The number of full-time Faculty is adequate to support the mission of the institution and to ensure the quality and integrity of its academic programs.  In addition, upon application for candidacy, an applicant institution demonstrates that it meets the comprehensive standard of Faculty qualifications.

_X_ Compliance                     ___Partial Compliance                       ___Non-Compliance

Narrative

St. Petersburg College is in compliance with this requirement because it has a systematic approach to monitoring the adequacy of the number of full-time Faculty to maintain the quality and integrity of SPC’s academic programs.

Definitions of Faculty types

St. Petersburg College uses the following definitions for the different types of Faculty when determining the number of full-time Faculty that are optimal:

Faculty—Faculty shall mean any person listed as instructional, professional or administrative and/or paid from either the instructional salary or the administrative-professional salary schedules.

Teaching Faculty—Teaching Faculty shall include instructors, counselors and librarians.

Full-time Position—A budgeted position which is to be filled requiring the normal hours per week for that classification

Adjunct Teaching Faculty—Teaching Faculty hired on a temporary part-time basis.

Equated Credit Hour (ECH)—A unit of value assigned to instructional or other duties for persons on instructional or supplemental contracts.  Generally, an ECH is equal to a standard credit hour (15 contact hours) unless rationale is provided for adjusting (e.g., higher or lower than expected workload.)  ECH also is used for supplemental pay for special projects that are outside of the position description and/or take an equivalent amount of time as a standard credit hour (e.g., managing A.S. assessments, release time for the Quality Enhancement Committee co-chair).

Percent of Load— An instructor who is part-time, has regular office hours and who is paid proportionately off of the base of the regular Salary Schedule. Percent-of-load contracts may be granted to temporary adjunct Faculty who teach at least 6 ECH in Fall and Spring or 2.4 ECH during Summer. Temporary percent-of-load Faculty are required to have office hours at the College in accordance with contract provisions.

Base Load – The number of ECH in the contract for a full-time Faculty member.  The base contract for full-time Faculty is for the period of the full academic year, during which Faculty are required to teach a minimum of 30 or 36 ECH.  Full-time Faculty with a 36 ECH base load are given the opportunity to fulfill the 36 ECH requirement in Fall and Spring during 1 academic year in each 3 academic year period, giving them the Summer session free to regenerate. 

Supplemental Instructors - A regular full-time instructor who teaches classes beyond the base load and is paid off the Adjunct Salary Schedule.

Standard Class Load (SCL) – The optimum class size used for determining part-time/full-time Faculty ratio for the purpose of setting the number of full-time Faculty positions and for determining the number of sections to offer based on projected or historical enrollments.

Alignment of Faculty responsibilities with the College mission

The mission of St. Petersburg College is:

St. Petersburg College Mission Statement

As a learner-centered college, SPC does not schedule very large, auditorium-sized (over 100) classes.  St. Petersburg College has established a formal Standard Class Load (SCL) for each course, specifying the appropriate class size based on the type of instruction.   SCLs are established when a new program is submitted to the Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) committee as a pedagogically-sound number of students for the type of instruction and content of the course.  Many lecture classes have an SCL of 40, while certain classes with particularly heavy student workloads that require additional Faculty time and effort have lower SCLs, such as Composition and most online courses.  Proposed changes to an SCL are presented to the Provosts Council, which then forwards the proposed change to the President with their recommendation for approval.  Other standard class sizes (SCLs) typically are set 35 for distance classes, and 20-25 for intensive special programs such as labs, developmental, and honors college classes.  Some SCLS are mandated by programmatic accreditations, which are adhered to by the College.  Further, to create a learner-centered environment to support student success, full-time Faculty are required to have 15 hours of office time to be available to students (including 3 hours of release time for baccalaureate Faculty for advising purposes).  Finally, in order to accomplish the continuous self-evaluation process, SPC has included the requirement for Faculty to participate in course and program review and program assessments, in addition to assisting with developing a climate for student success through service on Collegewide committees such as Sexual Harassment, Financial Aid, Student Grievance, and Faculty Governance Organization.

SPC does not have a research mission; hence, there is no requirement to consider a research mission when determining the number of Faculty.  The public service mission, which includes museum support and partnerships with county and business organizations, is accomplished largely with non-Faculty personnel.

Roles of Faculty

Each full-time, associate-level instructor maintains a load of 15 credit hours per semester, Fall and Spring, and 6 credit hours for summer session (for a 36 ECH base load contract – a 30 ECH base load is spread over two semesters, 15/15/0).  Each full-time baccalaureate-level Faculty member maintains 15 credit hours but has 3 hours of release time designated for advising purposes.  A Faculty member might vary from the 15 hours load when contact hours do not equal credit hours.  (Baccalaureate Faculty are given three hours release time for student advising.)  St. Petersburg College calls this Equated Credit Hours (ECH) , e.g., a 3-credit lecture course would be three ECH, while a 1-credit lab would be two ECH because of the number of additional hours required. This is similar to the State of Florida’s definition of Faculty Load Credits (FLC), used to determine funding levels for the College.

In addition to teaching the required class load and 15 hours of office time for student academic support, full-time Faculty are involved in the development and revision of all degree programs and courses.  The Curriculum and Instruction Committee is composed primarily of Faculty representatives across disciplines and sites.  Full-time Faculty also evaluate all programs, curriculum and the instructional process on a three-year cycle.  A.S. and A.A.S. programs are evaluated through a program assessment process, A.A. programs through general education outcomes assessments, B.S. and B.A.S. programs through capstone courses, portfolios, or projects specific to each program.  Full-time Faculty members also are key contributors in the SPC program review process.   Also, as stated above, full-time Faculty serve on all Collegewide committees. 

The time required to accomplish all institutional requirements, including support for academic programs and institutional service, are considered when determining the Faculty contract base loads. The base contract for twelve month (36 ECH) Faculty is for a full academic year, which consists of the same number of duty days as administrative and career staff.  During this period a minimum of 40 hours per week is required unless affected by holidays.  The 40 hours includes, but is not limited to, instruction, curriculum development, student interaction, and college activities and meetings.

College procedures for determining number and type of Faculty

SPC divides projected enrollment by SCL to determine the number of sections the College should offer and, based on ECH, how many Faculty are needed.  St. Petersburg College strives for a ratio of 65/35 full-time to part-time Faculty.  The ratio may vary from discipline to discipline based on availability of qualified adjuncts but currently the overall College rate is 65% for full-time Faculty.  The 65/35 ratio is the same ratio that is funded by the State.  The State recognizes the right of any institution to vary from this ratio, however, it only provides funds for 65% full-time Faculty.  The number for full-time Faculty used to calculate the 65/35 ratio includes all Faculty with base loads, Faculty with overloads, full-time staff who are teaching supplemental courses, acting Faculty, and percent-of-load Faculty.  Percent-of-load Faculty members are instructors who are part-time, but have regular office hours and are paid based on the regular Salary Schedule.

St. Petersburg College calculates the 65/35 ratio by looking at the number of ECH taught by Faculty counted as full-time as compared to the total number of ECH taught in any semester.  A Faculty load sheet is prepared for each Faculty member each semester.  State auditors require that the president approve each instance where a Faculty member is assigned less than the required credits and to document the reasons, such as release time for administrative duties or grants management or advising.

Program Directors and Deans have the opportunity to request new Faculty positions each year through the Unit Planning Process.  SPC ensures there is at least one qualified full-time Faculty member or Program Director or Dean in each program.  (Program Directors and Deans must teach at least one course in their discipline per year and maintain currency with all licensing requirements, if required by their discipline, to maintain their proficiency.) 

Policies on hiring Adjunct Instructors

Based on historical and projected student enrollment, adjunct Faculty are hired on a temporary, session-by-session basis to supplement full-time Faculty in needed areas.  When an adjunct Faculty member is hired the first time, Faculty credentialing information is completed by the Program Director or Dean and validated by the College’s credentialing office.  The credentialing office enters the adjunct’s name and the specific courses the adjunct is cleared to teach into the student and course information system (PeopleSoft) for scheduling by the appropriate Program Directors and Deans.  The credentialing office also keeps an electronic database to indicate which Faculty members are qualified to teach which specific teaching fields.  If a Faculty member wishes to teach in additional disciplines, the Faculty Credential Evaluation portion of the College application is modified and resubmitted using the same process.  Program Directors and Deans use the Adjunct Faculty Evaluation Form to evaluate part-time Faculty in the first semester the Faculty member is hired each academic year.  Adjunct Faculty are evaluated at all sites and using all delivery technologies.  Adjunct Faculty are counseled by their Program Director or Dean on areas for improvement or if deficiencies are significant, the adjunct Faculty member would not be rehired.

Monitoring the number of Faculty

According to the Florida Department of Education 2005-2006 Fact Book, the number of Faculty at St. Petersburg College, given the student enrollment, compares well with peer institutions (lower ratios being better than higher ratios).

St. Petersburg College maintains a more highly qualified Faculty when compared to the State average.

Summary of Full-Time Instructional Personnel Credentials

SPC versus the State Average in 2005-2006

SPC expends a comparable percentage of its budget, 44.54% on Direct Instruction, compared with the Florida Community College System average, 45.37%.  Salaries are higher than the state average, promoting stability at the College.

Comparison of Faculty Salaries

SPC versus the State Average

The quality and integrity of the academic programs are monitored by Program Directors and Deans using personal observations and observations by peers, student surveys of instruction (SSIs), grade distribution reports, and exam results to monitor the feedback from students and guide improvements in instructional quality.  An indirect measure of the quality and integrity of academic programs is done through end-of-program and general education outcomes assessments (see 3.4.1 and 4.2 for more details).

Student Surveys of Instruction (SSIs).  Overall high satisfaction ratings on the Student Surveys of Instruction (SSIs) are one indicator of having sufficient and effective Faculty to provide instruction.   The mean score for every semester and every category was 6.41 or higher.  In Distance Learning courses, the mean score for every semester and every category was 6.06 or higher.  In addition, the scores for all categories have been steadily increasing since Fall 2003.

Table: Lecture Student Survey of Instruction Means over two years (Source: Project Eagle)

Table: Online Student Survey of Instruction Means over two years (Source: Project Eagle)

Other measures of adequacy of Faculty

Results such as student success, GPAs and graduation rates after transferring to a four-year institution, employer surveys, and student engagement (as measured by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement) demonstrate the success SPC has had with assuring the quality and integrity of its programs and are another indicator of having sufficient Faculty to provide instruction.

Student Success.  Student success is defined as the percentage of students who have graduated, are enrolled in good standing or left in good standing. For the cohort of all SPC A.A./A.S. degree students whose fourth year of attendance ended in Spring 2005 and Post Secondary Certificate students whose third year of attendance ended in Summer 2003, the success rate was 91.3% compared to 85.3% statewide. The College met the statewide benchmark of 80% and the SPC target of 90%. For students who had required college preparatory courses, SPC’s student success was 93.2% compared to a statewide average of 86.4%. SPC met its target for this group of students. It should be noted that the success of this group of students has risen dramatically in recent years, going from 84.0% in Spring 2003 to 93.2% in Spring 2005.

The Community College and Technical Center (CCTC) provides consolidated statewide data showing the Statewide University System (SUS) upper division performance of community college Associate of Arts (A.A.) graduates compared with the performance of non-transfer (native) SUS upper division (U.D.) students.  In December 2006, SPC’s Institutional Research department compiled a research brief on the latest data from the CCTC, as it has in prior years.

Graduation rates.  The graduation rates for the native students exceeds the rate for SPC transfer students, however the rates for the SPC students appear to be trending upwards, exceeding 25% in the last two reporting years.

Graduate rate comparisons (Source: Research Brief Vol 16, No. 7)

For University of South Florida (USF), the SPC graduation rate exceeds the rate for native students, except for 2000-2001.

Graduate rate comparisons (Source: Research Brief Vol 16, No. 7)

GPAs after transfer.  The mean GPA also was compared between SPC graduates attending USF and native USF students.  SPC students showed higher mean GPA than the native USF students.
 

Graduate rate comparisons (Source: Research Brief Vol 16, No. 7)

Employer surveys.  Employers indicated very high levels of satisfaction with SPC graduates’ technical and performance skills. In 2005, all 10 skills received a mean score of 6 or higher on a 7-point scale, where 7 equals excellent. The percentage of employers responding to the identified skills ranged between 74.5% and 88.1%. Ninety-three percent (93.6%) of the employers would hire another SPC graduate.

2002-2003 Employer Responses Compared to 2003-2004 Employer Responses (Source: Research Brief Vol 15, No.2)
2002-2003 Graduates			2003-2004 Graduates
Employer Rating					Employer Rating
Competencies and Foundation Skills	N	Mean	5	6	7	N	Mean	5	6	7
Possesses necessary reading skills	93	6.5	9.7%	20.4%	67.7%	110	6.5	10.9%	22.7%	63.6%
Uses written communication skills effectively	93	6.2	12.9%	23.7%	54.8%	109	6.3	16.5%	31.2%	49.5%
Uses oral communication skills effectively	93	6.1	17.2%	21.5%	51.6%	107	6.2	16.8%	30.8%	48.6%
Possesses effective computer skills (e.g. computing, word proc.)	87	6.3	14.0%	28.0%	47.3%	109	6.3	12.8%	30.3%	49.5%
Possesses necessary mathematics skills	90	6.0	20.4%	29.0%	39.8%	110	6.2	12.7%	33.6%	40.9%
Exhibits an appropriate level of responsibility and self-management	92	6.1	11.8%	26.9%	49.5%	109	6.1	14.7%	25.7%	49.5%
Chooses ethical courses of action	92	6.3	14.0%	23.7%	57.0%	108	6.4	10.2%	25.9%	60.2%
Participates as a team player	92	6.3	14.0%	19.4%	57.0%	109	6.4	7.3%	32.1%	56.0%
Works with individuals from diverse backgrounds	92	6.3	12.9%	25.8%	54.8%	108	6.3	5.6%	38.9%	48.1%
Acquires, interprets and uses information effectively	92	6.2	12.9%	33.3%	45.2%	93	6.2	12.9	33.3	45.2

CCSSE.  St. Petersburg College was one of the first groups of colleges to participate in the original Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) national benchmark study in 2003.  In the area of Student-Faculty Interaction, SPC’s score exceed the score for extra large colleges when compared to this self-selected sample of top-notch schools.

SPC scored well across the board in the results from the 2004 CCSSE:  For all benchmarks, SPC scores exceeded the Florida Consortium of Community Colleges, Extra-Large Colleges, and all colleges.  For Academic Challenge and Student-Faculty Interactions, SPC scored at the 90% percentile.  SPC’s score was at the 80% percentile for Active and Collaborative Learning and Student Effort and also was higher than the other three groups in Support for Learners.  Even though SPC scored higher in Support for Learners than its counterparts, the College initiated the development of a new counseling and advising model, implemented in Spring 2006, to address the lower student satisfaction rating.  For more details on the Counseling and Advising Model, see section 2.10.

SPC Scores on Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)  (Source: Research Brief Vol 16, No. 4)

Based on the overall positive performance by students upon graduation and the other indicators listed above, St. Petersburg College has determined the number of full-time Faculty is adequate.