The following is an e-mail from Julius Nadas, FC4 Secretary. It is especially relevant to the ongoing elephant in the lounge conversation.
The following email was sent out by Wright College Faculty Council President Daniel Borzutzky to the Wright College Faculty. FC4 suggests that faculty at all seven colleges be pro-active and contact the local VP to find out what you have been deemed fit to teach.
Julius Nadas
FC4 secretary
– – – – – – – – – – – – —
From:
Daniel Borzutzky
Tuesday – October 26, 2010 5:24 PM
To:
WWC-Faculty
Subject:
From Faculty Council regarding Teaching Qualifications
Colleagues,
Helen Rarick (Vice President of Faculty Council) and I have been talking since Friday with President Guengerich and Vice President Cordes about the new list that came out last week stating each faculty members’ ‘qualifications’ to teach courses. We have been informed that Vice President Cordes is in the process of reviewing each faculty members’ newly-designated qualifications,’ and we have been told that she will be appealing those qualifications which do not seem correct. In other words, if you are now being told that you are not qualified to teach a course that you currently teach or have taught in the past, we have been told that she will be filing appeals. With that in mind, it may be a good idea for you to speak with Vice President Cordes to find out first what it is that you have now been deemed qualified to teach; you may also want to discuss any potential appeals with her so that she can request that you be designated as ‘qualified’ to teach those courses that you are used to teaching. As this is currently taking place, we advise that you do this sooner rather than later.
Please let us know if you have questions.
Daniel Borzutzky
[Wright College] Faculty Council President
The Harold Lounge 
What is going on in this college? Why has there been no communication between the administrators at District and the faculty about essentially everything that’s taken place in the past 5-6 months? I’d love to be corrected, but I can’t think of a single example where there has been an open and transparent line of communication between faculty and administration about all these new policies and initiatives that will directly affect faculty, staff, and students. I don’t think the current plan of finding out about what goes on behind closed doors at District through an email that happens to circulate is working. If a list came out last week, why wasn’t faculty made aware of the plan to create such a list weeks or even months ago? And now that there is a list, are we left to appeal decisions that we don’t agree with, or is there any way to take this further to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again without the input of faculty? To me, being “proactive” means something quite different then talking to the VP to find out what some administrator at District decided weeks ago based on the words on my diploma.
It appears that in PeopleSoft we can already check if we have been ‘vetted’ to teach the classes were were hired for – if you go to PeopleSoft, then Manage Student Records, then CCC Faculty Management, then Set up – once there, type in your last name and the list comes up. From what I understand, it hasn’t been updated for everyone yet but ‘they’ are working in it.
Strange, I don’t have these options. I cannot find “CCC Faculty Management” anywhere in PS.
I wish this school had a person who was renowned as a PeopleSoft guru who could figure out why I can’t see this.
We did. She was layed off last week.
Did you go into the peoplesoft we use when we register students? That’s the one you need, not the site where you can view your paycheck.
I did, and like Heraclitus don’t see the option for CCC Faculty Management.
I suspect this menu item is only available to specific users, perhaps chairs and deans? I do not see it either (I’m faculty but not chair)
I’m not a chair and I have access. To be clear, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, here’s the url which is only accessible over the intranet. https://sa.ccc.edu/servlets/iclientservlet/SAPRD/?cmd=logout. From there, if you follow the aforementioned steps, it should be there. I didn’t think I was special but who knows.
You DO have the ability to put students directly into classes, though, right?
So maybe it was a bonus perq–some sort of admin option…And with that said, your special-ness is obvious in many, many ways, Mathissexy, starting with your ubiquity!
(Private message to Armendarez–you can ask someone what that one means!)
I lost that ability at some point (which is ridiculous but don’t get me started on the fact that faculty advise students to register for classes but cannot physically put them into classes; I started), so now I’m even less special. We’ll all just have to sit down and look at this on Monday at HW.
Again, why do we have to rely on a comment on a blog post to find out these things? I know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but without the Lounge, I would have never thought to check in PeopleSoft. And now that I know this information, now I have the uncertainty of what is going to be done with this information. For example, I’m apparently not credentialed to teach a course I’m currently teaching this semester. Is one of the investigators going to pull me out of class in mid-lecture? Probably not, but when there is no communication and only rumor and innuendo, who’s to say what’s possible?
From what I understood from FC4, no one has been assigned to teach any courses yet for the Spring Semester. Once the District has finished combing through all of our credentials, they will send a list to our VP’s informing them of everyone’s qualifications to teach. Only once that list is out will we be assigned to courses. If you asked to teach a course that you are not qualified to teach, well, I don’t know what happens then. I sense a chaotic and unpleasant Spring semester is on the horizon though.
You make it sound so cheap…oh, wait…it is. Carry on.
Perhaps you need to know that some at HWC have been asked to provide transcripts that were in our files from the time we were hired.Have those transcripts lost their credibility? Perhaps there is an expiry date we are not aware of? Maybe they have LOST them?!
However, as we move into a technocratic, authoritarian era maybe the “new hot of the press” transcripts will be scanned and put on People Soft to justify why we can or cannot do as the powers that be deem fit.
Has the human element of decision making become obsolete?
Is this do you think the grand design of the REINVENTION? Do they really have a vision/plan or are they just coming up with ways to harass the people that do the real work in the trenches?
Please help me understand this.
Sadly, there must be 5 copies of my transcripts floating around upstairs and district, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if we were asked again to provide all our transcripts. Scanning transcripts? Utilizing technology? No way! How long has it taken us to be able to enter grades electronically? I’d be all for submitting my transcripts one more time if it was guaranteed that they’d be stored electronically until my credentials change, for the better because as far as I know, it’s not possible to lose degrees. Funny thing about credentials… with the exception of a few math faculty, most of us have minimal statistics coursework under our belts (especially if we have degrees in pure mathematics), yet we are qualified to teach Stats and Math 118. Please correct me if I’m wrong my fellow math folks who frequent the lounge.
Jaded, as for the human element of decision making, in the dark side of the corporatization of education there can be little humanity between employers and employees. The humanity is saved up for the consumers. Again, please challenge my very narrow minded Friday afternoon ramble. The Grand design of reinvention=saving $, perpetuating global competitiveness initiatives, preparing students for jobs (21st century skills) and quantifying the seemingly unquantifiable elements of (higher) education while keeping faculty and staff (those of us in the “trenches”) off balance and disgruntled if we truly care about our jobs at CCC which are our vocation, for most (I hope) our passion and our calling. And for what, better graduation rates and retention? If everything about jobs and usefulness and skills, then what does the degree even mean? Enough for now. I need to collect my thoughts more.
P.S. Apparently the task forces will be decided within the next 4 weeks (hopefully by Thanksgiving according to a source from district, Alvin Bisarya, Vice Chancellor of Strategy and Institutional Intelligence at the FC4 meeting this past week. He also said that they’ll likely have a 2nd call for volunteers for the task force. I’ll beat district to the punch. We need to get involved in some capacity and if we are unable to commit full-time, then commit part-time (funny enough, district has no clue what this will entail, interesting planning strategy) or be heard locally and communicate with the small number of faculty who are able to be on a task force officially. I have my doubts about us finding out who’s on the TF’s by turkey (or tofu-key) day. V.C Bisarya also said that the TF’s are geared to start by Jan. 10. Alright, let me keep gathering my thoughts.
It sounds like it may be coming close to official: One ship, strong winds, and too many pirates trying to be the captain in search of the holy grail of education (yeah, I know, the holy grail may be on land – that’s my point).
Actually, my credentials say that I can teach all math courses, with an added comment of “And Statistics.” Apparently statistics doesn’t count as a math course?
That’s interesting. I don’t have that note. At Loyola (and other schools) they have departments of mathematics
and statistics
.
They lost them.
Mine have been lost 6 times since 2003. I checked my HR file in 2005. It was empty.
If you read the post from Wright some of these credential questions are answered. I really like that Wright is being so proactive. http://il.aft.org/local1600/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=ca35f94e-8628-4ffd-898a-ae8512bc96a5.
Since the District must know that every question of credentials will be met with a grievance and grievances can cost them much money, it seems unlikely that they will spend much time pursuing this. However, given that the credential review, much like the random firings, seem to be occurring based on the capriciousness of Hymen and Lopez, who knows.
Also, I would like to suggest that the union website be placed on the right menu bar. http://il.aft.org/local1600/
You may also find pics of popular HWC faculty on the union website.
Sure thing; good idea.
The last line (and the handle) are hilarious, by the way…well played.