How AB 591 Affects Adjuncts

Now that AB 591 has passed, and our union and the college administration have signed a special MOU endorsing it, adjunct instructors can teach up to 67% of a full-time load instead of the old 60%. Keep in mind, though, that in our department, there are three full-time loads:

1. 20 hours per week for noncredit courses
2. 18 hours for credit courses numbered from 1 to 99 and labeled as lab or lecture/lab
3. 15 hours for all other credit courses.

Therefore, an adjunct can teach up to 13 hours of noncredit courses as 67% X 20 = 13; he or she can teach up to 12 hours of a credit course labeled as lab or lecture/lab as 67% X 18 = 12; and for the third group, credit courses labeled as lecture, the allowable adjunct load is now 10 hours a week as 67% X 15 = 10.

Let's look at a couple hypothetical scenarios to further understand this. Say, you are already teaching a noncredit class for 10 hours a week, but you have seen an announcement asking for a teacher for a Saturday ESL 10 class, which is a 3-unit, credit course labeled as lecture. Knowing that the credit course constitutes 20% of a full-time load (i.e. 3 divided into 15 = 20%) and that your noncredit teaching already carries a 50% load, you would end up having 70%, which is a no-no. Thus, you would decide not to bother answering the call, unless you wish to give up your 10-hour noncredit class for a change.

Now, let's say you are already teaching a noncredit class for 10 hours a week, but the emailed announcement is about another noncredit class meeting once a week on Saturdays for three hours. Since both classes are in the same workload group, you can see 10 + 3 = 13 hours, which is not over the 67% new allowable load for adjuncts teaching noncredit.

I hope this entry helps clarify the matter a bit. If not, feel free to offer your comment or just email me.