Information on Chancellors Faculty Fellows Task Force

After much constructive dialogue among the DCCFA Faculty Council, academic vice presidents and deans, and Chief Talent Officer Susan Hall, the purpose, expectations, timeline, authority/responsibilities, membership, and first meetings, for the Chancellors Faculty Fellows task force have been identified. 

Purpose:

• To identify opportunities to improve student success, through the recruitment, selection and hiring of educationally qualified individual who have made a declared interest in teaching through their application to the program, but have no full-time higher education teaching experience, with a goal of improving the diversity of the full-time faculty work force to more closely mirror the diversity of the DCCCD student population served.
  
• To review the pilot year’s procedures and timeline, and make recommendations for systemic improvements in the 2016-2017 program.
  
• To identify barriers to hiring and make recommendations to remove those barriers for Fellows’ candidates.
  
• To review “boot camp” curriculum and make recommendations for improvement.

Expectations:

The following considerations are not to be revised or removed from the program for 2016-2017:

·         The program will include the development of a single pool of candidates, initially vetted by Talent Central, using the grid of education requirements by degree, as developed by the Vice Presidents’ Council in 2015-2016.

·         A 10 day “boot camp,” beginning on or about August 1, and coordinated by Talent Central/Development will be a required activity by all Fellows. Fellows will be compensated equivalent to teaching a 3-credit hour course.

·         Load will be capped for Fellows at 80% for the first year of employment, and no extra-service within the District can be contracted with the individual during the initial year of employment.

·         A formally assigned and trained DCCCD mentor will be provided for the first two years of employment.

Timeline: 

September/October 2016: Review and discussion; development of executive summary

November 1: Executive summary to Chancellor’s Executive Staff for review and reaction – via El Centro President Jose Adames

November 15: Announcement of 2016-2017 program guidelines

Authority/Responsibilities:

The Chancellor is the final decision-maker on the overall project impacts – with input from the Executive Staff.

The accountability lead for this assignment is President Jose Adames who is accountable for leading the work of the task force in meeting the purposes outlined, and in working closely with assigned faculty leadership (District Faculty Association President Matt Hinckley) in attaining broad input.

President Adames acts as the liaison among the Chancellor, CHEX and the Task Force during the course of the project.

The Task Force is responsible for organizing and presenting the executive summary, and delivering all related documentation developed as a part of the discussion to President Adames, who acts on behalf of the Chancellor and Executive Staff.

The Task Force must develop a method for gathering input from a broad representation of DCCCD faculty, staff and administrators, and conduct at least one “town hall” discussion on topic (electronically or in person) in advance of the presentation of the group’s final report.

Membership:

Co-chairs: Jose Adames, Matt Hinckley

Members: Lori Doddy, Matthew Henry, Jessie Yearwood, Sharon Blackman, Beth Stall, Martha Hogan, Johnnie Bellamy, Phillip Ortiz, Henry Martinez, Bethany Pereira

First Meeting:

The Task Force will convene for the first time on Thursday, Sept. 29.

This DCCFA Faculty Council believes this Task Force and process are an excellent opportunity for instructional leaders – faculty, deans, and vice presidents – to implement significant improvement in the Chancellors Faculty Fellows program. The Faculty Council will keep faculty apprised of developments, and solicit input and suggestions from faculty, throughout the process.

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.