An analysis of the North Carolina community college system policies and practices for part-time faculty

The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of the employment policies and practices for part-time faculty that are offered by community colleges. Along with determining these policies and practices, the study endeavored to determine if there were any differences in the importance as indicated by two groups of employees.

This study gathered usable data from 400 (69.4%) respondents classified as deans of administration and part-time faculty. These respondents were random from part-time faculty and all of the population for deans.

Significant differences in views on policies and practices were found between deans of administration and part-time faculty at the .05 level in the evaluation and staff development, employee compensation, and institutional support factors. The broad group of institutional governance was the only factor that was not significant. All 35 policies and practices selected through factor analysis to represent the 60 policies and practices included on the instrument in this study were found to be policies and practices that employees viewed as important. Overall, the policies and practices were rated higher by part-time faculty than by administration. It was also found that both groups of employees believed that opportunities for staff development should be provided for part-time faculty by community colleges.