Personnel Services Committee

October 16, 2003

Members Present: Ray Bailey, Judy Benevides, Jean Braden, Gene Brown, Charlie Errico, Barbara Hathaway, Patti Hill, Joe Horobetz, Barbara Howard, Michel Marette, Ella Moore, and Ellen Wertman.

Members Absent: Kathryn Blackwell, Fran Emory, Gert Heslin, David Lavis, Kurk Lew, and Bill Schran.

Nancy Breed has resigned from the College and from the Committee.

1. Call to Order: Dr. Errico called the meeting to order at 2 p.m.

2. Review and Approval of the Minutes: Copies of the minutes were distributed at the meeting. Mr. Horobetz suggested changing the word "effecting" to "affecting." The minutes were approved as amended.

3. Chair's Report: Charlie welcomed the group, and asked Ray Bailey to see if there were a likely candidate from the classified staff at the Manassas Campus who might take Nancy Breed's place. Charlie also reported that he had placed an announcement regarding the President's sabbatical program in the intercom. He said he would also be sending an e-mail to all faculty. He asked the committee members to encourage faculty to apply. These sabbatical awards are among the College's highest honors and people should want to compete for them.

4. Vice President's Report: Ms. Baker reported that faculty would receive an across the board salary increase of 2.5% effective December 1. This increase would be delivered with the December 16 paycheck. The state appropriated funds to cover a 2.25% increase for faculty, but NVCC decided that it would give the higher amount based on salary savings estimates.

Alison also reported that classified staff would receive an across the board salary increase of 2.25% effective November 25. That increase would also be delivered with the December 16 paycheck. The College does not have the facility to increase the salaries of classified staff above the appropriated amount because the increases are automatic and generated in Richmond, not at the College.

The Administrative Council agreed to allocate funds for equity adjustments for classified staff. The equity exercise will have two components. The first will be equity increases based upon the recommendation of the classified compensation committee. The President will appoint the committee shortly and Fran Emory, a member of the Personnel Services Committee, will serve on it. Alison predicted that the committee would recommend distributing equity funds to staff based on a formula that works to bring employees up to the average salary in their cohorts. This would follow the work that was done two years ago when the College last allocated equity funding. The President is holding a small fund in reserve to deal with special problems that are not addressed by the formula approach. Such situations may exist where there is only one person in a cohort but there are other comparisons outside the cohort, or when a supervisor's salary is less than some of those supervised, for example. There may be other instances, as well.

Salary equity adjustments are permitted under the state's compensation plan for classified staff. Such increases are not authorized under the VCCS compensation plan for faculty.

Alison reported that the budget was in good shape for the year, and despite our failing to achieve our enrollment benchmarks for Summer and Fall Semesters, we do not expect budget reductions. However, enrollment for the Spring Semester is critical to the continued health of the budget.

5. Presidential Sabbaticals: Charlie asked the faculty subcommittee to consider times that would work for them to review the applications for the Presidential Sabbatical. There was general agreement that the Committee should meet on December 18 in lieu of the regular PSC meeting. Charlie will check the room availability. Patti Hill said that with the December 1 deadline for submission, she could distribute the applications of all qualified applicants sometime during the week of December 8. Faculty subcommittee members present agreed to check their calendars and be ready to establish the date at the next meeting.

Charlie reviewed the three major criteria used to select awardees:

Benefit to the individual

Benefit to the College

Uniqueness demonstrating the ability to go beyond what is generally expected of community college faculty.

6. Classified Emeritus: Alison reported discussing the program with Janet Bush who chaired the classified subcommittee last year. She said that the timing is similar to that of the Presidential Sabbatical. Nominations are due in the beginning of December and if the subcommittee does not act quickly, the awardees might not be listed in the catalog and might have their participation in the employee recognition luncheon confused. The classified staff members present agreed that holding a meeting in December at the same time as the faculty subcommittee would work well. That timing will be finally established at the next meeting.

Charlie Errico agreed to put a notice in the intercom along with the nomination form to alert people to the opportunity to nominate colleagues. The committee agreed that there was no reason not to continue to keep the process open to classified staff who had retired in the past, and that employees who had announced their retirement this year were eligible for consideration.

7. Enhanced Retirement Program (ERP): Alison reported that 18 faculty members have applied to participate in the enhanced retirement program. It appears that all qualified faculty who applied were recommended to the President for admission to the program. The President has until November 15 to inform applicants about their possible admission.

One issue did arise during the enrollment period. Some faculty who wished to retire in December 2003 applied for the program. The President is considering what to do with these applications. The outstanding issue is when do faculty need to apply if they wish to retire in December 2004? The Administrative Council will consider this matter at an upcoming meeting.

Faculty with questions about the ERP should talk to their division deans when considering the enhanced retirement program. Faculty considering retirement should contact Eileen Sorenson in Human Resources.

Alison and Patti Hill agreed to discuss the appropriate payroll schedule for ERP faculty.

8. Summer Schedule: A survey was conducted by Institutional Research concerning satisfaction with the special summer schedule used last summer. Some members of the committee liked it or knew many who did and others did not like it. There was some sense that special schedules should be available at the mutual convenience of the employee and management and should not be mandated. There were few savings generated by shutting down early on Friday because most teaching facilities continued to be used.

9. Part-time with benefits: New flexibility approved by the Virginia Department of Human Resources Management will allow individuals to receive full benefits while working on an 80% FTE basis. The idea in Richmond appears to be that some employees could accept a position that pays between 80 and 100 percent and work fewer hours. This would be a money saving device. Apparently this provision could also apply to an employee who worked 42 weeks a year rather than 52, giving the option for ten-month contracts.

The committee saw the potential of such a program if adopted at NVCC, but wanted to be sure that moving onto such an appointment would be at the option of current employees. Management should not be permitted to require it.

The potential applicability to administrative faculty was an issue with the possibility of offering such an appointment to assistant deans who often must volunteer their time in the summer.

10. Other Issues:

a. Ray Bailey will continue to serve on the Chancellor's Faculty Advisory Council (the FAC). It is likely that he will again be asked to chair the group. The first meeting is scheduled for November 13 and 14. Ray seeks suggestions from the College and the Committee for discussion items. He will report back about what went on at the meeting.

b. Members were urged to pay attention to the Executive Vice Presidential search and to attend the open forums. This is a critical appointment for the College, with the person appointed likely to have an impact on everyone who works at NVCC.

c. Committee members asked if we might discuss the policy of requiring hiring at the junior level at the next meeting.

11. The meeting adjourned at 4 p.m.