Premium Pay Error for Summer 1 2023

Last Friday, the DCFA Council became aware of an error with Premium Pay calculations for some faculty teaching this summer.  Once we alerted Payroll, HR, AST, and Operations Administration, everyone kicked into high gear to determine the cause and severity of the issue. 

Here is what we know

• Around 132 faculty were impacted with only a partial amount of their premium pay for summer teaching processed for June payroll.
  
  
• Impacted faculty were emailed directly by HR to note the error, how much the error came to monetarily (this was added after urging by the DCFA Council), and when the missing amount can be expected to hit affected faculty’s bank accounts.  Initially the presumption by HR and Payroll was that this error would not be corrected until the end of July (ie. during the next regular pay period), but we are now hearing it might be as soon as July 10th.
  
  
• If you received such an email, please double-check it against what is shown in WorkDay under the PAP (Period Activity Pay) and if you find any discrepancies, please reach out to Compensation@DallasCollege.edu (and feel free copying your campus DCFA President if you are so inclined). 
   
• If you did not receive an email, you are unaffected by this error (but it never hurts to double-check the PAP in WorkDay to be sure.)

This is, obviously, a huge issue, and one the Council worked on as fast as possible, including during a busy week involving the two-day Board of Trustees budget planning sessions and our own day-long DCFA Retreat on Thursday. 

How to check your Premium Pay and Summer Pay in WorkDay

For general information, here is how Premium Pay and Summer courses are now being listed in WorkDay/PAP and how to check them:

 

First, login to WorkDay and then click “Menu” at the upper left.  

 

On the popup menu, select “Benefits and Pay.”  In the Benefits and Pay screen, the PAP should appear at the bottom right (labeled as “Current Period Activity Pay”).

 

Unlike under the old Payroll Preview tool, the PAP breaks down summer teaching into two categories: the Premium Pay calculation itself (listed as “PREM-PAY” in the screenshot) and any summer sections taught (listed as “SUPP-EMP-CONT”).

 

 

 

As you can see in my example, I am teaching two Summer 1 sections currently at $2,784 each, and then the Premium Pay for BOTH totals $2,232.

 

If you click the blue link at the bottom of that widget (“View All Period Activity Pay”) you find a further articulated breakdown:

 

This view only shows my two Summer 1 sections, but the far right columns of “Scheduled Date” and “Paid Date” indicated when I can expect to receive these amounts in which paycheck.

 

We hope this helps, both generally with navigating the confusing world of WorkDay, and specifically for any faculty directly impacted by this Premium Pay error.  As always, reach out to the DCFA Council and/or your specific campus President with further questions and concerns.

Summer Updates: Contracts, Extra Service, and Brightspace Transition

As summer progresses, the DCFA Council continues to work for you!  Specifically, we wanted to make everyone aware of information regarding contracts, pay, and scheduling as well as the imminent shift to Brightspace as our new LMS.

No Summer Contracts and the PAP

Most of you are probably aware by now that after spring break, extra service contracts (or the SEA contracts as they used to be called) were phased out and the new way to see our extra service pay was through WorkDay and the PAP (Period Activity Pay).

This, we all know, has a ton of issues: first, the PAP only appears if you *have* extra service. Moreover, it only correctly shows your extra service pay–including Premium Pay–upon receiving the first paycheck with that pay in it.  It's on the back-end rather than the front-end, making checking it and even budgeting incredibly difficult.  The Council has made this known to anyone who will listen.

The possible silver lining…DCFA Vice President Jennifer Siemantel is participating in “Break Fix Payroll and Compensation,” an all-day meeting where she will be representing the faculty in July.

That said, some important things to know:

• New practice: Premium Pay was applied automatically to any full-time faculty teaching in Summer for the first courses taught that were applicable. No request had to be made. (If you were told otherwise, please let your campus FA President know!)
• For more information on Premium Pay and ACH, see the SharePoint page for Premium Pay Processing in Workday for more information on this.
  

The Future of Contracts

The DCFA Council has been haranguing HR, Interim CHRO Burrell, Chancellor Lonon, and Provost Floyd, and any other admin who will listen about how awful this new pay process is.  Not only is this process terrible for budgeting, but as DCFA President Tolle discovered, it also goes directly against Board policy.

Thus, we have convinced administration that contracts must return.  And they will, in Fall 2023.  We did formally request that they work as hard as they can to actually switch back for Summer 2 if possible, to work out any kinks and bugs, but have not received confirmation on this timing yet.

More Good News: A Tool to Correctly See Your Load vs. Extra Service

The DCFA Council was informed last week that AST is working on a tool (called the Faculty Schedule Preview Application) that will be embedded into a Sharepoint page that will individually show your schedule and which specific sections are marked for load and which ones are marked as extra service (if applicable).  Once it is operational, it will update monthly as new schedules become live.

We are not sure when this will roll out, but the DCFA Council has been testing it out for a week now.  Be aware that this tool will not show your earnings, only ACH hours for each section. But, between this AST tool and the return of contracts, we are hopeful that these together will help solve many of the numerous problems we have had trying to know and understand what we are earning and how.

Spring/May Course Shell Migrations

Please be aware that the office of online learning is preparing for the migration of course shells from Blackboard (eCampus) to Brightspace D2L. While we do not yet have a timeline, we are encouraging you to export your course/templates from Blackboard prior to this migration to ensure you have copy of your course(s) that can be imported into Brightspace should this need to be done by you. Also, please know there is Faculty support for eCampus and course migrations and the office of online learning is available to aid in 1-2-1 sessions. Remember, you have OneDrive accounts where you can store these downloads

Please plan accordingly for the discontinuation of Blackboard as of August 16th. This is especially important for those who have students with incomplete grade contracts that extend beyond this date. Access to those Blackboard course shells is not expected to be present for those students. It is imperative that you prepare accordingly for your students to complete their course assignments outside of Blackboard beyond this date if needed.

Landing Page for eCampus Shifting to Brightspace

Currently, summer courses are in Blackboard and available through August 15, 2023. The landing page for eCampus.dallascollege.edu will update August 16, 2023 and automatically route students to Brightspace.
 
One concern the DCFA Council expressed to academic leadership was if students were being adequately prepared and notified of our shift to Brightspace. To that end, a March 23, 2023 Communication was shared through mass communications announcing Brightspace for students with public website information about Brightspace.

Students will automatically be able to access their courses the Wednesday of return week in Brightspace – it might be a good idea to reach out to them as soon as we return on Aug 14th to assist in the notification. You may want to prepare a short video explaining the LMS to them.

Please be aware all things student-related in Brightspace are led by the Office of Digital Engagement.

Final Grade Reporting and Student Progress Reports (SPR)

After much discussion and encouragement from the DCFA council, we are happy to report the following:

• For Final grades, the academic calendar allows for 3 days to submit grades following the last day of the term. For most long semesters, the term ends on a Thursday and faculty have until COB Monday to submit grades. For terms ending on Friday (Summer, etc.) faculty will have until Tuesday to submit grades.
• Effective for AY 23-24, the submission date for SPR will be adjusted from Sunday to Monday for all SPR reporting.

2023-2024 DCFA Officers and Committee Chairs

The DCFA Council met on Friday, June 02, 2023 in the Foundation Boardroom at the District Office downtown. We welcomed a new member, North Lake Faculty Association President Sherry Boyd, who was elected after long-serving faculty Keith Baker decided to not run again. A huge thanks to Keith for all of his service and expertise over the years, and welcome Sherry!

It was also time during the Council meeting to elect officers and committee chairs.  The results are as follows:

Officers

• PRESIDENT: Andrew Tolle  EFC
• VICE-PRESIDENT: Jennifer Siemantel  CVC
• SECRETARY: Erin Kelley  RLC
• TREASURER: Denise Griffin  ECC

Committee Chairs

• BUDGET & FINANCE: Denise Griffin  ECC
• COMMUNICATIONS: Josh Rose  BHC
• CONVENTION PLANNING: Denise Griffin  ECC
• DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION: Stacy Vasquez  MVC
• INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS & ACADEMIC FREEDOM: Jennifer Siemantel  CVC
• MEMBERSHIP: Sherry Boyd  NLC
• POLITICAL INFORMATION: Andrew Tolle  EFC
• WELFARE & BENEFITS: Erin Kelley  RLC

On behalf of the entire Dallas College Faculty Council, we look forward to serving you this coming academic year!