Flex Updates for Fall 2023
Reminder for classroom faculty regarding Flex obligation and reporting attendance:
- Flex requirements for full-time classroom faculty are six hours of regular and six hours of mandatory (Friday Convocation) each semester.
- Overload Flex obligations must be met in the semester for which payment was received.
- Full Time faculty with overload teaching fully online (asynchronous and synchronous) do not have a flex obligation for the overload assignment/component.
- Full Time faculty with overload teaching face-to-face or hybrid class(es) that meet on Thursdays or Fridays do have a flex obligation for that assignment in Fall 2023.
- Overload Flex obligations must be met in the semester for which payment was received.
- Adjunct faculty teaching a fully online class(es), asynchronous or synchronous, do not have a Flex obligation for that assignment in Fall 2023.
- However, adjunct faculty teaching a face-to-face or hybrid class(es) that meet Thursday or Fridays do have a Flex obligation for that assignment in Fall 2023.
- Flex obligations must be met in the semester for which payment was received.
How to Report Your Flex Hours
Flex reporting for CRC is an online process. Deadline to submit Flex attendance is one week before the end of the semester.
If you are full-time faculty and have an absence during convocation, an absence report should be turned in to your dean. Flex reporting must be completed one week before the end of each semester. Failure to complete your Flex obligation will result in a loss of pay at the end of the appropriate semester.
All full-time faculty have a Flex obligation. Each faculty member has a minimum obligation of 12 hours per semester; 24 hours per academic year. Attendance at the Friday events (convocation and area meetings) is mandatory and accounts for six hours each semester. Conferences and other activities during the semester can fulfill the other six hours of obligation per semester. This 24 hour-obligation must be completed within the academic year, July 1 to June 30. In addition, full-semester overload classes held on Thursdays or Fridays may generate an additional Flex obligation equaling the total number of hours taught on both of those days. This obligation is noted on your TCS. Overload Flex obligation must be completed during the semester in which payment is received.
Non-classroom faculty do not have to attend flex activities. Non-classroom faculty are encouraged to attend flex activities and count these toward college service. Please note that non-classroom faculty may have a Flex obligation if they teach overload, which will be noted on the TCS for that overload assignment. Convocation is not mandatory for non-classroom faculty, but attendance is highly encouraged if possible.
Adjunct (part-time) faculty have an obligation based on the number of hours taught in a full-semester class on Thursdays and/or Fridays each semester. During a semester, if an adjunct doesn’t teach on Thursdays and/or Fridays, then there is no obligation for that semester. Flex obligation is noted on your TCS and must be completed during the semester in which payment is received.
- Full-time faculty must report their required convocation day activities each semester. Individual activities should be reported during the semester in which they occur, but need to be accounted for by the end of the academic year. Failure to complete required hours will result in a loss of pay.
- Adjunct faculty not able to fulfill their Flex obligation receive a Loss of Pay absence report at the end of the semester equivalent to the number of lecture and/or lab hours they would normally teach in a full-semester class on a Thursday and/or Friday.
If I miss all or a portion of the Convocation day, how is my absence calculated (full-time faculty only)? All full time faculty (except counselors scheduled to meet with students that day) are required to attend all activities scheduled on the day of convocation. Full-time faculty absences will be calculated by multiplying the total number of hours missed for the day by .7116. The .7116 multiplier represents the 4.27 hours of a “regular” faculty day used for attendance purposes divided by the six hour Flex day obligation. As a result, a full-time faculty member missing the entire day would report 4.27 hours on their absence report. Note: If an absence form is not submitted or not approved you will receive a loss of pay.
An individual professional development activity is an activity which addresses an instructional improvement need and cannot be accomplished within normal working times. It should be above and beyond normal duties and responsibilities as outlined in board policy and Collective Bargaining Agreements. Faculty may not receive credit for activities taking place during their regularly scheduled work hours.
An appropriate individual professional development activity should:
- Occur during weekends or holidays, or otherwise outside normal working times.
- Be something that is normally not done because it is too difficult to find the time, or the equipment, or to get people together.
- Address some critical assignment-related need such as updated subject matter, new teaching methods, major revision of classroom materials, major curriculum review, new matriculation or retention strategies development, articulation with other departments on campus or with transfer institutions, or organizational development needs.
- Foster professional growth through participation in conferences, seminars, workshops, research, publishing, or in advising students or faculty.
An individual professional development activity should not:
- Require being excused from class, office hours, etc.
- Be a repeat of an activity regularly scheduled during the normal work week, such as department meetings.
- Include any part of routine day-to-day activities, such as paper grading, term paper reading, test construction, interview or standing committees, textbook examination, or preparation of lecture notes.
- Be anything for which remuneration could be received.
What is Flex?
The word Flex is derived from the term “FLEXible Calendar,” a phrase coined by the State of California to describe the process and guidelines by which the community colleges would establish their academic calendars. Community colleges can add up to 15 days of professional development activities each year to the time needed to meet required contact hours for classes. No college has scheduled 15 extra days in their calendar for professional development and a recent survey indicates that the average is approximately 5 days per year.
The Thursday and Friday prior to the start of instruction are designed as Flex Days and are a contractually compensated part of the academic calendar. The professional development activities scheduled on these days are open to all employees and provide opportunities for full- and part-time faculty to fulfill their instructional improvement (Flex) obligation. The Flex obligation for part-time/overload instructors, which is noted on the Tentative Class Schedule (TCS), equals the number of instructional hours that would have been scheduled if instruction had occurred on the two Flex Days. All full-time faculty are required to attend Friday’s activities in the fall and spring semesters, which include convocation, lunch, departmental and area meetings, as part of their 24 hour annual Flex obligation.
For past Flex video recordings, check out the Center for Professional Development's YouTube channel.
2023-2024:
2022-2023:
2021-2022:
2020-2021:
2019-2020:
2018-2019:
2017-2018:
2016-2017: