Personnel Services Committee

April 15, 2004

 

Members Present: Ray Bailey, Jean Braden, Gene Brown, Charlie Errico, Barbara Hathaway, Joe Horobetz, David Lavis, Kurk Lew, Michel Marette, Ella Moore, William Schran and Ellen Wertman.

 

Members Absent: Judy Benavides, Kathryn Blackwell, Fran Emory, Gert Heslin, Patti Hill, and Barbara Howard.

 

1.  Call to Order:  Dr. Errico called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.

 

2.  Review and Approval of the Minutes: The date on the minutes was wrong and was corrected and then the minutes were approved as amended.

 

3.  Chair’s Report:  Charlie Errico reported that Jenny Graves will acquire further information regarding the faculty externship concept and will bring the proposal back to the committee next year.  Charlie also reported that he had not heard back from President Templin regarding whether new faculty could have the choice of either nine or 12-month pay. 

 

4.  Vice President’s Report:  Vice President Baker said that the Human Resources Director’s search was starting with interviews expected in late May or early June.  Dave Courter is chairing the search committee.  The budget situation in Richmond is looking more favorable for Community Colleges, but there is much that needs to be resolved before the special session ends.  The State Board for Community Colleges is expected to approve a tuition increase, so that there should be new resources available for critical priorities for the first time in a long time.  It is looking increasingly likely that there will be salary increases in the two to three percent range.

 

There are three excellent candidates coming to interview for the Executive Vice President position.  It looks like the search will be a success this time around.

 

5.  Old Business: 

 

A.  VCCS proposed common faculty evaluation:  Ray Bailey was delayed due to interviews with the EVP candidates, so the question of the proposed common evaluation was postponed until he could join the group.

 

B.  Faculty Recognition Program:  The committee agreed that faculty should be included in College recognition programs such as those that were being adopted in various campuses and units for classified staff.  Charlie agreed to lead an effort to develop options for recognition next year.

 

6.  New Business:

 

A.  Faculty Salary Increase Methodology:  Copies of the methodology for allocating faculty salary increases in the recent past was distributed and discussed.  The members agreed to recommend using this same process should there be an increase next year.  Members said that so long as the amount to be distributed is small, the process should be as even-handed as possible.  Members also expressed concern that increases are effective in December.  Most agreed that increases should go into effect at the beginning of the contract year.

 

B.  Issues for Next Year’s Committee:

 

The following issues were suggested:

 

1.  Recommending recipients for the President’s Sabbatical

2.  Recommending retirees for the Classified Emeritus rank

3.  Student fees for art and science classes, fees for transcripts, charges for copying

4.  Faculty salary methodology in regard to salary compression

5.  Adjunct faculty salaries and working conditions

6.  Social Choice options in the Optional Retirement Program

7.  The Enhanced Retirement Program

8.  Faculty recognition

 

Back to Old Business:

 

Ray Bailey joined the group.  He said the possibility of a common faculty evaluation is not imminent.  He then described the most recent meeting with the Chancellor of the Faculty Advisory Committee, which Ray chairs.  At that meeting the members all agreed that they would devote the entire meeting with the Chancellor to the issue of faculty salaries.  He spoke of the disaffection of the faculty system wide and about the problem of having fallen to salary averages that are only 27% of peer’s salaries.

 

This got the Chancellor’s attention and he promised to try to do something about it.

 

The Committee thanked Ray for his outstanding contributions to the College through his service on the Chancellor’s FAC.

 

7.  Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 3:25 p.m.