During the spring semester, usually in March, the names of faculty who are to be reelected are submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval. Contracts for the following year are not issued until the beginning of the fall semester. While the Board may reelect faculty in March, budgets are normally not finalized and approved until June or later. The speed with which the state legislature adopts state budgets for the biennium directly affects the budget process for the District. Approximately one-third of the monies to operate the District come from the State. The contracts issued in the fall reflect any salary raises approved by the Board and/or step increases.

Faculty contracts are for a nine-month period that start with Convocation and meetings held the week prior to the start of fall classes. The contract period ends with commencement in May. Chairpersons are generally issued a ten and one-half month contract. (Please refer to the Academic Calendar in the College Catalog for holidays and Christmas and Spring breaks.)

All faculty are issued ID cards which entitles them the use of facilities and/or services provided by the College and the District. Identification card request forms can be obtained and authenticated from your chairperson or director. The picture ID card is issued by the I D Center (Fletcher Administration Center - Room 200A) upon receipt of the signed request form. For more information, please click   Faculty and Staff ID Cards.

In the 1995 Faculty Handbook, San Antonio College includes the following: Faculty Workload Procedures and Guidelines.   For information on multiple overloads, please consult Guidelines for Faculty Multiple Overload Teaching Procedure DJ-SAC LOCAL  [ SAC Procedures ]

Because faculty are invested with so much freedom and responsibility to change lives, they must maintain high professional ethical standards as expressed in this Faculty Code of Professional Ethics   [ AC Policy Online - Procedure D.4.10.1 ].

Tenure is a contractual right that only full-time tenure-tracked faculty members may earn. While tenure tracked faculty are expected to progress toward obtaining tenure, tenure is not granted simply for sustained employment. Excellent teaching and service to the College and the community are the elements of criteria for earning tenure. Each department has approved activities with levels of quality which faculty members must achieve before one may be considered for tenure. You should be given a copy of your department's criteria for Tenure at the beginning of your tenure-tracked employment.

"Tenure is defined as the confirmation by the Board of Trustees, acting on the recommendation of the Chancellor, to elect a probationary faculty member to a faculty appointment for an indefinite period of time." Under this type of appointment a faculty member "may be removed only for adequate cause, for the discontinuance of a course of study, or financial exigency."

For a listing of the various deadlines for submitting the needed Tenure application paperwork, please consult the Faculty Calendar of Activities. For additional details on tenure-related activities, consult Promotions ( including Tenure ) - San Antonio College.

Promotion in professional rank, like tenure, is earned. It is assumed that as a person progresses toward promotion that progress is also being made toward tenure. The process of earning promotion and tenure is one of professional growth, an evolutionary and developmental process. San Antonio College is committed to helping its faculty achieve promotion by creating an environment that fosters academic growth and development. The faculty should also encourage its peers to establish a positive academic community. Each department has identified specific types and quality of activities which may be completed toward promotion.

See Promotion: Promotion in Faculty Rank   [ AC Policy Online - Procedure D.8.2.1 ] for the eligibility criteria for promotion.

The promotion process can be summarized as:

• To be eligible for promotion to Assistant Professor, a faculty member must have completed a minimum of three years' full-time employment as an Instructor with the Alamo Colleges, and the faculty member must meet the criteria for placement on the Salary Schedule at Class III. (A faculty member appointed prior to January, 1977 may apply for promotion to Assistant Professor if the criteria for Class I are met.)
• To be eligible for promotion to Associate Professor, a faculty member must have completed a minimum of four years' full-time employment as an Assistant Professor with the Alamo Colleges, and the faculty member must meet the criteria for placement on the Salary Schedule at Class IV.
• To be eligible for promotion to full professor, a faculty member must have completed a minimum of five years' full-time employment as an Associate Professor with the Alamo Colleges, and the faculty member must meet the criteria for placement on the Salary Schedule at Class and the faculty member must meet the criteria for placement on the Salary Schedule at Class V.
• For additional details on promotion-related activities, consult Promotions ( including Tenure ) - San Antonio College.

In addition, Alamo Colleges policy provides avenues for faculty to develop professionally by offering an employee tuition assistance program and employee incentive programs. See Professional Development  [ AC Policy Online - Procedure D.6.1.1 ] for additional information.

For a listing of the various deadlines for submitting the needed Promotion application paperwork, please consult the Faculty Calendar of Activities.

Accountability of a faculty member's job performance must exist to insure quality and progress towards excellence. Therefore, faculty members are periodically evaluated. Faculty members participate in five forms of evaluation: student surveys, classroom observation, annual report/self-evaluation, peer evaluations, and the chairpersons/directors annual performance evaluation. The Alamo Colleges approved evaluation forms are found in the Forms section.

Evaluation should be approached with a spirit of cooperation, trust, and growth. Evaluations are conducted according to the recommended District procedures which have established time-lines. For additional information, see "Employee Evaluations"   [ AC Policies Online- Procedure D.7.1.1 ].

Students enrolled in SAC Online courses evaluate their instructors by using the online e-Survey.   < http://www.alamo.edu/sac/iic/esurvey/default.htm >.
It is usually made available to the students during the last few weeks of the semester. Great care is taken to assure that the data collected in the surveys remains confidential. Completed surveys will be given only to the department chairperson. Once they are reviewed, the department chair will make the surveys available to the faculty member (after final grades have been submitted). Student surveys of faculty and courses will be used primarily to improve instruction.

Based on the tenure and promotions policies of the Alamo Community College District, the following schedule determines how frequently an individual instructor will be surveyed by his or her students:

• Adjunct-Every course
• Tenure-Track Instructors - Every course during years 1 and 2 and 50% of selected courses during years 3 through 6
• Tenured Instructors - 50% of selected courses

For a listing of the various deadlines for submitting the Faculty Evaluation paperwork, please consult the Faculty Calendar of Activities.

Last Modified: Tuesday, September 1, 2009

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