Can you explain how that would prevent the facilities with the greatest need being mandatory? If more desirable facilities are chosen, the less desirable ones will be mandatory sooner than later, that’s the sole purpose of the mandatory system. I still think they should just make a higher % of the 2x # of graduates mandatory instead of all.
While the agency controls the right to hire, NATCA did influence the new change. This originated from the NCEPT and the pressure smaller level up/down facilities (Level 5/6/7) placed on the leadership running the NCEPT. This returns the process back to what it originally was.
The Reasoning
As others have stated, whether you realize it or not yet, the terminal placement list is updated continuously based on data from the staffing workbook. A facility could be 35, then 26, then 13, then 6, then 82. This happens quite often.
How does that happen?
NCEPT - The facilities in the worst shape are the 5 and 6 up/downs where training time can take upwards of 2+ years due to waiting for traffic/volume. They also have higher staffing numbers due to having more positions to operate. This can effect them in a number of ways.
EX. Lets say their projected staffing is 82%. They cannot release on the NCEPT and they're inching closer to receiving a body from the academy. Then an NCEPT panel happens, a stand alone tower with a CPC count of 11 releases 1 person, their projected % now drops from 87% to 78%. Guess who just got jumped on the next terminal placement list? Rinse and repeat. The same can be said for all other types of losses (hardships, FLM's, quitting, TMC, etc).
Believe it or not, this will help facilitate more movement in some of these hard to staff facilities. For all those at the academy, you're going to want that down the line.
In reality, when you stop and consider it, the change will effect the first class. After that, the percentages of "desirable" facilities on a list will stay relatively consistent. You can go back and look at previous placement lists. Assuming 10 people passed, the majority of the slots taken prior to mandatory selection were in the 11-20 range as the least desirable facilities left from the class before filled the 1-10 range. With each class exhausting a list, you should still see the same percentage of desirable facilities to choose from down the line.