September 23, 2004
Members Present: Judy Benavides, Gene Brown, Janet Bush, Myles Embry, Charlie Errico, Marsha Fisher, Barbara Hathaway, Patti Hill, Barbara Howard, Marjorie Kinnaman, David Lavis, William Schran, William Shannon, and Ruth, Stanton.
Members Absent: Fran Emory, Gert Heslin, Joe Horobetz, Lisa Stelle and Maxine Toliver.
Guest: Myrtho Blanchard
1. Call to Order: Alison Baker, Executive Secretary called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.
2. Introduction of Myrtho Blanchard: Alison Baker introduced Myrtho Blanchard, the new Director of Human Resources at NVCC. Myrtho described her background and talked about her hopes for her unit at the College.
3. Call for Nominations: Alison
asked for nominations for the position of chair. Charlie Errico was nominated.
There being no other nominations, the nominations were closed. Charlie Errico was elected by acclamation.
Dr. Errico took the
chair and accepted the printed copy of the faculty handbook that is the
privilege of the chair.
Dr. Errico asked for
nomination for the position of vice chair.
David Lavis was nominated. There
being no further nominations, the nominations were closed. David Lavis was elected by acclamation.
4. Review and Approval of the Minutes: The spelling of Judy Benavides’s name was corrected and the minutes of the April 15 meeting were approved as amended.
5. Establishment of Subcommittees: Charlie described the general duties of the two subcommittees of the committee. These subcommittees are created every year by the committee of the whole. The faculty subcommittee is responsible for the review of applications for the President’s Sabbatical and for the recommendation of applicants to the President for the award of the sabbatical. The classified subcommittee is responsible for gathering nominations for Classified Emeritus status and recommending nominees to the President for appointment to that status. The classified subcommittee also discusses issues applicable to classified staff and brings those issues to the full committee for discussion and action.
The committee unanimously agreed to create a faculty subcommittee and a classified subcommittee to work during the 2004-2005 academic year.
6. Date and time for future meetings: The membership discussed the times convenient to it for meetings of the Personnel Services Committee. All present agreed that 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon was convenient for them and noted that the attendance at this first meeting was very good. Alison Baker noted that if the meetings were to be held at that time, Lisa Stelle, Loudoun teaching faculty, could not remain a member of the committee. Charlie said he would work with the Senate to find a replacement, and Alison said she would contact Ms. Stelle.
Because of potential conflicts with the Curriculum Committee, the group agreed to meet on the second Thursday of the month, rather than the traditional third Thursday of the month. Therefore the next meeting will be held on October 14 at 2 p.m. Charlie will find a location for the meeting and inform the group of that.
7. Agenda Issues:
a. Faculty Salary Methodology: The committee is responsible for recommending a process through which faculty salaries are allocated among eligible faculty. The Committee has recommended the same methodology for the past eight years. However, in keeping with the findings of the Accreditation Self-study and in consideration of the higher than usual salary increases that appear likely for next year, Charlie said it might be time to consider allocating some of the salary increase pool to deal with salary compression that exists among faculty in the full and associate professor ranks.
b. Classified Salary Equity: Alison described the Administrative Council’s thinking regarding salary increases and equity. Employee salary increases was the Council’s highest priority for new funding at the College. The Council calculated the maximum salary increase that could be given teaching and adjunct faculty under the VCCS guidelines and decided to fund that increase. Administrative and Professional Faculty salaries are limited to a percentage of teaching faculty salaries, and so the amount that could be allocated to them was slightly less than could be given to teaching faculty, but just as with teaching faculty, the twelve-month faculty received the highest increase that was permitted under VCCS guidelines. Classified salaries are governed by rules and regulations set by the Department of Human Resources Management, so the only across-the-board increase that could be given was the legislatively established three-percent. Nevertheless, the Administrative Council decided to set aside a fund of 3.5% of the total classified salary pool to deal with internal and market equity issues among the classified staff. The College has appointed an outside consultant to evaluate internal salary data and to make recommendations regarding salary increase that should be funded from this salary pool. While the majority of classified staff will likely receive only a three-percent increase, the average staff member will receive a 6.5% increase after equity increases are applied to those identified by the study. Myrtho described the equity study and what she expects to see from it. The group agreed that issues of classified equity should be discussed and reviewed by the committee.
c. Classified Compensation Plan Issues: The classified compensation plan allows increases for staff who achieve degrees and certifications (KSA) in areas related to their jobs. NVCC has not adopted that part of the policy in its salary administration plan. Committee members asked who was on the Classified Compensation Committee and what the role of that committee is. Alison said that she would send members a roster of the CCC’s membership. The group agreed that the issue of KSA increases was of interest for the PSC’s agenda.
d. The Enhanced Retirement Program. Charlie reported that the VCCS had terminated the Enhanced Retirement Program (ERP) because it violated VRS regulations established to comply with IRS regulations. Dr. Templin has asked the Committee to work on this issue and recommend alternative programs that might work to achieve the goals of the original ERP. A subcommittee of Charlie, Patti Hill, Barbara Howard and Bill Shannon was formed to discuss this matter. The subcommittee will meet and bring recommendations back to the full committee.
e. Social Choice Options: The optional retirement program, which faculty may choose instead of the VRS defined benefit plan, has been streamlined and in doing this, the option for investment in a social choice mutual fund was lost. Many faculty were upset by this and they have asked the committee to do what it can to urge the program to reinstate a social choice option within the investment choices available.
8. Other business: Charlie reported that the search committee for the Woodbridge Provost had narrowed the field to three candidates and that interviews would take place on October 5, 6, and 7. There were 63 applicants of which 15 were interviewed via closed circuit television. Everyone is invited to take part in the interviews of the candidates at the Woodbridge Campus.
9. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.