The Faculty Executive Council had a very busy and productive first semester. To highlight some of our activities:
Faculty Retreat – Approximately 60 faculty, administrators and
Board Members met to discuss the promises Maricopa makes to its faculty
as well as how each viewed Maricopa and why faculty would want to work
here.
Meet and Confer – The committee is working very closely with
the Executive Council for direction. See article in this issue of
Peerpoint!
Membership Drive – We have the largest membership in history,
843. We are evaluating whether it is necessary for all faculty or
just the Executive Council to belong to AAUP. We’re evaluating the
cost versus the value, and we’ll keep you posted.
Peerpoint – This is our third issue. Let us know what
you want to read about.
Salary Placement – We had 13 new faculty request hearings on
their initial salary placement; of those that have been heard, we have
been able to have a positive effect.
Hiring Pools – The old system has been eliminated and a new,
friendlier approach is being tried. See article in this issue of
Peerpoint!
Committees – The following are some of the committees that Council
members are serving on:
From my perspective, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors have been very open and inclusive in the District activities. They have listened to faculty and our issues, and have offered ways that they can assist us. During the spring, we will have a committee looking at loading for distance learning and how a proposal can be developed for the RFP. The Professional Growth MOU committee continues to work on streamlining the process. We also have a committee that will be evaluating the issues in the RFP that need upgrading for our working conditions of the new millennium and how that can be constructed for Meet and Confer. Lots of things are happening, mostly positive for us as faculty. Thanks for your support of your elected faculty governance members. They really do work hard for you.
Have a wonderful spring semester, and we will keep you updated on future
activities.
An Update from Dr. Fred Gaskin, Chancellor
It is a pleasure for me to address the faculty through the Peerpoint.
I enjoy reading the faculty newsletter on a regular basis. Ms. Arnoldt
asked me to write a little about my work with faculty and students in the
Maricopa Community Colleges.
My first months on the job have been hectic, fun and full of learning. I have had the opportunity to work closely with many faculty leaders and that has been a terrific experience and very productive. Faculty Association President Rosemary Kesler truly represents all the best in Maricopa faculty. She is fun loving, creative, hard working and she always has the best interests of students in mind. She is typical of all of the Maricopa faculty members I have met.
I want to comment on a couple of highlights of my first months on the
job. I was impressed participating in the faculty retreat in the
fall. More than 60 faculty, top administrators and governing board
members met together for half a day. They identified a number of
promises for future Maricopa faculty. Those promises – quality teaching
and learning, quality education and student success – exemplified the unselfishness
of our faculty.
Another highlight has been the listening sessions and breakfast with
faculty members in December. That has proven to me that there are
no more talented, dedicated, hard working and empowered individuals than
Maricopa’s faculty. Our faculty is the finest in the world.
A number of themes emerged from the listening sessions. I was impressed to hear faculty express concerns about the low pay for adjunct faculty and the need to include the adjunct faculty in the college community to a greater extent. Faculty expressed their strong desire for more collaboration and community building. That surprised me a bit since I know the high value placed on college autonomy. New roles for faculty were discussed. Your role as a faculty member is now one of creating college students. You are helping to shape the future by encouraging people to attend and complete college – people who never thought they could succeed in college. Technology was also a major topic at all of the listening sessions. It is obvious that faculty recognize the value of technology in teaching and learning and want to ensure that the use of technology is value-added.
These listening sessions were very valuable for me and for the faculty participating in them, I believe. I plan to continue them in the future so I can hear more from faculty about the Maricopa District. It is obvious that Maricopa is a special place.
Finally, I want to emphasize one thing very strongly about students
and faculty. Please never take for granted your power as a faculty
member. You are influencing students every day. Your power
is enormous. Please know that students remember you – the faculty
– more than anything else about their college years. You are the
people who most closely touch and influence the lives of our students and
support their success. That is your legacy.
2000-2001 Meet and Confer Update:
Monetary Proposals
By Jim Daugherty, Meet & Confer Co-Chair, Glendale
Community College
Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), steps for those eligible, new steps
13 and 14, and 24 hours of additional horizontal movement beyond Ph.D are
all part of the monetary proposals the Faculty Association’s Meet and Confer
team has made to the MCCD Governing Board. This article recaps the
major points of the presentation made to the Governing Board on January
9, 2001.
The rationale for the proposals was given as the “4 R’s”: Recruitment, Retirement, Recognition and Renewal. Small faculty pools combined with survey results that show 25% of the faculty have said they plan to retire in the next one to five years emphasize the need to enhance recruitment. A lack of recognition and lack of opportunity via professional growth were also discussed.
Overall proposal: The major monetary proposals are contained in the following proposed salary schedule.
Proposed 2001-2002 Salary Schedule
Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) The Meet And Confer Team proposed a 4% COLA. The basis for this proposal was an estimated 3% rise in the GDP Implicit Price Deflator (the index used by the District to adjust its taxing authority for inflation), combined with the accumulated loss in spending power from COLA’s received. We made the point that a COLA is not a raise. The estimated cost of this proposal, which also included a vertical step for all those eligible, is $4,721,000, of which $3,185,000 is for the COLA.
GDP-IPD & Faculty COLA Comparison
Step 13 and 14 Changes in Professional Growth, a need to enhance recruitment, and a recognition that those at the top of the salary schedule have been locked in at the top of the scale were all reasons cited for these proposed new steps. These are “partial steps” in the same way that our current new step 12 is, in that horizontal movement is required before becoming eligible for these steps., except for those already at the Ph.D level. If both steps are approved, only one step per year would be awarded.
Currently, approximately 200 faculty are eligible for this step. The estimated cost for this proposal is $857,000.
Professional Growth-related Proposals Both the new vertical steps and the new horizontal hours to MA+114 (PhD +24) are also part of professional growth proposals. There was no anticipated cost for these proposals for 2001-2002 because only hours earned after these proposals are approved would be counted for this additional movement, i.e., no one would be “grand-fathered in.”
Additional Professional Growth related requests included creation of a permanent full-time position for centralized support of professional growth operations, support for current committee structure (release time) and an additional $100,000 in professional growth funds. The estimated cost of these professional growth proposals is $162,000.
Total cost The total estimated cost of these proposals is $5,740,000.00.
The presentation to the Governing Board was part of a special Board meeting convened for hearing monetary requests from each employee group. The faculty were the last to present, and Linda Larson and I shared the presentation duties with technical support ably provided by Bob Galloway, Janice Reilly and Carrie Taylor.
The next Peerpoint Meet and Confer update will be about the Professional
Growth MOU process.
Arming Campus Safety Officers?
By Dr. Jack Rose, Glendale Comm. College
The District Safety Committee was established in 1992 to study and
recommend a District wide response to newly enacted federal legislation
"The Student-Right-To-Know and Campus Security Act." That Committee
recommended the hiring of state certified peace officers to supplement
and gradually replace the corps of full-time (non certified) security personnel
who were at the time assigned to most of the Maricopa campuses. Since
then fourteen (14) officers have been hired and are now assigned to eight
(8) campuses, including five (5) who are Directors of Safety and Security.
Each one has satisfied all of the state mandated qualifications and training,
including all matters relating to the use of firearms. Each one enjoys
the same state certification required of all state, county and municipal
law enforcement officers in Arizona. The decision to not arm those officers
was made at the time the program was implemented.
Today, each Campus Safety & Security Department acts autonomously within the parameters of law, district and campus policy. The District Safety Committee continues to guide the development of universal matters. Citing such problems as recruitment and retention of certified officers and the public's concern or expectations about campus safety, some members of the Committee are urging reconsideration of the original decision to not arm MCCD state certified officers. The Committee is now researching all implications of this topic to determine if any recommendation should be developed and brought forward for broader discussion and consideration.
(Dr. John E. "Jack" Rose is residential faculty (Administration of Justice)
at GCC. He currently chairs the Arizona Peace Officer Training and Standards
Board and has been a member of the District Safety Committee since it was
formed.)
Faculty Pools Eliminated
By Dr. Christine Hall, Director Of Employee Services
Beginning January 2001, faculty pools will no longer be used to recruit
and hire MCCCD faculty. Instead, faculty positions will be advertised
individually. This decision came about through interviewing applicants,
deans, chairs, and current faculty. These interviews uncovered that
the pool concept was more confusing to applicants than individual postings.
In addition, deans and chairs were unable to specify the exact type of
faculty they were seeking within the disciplines. For example, if
a department was in need of a marine biologist, the search committee had
to review the entire biology file that contained biologists of all types.
The new procedure will enable departments and applicants to specify their
needs and qualifications, respectively. The new procedure will be
more efficient and less confusing for all.
Peerpoint Requests Faculty Input and Articles of Interest
Thanks to all who have contributed to the first issues of Peerpoint.
Faculty are encouraged to submit articles of general interest.
Carmela Arnoldt
MCCCD FACULTY ASSOCIATION 2000-01 OFFICERS
ROSEMARY KESLER, PRESIDENT
JANICE REILLY, PRESIDENT-ELECT
SANDRA STUEBNER, SECRETARY
MARK RICHARD, TREASURER
CARMELA ARNOLDT, PEERPOINT EDITOR
FACULTY ASSOCIATION OFFICE PHONE... (480) 731-8113