February 19, 2004
Members Present: Ray Bailey, Judy Benavides, Charlie Errico, Fran Emory, Barbara Hathaway, Patti Hill, Joe Horobetz, Barbara Howard, Ella Moore and Ellen Wertman.
Members Absent: Jean Braden, Gene Brown, Kathryn Blackwell, Gert Heslin, David Lavis, Kurk Lew, Michel Marette and William Schran.
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 he had nothing new to report.
4. Vice President’s Report: Alison Baker said that Diane Kownacki had resigned as Director of Human Resources. She asked members of the committee to advise her as to people who could bring depth to a search committee, and she said that Dr. Errico would be asked to serve on the committee representing the PSC. Alison said that staff had worked very hard through the registration period with the problems posed by the new student information system. The system is not capable of providing accurate information about our student enrollment and it has not been able to run routines for dropping students for non-payment. This means that the College is not certain how many students are enrolled this semester. This year’s budgets depend on this question. Some reductions have already been taken and more are likely. Next year, enrollment reductions could require further budget reductions. While the word is good about new support coming from Richmond to the community colleges, this depends on a budget compromise that may be hard to achieve. The College will keep its options open until the state’s budget processes are further along.
5. Old Business:
A. Inclement Weather Closings: Charlie
suggested that when bad weather forces delayed openings on Tuesdays or
Thursdays, that the opening hour be selected in part based on when classes
begin. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
an on-the-hour opening time works. On
Tuesday and Thursday, classes tend to be longer with start times at 9:30 and 11
a.m. A 10 a.m. opening time leads to
real uncertainty regarding 9:30 classes.
Alison said that she would take that into consideration.
B.
Contract Employees
Working Conditions: Alison said that someone had raised a
question about the pay and working conditions of the people who work for the
College’s contractors, such as the janitorial workers, the food service workers
and the bookstore workers. Alison said
that according to the contracts, the employers must observe the Fair Labor
Standards Act and all other applicable Federal and State law regarding
employment.
C. New Faculty Hiring Ranges: The limitations on new faculty salaries have raised concern among faculty, program heads and division deans. There are some instances in which entry-level appointments are inappropriate. Patti Hill and Alison explained that the salary approved for Fall 2004 allows the appointment of an assistant professor with some experience and the appointment of an instructor with considerable experience. The salary is competitive with what other institutions in our area are paying new faculty. President Templin agreed to hold eight positions for appointments beyond the entry level, and the provosts requested only five of those special slots, so there was satisfactory flexibility so far as the provosts were concerned.
Members of the committee suggested that major reforms of the VCCS faculty salary policies might be in order.
6. New Business: Faculty Recognition
Barbara Saperstone
asked the committee to look into including faculty in the recognition programs
that are available to classified staff under new DHRM policies. Alison described the employee recognition
program that her unit has adopted and said that several campuses had adopted
similar programs. Annandale Campus
adopted a recognition program along similar lines. However, administrative and professional faculty, who work under
very similar conditions to the classified staff, are not eligible for the same
benefits, particularly the benefit of bonus leave.
Patti Hill said that
she had a conversation with VCCS staff who said that the VCCS might be
receptive to a recognition program that covered faculty and suggested NVCC
might draft such a program as a pilot.
The VCCS staffer suggested that there would have to be a single
recognition program for all VCCS faculty.
Charlie Errico
agreed to put together a small subcommittee of the committee to consider this
matter further. Patti Hill agreed to
support the subcommittee’s work.
7. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at
3:50 p.m.