DCFA Welfare and Benefits Committee Meeting Minutes from Dec. 2 Now Available

Minutes of the Dec. 2, 2021 DCFA Welfare and Benefits Committee Meeting are Now Available at this linked file on the DCFA SharePoint site.

DCFA Update - December 6, 2021

Dear Faculty,

We hope your finals week goes smoothly!  Below are some important updates we have on some recent events and situations here at Dallas College. If you have questions about any of them, please reach out to your campus representative.

 

URGENT: BlackBoard test settings change

Tech support has confirmed a change was made to the eCampus/BlackBoard test settings that they (Dallas College tech team) did not know had been made. They are working to find out why it was changed and whether it can be returned to its original state, but in the meantime, this is to let you all know that you need to check your “test” settings for any final exams or other assignments you are giving through eCampus. If you use the “Force Completion” setting, but do not normally use the “Set Timer” option with it, the “set timer” option was automatically turned on and set to 60 minutes (so basically now the Force Completion setting cannot be used alone – it can only be used with the timer).  This is obviously a problem if your intent was to allow students more than an hour to complete that assignment, so you will need to edit the test options and change the time to something longer.  If you normally use both “Force Completion” and “Set Timer,” you should be fine, but we recommend checking to confirm your time length is still the length you selected, just in case.

 

Board of Trustees and Faculty Contracts

If you did not listen into the special Board meeting on Thursday, December 2, we strongly encourage you to listen to it before tomorrow’s Board meeting when they will vote to remove the rolling aspect of our contracts. The Board members were pretty open about their opinions of faculty and how they see us in this meeting, and it is helpful to hear it yourself rather than hearing what others take from it. Although a transcript is available, the transcript was auto-captioned live, so contains errors and doesn’t show who is talking, so listening directly provides a clearer picture. The meeting also shows how Dr. May and Dr. Lonon fit into their roles and how much power the Board wields over them. Please also notice that they specifically state that even if they leave in 3-year contracts as an option, the Board of Trustees will be looking to see them used sparingly, rather than as the norm for faculty contracts. Specifics of this intent would be built into the procedures developed in response to the new Board policy, so faculty need to pay attention to those processes and advocate for a voice in developing those procedures with administration wherever possible.

 

Please make plans to listen into the Board of Trustees meetings tomorrow as well. These meetings are open to the public, so if you want to attend, you are always able to do so. Based on how the last meeting ended, there is a possibility they will continue to discuss whether to shorten our maximum contract length to only 2 years if Trustee Flores brings it up again. They meet at the Dallas College administration building downtown (see the link for where and when).  The work sessions begin at 10:30 a.m., with the regular board meeting scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m.

 

Campus Holiday Luncheons

Please make plans to attend the holiday luncheon at your campus, even if you only stop in for a short visit.  For many of us, it is our first real opportunity to gather as a campus community since the pandemic, and I know it would be nice to see everyone.  Make sure to RSVP – the forms are still open as of this morning!

 

Adjunct Faculty Templates

As many of you have heard, there was a request from administration, primarily led by Terry DiPaolo, to have curriculum committees develop template for the “top 20” courses (those with the highest enrollment and number of sections typically offered each semester).  This request was made without inclusion of faculty in the development of the instructions, requirements or timeline and included a first deadline of December 17 for a significant amount of work to have been completed and decisions to have been made, all without compensation for the faculty asked to do the work. Faculty from the Curriculum Committees themselves, the Schools reps, the Faculty Association, and other groups reached out to various administrators questioning how the decision was made and why faculty were not included in developing the timeline and format for this development project, as well as how these templates would be used once completed (i.e. the “mandatory for all adjuncts” element that takes away their academic freedom).  Some of the curriculum committee chairs scheduled a meeting with Terry DiPaolo and Greg Morris on Friday, December 3, to which the other chairs of “top 20” courses and DCFA President Tommy Thompson and DCFA Vice President Margo Silva were also invited to attend. Minutes of this meeting were written and shared by Jennifer Siemantel, Chair of the Biology CC. As it stands right now, our understanding is that the December 17 deadline has been cancelled and the curriculum chairs and administrative leadership are planning to meet again in January to continue this conversation and develop a plan that addresses the stated need without sacrificing academic freedom or asking faculty to develop templates without proper compensation. Please reach out to your curriculum committee representative for more information if you haven’t heard anything from them and your discipline is one of those listed in the minutes file as having a “top 20” course.

 

Over-Enrollment Compensation

Over-enrollment compensation for any faculty who qualify will be paid in your December paycheck. You should have received an email from AST before Thanksgiving providing you with a link to review your over-enrollment calculations and report any errors you saw. A few faculty noticed that the “hold-harmless clause” did not appear to have been applied properly in their over-enrollment total and reported that error.  Dr. Greg Morris confirmed that the hold-harmless clause should have been used in these cases and AST is reviewing the calculations for all faculty to ensure anyone whose over-enrollment was accidentally miscalculated will be recalculated with the hold-harmless clause taken into consideration. For your reference, the hold-harmless clause refers ONLY to when courses were allowed to run with fewer than the normal course minimum due to documented need, so this miscalculation should only have affected a small number of faculty. For example, if a course whose normal minimum is 15 is allowed to run with only 9 students in it, the hold-harmless clause says that this section will be treated as if it did reach the minimum of 15 students. This clause exists because if Dallas College decided the course was necessary for students, the faculty member should not be penalized for agreeing to teach a course that did not meet the minimum. The clause says that this course will be treated as though it did reach the minimum, so the SACH (student ACH) should have been calculated as though the course had 15 students in it, not 9, when comparing to the course ACH for over-enrollment pay. 

 

New DCFA Council Members

Per an election held when the prior Eastfield campus Faculty Association president and vice-president stepped down, the new EFC president is Andrew Tolle and the new vice-president is Patrick Patterson.  Brookhaven campus Faculty Association president, Jennifer Allen, has been on temporary leave from the Council and her role as campus president since August 2021. Because she has decided not to return for the spring, and Peggy Mason, Interim BHC President, has decided not to continue in this role, Brookhaven will be represented on the DCFA Council by Josh Rose for the spring 2022 semester.

DCFA Welfare and Benefits Committee Makes Survey Available for Faculty

The following message has been written by the DCFA Welfare and Benefits Committee, for faculty to read in advance of completing a survey on a number of issues and concerns related to Welfare and Benefits. Please read the information below, and then select this link to complete the survey.

The DCFA Welfare and Benefits (W/B) Committee gathered input from faculty on issues they would like addressed. These issues have been put together in a survey to determine what the top 3 issues are for faculty. This will help in our efforts to address these issues moving forward with administration. 

The information below is more context on the issues we’ve received. In the survey you are asked to rank these issues and before doing so it is important you understand what each issue means. Please read below and utilize links to get a short introduction on each issue. Remember these are in NO particular order. 

After reading through, or if you feel like you already understand the issues, please complete the survey (linked here). If you have any questions please contact your campus W/B representative. 

1. Scheduling 

1. We have received feedback from many faculty regarding:

1.  inequity across campuses and disciplines in how courses are assigned and what courses are assigned. 

2. Addressing the no 100% online teaching 

3. Addressing the 118ACH of load must be taught face to face. 

4. Pursuing a more faculty driven scheduling of courses 

5. Pursuing a higher level of collaboration on what courses are offered and who is teaching them 

6. County Collin stipend pay for dual credit 

2. Administration 

1. Issues brought up involve

1. advocating for more Dean/Chair autonomy to address many of the issues faculty are having - if Dean/Chair had the authority to make decisions

2. Addressing the DC policy making process and asking for more transparency and involvement in the process 

3. Addressing new hire issues - faculty and adjunct faculty being hired without input from current faculty. Who is chairing the hiring committees, what’s the onboarding process etc. 

4. Investigating use of funds across campuses 

3. Compensation 

1. Compression - no increase based on compression in __

2. Incentive Based Pay 

1. Incentive-Based Compensation

2. Incentive Based Pay Recommendations from all DC Faculty input 

3. Premium Pay 

1. Issue raised of no longer being able to take during winter/may

2. Increase in pay for premium pay should be in line with adjunct increase, etc)

4. Range Advancement 

1. Faculty who have moved up 2 or more range levels have only received one increase in pay instead of the proper pay increase for each range level

5. Cost-of-Living Comparisons for COLA

6. Student loan repayment assistance program

7. Clear and transparent, year over year, salary advancement schedule similar to that or Tarrant and CollinCounty

4. Benefits 

1. Parental Leave - current policy only for faculty who have worked 3 years full time and only covers 4 weeks of base pay. Can not be used again within another 3 years. 

1. Parental Leave Reference Document

2. Sabbatical 

3. Social Security - currently DC does not pay into SS for Faculty 

4. Sick leave use and distribution - faculty currently do not have a sick bank we can donate into and can not specify who we would like to give sick leave to 

5. Vacation time - Faculty do not have vacation time as do PSS etc. Looking at equality of pay and benefits 

5. Adjunct Policies 

1. Currently DC does not pay adjunct healthcare nor TRS if we overload them (more than 3 pieces).

2. COLA for adjuncts 

6. Faculty Contracts 

1. Methods of achieving contractual security 

2. Receive payments for contracts and extra service contracts on time before classes have started 

3. Tenure tract contracts (interest in pursuing these that we currently do not have) 

4. Keeping our 3 year rolling contracts (board has expressed interest in getting rid of these) 

5. Pursuing scaled faculty contracts 

6. Collin College Faculty Compensation Model

7. Tarrant County College Faculty Compensation Model

8. Tarrant County College Tenure Policy

9. Tenure-Track

7. Pay Equity 

1. DEI and Wage Gaps

2. Intersectionality and Wage Gaps

3. Inequality of pay (some faculty making below minimums, DEI issues)

4. Increase FT pay - equity across fellow faculty and in line with requirements for pss and admin and state/nation/etc. increase when adjunct pay increases

5. Race and Gender Disparities

6. Compensated equitably by peers at similar institutions 

7. Competitive field stipends

8. DEI stipends to incentivize faculty with DEI skills and, over time, reduce Dallas College faculty DEI skill deficiencies

Minutes of Academic Leadership Meeting with Follett to Discuss Ongoing IncludED Issues Now Posted

The Faculty Council recently agreed to have Jennifer Baggett - who previously has served as an IncludED faculty champion for the School of ETMS - serve as the Council's liaison to attend a meeting between Provost Shawnda Floyd and other academic services leaders, and representatives from Follett.

Jennifer recorded notes of their Nov. 15 meeting, and those notes are now available for review in this folder on the DCCFA SharePoint site.

PDF of Excel Spreadsheet of Nov. 12 Convention Results Now Available

A PDF file of the Nov. 12 DCFA Convention Results is now available at this link.

The Council thanks the vote auditing team of Melinda Andrews, Sherry Boyd, Sheila Hyde, and Monica Narvaez of Michael Kim Legal, for their hard work. 

DCFA Annual Convention 2021 – Proposed Agenda and Key Information

Friday is our Dallas College Faculty Association annual convention. The proposed agenda has been posted in the DCFA SharePoint site. Please review the agenda and all of the proposed motions to amend the constitution, motions to amend the bylaws, and resolutions, before Friday’s convention begins.

WHAT IS THE CONVENTION? The DCFA is required to host one annual convention every year in early November. This is where the entire members (the “legislative body”) makes decisions about the DCFA for the year, including approving the budget and deciding whether to change our constitution or bylaws, etc.  This year, there are major changes to our structure and constitution and bylaws under consideration, so it is more important than ever that faculty members participate and vote.  If you have questions about any of the proposals, feel free to reach out directly to the authors listed as offering that proposed amendment or resolution. Take the time to read all the proposals and consider them carefully yourself before the convention begins.  No additional motions to amend the constitution or to amend the bylaws can be proposed at the convention, but resolutions can still be offered from the floor.

 

Please note: The DCFA Council plans to offer one resolution from the floor, time permitting, to extend the membership deadline December 3.  This is the language of that resolution:

 

Whereas, ongoing confusion with regards to the campus assignments of some faculty, particularly new faculty, complicated membership recruitment efforts by the Membership Committee and the Council;

 

Be It Resolved, this Convention votes to extend the 2021-2022 membership drive through December 3, 2021.

 

Be It Further Resolved, the DCFA MembershipWorks web site will be reactivated to allow faculty to join or renew their membership through Dec. 3, 2021.

 

 

If any members plan to offer a resolution from the floor during the convention, it must be submitted it in writing to the DCFA Secretary (Peggy Mason) and DCFA President (Tommy Thompson) before it is presented at the Convention in order for it to be considered.  We strongly recommend you submit your resolution from the floor by email to dccfa@dcccd.edu prior to the start of the convention to ensure it is received.

 

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: The DCFA Convention will be live, virtually, from 1:30 to ~5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 12 on Zoom. You can use this Zoom meeting link to join us or if you need the full Zoom information to call in or the password, that information is available in the DCFA Convention Invitation.  You do not need to attend the Zoom meeting to vote, but there may be early decisions made by unanimous consent (such as approving the agenda) that will only be made by those in virtual attendance through Zoom.  Additionally, if any motions, such as the agenda or new resolutions, or any motions to amend the current motions are made, an interim ballot may be required if those motions are not passed by unanimous consent. This may affect the timing of the entire convention, so I encourage you to at least log into the Zoom meeting for the afternoon so you can hear what is happening, even if you are working in the background.

 

HOW TO VOTE: The primary vote will be conducted in a single ballot through Microsoft Forms that will be sent out just prior to or at the start of the convention but will not become active until near the end of the convention when vote is opened by the chair. We anticipate the voting will begin around 4:00 or possibly as late as 4:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. All active members (voting eligible) for the 2021-2022 AY should receive a ballot by email on Friday afternoon, but you can reach out to your campus president or to your Convention Planning Committee representative for assistance if you do not receive or can’t find your ballot on Friday afternoon. Once it begins, the voting ballot will only be open for 45-60 minutes, so please be paying attention on Friday afternoon to ensure that you do not miss your opportunity to vote! If you are not in attendance on Zoom, please check in every 10-15 minutes from 3:30 p.m. onward until the ballot opens or ask a friend who is attending to let you know when the ballot opens.

 

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO VOTE, BUT CAN’T BE ONLINE ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON? You must designate your proxy in writing to the DCFA Secretary at least one hour prior to the start of the convention.  The DCFA Secretary, Peggy Mason, will accept proxies via a Microsoft Form beginning 48 hours prior to the start of the convention (so Wednesday, November 10, 1:30 p.m.) until 1 hour prior to the start of the convention (form closes at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 12). The full announcement and the form were posted in the preceding Advance Blog post.  Please note: If you can get online on Friday afternoon, you can cast your own vote – a proxy is NOT necessary unless you cannot get into your Microsoft account and cast your own vote on Friday afternoon when the vote opens around 4:00 or 4:30 p.m.  You do NOT need to be in the Zoom meeting to vote.

 

DCFA Standing Committee Reports Available to Review in Advance of Nov. 12 Convention

DCFA Standing Committee Reports are in the process of being posted to the appropriate Committee Report folders on the DCFA SharePoint site.

Here in the link to the Budget and Finance Committee report. Keith Baker is the ex officio chair of the Budget and Finance Committee.

Here is the link to the Membership Committee report. Tommy Thompson is the ex officio chair of the Membership Committee.

This folder contains minutes of several meetings of the Convention Planning Committee. Jennifer Baggett is the chair of the Convention Planning Committee.

Here is the link to the Political Information Committee report. Matt Hinckley is the ex officio chair of the Political Information Committee.

Additional links to the reports from the Welfare and Benefits Committee, the Instructional Goals and Academic Freedom Committee, and the Communications Committee, will be added to this blog post when they are available.

Procedure for Designating a Proxy for the November 12 Convention

The August 2021 convention created a bylaw change that allows members to designate an individual to cast a proxy vote on their behalf. However, you must designate your proxy in writing to the DCFA Secretary at least one hour prior to the start of the convention. If you can get online on Friday afternoon, you can cast your own vote – a proxy is NOT necessary unless you cannot get into your Microsoft account and cast your own vote on Friday afternoon.  You do NOT need to be in the Zoom meeting to vote.
 
If you cannot go online on Friday afternoon to vote and need to use the proxy option, you must ASK SOMEONE who is already an active member to accept your proxy before filling out the form. No member can hold more than 4 proxies, so ask them if they plan to vote, how they plan to vote (to ensure they are voting for/against the issue as you would) and whether they are willing to serve as your proxy.  Make sure they have not accepted more than 3 other proxies – no more than 4 can be held by any one person. After confirming the person who will accept your proxy, fill out the form below, and then let that person know you have successfully submitted your proxy designation, so they know to indicate that when they vote.
 
The DCFA Secretary, Peggy Mason, will accept proxies via this Microsoft Form beginning 48 hours prior to the start of the convention. This form will open on Wednesday, November 10, 1:30 p.m. It will remain open until 1 hour prior to the start of the convention, so the form closes automatically at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 12).  
 
One last note: If you change your mind and attend/vote anyway on Friday afternoon, your proxy will be voided by casting of your vote. However, this makes a ton of extra work for the auditing team who will be counting the vote, so please don’t fill out the proxy form unless you are certain you need someone to vote for you.

Language of Proposed Amendments to DCFA Constitution and Bylaws Now Available, Meeting Requirement for At Least 14 Days Advance Publication Prior to Nov. 12 Convention

The motions to amend the DCFA constitution, motions to amend the DCFA bylaws and resolutions submitted by the 30-day advance deadline for consideration at the DCFA Annual Convention on Friday, November 12, 1:30 – 5:00 p.m. can be accessed in this PDF file.  

This posting meets the requirements for public posting at least 14 days before the start of the Convention.  If you have not already seen it, here is the official invitation with Zoom meeting link to the 2021 Annual Convention. We hope you have joined the association (deadline is this Monday, November 1) and made plans to participate and vote on where you want the DCFA to go in the future.

Please review the motions and resolutions carefully before the Convention begins and feel free to reach out directly to the authors if you have questions about the content within them. We will also be scheduling virtual RoundTable discussions if the authors of each submission are available and willing to host a session, and we will post those dates here on the Advance Blog when they are scheduled.

Please note that there are two remaining issues with this set of motions:

• The first is how to resolve competing constitutional amendments if both were to pass (which requires a 2/3 or greater margin achieved by both motions). Although unlikely, we want to be prepared, so this issue is being discussed with the parliamentarian and other experts. There is one resolution currently included in the provided PDF file above that may be considered. However, if a solution is identified by the parliamentarian, additional resolutions “from the floor” or simple discussions of the suggested outcome (if a resolution is not required to enact it) may also be offered to address this issue. Although resolutions do not require the 14-day advance notice, the Council will post a resolution to the Advance Blog as soon as possible if a potential solution is identified that can be enacted through resolution so members have time to consider it in advance. 
  
  
• The second is the question is whether either or both of these constitutional amendments, if accepted by the membership, would affect our non-profit (tax-exempt) status and if so, how.  A tax attorney is consulting with the Council on this question and we will share that information as soon as we have it.

 

Invitation to Join DCFA Regular Monthly Business Meeting on Oct. 22, 2021

Tommy Thompson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Tommy Thompson's Zoom Meeting

Time: Oct 22, 2021 03:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/92872512939?pwd=L0FHeWZyTG50KytaeHZRRzJ0eXhYZz09

Meeting ID: 928 7251 2939

Passcode: 946339

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