Department Chairs Council meeting minutesOctober 2, 2014
In attendance: Carl Sjovold, Marisa Agnew, Beth Forrester, Annette Barfield, Ginni May, Bill Doonan, Paul Estabrook, Mike Hunter, Jeff Karlsen, Tim Taylor, Mike Richardson, Doug Copely, Robin Roffey, Mel Duvall, Jon Zeh, Daniel Styer, Lonnie Larson, Debra Crumpton, Rachel Spangler, Mari Carmen Garcia, Kelly Gould, Grace Austin, Chris Seddon, Chris Daubert, Tammie Lane, Amy Strimling, Angela Block, Patti Redmond.
The “procedure” document we received today was circulated among members of another division. This item was included in a packet of documents distributed to faculty in a division last fall. This procedure seems to exist only in this one particular division. It outlines that 48 out of the 54 scheduled class hours with students must be held (representing 89% of the instructional hours). This is actually part of education code. Thus, 6 hours of the 54 can be missed (equaling two weeks).
Paragraph #6 was called into question, specifically relating to the substitute pool that it seems Dept. Chairs are supposed to gather. As such it is indicated that afaculty member who is going to be absent needs to go through this substitute procuring procedure instead of just being able to cancel class. This procedure has resulted in faculty coming to school feeling unwell. It essentially establishes the notion that faculty cannot cancel class. There was no faculty participation (or input sought) in the creation of this procedure.
Faculty in other divisions are not allowed to hire their own subs (or ask someone to cover for them). This effort is undertaken by their division office staff.
A clarification was made by Ginni that this conversation is about a “practice” or “procedure” not an actual policy (as those are initiated and approved by the Board).
A discussion was held over the workload involved in creating and maintaining a substitute pool.
Carl knows of no instance in which a group of students have lost their units due to excessive faculty absence. Ginni May indicated an anonymous example of another institution that was required to repay some apportionment funds for this reason.
One faculty example was presented where an adjunct instructor who did not fulfill the minimum qualifications for a subject covered an absent faculty member’s class and basically sat and talked to the students for the duration of class time.
Comment on “lack of faculty inclusion in policy development”.
Another question was raised about the final paragraph suggesting we schedule additional hours of instruction to make up for those hours that were missed. This is not allowed.
A reality is that some of our classes in the compressed calendar (due to holidays) are already missing time that leads them toward the 48 hour minimum without faculty absence.
Comment about how more and more decisions seem to be made on this campus that are not directly being made based on academics (instead based on funding,…)
Annette suggested that she and Ginni discuss this issue with the associated Dean and the VP of Instruction (Annettealready checked whether this was happening at other LRCCD campuses – it is not) before any other conversations occur. It was suggested that they talk with the Dept. Chairs in that division to work this as a local issue rather than letting it grow out of control.
If we see something of this nature occurring in our division, contact Annette.
Carl’s summary points:
- It is good for the college to have some manner of dealing with faculty having too many absences to stay within education code, but this is not the proper solution.
- In several divisions, this absence problem is not an issue. A “one-size fits all” solution is not necessarily the best way to deal with an isolated issue. Instead, perhaps the Instruction office keeps track of faculty absences. If a faculty member is nearing the max, the Dean has a conversation (on a case by case basis) with the faculty proactively.
- Attendees asked for a report from Ginni and Annette following their conversation with the VPI and the Dean of the division in question.
- Asked us whether we’d like to have the college devise a mechanism (at the managerial level) to deal with individuals who approach the minimum student face time hours due to absence.