Southwestern Community College employs competent faculty members to accomplish the mission and goals of the institution.

The first goal of the institution in fulfilling its mission is to “seek excellence in learning and teaching for transfer, vocational and technical education, literacy development, business and industry training and life long learning in an accessible format to serve a diverse population.” Such excellence in learning and teaching may only be realized through the employment and development of competent faculty to facilitate quality teaching and learning experiences while providing innovative and effective leadership in their curriculum programs. Therefore, a crucial element to the mission of the College is to “attract and retain quality employees and provide for their personal and intellectual growth” (1).

The College has adopted credential guidelines identified by the Commission on Colleges in support of the Comprehensive Standard for faculty qualifications. To assure that competent faculty are employed in all areas, the College has also articulated guidelines for employing faculty to teach courses in terminal certificate and diploma programs and developmental education courses (2). These additional guidelines are as follows:

Faculty teaching developmental education courses not designed for transfer to the baccalaureate degree: Master’s degree in discipline or in Education with a concentration in the discipline, or Bachelor’s degree in discipline with at least two years of teaching experience in discipline or other demonstrated competencies.

Faculty teaching diploma courses in a program not designed to lead to a degree: Diploma in the teaching discipline, or appropriate combination of comparable coursework in the discipline, professional certification/licensure, training, work-experience, and demonstrated competencies in the teaching discipline.

Faculty teaching certificate courses in a program not designed to lead to a degree: Certificate in the teaching discipline, or appropriate combination of comparable coursework in the discipline, professional certification/licensure, training, work-experience, and demonstrated competencies in the teaching discipline.

These guidelines are applied in employing competent faculty. The College recognizes that the essential principle is to employ qualified instructors; the application of these guidelines to hiring decisions provides a measure of assurance that the institution adheres to that principle. The College also recognizes and fulfills its obligation to document other elements of qualification that sufficiently justify a faculty member’s competence to teach in a discipline where academic credentials may not be in accord with our guidelines. In such cases, evidence is organized in a Faculty Qualifications Portfolio (3).

A portfolio may include descriptions and evidence of other academic preparation, training and development, relevant work experience, professional certifications and licenses, honors, awards, publications, presentations, teaching evaluations, evaluations from graduates and employers of graduates, graduate performance on professional examinations, and other evidence of professional competence and teaching effectiveness. Portfolios are maintained by the respective academic deans for faculty in their divisions. Official college transcripts documenting the academic qualifications of faculty are maintained in the personnel files of the Human Resources office.

The Faculty Roster provides a complete listing of all full and part-time faculty, their corresponding teaching disciplines, assigned courses, academic preparation, and a summary of other qualifications to demonstrate their competency as instructors at the College (4).