Board of Governors statement concerning Faculty Credentials

At the September 10th Board of Governors meeting, Board Chair Scott Stewart provided the following statement regarding Faculty Credentials.

The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools is the accrediting body for Arizona’s college’s and universities. The North Central Association and other accrediting bodies have minimum credentials for academic faculty teaching in an Associate’s of Arts or Science degree program.   Previously, faculty at Arizona’s community colleges were certified by the State Board, and after it was dissolved, by the college’s themselves.

Pima Community College is now in the process of the scheduled renewal of its accreditation.  More than a year ago, the Board of Governors began addressing this issue of faculty credentials through an update to Board Policy 3001, and its related regulations and standard practice guide.  In that Policy, the College spelled out that its standards will be consistent with those of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning Handbook of Accreditation.

The College adopted those requirements as of last year.  The minimum credentials for academic faculty are either a master’s degree in the teaching field; a master’s degree in another academic area, plus a minimum of 18 graduate credit hours in the subject area to be taught; or in some instances without a master’s degree, 24 graduate credit hours in the subject area.

In adopting these requirements, the policy provided a grandfather clause for our fulltime faculty who had met the state’s and the college’s previous standards.

The recent approval of the federal Higher Education Reauthorization Act included additional enforcement responsibilities for the nation’s accrediting organizations.  Facing upcoming scrutiny of the College and its practices during our upcoming reaccreditation, the Board will enforce these standards to ensure that the College meets the requirements of its accrediting agency.