Meeting Minutes and Video from August 4 Question and Answer Session on IncludED

Please select this link to watch a video recording of the WebEx meeting on IncludED conducted on August 4, 2020.

You can also read the minutes from this meeting at this link in the DCCFA Share Point site.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts Research Report Released

This folder on the DCCFA Share Point site contains links to a PDF and an Excel Spreadsheet, that catalogue existing efforts and opportunities in all aspects of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and are the culmination of the work of dozens of people across all seven campuses of Dallas College. This information is being presented to the faculty who will comprise the forthcoming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Supercommittee, and six subcommittees.

Minutes from July 15, July 17, and July 24 DCCFA Faculty Council Meetings

Please select this link to access the DCCFA Faculty Council meeting minutes for June 24 and June 25, 2020.

Faculty Council Releases Results of June 26-30 Survey on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Between June 26 and June 30, a survey was made available for respondents to share their thoughts on the June 25 votes of the Faculty Council on various motions for proposed actions on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

The creators of the survey, Wade Hyde (El Centro), Carlos Martinez (Richland), and Matt Hinckley (Eastfield), used the survey to identify faculty from the campuses they represent, who were interested in working on a potential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force. Hyde, Martinez, and Hinckley, forwarded the names of these self-identified faculty from their respective campuses, to Keith Baker, who was charged to gather information on existing DEI efforts across the District. The purpose of the survey having been accomplished, the survey was closed.

While this effort was ongoing, the survey link made its way to faculty at other campuses, and many faculty at those campuses were encouraged by colleagues at their campuses to complete it. As a result, after the survey was closed, the other members of the Faculty Council requested data from the survey. In order to ensure that all DCCCD faculty have equal access to the same information at the same time, the aggregated results are presented here. No personal identifying information is being shared or published. Names of respondents have been expunged from the raw data to protect anonymity. Also, note that the survey was voluntary, that respondents optionally could agree or decline to answer all demographic questions, and even those who did choose to answer demographic questions could select “prefer not to answer” to any individual question. As you will see below, some campuses had very few respondents. Consequently, disaggregated data (by campus) will not be published. There were 122 total survey respondents.

The first question asked, "In response to a charge made on June 22, 2020, by DCCCD Board of Trustees Chair Diana Flores, as well as Chancellor May’s June 16th email on observing Juneteenth, the DCCFA Council recently discussed what actions the faculty association could take to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please reorder, ranked from the best course of action to worst, which course of action would you recommend the faculty association take in this regard:"

74 said their first choice was to "Immediately from a DCCFA task force on diversity, equity, and inclusion;"

29 said their first choice was to "Charge one Faculty Council member to survey existing District efforts on diversity, equity, and inclusion before forming a task force;"

19 said their first choice was to "Do nothing;"

The second question asked, "Would you personally be willing to serve a DCCFA task force on diversity, equity, and inclusion?"

49 said Yes

40 said Maybe

33 said No

The third question asked, "Are you willing to answer a few personal demographic questions to help us better quantify respondents?"

109 said Yes

13 said No - these respondents then were not asked any further questions

This left 109 respondents who answered the demographic questions. The 109 answered the following questions:

My primary CAMPUS location is:

10 identified their home campus as BHC

7 identified their home campus at CVC

17 identified their home campus as EFC

28 identified their home campus as ECC

23 identified their home campus as MVC

5 identified their home campus as NLC

17 identified their home campus as RLC

2 preferred not to say

I define my GENDER as :

36 self-identified as a man

68 self-identified as a woman

5 preferred not to say 

I define by RACE/ETHNICITY primarily as:

1 self-identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native AND Black

1 self-identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native AND Hispanic or Latino

1 self-identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native AND White

6 self-identified as Asian

1 self-identified as Asian and White

22 self-identified as Black or African American

12 self-identified as Hispanic or Latino

3 self-identified as both Hispanic or Latino AND White

56 self-identified as White

6 preferred not to say

I define my SEXUAL ORIENTATION as:

5 self-identified as Bisexual

5 self-identified as Gay or Lesbian

90 self-identified as Straight/Heterosexual

9 preferred not to say

Are you challenged with a DISABILITY, such as: difficulty hearing; difficulty seeing; difficulty speaking or language impairment; mobility limitation/orthopedic impairment; traumatic brain injury;...

24 answered Yes

4 answered Maybe

75 answered No

6 preferred not to say

I define my GENERATION as:

1 defined their generation as Greatest Generation

2 defined their generation as Traditionalists/Silent Generation

29 defined their generation as Baby Boomer

53 defined their generation as Gen X

13 defined their generation as Gen Y/Millennial

4 defined their generation as Other/undefined

7 preferred not to say

DCCFA Faculty Council Votes Unanimously to Form and Charge a Super Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The DCCFA Faculty Council met July 1, 2020 (minutes located at this link), to pass the following statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), by unanimous consent (7-0):

Vision 

The Dallas Community College Faculty Association (DCCFA) envisions working within a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where our members recognize and support the values, perspectives, and individual dignity of all members of our community. 

Values 

We support the DCCCD Board of Trustees Mission and Strategic Priorities for 2020-2021. In particular, we agree with the priority to foster an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment for employees and students. 

We pledge to work closely with the four (4) newly created Dallas College employee resource groups (ERGs) to foster an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment for all Dallas College employees. 

We commit to infusing diversity, equity, and inclusion into the primary responsibilities of full-time faculty, as defined by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC): Curriculum Design, Development, and Evaluation; Teaching; Identification and Assessment of Appropriate Student Learning Outcomes; Student Advising; Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity; and, Institutional and Professional Service.

We embrace diversity in our classrooms where students can openly discuss ideas, celebrate differences, express differing ideas, opinions, and world views, where dehumanizing ideas will not be tolerated.

We seek equity within faculty leadership and representation.  

We desire an inclusive workforce and work environment that fosters critical thinking, open-mindedness, empathy, and acceptance, where new ideas and great discoveries arise from a wide variety of minds, backgrounds, and experiences. 

Actions

Solicit and recruit faculty interested in serving on a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) “super committee” to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion at Dallas College.  

Develop six (6) diversified, co-chaired sub-committees that will independently focus on the SACSCOC-defined core faculty responsibilities: 

1. Curriculum Design, Development, and Evaluation
2. Teaching 
3. Identification and Assessment of Appropriate Student Learning Outcomes 
4. Student Advising 
5. Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity 
6. Institutional and Professional Service 

Charge each committee to: 

• Identify and acknowledge any issues that might restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Gather and catalog feedback from various stakeholders about advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

• Develop recommendations for change that results in a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive faculty. 

• Summarize subcommittee work in individual detailed reports. 

• Publish a comprehensive account of all subcommittee findings and recommendations. 

The Faculty Council acknowledges we all have been involved in difficult conversations during the past week, and that more difficult conversations are ahead. If you have spoken up, we hear you. We thank every member who has contributed to the ongoing conversation. We also thank those who already have volunteered to serve on a DEI task force. We further encourage additional faculty – particularly those whose voices and perspectives have not previously been heard – to join the effort, share their perspectives and experiences, and be heard. If you wish to be involved in this work, please contact your local campus Faculty Association president.

We do not intend that this is a “final statement,” but rather the beginning of the important work that our DEI task forces will lead.

As always, we thank you for your membership and for your service.

Minutes from June 24 and June 25 Faculty Council Meetings

Please select this link to access the DCCFA Faculty Council meeting minutes for June 24 and June 25, 2020.

Message from DCCFA President Ryan Pettengill Regarding Mandate for Facilitators to be Enrolled in Sections with 100% Dual Credit Students

Good People:

 

On behalf of the DCCFA I would like to provide you with an update regarding the recent mandate that faculty add facilitators to sections that are exclusively dual credit. Most of you are aware that faculty have been included in conversations involving dual credit. While your faculty representatives discussed the possibility of including facilitators in classes to support our dual credit students, at no point did they recommend or support any measure to require facilitators be added. 

 

I would like to take this opportunity to provide a timeline of events that led up to the email we received this afternoon mandating facilitators be added. Numerous discussions had taken place at the highest level of the District regarding the best ways to support dual credit students.  Around June 4 (the start of Summer I) an email went out explaining what facilitators were, what their roles would be, and how to add them to a course. That email noted that this practice was highly recommended but not mandatory. This process prompted further conversations among District leaders, in which input from the Faculty Council regarding the "mandate" was heard and considered, but ultimately not implemented.

 

I am currently teaching Summer I courses and I have always taught courses throughout the summer. I completely understand how demanding the accelerated pace is. I realize that there was very short notice for this requirement and it added to the general challenges of getting classes off to a good start. I can promise that the faculty representatives working on District dual credit committees will provide critical feedback to ensure faculty interests as well as the best interests of all of our students are taken into consideration. The DCCFA will continue to monitor this situation and offer our feedback whenever we meet with the provost and other officials. As always, if you have questions please do not hesitate to let us know.

 

Onward,

Ryan

 

DCCFA Business Meeting Minutes: June 12, 2020

Select this link to read the June 12, 2020, DCCFA Business Meeting minutes.

Faculty Council Seeks Member Input via Survey on Current Enrollment Management Practices

The District Faculty Council seeks your feedback regarding the enrollment management practices (class caps, merging classes between multiple campuses, etc.) that have been employed in recent weeks, for May Term and Summer 1 courses, and are likely to continue for Summer 2 courses. We have heard individual anecdotal accounts, but robust survey data is necessary so the Council can advocate for improved practices for Fall 2020. 

Please select this link to complete the survey. It should only take 3-4 minutes of your time. You will need to be logged in to the District Outlook/SharePoint system to complete the survey, either on a desktop computer, or on a tablet or smartphone. Please complete the survey as soon as possible so that we can incorporate your input to inform our discussions with the Provost on Thursday and the Chancellor on Friday. 

This survey closes on Sunday, June 14, but there will be more surveys in the coming weeks and months.

Update on Dual Credit "Facilitators" in Summer Courses; Adding Facilitators to eCampus Course Shells Is Optional, Not Required

On Thursday, June 4, 2020, many faculty across the District received an email from LaShonda Green with the DCCCD Dual Credit Office, requesting that DCCCD faculty enroll a facilitator from the Dallas and Garland Independent School Districts into their eCampus courses into which students from these ISDs are enrolled.

Many faculty were surprised to have received this email and coincidentally began contacting their respective faculty association presidents while those presidents were in a DCCFA Faculty Council meeting. Consequently, the DCCFA Faculty Council acted immediately to learn more about the request to enroll facilitators. Specifically, BHCFA President Jennifer Hudson-Allen, who both teaches Dual Credit sections and already serves on numerous DCCCD Dual Credit committees, agreed to serve as the Faculty Council liaison for all dual credit issues.

Jennifer began asking questions with her numerous contacts on Thursday afternoon, June 4, and subsequently learned the following contextual and clarifying information:

As Dual Credit enrollments have grown rapidly across the District, some faculty have requested representatives from partner ISDs or Collegiate Academies serve as monitors in the classrooms to ensure dual credit students are not causing disruptions to the learning environment. Indeed, many faculty reported in the DCCFA dual credit faculty survey that the behavior of minor students was among the hardest and most vexing problems that needed to be addressed in our many dual credit and Collegiate Academy partnerships. Many faculty also reported that some high school students were not taking their academic work seriously; moreover, some high school officials were attempting to pressure Dual Credit faculty to lower academic standards and ensure that low-performing students would earn passing grades.

According to what Jennifer and others have been able to learn over the last twenty-four hours, the message should be treated as a request, not as a requirement. Faculty are free to add the facilitator if they wish, or they may decline.

Meanwhile, Jennifer will continue to advocate on behalf of the Council, and all faculty broadly, on Dual Credit issues and concerns, and will report back to the Council. Additional updates for all faculty will be shared via the Advance Blog using the Dual Credit label/tag.

UPDATE AS OF 7:30 PM FRIDAY, JUNE 5:

The following information was provided to Jennifer Hudson-Allen from Anna Mays, who has been supervising the consolidation and alignment of the various Dual Credit partnerships with all seven DCCCD campuses:

"During the current unprecedented circumstances, rapid responses to emerging issues are necessary that require immediate action and limited time for mass discussion and communication.  Emails to faculty of specific courses that were impacted were sent as soon as all information was available so that the communication sent was not incomplete or confusing and the follow-up email was provided to further clarify questions the same day as the questions were received.  Dr. May has been talking with Superintendent Hinojosa (DISD) and Superintendent Lopez (Garland ISD) to discuss alternatives to support dual credit, ECHS and P-Tech students in lieu of in-person classes that were and could have been scheduled this summer and this pilot has evolved from further joint meetings, which included Dr. Christa Slejko, Dr. Linda Braddy and Dr. Joe Seabrooks.  The relatively high Spring semester withdrawal rates for ECHS students accelerated the discussions  within the last two weeks and the high school facilitator pilot was recommended as an immediate need, given previous successful partnerships between individual school district personnel and the faculty to provide additional support both to students and faculty and promote student success in courses.  The Academic Success Rapid Response Team (led by Dr. Braddy) and the Dual Credit Faculty Professional Development Committee comprised of fourteen representative faculty was enlisted to provide guidelines and recommendations to determine initial implementation plans for Summer 1 session, which started 6/4.  All of these recommendations were integrated into the two emails that were sent to faculty and instructional leadership."

Faculty Council Names Standing Committee Chairs; Adopts Strategic Approach to Advocate for Current Emerging Faculty Concerns in One College Environment

The DCCFA Faculty Council met via video conference Thursday, June 4, 2020, to inaugurate the new Council term and to discuss a number of pressing issues that faculty across the District have raised in recent days and hours. The June 4 meeting minutes are located at this link.

DCCFA Standing Committee Chairs Named

In order to take a strategic approach to issues that are shared by faculty at many or all of the seven colleges, and in accordance with the DCCFA Bylaws, the Council prioritized the naming of its members as ex officio chairs to the seven standing committees of the DCCFA, as follows:

Budget & Finance: Keith Baker (North Lake)

Communications: Wade Hyde (El Centro)

Convention Planning: Ryan Pettengill (Mountain View)

Instructional Goals and Academic Freedom: Jennifer Hudson-Allen (Brookhaven)

Membership: Tommy Thompson (Cedar Valley)

Political Information: Matt Hinckley (Eastfield)

Welfare and Benefits: Carlos Martinez (Richland)

The Council members all agreed to submit to the respective committee chairs, the names of the members from their respective campuses, who have been elected to serve on these seven DCCFA committees.

Council Approach to Instruction in the One College Model

In past years, the Faculty Council met monthly with the seven academic vice presidents, in a group called The Instructional Leadership Team (TILT). Over time TILT also included several District Office personnel who helped to manage curriculum and other instructional issues at the District level. In Spring 2020, the instructional vice presidents indicated they wished to disband TILT, as instruction for the combined Dallas College would soon be supported by a Provost supervising seven Vice Provosts, each of whom would support a “School of” organized around a particular Guided Pathway. The dissolving of TILT therefore has left a gap in the structural means by which the Council effectively can represent faculty interests in discussions about instructional matters across the District. Consequently, the Council today agreed that it intends to establish a precedent to meet with the current Interim Provost, Dr. Linda Braddy, and continue that practice when the new Provost is named. President Ryan Pettengill agreed to take the initiative to that effect. In the meantime, though, the Council is aware of the numerous issues and concerns that are being raised by our members all across the District.

Enrollment Management Practices

The Council agrees that it supports a District-wide approach to enrollment management practices, particularly during a time when we are all teaching online and campus distinctions are, by necessity, in many cases becoming less apparent. However, the Council also believes that “one size fits all” approaches are not appropriate. For instance, the Council takes very seriously faculty concerns over decisions that are being made to combine sections, stack/bundle sections (or not), and/or cancel and move students to sections offered by other instructors at other campuses. The Council also agrees that not all academic disciplines – or even courses within a given discipline – should have the same enrollment thresholds to “make.” Certain courses in certain disciplines, such as studio art courses, some journalism courses, private music lessons, and co-ops and internships, among many others, need to be handled more like many CTE courses, where individualized instruction is the foundation of the particular student experience. In addition, different courses in various CTE disciplines also are different, where lab safety and industry accreditation concerns must prevail. Likewise, developmental studies and ESOL courses must consider that students need additional individual attention. In all cases, therefore, the Council maintains that faculty subject matter experts must be consulted before deans or the current academic vice presidents, make unilateral decisions to cancel or combine sections.

Because these enrollment management decisions are being made absent faculty subject matter expert input in many programs and disciplines across the District, the Council agreed to address this on a District-wide, systemic basis. First, President Ryan Pettengill intends to engage with District senior leadership to make the case for additional faculty empowerment in enrollment management decisions. Second, the entire Council will press these concerns when we next meet with the Chancellor on June 12. Third, the two Council members on the Rapid Response Team, Carlos Martinez and Wade Hyde, will continue to articulate these concerns with the Provost during the numerous times the RRT meets each week.

Working across the District with Colleagues in our Disciplines

The Council agrees that, along with enrollment management decisions, many other issues require the attention of faculty subject matter experts. As such, the Council strongly advises all DCCCD faculty – not just the individual campus curriculum committee reps, but all faculty in a given program or discipline – to engage with their colleagues in the same discipline/program at the other campuses. There are many issues where consistency and uniformity is appropriate, and in those cases the Council believes the faculty subject matter experts must make those determinations. At the same time, there are instances where the same course is used by different programs at different campuses serving different cohorts of students to be trained for different jobs or careers in different industries. Again, in those cases, it is faculty subject matter experts who need to articulate the reasons for those differences. The greater the cooperation and agreement within disciplines and programs across the District, the easier it is for the Faculty Council to represent those interests broadly when we advocate on our members’ collective behalf.

Faculty Professional Development

The Council agrees with previous work done by previous Councils, specifically, that faculty professional development is, first, separate and different from training required by federal, state, or local laws (such as FERPA, ADA, Title IX, etc.), and second, consists of two broad categories: advancing pedagogy and/or advancing or maintaining subject matter expertise and/or professional certification or licensure. The Council also agrees with the principle that professional development that improves us as teachers and/or advances our subject matter expertise, ought to count toward advancement on the faculty salary range scale, from Range 1 to 2 and from Range 2 to 3. The Council intends to continue to make these arguments as task forces and advisory committees are formed regarding faculty professional development.

Dual Credit

The Council also agrees that a District-wide, systemic approach is needed to deal with Dual Credit issues and concerns, in keeping with the recommendations issued in the faculty-generated Dual Credit Report that the Council delivered to Dr. May earlier this year. Until all dual credit operations and reporting relationships are centralized under one leader at District Office, we anticipate that issues and concerns will continue to arise. Consequently, the Council agreed that Jennifer Hudson-Allen, who both will chair the DCCFA Instructional Goals and Academic Freedom Committee and also serves on numerous District-wide dual credit committees, would represent the Council in advancing faculty concerns about Dual Credit at the District level. As such, Jennifer is representing emerging faculty concerns regarding the “dual credit facilitators” that have been requested to be added to many summer courses. Jennifer will investigate this particular request in more detail and report back to the Council.

Committee and Task Force Membership

The Council discussed the ongoing concern that many faculty feel they are being left out of conversations that are culminating in decisions that affect teaching and learning. Many faculty have expertise in particular areas, often outside of their teaching field, and are willing to help the District advance our shared interest in these areas. Recognizing that the District is moving at a quicker pace than even in recent years, and especially compared to a decade ago, the Council agreed to prepare and maintain a shared spreadsheet of areas where we anticipate work needing to be done, and within each a list of faculty who have particular experiences or expertise in those areas. Therefore, the Council encourages members who have an interest in a particular area, to reach out to their respective faculty association president, to say, “I’d like to serve on a task force or committee that might be formed on (this issue).”

Communications

The Council also discussed the desire for all faculty at all campuses to have equal access to information. Consequently, the Council agreed that, while Jennifer Hudson-Allen would take Council meeting minutes in her capacity as Secretary, and while Wade Hyde would take the lead on overall Communications strategies as the chair of the DCCFA Communications committee, Matt Hinckley would take the lead in writing posts to publish to the Advance Blog, that the respective Council members could also separately send to their members via email. Until a new DCCFA.org web site is published, and as faculty still become accustomed to the Faculty One Stop site on SharePoint, the Advance Blog will be the primary means by which the Council broadly communicates its work with the membership at large.

What's Ahead

The Council next plans to meet at 12 noon Friday, June 12, before its monthly meeting with Chancellor May at 2 p.m. The Council also remains in constant contact with one another via email and group text messaging, ensuring that we are able to respond as quickly and thoroughly as possible to emerging concerns, while leveraging and sharing the diverse array of expertise, experiences, and interests that each of us individually brings to the Council.

2020-2021 Faculty Council Takes Office; New Officers Elected

The 2020-2021 Dallas Community College Faculty Association (DCCFA) Faculty Council assumed office on Monday, June 1, 2020.

Composition:
The Faculty Council consists of the Faculty Association Presidents elected from the seven campuses of the Dallas County Community College District. Five members are continuing, and two members are rotating on to succeed two others who are rotating off, as follows:

Brookhaven College: Jennifer Hudson-Allen, elected to a two-year term in 2020, succeeding Scott Sires

Cedar Valley College: Tommy Thompson, continuing, elected to a two-year term in 2019

El Centro College: Wade Hyde, continuing, elected to a two-year term in 2019

Eastfield College: Matt Hinckley, elected to a two-year term in 2020, succeeding Liz Nichols

Mountain View College: Ryan Pettengill, continuing, elected to a second two-year term in 2020

North Lake College: Keith Baker, continuing, elected to a two year term in 2019

Richland College: Carlos Martinez, continuing, elected to a second two-year term in 2020

New Officers:
The newly-seated Council met Monday morning, June 1, to elect new officers. The following officers were elected:

Ryan Pettengill, President

Tommy Thompson, Vice President

Jennifer Hudson-Allen, Secretary

Keith Baker, Treasurer

The entire Council looks forward to representing faculty interests at the District level during our consolidation into One College, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

03-30-2020- DCCFA minutes

03-30-2020- DCCFA minutes

DCCFA May 4,2020 minutes

DCCFA May 4,2020 minutes

03-27-2020 DCCFA Council Business Meetings Minutes

03-27-2020 DCCFA Council Business Meetings Minutes

Chancellor May's Response to Policy Initiative Taskforce (PIT) Recommendations

Chancellor May's to PIT Recommendations

03-06-2020-DCCFA Meeting Minutes

03-06-2020- DCCFA meeting minutes

COVID-19 Update

COVID-19 Update

Chancellor Provides Update on PIT Project; Updated ACH Calculator Available for Faculty to Test

This blog post has been written and posted by Matt Hinckley, with the expressed verbal permission of DCCFA President Carlos Martinez, to:

Provide an update on the overall FLRG/PIT project broadly;

Share an updated Beta ACH Excel Calculator with faculty;

Provide an update on the ongoing work actively to seek, to solicit, and to incorporate faculty input directly, regarding the calculator specifically and the FLRG/PIT project broadly;

Answer a few frequently asked questions regarding the calculator specifically and the FLRG/PIT project broadly.

UPDATE ON THE FLRG/PIT PROJECT BROADLY

Chancellor May on Feb. 28 wrote to the PIT members to thank them for their ongoing work. In that email, he said that he and his DCCCD leadership team…

“have also worked with the finance office to estimate the budgetary impact of the recommendations. Initial estimates show the recommendations costing more than $50M annually above our existing faculty budget. This is equivalent to a 40% increase over our annual faculty salary spend. Any combination or bundle of policy changes will significantly increase (spending) on faculty load and compensation; however, given the many priorities and constraints faced by the district at this time of change, we need to align timing and investment across the many priorities. I am working closely with the finance office and the rest of the district leadership to figure out how to fund the recommended policy changes. Our process will likely include identifying ways to make the changes more affordable while maintaining the spirit of the task force's recommendations.”

Chancellor May also added that he encourages faculty to continue learning more about the PIT recommendations and the Beta ACH Excel Calculator, and that he is “looking forward to seeing (the overall initiative) through into action.”

As more information is made available to members of PIT, that information will be shared with faculty at large. The important takeaways are that this estimated cost confirms the previous claims that implementing the FLRG and PIT recommendations would require a significant allocation of additional resources into instruction, which is something all faculty should support, and that the chancellor intends to work toward implementation.

UPDATED BETA ACH CALCULATOR

Hereis a link to the most recent iteration of the Beta ACH Excel Calculator. Please click the link and download the Excel workbook to your local hard drive/desktop, save the file, and then begin inputting projected information.

Many thanks go to Kate Mosle and Simonas Matulionas with Boston Consulting Group, who as part of their support of the PIT task forces and project have been building the Beta ACH Excel calculator as a tool to help faculty understand how the PIT recommendations would work together. According to Mosle,

“I know faculty continue to have questions about the calculator. They’ve raised lots of good points of input, and I’d love to provide them with an updated version of the calculator that fixes some of the bugs.”

“I know there will be revisions to the Master Course Table before it is fully operationalized, specifically around splitting out lecture and lab portions of certain sections. Since those MCT revisions have not yet been made… I included a note on the title page specifically calling out the fact that the MCT does not yet split out lectures and lab, but it will in the future. So, this version of the calculator is still a draft, but I do think it addresses some of the other faculty concerns that have come up, and it may help ease some of the confusion around how it works.”

Note that many of the issues and concerns that have arisen from faculty regarding the Beta ACH Excel calculator have to do with course maximums and minimums, and contact hour (ACH) values associated with classes. In addition, many science faculty specifically have requested the ability to enter the lecture and lab segments/portions of course sections separately. For instance, several science District discipline committees have official positions that it should be permitted to have the lecture and lab segments/portions of their courses taught by different instructors (even as many faculty in those disciplines still have the academic freedom to teach both the lecture and the lab of a given section).

These particular issues actually are part of the underlying data set programmed into the Master Course Table (MCT), not the calculator itself. Specifically, the ability to enter lecture and lab separately, and have each segment/portion of the course section apply the correct ACH, needs to be programmed into the MCT. Given the sheer number of courses in the DCCCD catalog that have labs, those changes have not yet been accomplished, nor – because there are budgetary implications to class sizes – is the exact timeline clear, but it is the intent for courses with labs to have three separate entries on the MCT, as follows:

•       One entry for lecture and lab combined with the total correct course ACH;
•       One entry for only the lecture segment/portion with only the correct lecture ACH;
•       One entry for only the lab segment/portion with only the correct lab ACH.

While we wait for these updates to the MCT, and while we wait for District leadership to decide which recommendations to implement for Fall 2020 given budget realities, we can continue to learn about how the calculator would work generally in a model where load, extra service, and reassigned time, are denominated in the “single currency” of ACH.

Also, note that on the “Policy Levers” tab in the Excel workbook, the default adjunct/extra service rate is set to $62.50 per ACH. Note that this $62.50 rate is what is proposed in the PIT recommendations. The current DCCCD adjunct/extra service rate is $48.42. On the Policy Levers tab, you can set the adjunct/extra service teaching rate to any value. This is a draft, designed to show how ACH would work. It is not designed to represent what PIT recommendations will or will not be operationalized for Fall 2020 because again, that decision rests with the chancellor.

HOW FACULTY INPUT CONTINUES TO REFINE THE BETA ACH EXCEL CALCULATOR
Other than the issues with the Master Course Table listed above, ongoing feedback from faculty via email, phone calls, and in person, has been processed and in many cases incorporated into updates to the Beta ACH Excel Calculator.

As with earlier drafts, the updated Excel workbook linked above allows us to see how changes stemming from the Policy Initiative Taskforce (PIT) work might look in operation. Faculty can input various scenarios of load, enrollment, and reassigned time to see how load and compensation would be impacted under potential policy changes. Please note this calculator remains in beta form. We are posting it in the hopes of helping faculty begin to become familiar with Adjusted Contact Hours (ACH) as well as gather feedback on the functionality of the calculator. This updated version has incorporated faculty input for a variety of improvements. However, the PIT recommendations are still under review, so this document only calculates what potential changes may be. This is still a draft. Some changes of note between the previous iteration and this version include:

• Flexibility for a “teaching minimum” requirement to be met across Fall and Spring semesters rather than limits in both semesters;
• Technical difficulties in entering course numbers that begin with zero are now fixed (can now be selected using a drop-down menu) and enter the correct ACH;
• Fixes issues with the replication of release time between fall and spring.

DOES THE CALCULATOR INCLUDE PREMIUM PAY?

At present, the Beta ACH Excel Calculator does not include Premium Pay. This is not an oversight, nor is it a thinly-veiled attempt to remove Premium Pay. Indeed, at the Dec. 12 PIT Leadership Council meeting, Chancellor May reiterated that Premium Pay exists in order to incentivize faculty to teach during non-traditional terms. Subsequent recommendations from BCG and PIT have removed any/all suggestions to trade Premium Pay for a higher extra service rate, and the issue has not been discussed after that Dec. 12 meeting. The only proposed change to Premium Pay that emerged in the PIT recommendations on Jan. 29, mentioned on pages 25 and 34, suggests that under certain circumstances, “…deans should be empowered to offer Premium Pay to faculty to teach extra courses in fall or spring, when both student demand warrants and where enrollment makes summer (or winter) Premium Pay earnings impossible or unlikely.” Again, this is a recommendation and there has been no decision yet as to whether or not it will be implemented.

That said, Mosle and Matulionis of BCG continue to try to develop a means by which Premium Pay can be automatically included in a future edition of the Beta ACH Excel Calculator. The fact that the Premium Pay ACH rate of $81.25/ACH (for up to 96 ACH) is different from the adjunct/extra service rate, and does not apply during fall or spring, makes the programming particularly challenging for Excel.

HOW CAN I CONTINUE TO HAVE MY FEEDBACK HEARD AND CONSIDERED?

Please continue to work with the ACH calculator, review the PIT recommendations, and send concerns of the following types to the following individuals:

• Class size maximums and minimums, and ACH values for individual courses: Master Course Table Task Force co-chairs, Angela Nino and Shawnda Floyd;
• How ACH is calculated in the various types of reassigned time: Reassigned Time Task Force co-chairs: Becky Heiskell and Audra Barrett;
• ACH Calculator functionality issues, compensation issues in the ACH Calculator, and other compensation issues brought up in the PIT report: Compensation Practices Task Force co-chairs, Matt Hinckley and Lori Doddy;
• Faculty Contracts (not reflected the ACH Calculator): Faculty Contracts Task Force Co-chairs, Matt Henry and Greg Morris. (Note that the draft contact in the PIT report was just a draft and several subsequent iterations have been produced by the task force.)

Also, share your thoughts with your local faculty association president.

WHY ISN’T THE FACULTY COUNCIL TAKING THE LEAD ON COMMUNICATING THIS, AND/OR WHY ARE NON-COUNCIL MEMBERS USING THE DCCFA ADVANCE BLOG TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION?

FLRG (2016-2017) and PIT (2019-2020) were both requested by, and in part staffed by members of, the Faculty Council. The FLRG and PIT projects have been informed and influenced by Faculty Council input, which in turn was influenced by years of input from faculty broadly on issues of inequities with compensation and load calculation. And at many times throughout both processes, FLRG and PIT have worked closely with the Faculty Council. At the same time, as official DCCCD projects, the FLRG and PIT projects were/are also separate from the Faculty Council (just as the DCCFA itself is a separate entity from the DCCCD).

In 2016-2017, FLRG updates were shared via the DCCFA Advance Blog. Here in 2020, ongoing PIT updates are being shared via the DCCFA Advance Blog. The DCCCD SharePoint is also being used, but in the interests of getting as much information as possible through as many means as possible to as many members as possible as quickly as possible, DCCFA President Carlos Martinez authorized Matt Henry and Matt Hinckley, as PIT task force co-chairs, to continue to use the DCCFA Advance Blog to communicate PIT information. Moreover, continuing to use the Advance Blog for this purpose allows members instantly, through the use of the FLRG and PIT labels, to peruse the historical context for this work since 2016.