November 16, 2006
Members Present: David Babel, Richard Bautista, Myrtho Blanchard, Janet Bush, Charlie Errico, George Gonchar, Barbara Hatheway, Bruce Mann, Irene Osterman, Charles Scarborough, Bill Shannon, David Williams, and Nancy Wyatt.
Members Absent: Miguel Corrigan, Zina Jemison, Charles Kellerman, Mitch Markon, Jennifer Reynolds, Sherrill Wharff, and Keith Wynn.
1. Call to Order: Janet Bush called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. She explained that Charlie Errico was attending the Senate meeting and would join the committee as soon as possible.
2. Review and Approval of the Minutes: The minutes were approved as distributed.
3. Old Business:
A. Classified Emeritus: Janet Bush said that an Intercom article and an all faculty and staff e-mail had been distributed asking for nominations for the honor. Reminders will be sent out next week. The deadline for submission is December 1. The classified subcommittee of the PSC will meet in the Provost’s Conference Room on the Annandale Campus on Thursday December 7 at 2 p.m. to review the nominations and to frame the subcommittee’s recommendations to the President about the candidates nominated.
B. Dean’s teaching loads: Charlie Errico joined the meeting and reported that the College Senate had approved the recommendation of the PSC that academic deans be permitted to teach up to 10 credit hours a year as an overload. The recommendation will now go to the Administrative Council for consideration.
C. President’s Sabbatical: Charlie Errico said that the Faculty Subcommittee will evaluate applications for the President’s Sabbatical at 2 p.m. on Thursday December 7 in the Brault Board Room. There have been announcements in the Intercom and another will be coming out there shortly. The President has sent an all-faculty e-mail and another will be sent out before Thanksgiving.
Charlie reported that one potential candidate has asked if working half-time and stretching the sabbatical over two semesters might be possible. This candidate says that other commitments prevent taking a full semester off, while there is a project that would lend itself to such a schedule.
The Committee was mixed about whether this was a sabbatical
or not. Some argued for flexibility
while others believed there were alternative channels for a faculty member to
get the kind of leave that was being described here. Some thought that a sabbatical was
defined as a period of time away without the distractions of work. Myrtho Blanchard agreed to check the
policies regarding sabbaticals and to report back to the Faculty Subcommittee
before December 7. Absent a
contrary ruling, the Faculty Subcommittee agreed to consider this application
and to make a recommendation about it if it were among the three best. Charlie Errico was nominated for
chair. The nomination was seconded
and there being no other nominations, Charlie was elected by acclamation. Charlie was elected in absentia.
Members of the committee suggested that we might propose a NOVA research grant program for faculty, which would fit this situation better than a sabbatical.
D. Committee Membership: Charlie Errico introduced Charlie Scarborough who attended the meeting in anticipation of being confirmed by the Senate. Charlie will replace Deborah Boykin as the teaching faculty representative from the Annandale Campus. Welcome to the committee, Charlie!
Charlie Errico also said that he had recommended that Dan
Lewis, the new academic dean at
3. Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee: Charlie Errico also represents NOVA on the Chancellor’s Faculty Advisory Committee which had its first meeting of the academic year last week. Chris Lee, the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, described two new policy initiatives that had been approved which are available for adoption at the VCCS colleges.
The first policy would allow colleges to set a low or free tuition rate for College employees who wish to take courses at NOVA. This benefit would be available to a defined group of employees, including faculty, but also possibly including part-time employees including adjunct faculty. Currently, the College provides tuition assistance to faculty and part-time P-14 employees for work-related coursework only, and provides tuition assistance to full-time classified staff for non-work-related coursework as a lower priority.
This proposed policy change for the College will be considered by the Professional Development Committee, but the PSC could also express its opinion.
The second policy would allow a College president to grant free health insurance benefits to a faculty member as an incentive to retirement. This would be available at the President’s discretion to faculty members who are under the age of 65.
4. New Business:
A. Charlie suggested that the Committee take up the question of summer pay for assistant deans. He said that other VCCS colleges had approval for ten-month contracts for some teaching faculty with heavy administrative responsibilities in the summer months. Alison Baker said that there was strong interest in this in Medical Education where the assistant deans are involved in student admissions and supervising and scheduling clinical experiences. Other assistant deans have major scheduling responsibilities and are responsible for the recruitment and appointment of adjunct faculty. The Committee agreed to take this up next time.
B. The Committee continues to be interested in the former “Enhanced Retirement Program” whereby a faculty member could reduce his or her appointment to the college to 40% and receive retirement benefits from VRS. New federal retirement law (The Pension Protection Act of 2006) permits the distribution of benefits from a defined benefit plan to employees 62 years of age and older who continue working. Next steps in regard to the reinstatement of the enhanced retirement program will be discussed next time. Myrtho passed out a brochure from TIAA/Cref that describes some of the major changes to the law in regard to pensions.
Charlie said that he was interested in whether faculty members who wished to continue working but not full time might be permitted to job share. Myrtho Blanchard said she would look into that and be able to discuss that possibility at our next meeting.
6. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.