any class you are likely to teach (49 in POLS 150 sections).
  E. Enrollment Problems.  
Normally we are usually looking for more students rather than less, but in 150s and 155s and some upper division courses, you can face an enormous demand the first day. The best way to handle these kinds of problems is to set a priority list by year, with graduate students and seniors who have had graduation checks that indicate they need the course to graduate first, and then let in the students in in order of class standing. If you have to go a couple of students over your class limit, that is OK. You let students in by telling the office staff to give the students a "permit" for the course. These are good for 3 days and allow the student to register.

Students can add courses for the first two weeks. For underenrolled courses (those not already up to the 40 or 49 limit), they can add through Star for the first week; the second week they need permits. If you are unsure what the limit is for your course, ask the chair or department staff.

For overenrolled courses, you control who gets in. And if you are over the limit, you don’t have to take anyone.
 

 F. Keys, Offices, and the like.  
Check with the Ms. Isabel Garza in the Department office regarding keys and such. She will advise you as to what you can obtain and most importantly, how much blood you need to offer the university to obtain same. We have had a problem with part-time faculty ordering keys and then not picking them up down at the police department – please don’t order keys unless you are willing to pick them up in a timely manner.

You need a key to the department office if you are teaching nights or Saturdays when the staff is not present. Check your in-box weekly for notices, late student work, and the like.
 

 G. Getting Help.

Sources:

 H. When you get paid.
  CSLA pays you according to a separate schedule for each quarter – for Summer, for example, you get paid 7/1, 8/1, 9/1, and then the next May first.
  I. "Separating" from the university.
  University policy requires that part-time faculty who will not be rehired the succeeding quarter "separate" from the university before receiving the final paycheck. You will get information about how to do this toward the end of the quarter. 3. Teaching. A. The first day.  
Actually, the first day should be more than just a day to go over the syllabus before going home early. You can do a number of other things to set the tone for the course. For some ideas, see Richard M. Felder's "Getting Started," available at http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Getstart.html. Another is "The First Day of Class...A Day of Missed Opportunities?" by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, available at http://www.unc.edu/depts/ctl/fyc1.html.

You are required to hold places for students pre-enrolled in the class until the end of the first class session. At that point, they can be dropped (by the department office) and students at the top of your priority list can be given permits.

If you are going to be using the University's computer systems, you need an account and the students need to have Network Information Systems (NIS) accounts to use the campus labs. Students pick up their accounts in the Academic Technology Services office, KH D-149. You should check with the Department office staff on the current procedure for part-time faculty.
 

 B. Syllabus.  
A written syllabus is required. Here is the official syllabus policy, from the Faculty Handbook:
  Each instructor shall provide information at the first class session as to the general requirements and goals of the course, and the general criteria upon which students will be evaluated in that course. Such information must be made available in the form of a typed or computer generated syllabus by the second meeting, and preferably at the first class session. A copy of the syllabus shall be available for review in the department/division/school office. The syllabus shall include but not be limited to the following:
  (1) General course description including course prerequisites, if any.
  (2) Course objectives.
  (3)  For all general education courses, the area of the general education program that the course fulfills.
  (4) Topical outline of a course.
  (5) Requirements - policies and procedures (e.g., attendance, assignments, readings) and basis for evaluation (written work, examinations or quizzes, term
        papers, portfolios, projects, laboratory or field work assignments, etc.).
  (6) Grading system and its relation to achievement of the requirements in (5).
  (7) Date and time of final examination.
  (8) Instructor's campus location, telephone extension, e-mail address and office hours.


Here are some hints from one of our faculty -- there is some overlap with the above:

 You are required to provide two copies of your syllabus for each course you teach at the beginning of each quarter to the graduate secretary.
  C. Readings.  
It is sometimes difficult to get students to use the reserve system in the library; the norm has become books they can buy or copy or whatever.

Web based readings are fine and encouraged, but perhaps a third to half of your students will have trouble accessing anything but the simplest web site. Be prepared to help them before or after class.

Expense of books – always an issue. The more expensive, the less likely they are to purchase (and read, unfortunately) the books.

If you want to do a collection of readings, either the University Bookstore or the Student Book Mart, located on Eastern Avenue just off campus, will take care of the copying and copyrights.  Be careful; the copyrights can be more expensive than the copying, making in some circumstances for an expensive collection.

We have a Risograph machine (a Risograph is a fancy computerized mimeograph machine) in the office that you can use to run syllabi, handouts (some instructors have outlines and handouts for many if not all of their classes), and individual articles if you want. It costs about $1 to make the master for each page, but then the copies are a penny or so each or even less in large quantities. So it is relatively inexpensive to do this if you are making more than 15 or 20 copies.
 

 D. Making copies of things.  
It’s generally self-service, unless you are one of those rare people who gets his or her syllabi and handouts done at least a week before they are needed. Check with Ms. Isabel Garza for current policies and the availability of a student assistant.
  E. Office hours.  
You need to notify the Department Secretary of your office hours before the quarter begins.  Department policy is that part-time faculty are required to hold office hours for one hour per week per 4-unit class. If you must miss your scheduled office hours, please notify the Department office in advance, and if possible, place a note on the door of your office.


F. Audio-Visual Equipment.
 

4. What the students expect. Hard question – they certainly expect you to be there (nothing is more frustrating than having no instructor and no one in the Department who knows where that person is – use your cell phone from traffic; let us know what is happening so we can tell people who ask).
They expect you to be prepared. And to be knowledgeable and enthusiastic. And reasonably well-organized. Willing to lead a discussion, answer questions, pose interesting questions....
In short, they expect you to be Plato’s philosopher-king.
Some students will want to record your class to play back later. Most faculty do not object to such recording, provided that the tape is only for that particular student's use.
You might want to look at the form the students will use to evaluate the course at the end; ask in the Department office, or check out the Academic Senate www site (it is at the back of the Faculty Handbook -- http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/senate/
Disabled students -- will have a memo from the Office for Students With Disabilities. See the memo from the university administration that goes to all faculty each quarter on this subject, or ask other faculty. 5. What we expect. The Department Part-Time Committee will review your results once a year and recommend to the chair as to whether you should be retained in the part-time pool. We review: Every year in Winter quarter you will be sent a personnel information form to report on what you have done that year. We will also inform you of the date when files close, which is the last date you may place anything in the file.  You can also use the Faculty Activity Report for this purpose as well. You can report more than just Cal State LA activities – teaching at other universities, stuff from a full-time job, whatever. We are looking for instructional activities, professional activities, and other contributions to the university. As a part-timer you are not likely to have many "other contributions," but you are expected to remain professionally active, presenting papers, publishing, attending academic meetings, belonging to academic organizations, the normal kind of stuff.

You need to take the completed form together with your syllabi and anythign else you wish to place in the file to the Dean's office.  Keep a copy for yourself.

Here’s the inside scoop on what we are looking for:

 We review part-time faculty for range elevations -- levels C-D are reviewed by Committee A in the Department (which also reviews Associate Professors for promotion to Professor) and levels L, A-B are reviewed by Committee B (which also reviews Assistant Professors for promotion to Associate Professor).

6. Exams – midterms and finals.

Most classes have a midterm, paper, and final, especially at the lower division level. Sometimes instructors don’t use midterms in upper division classes; sometimes they do.

You are required to have a "final class meeting," even if that is a class session during the normal time for the final exam and the students simply present their term papers for 5-10 minutes each.

If you want to give your final exam at an earlier time than what is posted in the Schedule of Classes, you must get the Chair’s and Dean’s signature of approval first.

As a general rule, the Department office will not accept final examination or term papers, except by prior notification or on an exceptional basis.  Students should give in their papers and examinations directly to you, and if, as an exception for some reason, they are given into the office, you should make it clear that this is at the students’ own risk.  You should also advise students to keep copies of their work.  The office will not receive faxed papers.

 7. Grading and grade distributions. The university now uses plus and minus grades from A to F. You are supposed to notify the students that plus and minus grading is being used on your syllabus.

The average GPA for the university is between 2.2 and 2.5 for lower division courses; between 2.5 and 2.8 for upper division courses, and about 3.0 to 3.3 or so for graduate courses. Of course, it depends on the size of the course, the nature of the material, the level of the students, and a bunch of other variables. Be flexible, but please don’t be too easy.

Please check the final roster you receive to ensure that all your students are included.  If any name is missing, please inform the department secretary immediately, and an individual grade roster will be issued.  Otherwise, the student will receive a RD grade, and you will have to fill out a grade change form later.

If you give an "incomplete," you must fill out an "Incomplete Agreement Form" signed by instructor and student, and submitted with the final grade roster (this is a pain in the neck; we don’t recommend giving incompletes, and some instructors refuse to give them altogether). Be sure you are available via email or phone for the student to consult with when making up the incomplete at some point during the next year, i.e., do not assign an incomplete if you are going abroad or are not available for consultation.  Once work is completed, please be prompt in changing the grade.

You can have different standards and requirements -- in fact this is a good idea -- in 400 level classes for undergraduate vs. graduate students.

 8. Paper requirements. Anywhere from a 3-5 to perhaps 8 or so page paper for lower division courses seems appropriate. Upper division courses range from 7-8 to perhaps 10-12 page papers. Some instructors require really long papers, but these seem to impose a distinct burden on the instructor for grading and many students at the university have a great deal of difficulty with excessively long papers.

University General Education courses are required to have a writing assignment aside from the midterm and final exam, even if the midterm and/or final are essay in nature and/or take-home.

You should expect the students to write clearly and logically, to assemble evidence consistent with their topics and in a way that is appropriate for their level (first year, senior, graduate, etc.), to be able to argue appropriately to the topic and level of the paper, to turn the paper in on time, and the like. Obviously student abilities differ considerably, and in a university like Cal State LA with its large population of non-native speakers, you will find the range of your papers to be quite heterogeneous, to say the least. On the other hand, because of their different backgrounds students often see things in a different and often unusual light from what you may have experienced elsewhere.

We have had epidemics of students turning papers in late. You can encourage them to turn materials in on time by having a penalty for late papers, but we have found that there are still students who turn work in late regardless of penalties.

 9. Student Opinion Surveys Required in every class. The office staff will give you the materials at the beginning of the last week of class. You are REQUIRED to leave the room while the students complete the survey.

Best results are often obtained by doing the survey in the middle of the last or second-to-last class period – don’t wait until the end as students will wish to depart and will often do so without completing the survey. At the same time some of them may show up late the last day, so the beginning of class is also not advantageous.

A copy of the survey results (but not the original questionnaires, which are returned to you and you alone) will be placed in your personnel file, with the GPA for the class written on the survey results in the upper right corner.

 10. Student Grade Grievances. We don’t have a lot of these, but sometimes students grieve grades – they are allowed to do so only on two grounds: that your grading is arbitrary and capricious, or that you are prejudiced against them on the grounds of race, religion, gender, etc. The office has guidelines on how they should proceed, and you are welcome to a copy. If a student grieves a grade and you do not respond to the grievance, the student wins the grievance.

The official rules do not permit the chair or department grievance committee to change a grade; only the instructor or the Dean can change a grade, and the Dean will not do so until the School grade grievance committee reports, or if there is an appeal, the University grade grievance committee reports.

You are required to save student written work for one year after the end of the course. You can do so in your office on campus (if there is room) or some place else. You can also return papers and exams to students if you want (that is your decision).

 11. Turning in Grades. Grades are due on Tuesday after final exam week at 5 p.m. in the Department office. If you are late, you may have to fill in individual slips with name, student id number, course name, course number, etc., plus the grade, for each student. This is not very interesting after student #2. Be ye warned. 12. Sick leave. You actually earn sick leave. If you teach one 4-unit course, you earn sick leave at the rate of 4/15th of a day per month. If you have a break in service for 10 months or more, you lose any sick leave you have accumulated. 13. Evaluation.

            Department policies on the evaluation of part-time faculty are attached to the bottom of this document.

14. Meeting With the Chair.

You should meet with the chair on a quarterly basis regarding your progress and your interests in teaching in the future.
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

REVIEW OF PART-TIME FACULTY

1. All part-time faculty who have taught during any quarter of the academic year shall be formally reviewed by the Part-Time Personnel Committee and the Department chair every spring quarter.

2. Formal reviews of part-time faculty may be made at other times upon the request of a member of the Part-Time Personnel Committee, the Department Chair, or the part-time faculty member.

3. The Department Chair shall informally review each part-time faculty member prior to every reappointment.

4. In the beginning of Spring Quarter, all part-time faculty who have taught during the academic year shall be sent a notice announcing that they will be evaluated, given the criteria that will be used in the evaluation, and asked to update their personnel file in the Dean’s Office prior to the date announced for the closure of the file.  Part-Time Personnel Information Forms will be distributed for their update.  Faculty who do not respond to the annual request for updating their personnel files will be deleted from the part-time pool, effective at the end of the current academic year.

5. The evaluation/review must include student opinion surveys, grade distribution, current syllabi, and reports on classroom observations.

6. A classroom observation shall be conducted once a year by tenured member(s) of the department faculty.  Procedures are the same as for full-time faculty (see p. 10-2).  Criteria are as follow:

            A. General Information


            B.  Organization of Material

            C. Approach and Pedagogy             D. Substance/Knowledge of Subject matter             E. Interaction With Students             F. Presentation and Communication Skills The faculty member has the right to respond to classroom visitation reports within 7 days of their receipt.  This statement shall not require that evaluation deadline be extended.

7. Criteria for evaluation for teaching will be the same as those for full-time faculty (see p. 8-1).  Criteria for currency in the field will be based on professional achievement, together with syllabi, recent receipt of Ph.D. or other relevant advanced degree, or relevant practice and activities from the part-time faculty member’s regular employment (see p. 8-2)

8. Academic (as opposed to practitioner public administration1) faculty who do not possess the doctorate must maintain satisfactory progress toward completion of the Ph.D.

9. Academic (as opposed to practitioner public administration1) faculty will be reviewed in the categories of educational performance and professional achievement in the same manner as tenure-track faculty.  The educational performance of practitioner public administration faculty will be reviewed in the same manner as the educational performance of all other faculty.  Grading practices of all part-time faculty will be reviewed in the same manner as tenure-track faculty.

10. The professional achievements category of practitioner public administration1 faculty will be reviewed giving consideration to such things as: professional advancement in his or her administrative position; special community or professional recognition which enhances the standing of the part-time faculty member and/or the CSULA Department of Political Science and its programs (these may include awards, office in national organizations of a professional nature, appointment to or participation on regional, state or national committees, or other public recognition); completion of additional formal study or acquisition or relevant advanced academic degree; professional publication.

11. If the performance of a part-time faculty member is satisfactory and the faculty member is otherwise eligible, a recommendation for a step increase will normally be made after the quarter in which the faculty member completes 36 units of instruction.

12. At the end of each academic year, the Part-Time Personnel Committee members shall review the official personnel files in the Dean's Office and prepare a written evaluation.  This written evaluation shall be signed by all members of the committee and given to the part-time faculty member being evaluated.  The part-time faculty member has seven days to respond in writing or request a meeting with the committee.

13. After seven days, the chair of the committee shall attach the response, if any, to the evaluation and submit it, whether signed by the faculty member or not, to the Department Chair for placement in the official personnel file in the Dean's Office.

14. If the faculty member being reviewed requests a meeting with the committee, the committee shall honor the request as expeditiously as possible, but this request does not require a waiver of the seven days for response.

15. The second level of review shall be done by the Dean of the College.

16. After the evaluation is completed, the official files of the faculty members in the part-time pool will be reviewed each quarter by the department chair, who will recommend to the Dean whom to hire.
 
 

===========================================================================

Part-Time Faculty Handbook
Version 4.0, February, 2003
Send suggestions and comments to J. T. Anagnoson (323) 343-2245 or tanagno@calstatela.edu
N. J. Caiden / J. T. Anagnoson