Addressing Enrollment Concerns

With the economic downturn, skyrocketing enrollment growth is a fact of life at community colleges as are classrooms bursting at the seams from the increased demand. This certainly seems to reflect our situation here at TCC. In this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i29/29b01101.htm there is a story on the phenomenon, and some of the measures that the colleges are taking to address the rising demand and the pressures on resources (like space and faculty) including more classes, weekend sections, more on-line and even 24/7 scheduling, but this raises an important question for us:

What role should the faculty be playing in the formulating of the policies addressing these demographic changes?

Senate terms

Faculty senators serve for 2-year terms. Should faculty senators have limits set on the number of consecutive terms they can serve? If so, how many? Please comment and cast your vote on the right. Thank you.

An article in the February 6, 2009, edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education: “Downturn Threatens the Faculty's Role in Running Colleges” is important reading for faculty members curious about – or concerned about – shared governance. According to author Robin Wilson, the current economic climate of belt-tightening and budget-cutting is undermining shared governance on many campuses. In the name of efficiency and the bottom-line, decisions on matters such as curriculum and reorganizing programs are being made at some schools with no faculty input or worse directly in the face of faculty opposition.

TCC, of course, is not among the schools profiled, but the final quotation of the piece is worth our consideration: "If there isn't a good system on a campus for consultation and communication, this climate is going to make that clear," says Ms. [Merrill] Schwartz, who directs research at the association of governing boards. "Good communication builds trust and good will, which are essential when difficult decisions need to be made in a short amount of time."

Click on this sentence for a link to the article.

Communication Feedback

One of my goals as the Faculty Senate Chair has been to increase communication between the Faculty Senate and faculty. To achieve that goal, brochures were distributed at convocation, bookmarks listing the major issues under discussion were distributed during the semester, the web page has been revised to include a log of Senate activities to allow easier searching, and the Senate Blog was started to improve communication on the issues.

How effective have you found these initiatives? What further changes would you suggest?

Release Time

Colleagues,

Recent changes in release time will impact most divisions and all campuses. What do you know about the changes? What would you like to know?

The stated purpose of the release time changes are to:
1) Authorize Program/Discipline Head duties and responsibilities, and
2) Authorize responsibilities related to a special project.

As the college begins to implement these changes, we hope you will participate in this discussion about release time.

Just click comment below, and then post your response. We look forward to hearing from you.

Online procedures and training

Colleagues,

TCC has new procedures for teaching online courses.

One new item is that training is required for all faculty teaching online for the first time. Additionally, any courses taught for the first time in 3 years require approval.

For more detailed information see the updated distance learning site: http://www.tcc.edu/students/DTLS/faculty/

Please share your views on the procedures and training for online courses. What would you like to see, and how would you like online quality assurance implemented?

Faculty Evaluation Plan

To comment, please scroll to the bottom and click on the number of comments. There is a pencil icon right next to the link. Clicking here will allow you to read all the comments and post your own. To eliminate spam style posts, your comment must be added by the moderator, so you won't see your posts immediately.

Now that everyone has received the proposed Faculty Evaluation Plan (FEP), the Faculty Senate would like to encourage discussions and questions before it is voted on in the Fall.

Though the Faculty Evaluation Steering Committee will be holding an afternoon session during Convocation, we hope this blog will allow more in depth discussion. The blog will also provide an easy way for us refer back to the questions and comments of others.

Let me provide just a little background:

The Faculty Evaluation Plan, or FEP, is the culmination of several years of work by the Faculty Senate. In 2005, the Faculty Senate, Dr. DiCroce, and the College Board unanimously approved the Faculty Responsibilities Paper. This led to a review of the evaluation system. The Faculty Evaluation Steering Committee, a multi-campus and multi-disciplinary team, worked for two years to create this plan. Three non-voting members were added this year: two Deans and one Human Resources Representative.

Paramount in our minds throughout this process were the two following goals:
1) to use faculty input to develop the plan
2) to view faculty evaluation as a key to professional growth and development.

Six surveys and 10 multi-campus meetings were held to solicit input and feedback. The plan you see is based on the work of experts in faculty evaluation and on the responses made by faculty throughout the creation of the FEP. Faculty feedback guided all decisions and allowed the FEP to address the complexities of a multi-campus community college within the larger Virginia Community College System.

We look forward to seeing a lively discussion about the FEP in this area.

Maureen Cahill
Chair. Faculty Evaluation Steering Committee