What adjuncts need to know at Mesa College
Prepared for Adjuncts by the: San Diego Adjunct Faculty Association (SDAFA)
If you have tips you would like to add, or would like to rewrite this to be appropriate for one of the other campuses, please send them to callbee@sdccd.edu
Parking is free for full time and Adjunct or part time faculty
a)Permits are obtained by filling out an application and having it approved by your Dean.
b)The form is available in the Dean’s office, but sometimes they are placed in your mailbox on campus.
c)Pick up the Parking permit at Campus Police office at the multi-story parking structure.
d)We can park, with our permit, in Staff or Student parking spots. (Persons with Handicapped parking are also allowed in Staff parking spots.)
e)Parking places marked Flex are for Staff during the day and then are also available to students in the evening. Time may change semester to semester but currently is 4 PM
f)Community Colleges in our area honor each others parking permits. For example, with our permits, we can also park in faculty parking at Grossmont and Southwestern.
Supplies can be obtained at the Stockroom in K-202, next to Reprographics.
a)You will need a budget number which you can get from your Dean or Department Chair
b)Supplies include Scantrons, Dry Erase Markers, and paper for a printer
Scantron readers to process your Scantron tests are located at K108A and possibly other locations across the campus.
Keys for classrooms (and their Alarm Codes), mailrooms, workrooms and Faculty bathrooms are obtained:
a)By filling out an application and having it approved by your Dean. Their office had the form. This same form is used to obtain the Alarm Code for the room.
b)Pick up keys at Campus Police. They will assign an Alarm Code to you and when they tell you the alarm code has been assigned, the key to that room is usually ready
c)Return keys that you no longer need by returning them to Campus Police
d)All classroom keys are supposed to be able to open the Faculty/Staff bathrooms, the Adjunct Workroom in K 108A and the central mailroom in K108B
e)If you have a key for a classroom in the SB building:
i)It will open any classroom on the first or second floor of the SB building.
ii)On the inside of the SB classroom doors are panic door openers. Push the bar in and turn the key to the left to lock the bar in an open position which leaves the door unlocked from the outside. Turn the key to the right to release the bar, which then leaves the door locked. On some doors, it is really hard to turn the key all the way to lock or unlock the bar. You will not break the key.
Your campus mail is delivered to a central mail room, located in K108B unless your Department has made other arrangements. If they have, the Department Chair or Dean’s office staff can tell you the procedure.
A safe place where you can leave your brief case, “wheelie” or book bag is located at ….? _(Ask your Dean or Department chair. I have not found such a place.)
A safe storage place for classroom materials that you don’t want to carry to and from campus is located at: ….? (Ask your Dean or Department Chair if this is available. I have not found such a place.)
Discounts available to us as teachers:
a)Do we get discounts on campus at the bookstore or cafeteria? No
b)Check out CollegeBuys.org for computers and software at discounted prices. They need verification that we are instructors, which we give them by using our campus email addresses.
c)Go to our union website for discounts aftguild.org
d)On the District website, go to Employee Resources and you will see Employee Discount Programs.
To obtain a classroom copy of the text book you are using, you need to contact the publisher’s representative. The bookstore or your Department Chair can provide that information. These are also called desk copies.
If you need a telephone to contact a student or someone on campus, go to the Adjunct Workroom in K108A, or the one that your school has available.
You can have students leave messages for you by arranging for Voice Mail. To do this, contact Reprographics in K203 who can set up a Voice Mail Box and provide instructions.
Students can leave “mail” for you by taking the item to Reprographics in room K203 and it will be delivered to your campus mail box.
To have handouts or tests printed, contact Reprographics in K203. We have a new Printing Order procedure at Mesa College. On the school website, go to Faculty, then select Forms, then Printing and Mail Services. The nice people in Reprographics offer instructions about this Work Order system during Flex Week, and individual instruction on request. Again, you will need your budget number.
To pick up your printing order:
a)Go to Reprographic in room K203
b)Can students pick up your printing order? Yes, if you tell Reprographics that you are making those arrangements.
Computers on campus for use by faculty are located at the following locations. Whether you can u print from them is indicated by (Yes/No):
a)Classrooms – Yes, but no printers
b)Workroom located at K 108A and it has a printer, but you may have to supply your own paper.
c)LRC has two workrooms for Faculty use on the 4th floor. You will need to get a sign code for them. Printers are available, and there are also scanners for our use.
d)If your school occupies one of the new buildings, they may have computers and printers available in that building. Check with your Dean’s office or Department Chair.
The sign in for those computers are:
a)Classroom: Same one you use for your email
b)Workroom located at K108A also uses your email sign in. If there is another sign in, we try to keep it posted in the room.
c)LRC : You will need to have one assigned,
SB Building AV equipment:
a)When your class is over, always turn off the projector using the control on the podium. The light on the bottom of the projector will then look red.
b)The Document Reader lamp should also be turned off using the switch on the side of the base. You will have to hold in the switch until the indicator light turns red. This is also how you turn them on.
c)Projectors mounted to the ceiling of any classroom in any building should be turned off when your class is over.
Campus emails are used by the District and our school administrators to contact us.
a)Go to the District website, choose Employee Resources, then “Get Your Outlook Email” to sign in.
b)Please do check it on a regular basis.
c)Delete the ones that you don’t want to read
d)Do NOT use REPLY ALL unless you really want EVERYONE who received the original email to see it. Many people find such use of Reply All to be VERY annoying
e)Use campus email to contact students, but be sure to place student email addresses on the BC line if sending the same email to more than one student.
f)Reminder – If you are sending an email to more than one person, the recipients :
i)Will see all the names on the To or CC lines
ii)Will not see any names, other than their own, on the BCC line.
If you have trouble with the computer or AV equipment, call 388-2690
If you have trouble with equipment (other than computers) or getting into your room, call 388-2814
In an emergency:
a)In the classrooms (if you have emergency red boxes, etc.) press the silver button. This will connect you with SDCCD Police Dispatch and the line will stay in an open mode until Campus Police arrive and disengage it. You do not need to continue pressing the button once it has been activated.
b)If you have to call the police with your own cell phone, the procedure on our campus is to call SDCCD Police Dispatch at 388-6405. Normally, you will not call 911 = Dispatch will take care of that.
c)If you are in an office or workroom on campus, you only have to dial 6405 to reach them.
To get the SLO’s (Student Learning Outcomes) for your class, ask your Department Chair where they are located on the Mesa College website.
Students must be given a syllabus for your class the first week of class. Check with your Department Chair to find the minimum contents, but your syllabus should include how grades for the course are calculated. Each semester, during Flex Week, at least one workshop is offered concerning syllabi.
To find the Flex program and Class Management, you can either go:
a)On the District website, under Employee Resources, to the item “Faculty Web Services.
b)On the Mesa College website, choose “About Mesa” then Faculty/Staff.
c)All faculty, both Contract and Adjunct must meet the Flex requirement. Basically it is 1 hour per semester for each weekly hour of classroom assignment. Most of us meet the requirement by attending workshops, school meetings and department meetings the week before the semester begins. Flex activities are also offered throughout the semester.
d)If you end up with more Flex Activity hours in the fall than you were required to complete, the hours will be carried over to the spring. They do not carry over to the next school year.
Retirement plans for our District: contact Human Resources at the District Office. This should have been taken care of when you were hired. The plan that most of us are in, and you should be also, is STRS Defined Benefits. The important part here is STRS.
a)You are eligible as an Adjunct, no matter how few classes you are teaching.
b)If you decide not to teach, do not take your money out of STRS. You may come back to teaching in the future. This is a tip two different Adjuncts expressed to me, saying it was one of their big regrets.
Our union is AFT Guild 1931.
a) Their website is aftguild.org and their phone number is 619-640-1155.
b) The union negotiates for our pay and benefits, and we encourage all Adjuncts to join the union, become active in the union, vote in union elections, and help give all Adjuncts a voice in our union. Please go to their website to find out more.
c) On the Mesa College website, under Faculty and Staff Resources, you will find an item in the Faculty section “Useful Information for Adjunct Faculty” This will take you to a very useful brochure provided by out union, AFT Guild
Where do you get a copy of your pay stub on pay day?
a) Thru the end of 2015, we would have gone to Web Advisor on the SDCCD website under Employee Resources
i) Web Advisor will be obsolete and as of January 2016, our pay stubs are no longer there.
ii) If you have been teaching at SDCCD, we strongly advise you to go to Web Advisor and download everything you can find about you as an employee. I do this by printing out the information, but instead of to a printer, I save it as a PDF.
iii) Information you can find and should save includes: Past pay stubs, a form that shows your accrued sick leave to date, the stipends or class assignments and what you were paid for them, etc.
iv) The 2015 W-2’s will be available through Web Advisor
b)Web Advisor has been replaced by PeopleSoft.
i)From an email that was sent to us: “To help navigate through the new Peoplesoft HCM system, SDCCD is introducing a new Portal interface on Jan 4. You can get to the new portal by typing in https://myportal.sdccd.eduor you can go to the District’s Employee Resources Webpage and select the “Peoplesoft MyPortal” link. (And yes, starting Jan 4, 2016, the Portal is available remotely from outside the District’s network (eg. from home, internet café’s, etc.).”
ii) If you have any questions on the new portal or menu options, contact the IT Help Desk at x7000, or 619-388-7000
iii)To sign in to PeopleSoft, use the same ID and Password you use to access your district email. This is also referred to as your “network user ID and password.”
The official work space available to all Adjuncts where you can grade tests, use computers and meet with students is located at K108A. Most campus keys will open this door, and the door next to it for the Mail Room.
Please find below the list of other adjunct faculty workrooms located throughout the campus. These “belong” to specific schools and may require a key issued by the Dean for that school.