Director of Academic Scheduling Answers Faculty Council Questions Regarding Schedule Preference Survey

Members of the Faculty Council posted these questions to Nicole Mabine, Director of Academic Scheduling, regarding the Schedule Preference Survey. Her answers follow each question.

Q: Time options do not include options for longer time period courses: e.g., studio art classes which are normally 3 hours per class meeting (six hours for one-day/week scheduled classes). How does faculty address this issue? 

 

A: The survey includes time blocks and not actual course lengths. The courses are assigned the traditional blocks. We can work on the language being a bit more clear.

 

Q. The times for classes overlap, which seems to be a typo. What should faculty do? 

 

A. Not all faculty teach in the same number of hours. We are providing variation as some faculty teach 1hour courses, 2 hour courses, and so on. There is literally no way to account for all of the variation on a single form.

 

Q. The survey doesn't ask if the instructor wants or is available for Summer I or Summer II, just Summer in general.  Why?

 

A. Please add the term information to the comments.

 

Q. Can we request just one course five times, or do we have to put down five different courses? 

 

A. Put down your preference. If that is your choice to teach the same course 5 different times I think that is important context.

 

Q. We cannot select more than one course prefix for primary area of teaching. Why? Some people split their contract between two prefixes.  

 

A. You may select other and add all your courses manually.

 

Q. Are adjuncts going to be filling out this form as well? Did they receive the email? 

 

A. I have adjuncts emailing me questions. This form has gone out in email, Floyd’s update, and through marketing. Please feel free to forward.

 

Q. This question makes no sense at all: By the start of the following semesters will you have 0-5 years of experience teaching in higher education? Please select "Yes" if you will have in between 0 and 5 years of experience in higher education e.g., if you will have 5 years and 1 day please select "No.”

 

A. I just need to know if a faculty has had 5 years or less experience or if a faculty has more than 5 years’ experience.

 

Q. Are we scheduling under the assumption of face-to-face instruction for Fall 2021? 

 

A. Yes

 

Q. How does DC and ECHS fit into this or does it? 

 

A. It does not as it is a manual process with educational partnerships. If a faculty should choose a section, please add that in the comments.

 

Q. There are some faculty who will teach whatever, whenever, and wherever they are asked to do so.  They simply want to maximize their extra service potential.  How do they "say this"?  That is my question.  How do they communicate the idea that the most important issue to them is the maximum amount of extra service, not necessarily what, or where, or even when they teach? 

 

A. Please add this comment to the comment area. Its not about how the schedule team will read this, it is about how the faculty chair/dean will read it.

 

Q. Also can you help me understand why we are asking faculty for preferences for FA2021 this far out? 

 

A. We have a schedule published in April. We need teaching assignments to be made so that adoption can be appropriately assigned. Adoptions will occur in February, Follett will begin the work of validating ISBN/SKU and associating the materials with the appropriate course, and we need those materials to be associated with the courses before the schedule goes live in April.

 

Q. Could we use this time to help tighten the form even further and then send it out again in early spring?  

 

A. I cannot push out the date unless we are willing to sacrifice the timely association of learning materials. There is about a month worth of processing that needs to happen.

 

Q. It would be very helpful to have a live person to answer faculty questions as opposed to an FAQ page.  This would directly reduce the frustrations of the faculty.  Can you tell me who will use this information to plug faculty names into sections?  Will this be the Chairs or the Scheduling Team?  

 

A. Faculty Chairs/Dean will use this information.

 

Q. The form does not articulate what modality each semester is open to, for instance we (the faculty) do not know whether Summer & Fall are mandatory online or not. If we are moving back to the standard schedule then the form does not articulate whether faculty want to teach a class online, hybrid or face-to-face.

 

A. The decision on modality has not been made and continues to be very fluid. For now, we are moving forward with a typical semester. I believe leadership is aware of the ambiguity.

  

Q. The form presents itself as if all classes are face-to-face and does not ask about modality at all. If we are going back to face-to-face then class caps need to be changed to reflect the amount of computer seats in our labs.

 

A. Space management occurs at a different stage of planning.

  

Q. Also, the form does not ask about 1^st 8-week, 2^nd 8-week and/or 16-week classes and does not have an option to choose hybrid or blended classes. I’m not sure how equitable this form can be when it’s incomplete and does not reflect all the unique modalities of classes we teach. In addition, the form does not ask questions about stacked classes or continuing education sections.

 

A. We have not added this information at this time. I have asked and it was stated that we cannot move forward with adding it lest we ignore the more than 600 faculty who have completed the form. For now, I suggest adding flex term information in the comments section.

 

Minutes of Recent Faculty Council Meetings Now Updated to SharePoint Folders

DCCFA Secretary Jennifer Hudson-Allen has posted minutes of numerous recent meetings of the Faculty Council.

Minutes of Faculty Council business meetings can be found on this SharePoint folder.

Minutes of the Faculty Council meeting with Chancellor May can be found in this SharePoint folder.

Minutes of the Faculty Council meeting with Provost Shawnda Floyd can be found in this SharePoint folder. The minutes of the most recent meeting - December 1, 2020 - are now posted.

Minutes of the Faculty Council meeting with the vice provosts can be found in this SharePoint folder.

Historical documents pertaining to the reinvention of load and schedule management can be found in this SharePoint folder. Among the documents stored in this folder for historical context are the May 2017 FLRG (Faculty Load Review Group) report and the January 2020 PIT (Policy Implementation Team) report.

Faculty Council has Follow-Up Meeting with Vice Provosts to Discuss Ongoing Spring 2021 Schedule Updates

The DCCFA Faculty Council met at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24, with the vice provosts, to discuss the ongoing right-sizing and adjustments to the Spring 2021 schedule.

The vice provosts reported that they continue to work with the Office of Schedule Management to ensure first that all full-time faculty have enough sections for regular load.

The vice provosts said that once all full-time faculty have made load, the next priority is - to the greatest extent possible given the projected enrollment decline - to ensure that all full-time faculty who want extra service, to have extra service. 

The vice provosts also said that they would attempt to work toward equity in extra service opportunities within a given discipline or program, across the campuses.

It should be noted that, in some disciplines and programs, enrollment may not allow every full-time faculty member to get the same number of extra service sections as in previous semesters.

The vice provosts asked that any faculty with concerns about their schedule, to contact their vice provost directly.

The Faculty Council will continue to monitor the situation and will update the membership as additional information becomes available.

Three Faculty Council Members Discuss Spring 2021 Schedule “Right Sizing” with Provost Shawnda Floyd

Three members of the DCCFA Faculty Council, President Ryan Pettengill (Mountain View), Secretary Jennifer Hudson-Allen (Brookhaven), and Matt Hinckley (Eastfield), met via Teams with Provost Shawnda Floyd on Monday, November 23, 2020, to discuss ongoing faculty concerns with the Spring 2021 schedule “right sizing.” 

Numerous full-time faculty across all campuses and Schools of Dallas College had reported that their Spring schedules had changed suddenly and unexpectedly. In some cases, they had fewer sections than expected, and some even reported that eConnect did not show them with enough sections to make load. 

This followed the November 17 meeting between the District Faculty Council, the Vice Provosts, and Nicole Mabine, Director of Academic Scheduling. Please read this Advance Blog post for more context. 

Dr. Floyd reported that the various deans managing the schedule for all seven campuses within each School were working with the Office of Schedule Management through late Sunday night, first to ensure that full-time faculty all had enough sections to make load. As of Monday morning, the number of full-time faculty with less than full load had dropped to fewer than 30 full-time faculty. Moreover, Dr. Floyd reported that the deans and Office of Schedule Management would continue working until all faculty had enough sections to make load. 

Once all full-time faculty have enough sections to make load, the deans and Office of Schedule Management will turn their focus to extra service. Dr. Floyd said they will prioritize full-time faculty members’ requests for extra service whenever possible, but the significant projected enrollment declines will make that challenging in those programs and disciplines that have been especially hard hit, such as English/Developmental English, Math/Developmental Math, and ESOL. 

Pettengill, Hudson-Allen, and Hinckley discussed with Dr. Floyd the philosophical differences between the Faculty Council and some of the Vice Provosts regarding balancing the competing priorities of full-time faculty extra service and adjunct faculty. 

Specifically, the Council argues that full-time faculty extra service should be prioritized over adjunct faculty, but that there also should be equity of opportunity among all full-time faculty within a given discipline or program. Dr. Floyd said that she heard us and would encourage the Vice Provosts to engage directly with faculty within their respective Schools. 

The Council appreciates the ongoing patience of our members, as we continue to engage with Dr. Floyd and the vice provosts. The Council is scheduled to meet with the Vice Provosts at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, November 24 for a follow-up.

 

Faculty Council Engages with Dallas College Officials to Address Enrollment and Engagement Concerns, Right-Sizing the Spring 2021 Schedule, Full-Time Faculty Priority

The subject of Spring 2021 semester schedule “right-sizing,” enrollment projections, and canceling or blinding Spring sections, has understandably concerned many faculty in recent weeks.

What We Have Learned from Our Students

Provost Shawnda Floyd’s Nov.11 Faculty Update message and Nov. 17 Faculty Update message both explained that Fall 2020 enrollment had fallen significantly. This information built upon what Chancellor May and Vice Chancellor of Student Success Beatriz Joseph shared with the Board of Trustees Education Workforce Committee on Nov. 10 regarding enrollment patterns and what had been learned from both students who were continuing their studies, as well as those who chose to pause their studies.

In brief, the communities (identified by zip codes) where Dallas College saw the largest enrollment declines, were the same communities with the highest rates and concentrations of poverty, the highest rates of COVID infection, and the highest rates of individuals employed in the service sectors hardest hit by COVID. Moreover, these same communities have the highest concentrations of students who require developmental studies (DMAT and DIRW) and ESOL, and the lowest penetration of access to technology hardware (personal computers, tablets, etc.) and reliable high-speed internet access that are required successfully to complete online courses. Consequently, many of these students reported that they could not learn, or did not believe they could lean, unless they could do so in a face-to-face classroom environment.

Consequently, while enrollment overall has declined – a trend that has affected almost all community colleges throughout the United States (subscription required to read the linked article) – Dallas College has seen the sharpest enrollment declines in Developmental studies, specifically Developmental English, Developmental Math, and ESOL.

Right-Sizing the Spring 2021 Schedule

As a result, the disciplines and faculty most affected by the effort to “right-size” the Spring 2021 schedule, are English/Developmental English, Math/Developmental Math, and ESOL.

Based on enrollment projections developed by the new Office of Schedule Management, numerous sections of courses already built into the Spring 2021 schedule have been “blinded” or “suppressed.” Location-based discipline and program coordinators and deans in the past have used this very tactic to drive enrollment into the remaining open sections until they fill, and then the blinded/suppressed sections are opened in small batches. This tactic has been shown to ensure that fewer sections will have to be canceled due to low enrollment just days or hours before the semester begins.

The Faculty Council shared its concerns with how this information and decisions have been communicated broadly, when it met with the Vice Provosts and Nicole Mabine, Director of Academic Scheduling, on Tuesday, November 17. During this meeting, the Faculty Council also argued for full-time faculty to be prioritized in all scheduling decisions. Specifically, the Faculty Council argues that the order of priority should be:

·       Full-time faculty to make contractual load

·       Full-time faculty for up to the maximum extra service, distributed equitably across all faculty in the discipline/program who desire extra service across all campuses

·       High-performing adjunct faculty

Director Mabine shared that she agreed with the prioritization of full-time faculty, but acknowledged that the vice provosts and deans in the seven Schools were empowered to make decisions about which faculty would teach given sections. The vice provosts said they agreed with prioritizing full-time faculty for load, but some vice provosts said they preferred to balance full-time faculty extra service with high-performing adjuncts. Some vice provosts said that it was exceedingly difficult to find and retain high-performing adjuncts in many of the disciplines and programs in their schools. The Faculty Council replied that if we truly want to retain the high-performing adjuncts, that we should find ways to hire them as full-time faculty.

Faculty Ideas to Improve Enrollment and Engagement

Given that enrollment and engagement are something for which we all take responsibility, the Faculty Council also conducted a survey of Dallas College Faculty, to collect ideas for how to address student concerns and reverse the enrollment decline through meeting student needs and engaging them in the remote learning environment. The results of that survey have been posted to SharePoint and are available for allfaculty to review at this link. These results – which include all ideas directly submitted by 249 faculty respondents through the survey – also have been shared with Provost Floyd today, Thursday, Nov. 19. The Faculty Council thanks all the faculty who participated and contributed their ideas via the survey.

Power Point that Explains Spring 2021 "Schedule Right-Sizing" Available

Part of the consolidation into Dallas College has involved the centralization of schedule building and management within the Office of Schedule Management, led by Nicole Mabine, director of academic scheduling.

Due to the decision to continue with predominately online/remote instruction in Spring 2021, Provost Shawnda Floyd announced that the Spring 2021 schedule would need to be "right-sized."

The Faculty Council has secured a copy of the Power Point slides that provided the context to the Vice Provosts, and has posted them at this link on the DCCFA SharePoint site.