Professional Development Committee

Professional Development Questions and Answers

  1. What is professional development?
  2. Who is eligible for salary advancement based on Professional Development?
  3. How can I find out more about Professional Development and Salary Advancement?
  4. What if I still have questions about Professional Development and how to fill out the forms
  5. How can I be sure my Professional Development Proposal (PDP) is complete if I want to take coursework?
  6. How can I be sure my Professional Development Proposal (PDP) is complete if I'm proposing to earn credits for Scholarly and Creative Works?
  7. How can I be sure my Report of Completion (Completion) is complete so I can successfully receive academic units for my coursework?
  8. How can I be sure my Report of Completion (Completion) is complete so I can successfully receive academic units for my Scholarly and Creative Work, including Conferences and Workshops?
  9. How will I know whether Mesa's Professional Development Committee has approved my Proposal or Completion?
  10. Is it true that I can only receive a certain number of Scholarly and Creative Works units to advance through each class on the salary scale?
  11. May I use more than 7.5 units per salary class of credit towards Seminars and Workshops?
  12. How can I be sure I've filled out my Sabbatical Leave Application the most effectively?
  13. Where should I send or deliver all official transcripts and paperwork that needs to go to the committee?
  14. Who should I contact about how my salary placement or how many units I've accrued?
  1. What is professional development?
    • Professional Development indicates what we, as faculty members, have done to further our knowledge in the disciplines we teach.
    • The Professional Development Committee (PDC) on campus is charged with the responsibility of verifying professional growth work that has been completed by faculty members so that they can advance on the salary pay scale.
    • What faculty members can do to verify growth in knowledge in their own particular fields so that they may advance on the pay scale includes coursework, scholarly and creative works, work experience, and participating in seminars, workshops, and conferences.
  2. Who is eligible for salary advancement based on Professional Development?
    • All adjunct and contract faculty.
  3. How can I find out more about Professional Development and Salary Advancement?
    • Go to the Professional Development Committee (PDC) website on the Mesa College website. There you will find information about what you're entitled to, what you should do to get credit, FAQ, as well as the various PDC forms themselves.
    • B. After exploring that site, if you want more detailed information, go to the AFT website.

      For more information about receiving salary advancement, go to "Contracts," then click "Table of Contents." Click on "Salary," ARTICLE VIII - SALARY, starting with A4.0 SALARY STEP AND CLASS MOVEMENT for information about getting credit for courses taken and for Scholarly and Creative Works.

      For information about Sabbatical Leaves in the contract, go to ARTICLE XVIII - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, starting with 18.2 SABBATICAL LEAVE.
  4. What if I still have questions about Professional Development and how to fill out the forms?
    • If you think you understand for the most part what needs to be included on the form, fill it in to the best of your ability and get it turned in with a little extra time before the due date. The PDC chair will look over your form to try to ensure it will easily be approved at the upcoming meeting. If she sees any errors or supplementary materials that are missing, she will contact you to provide these ASAP so that the proposal will be complete for the upcoming meeting. Otherwise, it may have to be tabled until you can furnish more materials.
    • If you still have specific questions, please contact the current PDC chair (Bonnie ZoBell). Please remember that the PDC chair is a faculty member, too, who teaches four classes and only has a small amount of release time to run Mesa's PDC. Therefore, it is not possible for her to have individual meetings with faculty members about their plans. Please read over the above available information before contacting her.
  5. How can I be sure my Professional Development Proposal (PDP) is complete if I want to take coursework?
    • Double check that all the signatures and dates are in place, including your own, before submitting it to the PDC or we will be unable to consider it.
    • If you are turning in a PDP for Academic Units, you must list on the application what school(s) you plan to take the courses at and what the actual course numbers are. You will also need to provide the committee with an official course description. "Official" means that it must be a copy of that whole page in the institution's catalog, copied either from the online site or a hard copy, with you circling the courses you intend to take. Please circle in pen because highlighting doesn't show up on the photocopying the PDC has to do for committee members.
    • Also remember that you can propose that you take any number of classes, even if you're fairly sure you're not going to take them all. This way, when various courses are offered that you want to take, you've already got approval.
    • The contract states that you may only receive 6 units or 2 classes (which ever is greater) of lower division courses during your entire career at SDCCD. It stipulates that the PDC and the appropriate dean approve based on the how these courses provide growth in the field the faculty member teaches in.
    • Lower division courses taken outside of a faculty member's field must receive prior approval from the Vice President of Instruction. Prior approval means that the PDC should already have approved it before it goes to the VPI, but that the faculty member also needs approval from the VPI before actually taking the course.
  6. How can I be sure my Professional Development Proposal (PDP) is complete if I'm proposing to earn credits for Scholarly and Creative Works?
    • Double check that all the signatures and dates are in place, including your own, before submitting it to the PDC or we will be unable to consider it.
    • Be sure that the kind of project you want to complete is listed in the AFT contract. Otherwise it can't be considered.
    • Be sure that the Scholarly or Creative Work can't be considered a part of your teaching job. This means that developing courses for your department, whether the classes are face-to-face or online, cannot be counted.
    • Explain the project and rationalize in the proper area on the form why it will help your teaching at Mesa College.
    • If you're planning on going to a conference/workshop/seminar, provide an official advertisement or notice for this conference. The more detailed the better.
    • You can give an estimate for now many hours you will put in to complete a Scholarly or Creative Work, or how many hours you'll be at a conference, but the real number of hours and units can't actually be determined until you've completed this and know the exact hours.
    • Remember, 30 hours of participation at a conference = 1 semester unit. You may receive twice the credit for those hours you present at the conference. You will need to indicate to the PDC on the Proposal and more specifically on the Report of Completion which hours you presented and which hours you participated. Any verification of this is helpful.
    • If you are working on a Scholarly or Creative project, you will need to estimate the number of hours it will take you to complete this project. Look in the AFT Contract for the number of units suggested for different kinds of Scholarly and Creative Work.
  7. How can I be sure my Report of Completion (Completion) is complete so I can successfully receive academic units for my coursework?
    • Double check that all the signatures and dates are in place, including your own, before submitting it to the PDC or we will be unable to consider it.
    • Be sure to write on the correct line of the Completion the date of the Professional Development Proposal that goes with the Completion.
    • If you're requesting units for academic classes, you need to write on the Completion the name of the university or college where you took the classes and the actual course numbers. You also need to supply official transcripts before the committee can grant credits. "Official transcripts" means that the transcripts should be supplied to the committee still sealed. You can have the University or College send the transcripts directly to you. Then, without opening them, drop them off still sealed at the Academic Senate office in A117.
  8. How can I be sure my Report of Completion (Completion) is complete so I can successfully receive academic units for my Scholarly and Creative Work, including Conferences and Workshops?
    • Double check that that all the signatures and dates are in place, including your own, before submitting it to the PDC or we will be unable to consider it.
    • Be sure to write on the correct line of the Completion the date of the Professional Development Proposal that goes with the Completion.
    • If you're requesting units for a Scholarly or Creative Work, you will need to submit a log of hours for completing this work with some specific information about what you did on various dates. Remember that 30 hours equals 1 semester unit. Look in the AFT Contract for a suggested number of units to request for specific types of work.
    • If you're requesting units for a seminar, workshop, or conference, you will need to turn in a copy of the official schedule for the conference with your Report of Completion. In addition, you will need to turn in a Log of Hours with the hours totaled and an amount of units requested. (Remember, 30 hours equals 1 semester unit. If you're a presenter for a segment of the conference, indicate which hours you were, and you're allowed twice the hours for that time.) If the conference lasts longer than 1 day, please do a total for each of the days and then a total for the entire conference.
    • Also remember when tallying up hours for conferences and workshops that you are allowed to count mealtime hours. In addition, you don't need to attend every single session of the conference in order to be able to count the hours for the entire day. It is assumed that faculty members are interacting with other experts in their fields at all times at the conference.
  9. How will I know whether Mesa's Professional Development Committee has approved my Proposal or Completion?
    • After the PDC has approved your Proposal or Completion, the chair of this committee will sign and date the attached signature page. A copy of the document signed by the PDC chair and supplementary materials will be returned to the faculty member.
    • The PDC will no longer be sending approval letters. This change will make it very important that faculty members read the "comments" section under the PDC Chair's signature. This is where faculty members will now be notified of any important messages connected to the approval. The intent of this change is to streamline some of the Professional Development paperwork and to respond to faculty members sooner.
  10. Is it true that I can only receive a certain number of Scholarly and Creative Works units to advance through each class on the salary scale?
    • Yes and no. You may only use 7.5 units per class on the salary scale. The rest of that salary class needs to be made up of other types of units.
    • However, that doesn't mean that if you receive more than 7.5 Scholarly for Creative Works during this time period you can't use all of them. Go ahead and apply for the units, and if approved, they will be "banked" by Human Resources at the District. Then you may use them toward the next class on the salary scale when you are working to complete units for that salary class.
  11. May I use more than 7.5 units per salary class of credit towards Seminars and Workshops?
    • Yes. You may complete entire salary classes on the pay scale based on units from conferences, seminars, and/or workshops.
  12. How can I be sure I've filled out my Sabbatical Leave Application the most effectively?
    • Double check that everything has been filled in on the application and that you have received all the correct signatures and dates on the form.
    • Completely review all comments about Sabbatical Leaves on the Professional Development Committee site and in the AFT Contract under "Professional Development."
    • Look through the file of successful past Sabbatical Leave Applications that have been compiled in the Mesa College Academic Senate Office in A117. The names have been removed to keep these anonymous. You may take notes about the sample applications, but you may not make copies of them.
    • Remember that any member of the Professional Development Committee can answer questions about Sabbatical Leave Applications.
    • Any member of the Professional Development Committee, given enough time, can also read through your application and make suggestions.
  13. Where should I send or deliver all official transcripts and paperwork that needs to go to the committee?
    • Official transcripts can be delivered in one of two ways:
      • Have the transcript sent to you. However, don't open the sealed envelope the transcripts are delivered in or the transcript is no longer "official." Deliver the unopened envelope to the Academic Senate Office in A117.
      • Have the transcript sent to the Academic Senate Office in A117 addressed to "Professional Development Committee."
    • All other paperwork should be delivered or sent to the Professional Development Committee in A117 at Mesa College.
    • Please do not deliver or send any PDC paperwork to the current PDC chair's individual office on campus as this becomes confusing with student papers and other discipline matters being dropped off and sent there. Thank you.
  14. Who should I contact about how my salary placement or how many units I've accrued?
    • These matters should be discussed with the Human Resources office at Stadium Plaza.