October 14, 2004
Members Present: Judy Benavides, Janet Bush, Myles Embrey, Fran Emory, Charlie Errico, Marsha Fisher, Barbara Hathaway, Patti Hill, Joey Horobetz, Barbara Howard, David Lavis, Bill Schran, Bill Shannon, Ruth Stanton and Maxine Toliver.
Members Absent: Gene Brown, Gert Heslin, and Marjorie Kinnaman
1. Call to Order: Vice Chairman David Lavis called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. Chairman Errico arrived and took the chair.
2. Review and Approval of the Minutes: A comma was removed from the list of committee members’ names and the minutes were approved as amended.
3. Chair’s Report: Seminar Room A in the Ernst Center at Annandale Campus is available for all committee meetings from now on. Charlie will give the Center staff more information about set-up for the meeting.
Charlie will work up some publicity for the President’s Sabbatical program for placement in the Intercom and for e-mail to all faculty. He asked the Classified subcommittee to develop similar information regarding the classified emeritus program.
Virginia Ward has replaced Ray Bailey on the Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee. Charlie will ask if she can attend our next meeting.
4. Vice President’s Report: Alison said that the Administrative Council and the College Board had been working hard on developing the College’s six-year capital plan that will be submitted for consideration by the Legislative Assembly in January 2006. This will be a very ambitious and aggressive request looking toward construction of buildings to eliminate NVCC’s 500,000 square foot space deficit.
Interviews have been held for the Provost of the Woodbridge Campus and Dr. Templin has said that an announcement will be made soon.
The College’s budget is in good order despite the slight reduction in the College’s enrollment. Enrollment growth is a critical factor in the College’s strategic plan.
5. Classified Subcommittee Report: The Classified Subcommittee met prior to the full committee meeting. Several issues came up. Dave Lavis said he had asked Myrtho Blanchard about the different salaries being posted for vacant positions in the Trainer Instructor I classification. He had not heard back from her on this yet. Dave has also asked about the membership of the Classified Compensation Committee.
The subcommittee would like to get the results from the Segal Company’s questionnaire. We understand that more than 60 percent of the staff responded.
Janet Bush will lead the subcommittee on the Classified Emeritus program this year. They will call for nominations by the End of November. The group asked Patti Hill to provide a list of those who are newly eligible and a list of those who have been appointed to the Emeritus rank.
The group is interested in seeing policy developed around salary improvement based on the acquisition of new Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA).
Dave asked if local funds could be made available for a college-wide employee recognition program that would include P-14 employees. Alison described the brief history of employee recognition programs under relatively new policy adopted by the Department of Human Resources Management (DHRM). The Administrative Council decided that employee recognition programs were best campus or unit based and many campuses have adopted plans. These plans have to be in writing and on file in Human Resources. State funds may be used for bonuses and for other awards and recognition contemplated by these recognition plans.
Dave asked if there might ever be a raise that is based on merit for classified staff rather than one that is across the board for everyone doing satisfactory work. Alison explained that there is provision for that in the DHRM salary plan, but the Legislative Assembly must appropriate funds specifically for that purpose. Since the capability has been there, no funds have been appropriated for such increases. All increases have been across the board.
6. ERP Subcommittee Report: Bill Shannon, Barbara Howard, Charlie Errico and Alison Baker met and developed a proposal for the Committee’s consideration. That proposal suggests two options that the college might pursue in reinstating an ERP-like program. The Subcommittee recommended that the Committee go on record saying that a program like the ERP is valuable both to the College and to the faculty and the College should do what it can to see that an alternative program be created as soon as possible.
One proposal is to take the current ERP and eliminate the “prearrangement” provisions giving faculty a contract in consideration for their agreement to retire prior to the retirement, and to provide for an adequate break in service. The faculty member would announce retirement by a certain date and doing that would make him or her eligible for a special, higher-paying part-time appointment. The College would appoint eligible faculty to such an appointment to begin teaching in January at 40 percent of the prior year’s salary, assuming the faculty member retired in May. This program has the advantage of being within the VCCS’s power to create.
The other alternative is to ask that VRS create provisions through which faculty could reduce their current appointments to 40 percent and be eligible for retirement benefits. This has the advantage of providing a predictable and equitable system for faculty and complying with IRS regulations. It is also an established program in many states. The difficulty lies in affecting statewide VRS policy.
The Committee agreed that the appointment reduction program is the preferable one, but that both were acceptable. Charlie will write to the President telling him of the Committee’s decision on this matter.
7. New Business: Following up on the Self-Study’s findings that there is considerable salary compression in the upper ranks of the faculty, the Committee established a subcommittee to develop an alternative salary increase process that would allocate some portion of a salary increase to deal with this problem. Entry level salaries are more competitive with the market place than are the salaries of associate and full professors, which lag far behind the 60th percentile of our peer institutions. Ruth Stanton, who worked on the Self-Study will chair the subcommittee and Fran Emory and Bill Shannon will take part. Others outside the committee might also participate. The goal is to have a recommendation on salary increase administration that the College Senate could consider before the end of this academic year.
On another matter, Charlie Errico proposed that he should write to Bill Jackameit, Vice President for Finance and Administration at Piedmont Virginia Community College, about the social choice option for faculty enrolled in the optional retirement program (ORP). Dr. Jackameit serves on an advisory panel that established the options available to participants in the ORP. He has said that the decision not to include a social choice option among the investment categories was a close one and one that is likely to be reconsidered. He has made it clear that expressions of concern would assist him in trying to get this decision changed. The Committee agreed that Charlie should write a letter expressing the Committee’s endorsement of including a social choice option within the investment strategies available to ORP participants.
8. Issues for next time: Joey asked that the faculty handbook and its requirements regarding office hours be reexamined in the light of the increase in distance education, hybrid courses and the prospect of virtual faculty. Members noted that the Senate had embarked on a revision of the handbook but that there had been no report on progress. Charlie will ask Al Ross, Senate Chair, for a progress report and get back to the committee next time.
9. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m. The next meeting will be on November 11 at 2 p.m. in Seminar Room A in the Ernst Center, Annandale Campus.