Preliminary Information on Task Forces on Faculty Hiring Processes, Pay for Performance, and the Faculty Evaluation Process

DCCCD Chief Talent Officer Susan Hall is assembling three additional task forces to identify opportunities to ensure equity in the areas of faculty hiring processes, pay for performance, and faculty evaluation. While charges have not yet been issued, the DCCFA Faculty Council is aware of the following:

For the Faculty Hiring Process Task Force, EFC President Jean Conway and RLC Faculty Association President Matthew Henry have been charged to lead a group of faculty and other instructional leaders to examine faculty hiring processes throughout the District, in an effort to ensure equity across the District in faculty hiring. The other members of this task force have not yet been identified.

For the Pay for Performance Task Force, RLC President Kay Eggleston and ECC Faculty Association President Jessie Yearwood have been charged to lead a group of faculty and other instructional leaders to ensure equity and consistency across the District, and bring recommendations to the Chancellors Executive Staff in time to re-open the Pay for Performance program for a second year in November 2016. The other members of this task force have not yet been identified.

For the Faculty Evaluation Task Force, MVC President Bobby Garza and CVC Faculty Association President Tommy Thompson will be charged in Spring 2017 to assemble a group of faculty and other instructional leaders to review a new software product to convert the IAP document and faculty evaluation process into electronic format. In addition, according to Susan Hall, “policy calls for review of evaluation process every five years, and this one is overdue…. This would be a good time finally to adopt a model of virtual classroom evaluations, etc.” The other members of this task force have not yet been identified.

The DCCFA Faculty Council will continue to monitor the ongoing developments with each of these three task forces, will keep members apprised of new information via the DCCFA Advance Blog, and will ensure that faculty have input into the work of these task forces.

EQUIP/StraighterLine Experimental Partnership Project

In response to questions raised by numerous faculty about the EQUIP/StraighterLine partnership recently announced, the DCCFA faculty council has prepared the following summary of information as we know it as of Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2016: 

1.      This is an experimental project funded and arranged by the US Department of Education, to match institutions that do not receive Title IV federal financial aid (Pell, subsidized loans, etc.) with degree-awarding institutions that do (such as DCCCD and the other seven other partnering institutions around the USA);

2.      This experimental project is to take place during 2017-2018 academic year, with possible pilot rollout during Summer 2017;

3.      USDOE wants a report on what goes right, and what goes wrong, with this experimental project;

4.      StraighterLine students almost exclusively do NOT reside in Dallas County – most of the expected maximum 600 students live on the East Coast (where StraighterLine is located) – and therefore they would almost certainly never otherwise have occasion to enroll in DCCCD courses;

5.      Like transfer students from any other sending institution, these StraighterLine students must complete at least 25% of their coursework through DCCCD colleges (to be eligible to earn our degrees/certificates), thus resulting in an expected influx of students into DCCCD online courses in 2017-2018 (too early to say which disciplines will be most affected);

6.      SACS and THECB have been notified by all seven college presidents that the District colleges are undertaking this experiment;

7.      DCCCD will be able to count these degree/certificate completers toward our completion statistics;

8.      A preliminary project planning meeting has been called for Thursday, Sept. 22. DCCFA President Matt Hinckley has been invited to attend to represent faculty interests and to help identify faculty and other instructional stakeholders to involve in subsequent planning and decision-making activities. District officials already have said they need and intend to involve District discipline committee representatives in subsequent discussions.

Important Dates for 2016-2017

Please be aware of the following important deadlines for the current academic year:

DCCFA Committee Meetings will take place on Friday, October 7, 1-3 pm, Hoblitzelle Auditorium, Bill J. Priest Institute

DCCFA Scholarship Applications are due Tuesday, November 1, 5:00 pm

Note: Students must fill out DCCCD Foundation’s Application Online

DCCFA Annual Convention will take place Friday, November 11, 2-5pm, Commissioner’s Court

Note: Presidents meet at 1:30

Reminders re: DCCCD Faculty Hiring Time Line:

• Notice of Vacancy (NOVs) should go out November 1; the application deadline is January 6.
• Faculty Search Committees should finish their work before Spring Break.
• Recommendations to the May DCCCD Board are due before April 5, 2017.

Sabbatical Information, Fall 2016

The District Faculty Council asked veteran faculty member Delryn Fleming to conduct a workshop on sabbaticals, and she graciously agreed to do so.

The workshop will focus on writing effective sabbatical proposals and completing the necessary paperwork. This is an opportunity for those interested in applying for a sabbatical as well as those who simply wish to know more about the process.

The workshop is scheduled for Thursday, September 15, from 1-2:30 pm, and will be held in the Hoblitzelle Auditorium at the Bill J. Priest Institute (1402 N Corinth St Rd Dallas, TX 75215).

As a reminder, sabbatical proposals are due to the District Office no later than Sunday, November 13, 2016. One electronic copy should be sent to Beth Shepard; electronic copies should also be sent to both Dan Dao and Matt Hinckley.

Faculty Council names John Hitt as DCCFA bursar

Upon Benja Allen's "retirement" as DCCFA bursar, the Faculty Council issued a call for members interested in succeeding Benja in this important role. Following applications and deliberations, the Faculty Council chose John Hitt, Government faculty at North Lake College, to serve as bursar. John previously has served as president of the NLC faculty association and as treasurer of DCCFA, and therefore brings and wealth of experience and familiarity with our accounting practices.

The Faculty Council thanks Benja Allen for her many years of stewardship and service to our organization. We thank all those members who expressed interest in the bursar position. And we congratulate John Hitt on his succession into the role.

DCCCD Board of Trustees approves budget, including raises for 2016-2017

The DCCCD Board of Trustees voted Sept. 6 to approve a tax rate and budget that would address numerous priorities, including the following adjustments to faculty salaries:

1. A $50 increase in the extra service/adjunct rate to $2,324 per 3-hour course;

2. A 3% "milestone increase" at 25 years of full-time service for faculty in Range 3 or Range 4 (this would apply to faculty hired to start in September 1991);

3. Fully fund the milestone increases for 3 years (hire date in September 2013), 10 years (hire date in September 2006), 15 years (hire date in September 2001), and 20 years (hire date in September 1996), of full time service, which were approved in September 2015 (benefitting 48 faculty this year);

4. Fully fund the successful Pay for Performance projects from Spring 2016 PPI pilot (benefitting 61 faculty this year);

5. Base salary increase of $1,600 for all full-time faculty hired before June 1, 2016;

6. Additional base salary increase of $795 for full-time faculty hired between 9/1/1981 and 9/1/2006, to alleviate compression of salaries of faculty hired during that time (benefitting approximately 322 faculty).

The DCCFA faculty council congratulates and thanks the Board of Trustees for taking this courageous step to address our numerous priorities, and thanks Chancellor May and the chancellors cabinet for their work in explaining our needs to the Board.

For previous background information, see this and this Advance Blog post.

Faculty Association Update

Dear colleagues,

Thanks to your continued participation in the Dallas Community College Faculty Association (DCCFA) – 92% of DCCCD faculty joined during the 2015-2016 academic year – we are practicing shared governance in advancing the academic freedom and welfare of our faculty.

The Faculty Council is pleased to report to you that our solidarity and our advocacy continues to bring positive change to the DCCCD and our organizational climate. For instance, in a courageous move, our Board of Trustees is poised to vote Sept. 6 to keep our local property tax rates constant, in order to bring in additional tax revenues that a growth in the total assessed value of residential and commercial property in Dallas County allows. This will fund numerous important initiatives, including much-needed technology and security upgrades, increases in faculty base salaries, and a much needed base salary increase for those faculty – hired between 10 and 35 years ago – most harmed by “compression.” In explaining this to the Board, Chancellor May echoed many of the talking points and rationales our Faculty Council has shared with him during our monthly meetings over the past three years.

Likewise, DCCFA advocacy has proven instrumental in improving relations with the Board of Trustees. In fact, several trustees have come to trust, and routinely seek, our input on a wide variety of issues. Similarly, we continue to cultivate positive and pro-active relationships with the various vice chancellors, and our college leaders, which amounts to an increase in the influence we faculty have.

Going back to 1965, our founding chancellor, Dr. Bill J. Priest, reserved a seat at the table for faculty to be involved in decisions that affect the strategic direction of the DCCCD. Our forward-thinking founding faculty – some of whom celebrate their 50^th anniversary this year – launched DCCFA (and our constituent college faculty associations) further to represent faculty interests at all seven colleges and at the District level. Now our growth is less focused on building colleges, and more on leveraging technology to serve more students and a growing number of “non-consumers” who need our teaching and training to prepare to work the jobs available in our rapidly changing local economy.

Consequently, our input and influence as subject matter experts and as experts in the art and science of teaching and learning, is even more important today than it was 50 years ago. Therefore, joining DCCFA is a crucial means to remain engaged in the strategic direction of our District.

Thank you in advance for your membership.

Matt Hinckley, DCCFA President

DISD Academies Update

From Patti Burks, 8/22/16:

Professional Development

A professional development seminar was held on August 10th with over 120 participants. 

An eCampus community site has been created that includes the presentations from the professional development, DCCCD and DISD policies and procedures for all dual credit faculty, checklists and contact information.

To access the information: 

    1. Login to eCampus

         If you do not have an eCampus login, use the guest login username: dcccd-echs password: guest2016

    2. Click on the Community Tab

    3. Enter “dual credit” into the Organization Search box

    4. Click on the DCCCD-ECHS-DUAL-CREDIT community 

You will have the opportunity to self-enroll to see all of the information.

Please share this with all DISD Academy, ECHS and dual credit adjunct faculty.

The budget includes funding for professional development in future semesters.

Curriculum

Curriculum committee charges will include DISD Academy curriculum review for course alignments and pathways. These will be presented at the Curriculum Workshop on August 24th.

Community Partners

Industry partners have been identified for all of the academies. Agreements and next steps are in progress.

Additional meetings have been scheduled with 4 year colleges and universities to discuss articulation of the AAS degrees to BAAS degrees.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Patti

Patti Burks

Professor, Computer Technology

Brookhaven College

972-860-4329

pburks@dcccd.edu

DCCFA Seeks Member to serve as Bursar

After many years of outstanding performance, Benja Allen has decided to lay down her accounting pen and resign from the Bursar position for the DCCFA.  She has done a fabulous job, for which we will always be grateful.

In light of Benja’s resignation any faculty member, who is an ongoing DCCFA member, that is interested in taking on the role of bursar should contact their campus faculty president by August 24, 2016. The full DCCFA council will meet to determine who to offer the position to once all the names of interested people have been collected.  Do not nominate someone without their permission.  It is perfectly fine to nominate/volunteer yourself.

Shirley M Thompson

Faculty President, North Lake College

Treasurer, DCCFA

August 2 Board of Trustees Work Session Update

At the August 2 work session of the DCCCD Board of Trustees,  Chief Financial Officer John Robertson reported that the District leadership is recommending that the Board of Trustees adopt no changes to the current maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate, and a slight reduction to the interest and sinking (I&S) tax rate, which, coupled with rising property assessments, would result in a $1.45 per month increase in the property tax bill for an average valued home in Dallas County ($218,000).

Such a tax rate and resultant revenues would allow DCCCD to fund $40.4 million in necessary initiatives. Among those recommended initiatives would be $11.7 million in salary and benefits increases, $1.2 million to provide DART passes to all DCCCD students, $3.8 million for dual credit partnerships, $3.6 million for information technology upgrades, $9.0 million for police and public safety upgrades, $10.3 for student pathways augmentation, and $0.8 million for Title IX compliance.

Within the faculty salary increases, Chief Talent Officer Susan Hall provided additional details on proposed faculty compensation adjustments, which include:

1. A $50 increase in the extra service/adjunct rate to $2,324 per 3-credit hour course;

2. Add an additional "milestone increase" at 25 years of full-time service in Range 3 and 4;

3. Fully fund the 3, 10, 15, and 20 year "milestone increases" approved in September 2015 (benefiting 48 faculty this year);

4. Fully fund approved successful Pay for Performance projects from Spring 2016 PPI pilot (benefiting 61 faculty this year);

5. Base salary increase of $1,600 for all full-time faculty hired before June 1, 2016;

6. Additional base salary increase of $795 for those approximately 322 full-time faculty hired between 9/1/1981 and 9/1/2006, to alleviate compression of salaries of faculty hired during that time.

It should be noted that all recommended salary increases - along with the entire proposed 2016-2017 budget and tax rate, are subject to approval by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 6, 2016.

The Faculty Council believes that while much work remains to offset 30 years of salary compression, this proposal represents a good start. More importantly, this demonstrates a good faith effort by District Talent Central and Chancellor May to respond to the concerns that DCCFA consistently have brought forward regarding the issue of faculty salary compression.