Ten department chairs requested consideration for 14 new or replacement faculty at the special Academic Senate meeting Wednesday.

Department chairs described the hits their respective departments have taken over the years, from enrollment declines to curriculum revisions. 

The nursing department requested two replacement faculty to avoid jeopardizing its agreement with the Accreditation Commission for Education and the Board of Registered Nurses. 

The program received a warning from the board due to having an insufficient amount of staff to support students.

“We are at risk of not having a nursing program at all,” said Sarah Orr, assistant professor in the nursing department. 

English department Chair Barbara Bell was requesting three replacements after losing five full-time faculty members since 2016.

After the implementation of Assembly Bill 705, which no longer requires students to take remedial English and math courses before taking transfer-level courses, Bell said the need for the courses did not go away.

“The demand is not shrinking, it’s just shifting,” she said. 

Due to the new Student-Centered Funding Formula, which bases about 20% of its funding on student success, the department is expected to get students through transfer-level English courses in one year. 

Bell said this is difficult since many students are not prepared for those courses.

“The classes that we know our students need, we are not allowed to require them,” Bell said. 

Other obstacles department chairs faced in looking for instructors were that adjuncts receive higher salaries from full-time professional positions in their field. 

There is also a scarce amount of adjunct and full-time faculty with a broad range of required credentials to teach specific courses. 

The senate will discuss the faculty rankings at its next meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 16.