Part-Time Faculty Handbook - Ventura College

The California Education Code and the California Code of Regulations state that you, as the instructor of
a college class, have the sole authority and responsibility to evaluate the students' performance in the
class and that, in the absence of fraud, incompetence, bad faith or mistake, your grades are final. [E.C.
76224(a) and Title 5: 55760]
The VCCCD Governing Board has established board policy and administrative procedures for grade
changes. Consult Administrative Procedure 4231 for details. A student who questions the
administration about a grade or grading procedures will be referred back to you. Should that not result
in a satisfactory resolution of the question, the student should meet with the appropriate Division Dean
and, if necessary, the Executive Vice President. If the student cannot resolve the grade in question after
these meetings, the student may file a formal grievance with the Assistant Dean, Student Services.
Instructors may initiate grade changes by petition to correct errors and award grades to replace
"incompletes." A Petition to Change a Grade form for this purpose may be downloaded from Faculty
Web.
Retention of Instructional Records
In order to comply with the audit standards of California Community Colleges, faculty records relative to
student academic performance, grades and attendance hours should be kept for a minimum of five
years after the year in which they were created.
Hours by Arrangement
Classes may be scheduled wholly or in part on an "hours by arrangement" (HBA) basis. Some such
classes may be structured as “positive attendance” and require that you report the actual hours of
attendance for every student on the final grade roster, while others may have regularly scheduled
meeting times plus a designated amount of time “by arrangement.” Please understand that it makes no
difference in record-keeping requirements. If you teach a class that has any time scheduled on an
“hours by arrangement” basis, you are required to keep a record of the actual time that every student
completes under the HBA portion of the class. These records must be clear and understandable to
someone outside the college, such as an external auditor.
For purposes of maintaining records that will meet requirements for audit purposes, it is imperative that
the college has information on file to verify that class hours are met as scheduled.
A daily record of attendance must be kept for each student enrolled in a class that includes
hours by arrangement.
Instructors must maintain hard copy records for a minimum of five years past the year in which
the records are created.
A copy of the attendance records should also be on file with the Division Dean, who must retain
and make the records available for audit.
The requirements and procedure for reporting positive attendance hours are included in the Guidelines
to Faculty Web Services publication that is distributed by the Registrar’s Office and available for
download on the Faculty tab of the portal.
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