Program Review: Full-Time Faculty/Adjunct Staffing Request(s) [Acct. Category 1000]
Unit: Fire Technology
Division or Area to Which You Report: Applied Technology & Business
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: William Robert (Bob) Buell, Jr.
Date: March 4, 2011
Audience: Faculty Prioritization Committee and Administration
Purpose: Providing explanation and justification for new and replacement positions for full-time faculty and adjuncts
Instructions: Please justify the need for your request. Be sure to include reference to Goals/Objectives from Part II, and Strategic Planning Priorities. Please cite any evidence or data to support your request, including enrollment management data (EM Summary by Term) for the most recent three years, student success data (EM Success report), and any other pertinent information. For EM data, go to http://help/EMC/ (from on campus—college intranet). If you have not worked with EM data previously, seek assistance from your division dean or CEMC rep.
- Number of new faculty requested in this discipline: 1 FT / 3-4 PT
- Rationale for your proposal. Include such things as enrollment, persistence, FT/PT faculty ratios, SLO assessment results, external accreditation demands, etc. Anything that led you to request this position should be included.
Full-Time
Due to the increasing need for firefighter physical conditioning of pre-employment students in the Fire Technology program, especially the Fire Academy, the Fire Science Conditioning courses need to be offered more frequently. We have experienced two student injuries per semester during the Fire Academy due to poor student fitness and undisclosed pre-existing injuries. The same instructor for the firefighter physical conditioning program is an integral part of the Fire Technology Introduction to Fire Academy course, teaching proper body mechanics for lifting, carrying and handling equipment in a manner to prevent injury. Currently, the qualified instructor is an adjunct working at maximum adjunct load, dividing instruction between Fire and Law Enforcement physical conditioning courses. A full time public safety (fire and law enforcement) conditioning instructor would be able to provide more instructional offerings of the fire conditioning program, as well as the law enforcement program. The additional fire conditioning time would be used to help our under represented students become more physically prepared to meet the rigors of the job as taught in the Fire Academy, and prepare these students to successfully complete the nationally recognized Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT) used by most fire agencies as an entry requirement for Firefighter positions. Also, the public safety conditioning instructor would attend key physical training sessions of the Fire Academy to assess the strength, endurance, stamina and overall conditioning of Academy and provide prescriptive training recommendations for students at risk of failure for manipulative performance assessments, thus improving student success in this area. This is the fourth year of requesting this position.
Adjunct
Due to a change in state certification requirements, the Wildland Firefighter Basic course (FT 91A) must have a current CAL FIRE Captain present during each class session in order to certify the students in Basic Forest Firefighter operations. The current primary instructor for FT 91A does not meet this requirement. Students who complete this training will be qualified to work on a California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection fire engine upon completion of the training. The lecture and lab hours for the course will not change from what has been approved, however, we will need to hire one or two CAL FIRE personnel as adjuncts to meet the new mandate.
Also, the recent change in the Uniform Fire Technology curriculum in California for Firefighter Safety and Survival training requires the use of certified instructors to teach the Firefighter Survival components, thereby reducing the liability to Chabot College when this safety training is delivered. It will take time to train the current cadre of fire adjuncts to meet the new standard. Therefore, we would need to add at least two adjuncts who currently meet these certification requirements to teach the lab components of this training for the next year to two years.
Professional Specialist – Fire Conditioning
If the full-time public safety conditioning instructor is not approved, then 160 hours of time will need to be approved (at $75/hour) to hire a qualified fire and law enforcement physical conditioning instructor to provide the needed skill development for the pre-Academy and current Academy students to reduce injuries, increase safety training, and support the retention of disadvantaged and under-represented students in the Fire Technology program.
Professional Specialist – Fire Fighter Survival
Due to change in State Fire Training Standards, we will need an additional qualified Fire Fighter Survival Primary Instructor, independent of the adjunct instructor, to evaluate our Fire Fighter Survival instructors as they teach the manipulative performance training of students. This evaluation is intended to protect the liability of both Chabot and State Fire Training to ensure the competence and compliance of our training and instructors. It is intended that this Professional Specialist is present for a total of 32 hours @ $50/hour.
SCBA Maintenance by Adjunct Instructor
The Fire Academy currently has self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) units worn by students during their firefighter training. These units were donated to Chabot College from Santa Clara County Fire Department. The units often need maintenance throughout the duration of the Fire Academy so that student safety is not compromised. The current SCBA instructor is qualified to performs the maintenance on 40 SCBA units each semester, at an average of 30 minutes per unit. As a specialist in this area, this instructor would need approximately 20 hours each semester to perform this work, plus an additional ten hours per semester should there be significant repairs beyond the routine maintenance. The rate would be $25 per hour for at least 40 hours, but not more than 60 hours total over two semesters. ($1500)
Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations Evaluators
The Fire Technology 91B – Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations course utilizes three evaluators per semester, in addition to the primary adjunct instructor, for a five-hour scenario component to assess how well the students apply the required firefighter competencies relevant to : personal and scene safety, isolation of the hazard area, notification of proper authorities, incident command, chemical identification and assessment, action planning, protective clothing selection, containment and control actions, protective actions for the public, decontamination methods, clean-up and disposal options, and proper incident documentation. The cost per evaluator is $12/hour. The number of evaluators is based on 1 evaluator for every 10 students, with a maximum class size of 40 students. The projected cost per semester is $180 (based on a full class) for a maximum total of $360 for both Fall and Spring semesters.
- Statements about the alignment with the strategic plan and program review are required. Indicate here any information from advisory committees or outside accreditation reviews that is pertinent to the proposal.
The positions requested are essential for the Fire Technology program to support the goals, strategies and objectives of the 2009-2012 Chabot College Strategic Plan.
The full-time public safety conditioning instructor, in conjunction with the Fire Technology Instructor / Coordinator, would be key to supporting Awareness & Access Objectives A2c [increasing completion for underrepresented students] and A4c [evaluate accessibility of course offerings and provide new configurations as needed] by modifying the structure and content of the conditioning courses, along with the time and frequency of course offerings, to meet the students’ needs to successfully prepare for and complete the physical training components of fire and law enforcement manipulative performance requirements. In the area of fire conditioning, this instructor is key to the Student Success objectives B1b [improve learning and success rates] and B3e [alternative delivery methods] through the offering of courses that integrate training components for active Fire Academy students along with pre-Academy students, yet vary with skill development needs of the students who persist in the Fire Academy sequence of courses. This position is also supports the Community Partnership objectives C2a [off-site partnerships with … community-based organizations] and C3a [increase engagement of student, faculty and classified professionals in the community] through the networking between fire and law enforcement agencies and addressing their needs in the development of potential candidates for employment through updated physical conditioning programs that meet local jurisdiction interests.
The adjunct positions requested primarily support the Community Partnership goals C2a and C3a, but more focused with CAL FIRE and US Forest Service (FT 91A) and State Fire Training (FT 91D – Firefighter Survival).
In the event that the full-time public safety conditioning instructor cannot be funded, the Professional Specialist would then need to be funded again for a third year. The same objectives listed above could be met with the funding of this position.
The Professional Specialist for the Fire Fighter Survival training is required to validate our course and the instructors to ensure student safety and compliance with State Fire Training standards, thus reducing the liability to both CLPCCD and State Fire Training.
Student safety is the primary purpose of the equipment repair performed by the SCBA instructor. This is a critical function within the Fire Academy since the breathing apparatus is used over an 11-week span of time each semester.
The Hazardous Materials First Responder certification course is essential for pre-employment and current emergency service professionals, so the accurate assessment of student competency in this course is crucial. Students who complete this course are authorized to function at the “Operations” level at a hazardous materials event, so to protect the liability of the college, we have qualified evaluators, independent of the instructor, to confirm that the students have achieved the required competencies for this certification.
- Attachments:
· EM Summary by Term report for the appropriate discipline or cluster of disciplines.
· EM Success report for the appropriate discipline or cluster of disciplines.
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Program Review: Classified Staffing Request(s) [Acct. Category 2000]
Unit: Fire Technology
Division or Area to Which You Report: Applied Technology & Business
Author(s) of this Unit Plan: William Robert (Bob) Buell, Jr.
Date: March 4, 2011
Audience: Administrative Staff
Purpose: Providing explanation and justification for new and replacement positions for full-time and part-time regular (permanent) classified positions (New, augmented and replacement positions)
Instructions: Please justify the need for your request. Be sure to include reference to Goals/Objectives from Part II, and Strategic Planning Priorities. Please cite any evidence or data to support your request. If this position is categorically funded, include and designate the funding source of new categorically-funded position where continuation is contingent upon available funding.
Justifications should include rationale for requesting the position. Rationale should include specific reference to, where necessary and appropriate:
· Data from student learning and service area outcomes
· Connection to program review
· Relationship to institutional priorities
· Impact on enrollment and revenue
· Safety
· Mandates
· Workload distribution (impact on other’s work)
- Rationale for your proposal. Please include the rationale from your program review and unit plan. Rationale should include things such as student learning and service area data and outcomes, difficulty in serving students, health and safety concerns and/or any other information that speaks to the criteria listed previously.
Learning Assistants – 8 positions shared across 13 courses
The 6 Learning Assistants currently used in the Fire Technology Program help to reinforce the manipulative performance techniques related to the Firefighting and Rescue skills as taught by the primary and adjunct instructors. The Learning Assistants are part of a cadre of 6 LA's across 11 Fire Technology and 2 Fire Conditioning courses that support certified training in Fire Fighter 1, Wildland Basic Forest Firefighter, Fire Fighter Safety and Survival, and fire fighter basic skills development for students training to apply for the State Fire Academy program. Learning Assistants are present during presentation of new psychomotor skills instruction, and work with students during practice sessions in preparation for manipulative performance examinations. The Learning Assistants help provide more individualized attention for students with mechanical aptitude deficiencies by guiding them through the operations and key points of the psychomotor training thereby learning skills correctly the first time, and practicing correctly during training sessions. The effectiveness of the Learning Assistants are assessed in two ways. First, the Learning Assistants are observed by the instructor, intermittently during lab sessions, reinforcing the manipulative performance instructions for the firefighting and rescue skills during practice sessions. Second, the Learning Assistants provide updates during the training sessions on the performance of the students so that immediate diagnosis of problems and prescriptive training recommendations are addressed immediately. Third, the students provide feedback on the effectiveness of the Learning Assistant through anonymous survey. These positions have been funded by the Learning Connection over the past two years.
Equipment Technician (Student Assistants) – 2 positions shared across 14 courses
Currently, there is one student assistant trained as an Equipment Technician to manage equipment at the off-campus Fire Academy. Since student assistants are allotted a maximum of 20 hours per week to work, the current Equipment Technician does not have much available time to help on campus. Currently, there is no one to manage the equipment used in the following on campus courses: Fire Conditioning, Firefighter Safety and Survival, Introduction to Fire Academy and Work Experience. Due to the increasing use of equipment by Fire Technology students, a greater amount of the Fire Coordinator’s time is directed to tool maintenance and equipment check-out/check-in. This, in turn, reduces the efficiency of the program coordination so that student safety is not compromised. Even with the availability of Learning Assistants to the Fire Technology program, the LA program has restrictions on the use of LA’s, and many of the Equipment Technician functions cannot be performed by LA’s. Therefore, a second student assistant is needed as an Equipment Technician for the on-campus courses.
- Statements about the alignment with the strategic plan and program review are required. Indicate here any information from advisory committees or outside accreditation reviews that is pertinent to the proposal.
Over the past four semesters, the Learning Assistants have been playing a major role in student succcess throughout the Fire Academy course sequence. The LA program has been so successful in helping disadvantaged and underrepresented students succeed in the Fire Academy, that the LA use has expanded to several pre-Academy courses to help more students prepare for the Fire Academy prior to enrollment in the Academy. Even the Learning Connection has used the Fire Technology LA’s as examples of successful integration of tutors in the classroom. The large number of LA’s may appear large, but averages nearly one LA for every 2 courses.
The Equipment Technician (student assistant) position is as essential to the Fire Technology program as those who work in the tool room for Applied Technology programs such as Machine Tool, Welding and Automotive Technology. When instructors have to stop class to obtain or fix equipment, learning stops. This past year, the Equipment Technician (student assistant), was vital in managing the equipment and resource needs at the off campus Fire Academy. Unfortunately, since the Fire Academy is conducted 9 miles north of the Chabot College campus, the student assistant could not take care of the on campus needs while the Fire Academy was in session, so the Fire Coordinator filled that void. A second student assistant / equipment technician would free up the Fire Technology Coordinator from the day-to-day equipment management and repair on campus, allowing for a more accessible person when this aid is needed – not when the Coordinator is available.
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