Nominations and Elections Committee, D. Buckley
Doug stated that since his e-mail earlier in the week a number of nominations had been submitted. Nominations will close at 4 PM on March 30th. He requested that any additional nominations be delivered before that. He also recommended personal delivery as there is no guarantee that the campus mail would be timely. C. Mathison noted that all nominations would be validated. Nominees will have approximately two weeks for campaigning.
GPO/WEP, C. DuPont
Carol did not give an oral report, but she did distribute a March 2006 update with a "Nationwide Call to Action" and list of Representatives and Senators who have signed onto either the Senate (S 619) or House (HR 147) bill to correct the inequities of GPO/WEP laws.
Delegation Report Update, N. Camerota and R. Rodgers
* Nick, Bob, and Carol Mathison met with S. Keller to discuss Bob Rodgers' Resolve (see attached) regarding search committee protocols which was distributed along with the Delegations' recommendations at our last meeting. VP Keller has agreed to go back to past practice which provided for ranking of top choices. He also apologized for remarks he made that were deemed offensive to faculty and staff. There needs to be some tweaking of the language of the agreement, but it appears this issue is resolved. R. Rodgers noted that it takes time to negotiate through the resolution process.
* Nick addressed the other recommendations submitted to the membership at the last PA meeting. His motion to "submit Delegation recommendations to Pres. Rubenzahl" was passed by vote of the membership.
Guest, Margaret Wong of QCC, Candidate for President of MCCC
Margaret opened her remarks with a brief review of her background and then reviewed the contract and salary conditions of MCCC members and how we ended up where we are today. She spanned approximately 20 yrs in her presentation. Margaret also addressed the slow lack of communication from MCCC to the chapters.
Her remarks received positive response from attendees. Asked if she had ever served on a negotiations committee, she responded that she had not, but that she and the QCC PA President were asked to consider serving on this newest team. Unfortunately, she did not learn until after the team was formed that her President had declined to serve. Overall, Margaret was received enthusiastically and was encouraged in her candidacy.
Motion to Adjourn, 1:30, C. DuPont, R. Rodgers
Secretary,
Lynn Kleindienst
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE STCC/PA MEMBERSHIP from the Delegation's Continuations Committee
1. During the last 18 months there has been a noticeable shift in job positions and responsibilities, plus a proliferation of new positions. Although we recognize the president's right to redeploy non-unit personnel or alter established duties for such positions, we strongly urge that all job openings at this college be posted and that unit members be made aware of changes in existing titles, positions and responsibilities in a timely fashion. Such transparency would, we hope, avoid the appearance of nepotism or cronyism and increase the chances of hiring the best qualified candidates.
2. The delegation recommends that new faculty and professional staff be hired at salaries conforming to the existing pay scale and ranking system. Paying such new hires off-scale (especially at much higher salaries) creates inequities which might deepen divisions on campus and further depress morale.
Moreover, we discovered some full-time faculty who are teaching without sufficient academic credentials. To avoid this situation in the future, we recommend that all candidates considered for full-time faculty positions be required to have degrees appropriate to their subject area (e.g., a faculty member teaching psychology should possess the minimum of a master's degree in psychology).
3. While work-to-rule was invoked by the administration to explain their lack of communication with the faculty, wide-ranging changes were effected without consulting senior faculty or others with a long history of service to this college. We suggest the formation of an advisory committee as part of a broader effort to enhance communication between the administration and the entire college community. Such a committee could play a part in the campaign to revive shared governance.
There have also been continuing expressions of concern regarding the college's reliance on outside consultants. (The delegation will provide a tally of the costs involved in hiring private consultants in its forthcoming report.) We maintain it is far more prudent for the administration to actively seek the advice of knowledgeable individuals on campus before contracting outside consultants.
4. All faculty and staff are regularly evaluated. In particular, faculty members are evaluated by their students, department chairperson, and dean. For the sake of fairness and greater efficiency, we recommend a more searching institutional review which allows faculty and staff to evaluate their respective supervisors (deans, directors, vice presidents).
5. We strongly urge more release time for the STCC/PA's president (if faculty, a 3 course reduction) and the STCC MCCC Director.
Please feel free to phone x4806, or email camerota@stcc.edu with questions, comments or information for the delegation.
MEMO
To: Nick Camerota
From: Rob Rodgers
Date: 2/10/06
Subject: Administration's disrespect toward faculty and staff.
During the delegation's second meeting with the President and other members of the administration there was a discussion about new hiring practices and diversity. As a part of this discussion, the administration mentioned the hiring, promotion or job changes of several people, including the hiring of a vice-president's daughter and the reassignment of another vice-president's wife to a different division for reporting purposes.
At that same meeting, Vice-president Keller, stated (in answer to a question by Mary Donovan) that, from now on, all search committees for faculty or staff positions would not be allowed to rank their recommendations but would have to submit three or more names in unranked order. Mr. Keller further stated [again without disagreement from the President] that the reason for this change in procedure was the administration's concern that if faculty/staff were allowed to rank candidates based upon the committee's determination of their qualifications, that the faculty/staff would then be likely to recommend their "cousin" and the college would thus be forced to hire someone based upon nepotism and not upon that person's merit.
In light of the earlier discussion involving the other new hires or transfers of administrators family members and after some thought concerning the number of other examples of various administrators having hired family members to work at the college, I find this highly insulting to every faculty/staff member at this institution.
THEREFORE, as long as this attitude of distrust/disrespect prevails amongst the administration, and in order to prevent any appearance of additional 'cronyism,' and in order to return to the long-standing past practice of faculty/staff ranking the top three candidates based upon their best professional judgment of the candidates' qualifications;
BE IT RESOLVED that the membership of the STCC/PA agrees that no faculty/staff member of said Association shall serve on any hiring committee until said policy of not allowing faculty/staff to make ranked hiring recommendations in all faculty/staff hiring situations is ended. And BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the college administration and to all member of the STCC Board of Trustees.
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