Austin Community College opened its doors to a new semester last week, but without some of its faculty. The school fired 215 faculty members who did not meet education requirements set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Donetta Goodall, associate vice-president for academic programs, said new steps have been put in place to prevent similar problems in the future.
"We have a very specific hiring guide," she said. "All credentials are listed prominently."
467 people attended a June job fair, applying for positions in all departments, Goodall said.
ACC spokeswoman Veronica Obregon said seven classes had been cancelled because of the cuts, but the school had not determined how many students were affected by the cancellations. She said an enrollment report will be available later this year.
SACS guidelines say all new faculty must have 18 hours of graduate work in the course they are teaching and hold a master's degree in any subject. Many of the faculty members who were fired in June did not meet the requirements and could not teach at ACC until they had completed the required credentials,
Yukie Aida, an adjunct faculty member in the psychology department, said she did not believe some of those affected had the time to complete the requirements.
"Many of us were not aware of the specifics," Aida said.
Goodall said 67 teachers who received the warnings completed extra coursework and returned for the fall semester.
"Others will continue to work on those, and they will be able to return to the same preferred status they had," Goodall said.
Earlier this summer, Mark Goodrich, president of ACC's teacher's union, said his organization was considering filing a lawsuit, but he said Wednesday it had not done so yet. He said he had concerns about older faculty members because, at the time they began work in fields such as computer science, no degrees were available.
Any faculty members hired in exception to the accreditation rules must now have significant job experience and recognition in their field, Goodall said. ACC will compile a report two weeks before every semester in an effort to identify any problem with accreditation before classes begin, she said, and the number of non-qualified teachers will be limited to 2 percent. Currently, ACC employs 22 faculty members in exception to regular guidelines, she said.
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