Pierce College is in the process of hiring new faculty members and staff who will be working on campus this fall semester.
Due to several professors going into retirement, Pierce is looking to hire instructors for approximately 16 new positions for faculty in various departments.
During an Academic Senate meeting on Feb. 11, Kathleen Burke-Kelly, Pierce College president, said positions for different departments have been approved and Pierce may be hiring as many as 20 new faculty members.
The reason behind hiring these new faculty members is mainly because several faculty and staff have retired in the past year, which have to be replaced by law. Colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District must maintain a certain amount of faculty employed.
“The state of California has a requirement for community colleges called F.O.N. [Faculty Obligation Number] which gives us a number of faculty members that must be employed for each college,” said Tom Rosdahl, Academic Senate president. “The current percentage is 60 percent of faculty that must be working full-time.”
The number of employees required to work in LACCD varies according to budget of that particular college, according to Rosdahl.
If the budget is low then the F.O.N. lowers, and if the college has a higher budget, they must begin to hire more.
These requirements are determined by the chancellor of the district, Daniel LaVista, and the presidents of each college during LACCD meetings.
The district will then inform each college their specific number of employees that must be working at the college.
Pierce College is looking to hire professors that teach English, math, anthropology, speech, chemistry and journalism, to name a few. Pierce is also looking to hire a new librarian and some staff in administration.
“We are very excited to hire new faculty because new professors make a difference in the experience of each student,” said Anna Davies, vice president of Academic Affairs.
According to Davies, Pierce is still in the process of recruiting and interviewing possible candidates that meet the colleges requirements and will possibly be hiring these new instructors in June.
“As of now, we don’t know who we will hire yet, but when once we do we sill be sure to give that information out,” said Davies.
Anyone who meets the requirements is welcome to apply for a position at Pierce.
For more information about how to apply to become a faculty member at Pierce College, visit www.laccd.edu and www.piercecollge.edu.
