LTCC hiring changes

unedited 4/09 tahoe mountain news

By Kathryn Reed

The “community” in Lake Tahoe Community College may disappear in the fall as the school begins to reign in who is allowed to teach.
LTCC is starting to enforce the “minimum qualifications” definition when it comes to hiring full time and adjunct faculty beginning with the 2009-10 school year.
Everyone who has taught at the college will be grandfathered in, which affects sporadic adjunct faculty more than full timers because the college only hires full-time faculty with a master’s degree. LTCC is known for employing people whose real life experiences are as relevant to the classroom as those who hail from academia.
Tightening the rules will not have a fiscal impact because salaries are not based on years of education like in the K-12 system.
Assembly Bill 1725 from 1987 is the law that will be enforced. It says community college instructors must have a master’s degree in their discipline or equivalent.
“Or equivalent was more loosely applied than it should have been,” said Lori Gaskin, vice president of academic affairs at LTCC. “What we are doing locally is tightening up that, the ‘or equivalent’.”
Gaskin said LTCC is one of many colleges in California to use the “or equivalent” rule liberally and that schools around the state are beginning to reverse that trend.
AB1725 says traditional academic classes must be taught by someone with a master’s in that field. Leniency can come with hiring someone for a full-time job when the applicant has a master’s in a related field. That degree, plus professional experience and their published work would be some of the additional criteria.
The community college system realizes it’s not possible to get a master’s in all fields. Some two-year schools have automotive programs. A master’s doesn’t exist in auto mechanics. This is the case for many vocational programs.
In those cases, minimum qualifications are defined as a bachelor’s plus two years of relevant professional experience or an associate’s degree with six years experience.
Gaskin said enforcing the intent of AB1725 may limit course offerings.
“I don’t want people to get concerned or upset,” Gaskin said.
She said one way to keep up the number of available classes is to add online courses. Instructors could be 3,000 miles away – with a master’s degree. LTCC online classes have been increasing, with more than 1,000 students taking classes last quarter.
However, there are about 40 fewer classes in the spring catalog compared to a year ago. The college needed to make cutbacks because the state is not reimbursing it fully – to the extent of a quarter million dollars so far.
The bright spot is that in bad economic times community colleges tend to see enrollment go up because people want to be retrained, further their education and delay going to a four-year institutions.
Editor’s note: Kathryn Reed has been an adjunct faculty member at LTCC. She does not have a master’s degree.