It was my privilege to attend the quarterly meeting of the

TBR Faculty SubCouncil, held in Nashville, on Friday

October 20th.

Standard disclaimer: I try to report on what I heard, I lay

no claims to the veracity of any of it.

First of all, we are the envy of the entire TBR CC system.

Ten of the twelve community colleges were represented, and

we were the only school whose Faculty Council and

Administration had the where with all (where-with-all?) to

actually provide for the salary adjustments allowed by the

Board's approval of the first installment of the equity

studies. A couple of the schools had completed studies but

no funds in place, several of the schools had completed

studies that were judged to be "invalid" (without pointing

fingers at any large TBR universities to the right of us

conducting this set of studies, it seems that at some

point, the person managing studies that originated from

that non-disclosed institution suddenly began making up

numbers, when it became clear to him that there was not

sufficient time to actually do the necessary research), and

a few schools have not even begun studies. (Yes, I know

that sentence was horribly long, but then I am the guy who

can't remember the syllable structure of haiku, so

higher-order grammar skills are entirely outside of my

grasp.) So we won the battle, so far, for "Who Wants To Be

a Thousandaire".

The actual meeting:

Chancellor Manning's daughter had an emergency surgery on

Wednesday preceding the meeting, and he was still not back

from Colorado. He sent his apologies.

Dr Sidney McPhee, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and

Strategic Planning, moderated the meeting.

1)Presidential search process-In prior meeting, Tenn Tech

rep had complained that faculty were not integral to the

presidential search at their institution. In response, Dr

McPhee distributed the process, which specifically lays out

how a search for the permanent president (which differs

significantly from the search for an interim president) is

to be conducted. He did point out that the

provision that the advisory committee must contain 2

faculty members was a minimum, not a maximum, and that the

chancellor could choose to appoint more faculty members. On

the other hand, this is just an advisory committee, and by

law, six members of the Board were the only ones who

actually had a vote on the final decision.

2)Selection of Faculty Regent-Each year a faculty member

serves as a Board member, and is referred to as the

"Faculty Regent". In prior meeting, there was a question

about how this Regent is selected. McPhee explained that

the position rotates in alphabetical order among the

schools, and that it is basically up to the President of

the school to select a faculty member. Many schools have

written it into policy that their Faculty Regent be the

current president of Faculty Council/Senate.

3)Professional Leave/Sabbatical (for faculty-members)-This

was sort of complicated. For starters, the word

"sabbatical" is not contained in any state document; it

simply doesn't exist. There are policies for "job-related"

and "non job-related" leave. These are clearly spelled out

and are available either on the website or at Human

Resources (or, as I like to say in a retro fashion,

Personnel).

The more interesting problem is one that has now come out

for the fourth time in my seven meetings. Why can't faculty

have personal days?

Here's why

BECAUSE YOU CAN'T, THAT'S WHY.

No, that's not exactly true, but it was pointed out that

this is a matter of legislation that was crafted (as such)

years and years ago, and while no one person can say "We

did it this way because..." (because all of those people

would have died around the time Jackson left the White

House), the thinking is that, well, faculty members already

get 12 weeks off a year, and, you know, come on! Or

something.

But here's the interesting part, really. Treva Berryman,

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, admitted

that there were occasionally mid-year problems that faculty

members simply could not avoid, that fall outside of the

realm of sick leave. She gave as an example a situation

where a faculty member's child was going away to college on

the far coast, and the faculty member had to have two days

to get them properly deposited. She said this,

basically..."The faculty member should 1)clear it with

their immediate supervisor; 2)get a colleague to cover any

classes missed, at no cost to the state (ie, you do this

for me now, I will return the favor later, rather than

having the school pay a sub); and 3)arrange to make up the

missed hours, either at night or during a weekend."

Berryman said that the supervisor "should be flexible

enough to allow this" with NO LOSS OF PAY FOR THE FACULTY

MEMBER AND NO CHARGE TO SICK LEAVE.

So, from their standpoint, there's never going to be

personal leave for faculty, but it's really not a problem.

Kay Clark, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs,

supported Berryman's notion. At least 6 of the schools

represented piped in and said that pretty well described

the situation at their schools; that faculty members were

professionals who might occasionally have to rearrange

their schedules, and as long as it was infrequent, it

shouldn't be a problem. Ellen Wood, a new TBR employee

whose title I didn't catch, but who works in the Academic

Affairs department in some administrative position,

specifically said "If the classes are covered and the time

is made up, the faculty member is not in violation of any

TBR policy".

On a related note, some institutions charge a full days

sick leave for missing any part of a day, even if the

faculty member met some of their classes. This was chalked

up to "some over-zealous HR director inappropriately

interpretting sick leave policy", which got a snort out of

me for some reason. I won't tell you who said it. You can

ride with me to the next meeting if you want that level of

detail.

4)Calculation of GPA's-Work continues to advance on

universally calculating GPA's based only on hours completed

at the student's current institution. Some questions

remain, but they are being dealt with, including "Bobby

goes to Pellissippi St for 4 years, successfully completing

17 hours of coursework with a 1.25 GPA. Memphis University

won't allow him to enroll due to this horrid record. Can

Bobby go to Roane St for one semester, take twelve hours

worth of (fill in whatever kinds of classes you think would

be easy here), has a new GPA of 3.6, since his Pellissippi

St stuff doesn't count towards his GPA, and re-applies to

Memphis. What happens?" This question turns out to have no

merit, as do so many of my questions, but after the

laughing at me ceased, it was pointed out that more

substantive questions were being addressed in committee.

5)Guideline p-080: Harassment-Sexual or Racial-This

guideline is being updated to reflect changes in the common

language and to respond to some recent legal decisions.

This is, in my opinion, a frightening area for teachers, in

that allegations may be made anonymously, and while the

subsequent investigation would prohibit any assurance of

anonymity, even a complete dismissal of the allegations

produces a document which goes into a TBR sexual harassment

file. This document would contain the language "No

disciplinary action was taken", but still, for me, my

preference would be that any documentation of false

allegations be purged from the system. My greatest fear is a

bit paranoic; what if a student just really has a grudge

against you, and sees this as a way to get back at you? I

could dismiss it had I not heard two instances of it

happening at my prior institutions.

6)Adjunct compensation-It stinks. The Board sets a maximium

($700/hour), but no minimum, and will not do so. Some

schools at the small group meeting reported paying adjuncts

as little as $325/credit-hour, but expressed hope that they

were going to get it raised to $340. Deplorable.

7)Travel reimbursements-Rates are based on CONUS figures

(it's an acronym, I don't remember what it stands for, but

maybe CONtinental United States?), which are available at

website

www.policyworks.gov/org/main/mt/homepage/mtt/perdiem/perd01d.html

In situations where stated per diems don't cover costs, the

President of the college can override the limit by a letter

to the travel auditor.

8)Web-based Degrees-A framework for these was distributed,

laying out goals, target population, and related issues.

When the ETSU rep complained about why we even need to have

such a program, he was given the answer "Because the Board

said we are going to do it, they already approved it

(check that; actually, the DEGREE has not been approved,

permission to develop the program has been approved), and

it's moving forward whether individuals support it or not".

So there.

So basically, the train is rolling, and we are just down

the line, heatedly laying rail as quickly as possible,

hoping our shift ended just before we get choo-chood. Or

something.

Anyway, it's happening, they've established courses they

want to use for both 2 and 4 year degrees, and they are now

in the process of trying to figure out whether all of the

necessary classes are available. Apparently the student

will be able to take the courses from any TBR school of

their choosing, regardless of their physical location.

This is where I pass the buck, and I know she will love me

for it. Linda Randolph is a member of a statewide

committee, containing members from each school, that is

more or less steering this process (though I don't know if

they are calling it a steering committee formally.) I would

suggest you direct questions about the program to her; I am

assuming most people don't have an interest in this, but

give me a call if I am incorrect, and I will more fully

write up my notes from this portion of the meeting. Or call

Linda. (Sorry, Linda, I couldn't stop myself.)

I think that's it. As always, call or email me if you have

any questions about any of this, or if you would like to

have an agenda item added for the Jan 19th meeting.

Don't forget, Tuesday is United Nations Day!

dave

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DAVID VINSON

Email: dvinson@pstcc.cc.tn.us

"Pellissippi State Technical Community College"