January 15, 2004
Members Present: Ray Bailey, Jean Braden, Gene Brown, Charlie Errico, Fran Emory, Barbara Hathaway, Patti Hill, Joe Horobetz, Barbara Howard, David Lavis, Kurk Lew Michel Marette, William Schran, and Ellen Wertman.
Members Absent: Judy Benavides, Kathryn Blackwell, Gert Heslin, and Ella Moore.
1. Call to Order: Dr. Errico called the meeting to order at 2 p.m.
2. Review and Approval of the Minutes: The minutes were approved as distributed.
3. Chair’s Report: Charlie Errico welcomed the group and said that his report would be covered in the discussion of the Presidential Sabbatical program later in the agenda.
4. Vice President’s Report: Alison Baker described the NVCC and VCCS legislative agenda and explained how it is tied to hopes for tax reform. She talked about the implementation of the new SIS and the challenges that staff in many offices are dealing with. She described the report of the HR consultants.
5. Chancellor's Faculty Advisory Committee: Ray Bailey reported on the recent meeting of the CFAC. Ray has been returned as the committee chair. The VCCS legislative agenda includes action of faculty salaries and on enriching the full-time part-time mix of teaching faculty. Neither of these issues appears to have much of a chance in the current environment.
The group focused on "Dateline 2009," the VCCS six-year strategic plan. The Chancellor is advocating a uniform faculty evaluation process across the entire system. This could be an issue for the PSC to discuss.
The AAUP has lifted the sanction imposed when the system abolished tenure. This was done on the assurance of adequate faculty protection without tenure. There is some interest in what that protection is.
The Chancellor wants to expand and make mandatory the master teacher program for new faculty.
The Chancellor is interested in expanding dual enrollment and middle college programs, both of which could impact NVCC.
6. Old Business:
A. President's Sabbatical Program: Charlie Errico reported that the Faculty sub-committee met on December 18 and selected three finalists to recommend to the President. The President approved the sub-committee's work and the winners were announced at Faculty cross-campus day. There were 16 very good proposals to evaluate and this was the hardest year for the sub-committee to come to consensus about the top three. At the end, everybody was happy with those selected. The winners are Connie Elsberg, Laura Noell and Mark Whitmire. The quality of the faculty becomes very clear in cases like this.
The faculty handbook will be changed to reflect that the President's Sabbatical Program is now a regular component within the College's professional development program. It is no longer a pilot program.
B. Classified Emeritus Program: Dave Lavis reported that the Classified sub-committee met to review nominations for the Classified Emeritus program. Nine people were recommended for induction to the emeritus group.
C. Enhanced Retirement Program: Alison Baker brought proposals for change to the description of the Enhanced Retirement Program intended to set a deadline for faculty to apply for the program if they intend to retire at the end of Fall semester, rather than at the end of Spring. The proposed deadline is February 28. This date will permit division deans to plan next year's program and fits in to the College's recruitment schedule. The Committee agreed that the date was acceptable.
7. New Business:
A. Faculty Salaries: The question is whether the College should continue to distribute faculty salaries as it has in the past or whether it should use salary increase funds to deal with the salary compression that was described in the recent self-study. There was some lively discussion of this topic, and it was agreed to keep it on the agenda.
B. Nine and Twelve-month Payroll for Teaching Faculty: The question is whether the College should return to allowing new faculty to opt for 12 or nine-month payroll, rather than standardizing on the 12-month system. The Committee was unanimous that new faculty should have a choice of the two systems, and that those who had not been given a choice on hiring should be given the opportunity to opt for nine-month pay.
C. Health Benefits for Adjunct Faculty: Alison Baker brought an idea through which adjunct faculty and others without health insurance could get such insurance at a low cost. That is that part-time employees could register and attend College courses and thereby qualify for the student health insurance program. Information on the program is available in the student affairs area of the College web site.
8. The meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.