ReinQuestion? appears every Thursday and is an open thread for members of the HW and CCC community to post questions about the ongoing Reinvention. Any and all questions are invited, and anyone who knows an answer to any question posted is encouraged to answer it in the threads below.
I have to start this one with an apology. I really, really, really hoped to have a summary of our fruitful, educational, and helpful discussion with the task force members that took place on Tuesday at our local Faculty Council meeting, and then solicit more questions.
Unfortunately, I brought home the wrong legal pad, and so I am without my notes on the meeting. Thus, I can’t do what I wanted to do.
I swear that it will happen, and I promise that it will happen soon.
In the meantime, please mark your calendars for February 22nd (3:30pm, room 102) when your local Faculty Council will host Franklin Reynolds (Speech) and Alicia Anzaldo (Biology) to discuss their work on the Faculty and Staff Development Task Force and get input about FACULTY development–what it is, what it should be, and what it isn’t, in particular. In an email, Franklin described their work as follows:
IN GENERAL, THIS IS WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON:
*Improving the tenure process to make it more meaningful for one’s professional development needs, more useful to improving one’s classroom teaching, and more transparent in its evaluation process.
*Improving the faculty development (broadly, not just our contractual week’s requirement) opportunities for faculty. This includes making faculty development programming more faculty-driven across the District.
*Improving the post tenure experience by ensuring good teaching is rewarded and faculty who have had difficulties communicated to them have the proper tools necessary to succeed.
Please note, we are working with the collective bargaining agreement in mind, as well as consultation with union leadership. Alicia and I are also meeting with as many faculty on all the campuses. Through the likes of focus groups, surveys, meetings with District Faculty Council leadership, and other avenues, we hope to bring meaningful change to faculty development at CCC.
Pose your questions and/or ideas here, and watch for a survey and additional opportunities to contribute your comments, ideas, and definitions.
And if you have any lingering Reinvention Questions, post them up here!
The Harold Lounge 
I’d like to toss a related issue out there, one that’s not as important as those listed in Franklin’s email, but something that still needs some reinventing: the cumbersome process faculty have to go through to access Union professional development funds. Is it really necessary to march the paperwork around the building to acquire five different signatures, then have it shipped off to District, then wait for an unspecified period of time to get reimbursed? How can this process be streamlined? I don’t know if this falls under the Operational Excellence task force more than Faculty and Staff Development, but I’d like to see it land in the collective ears of at least one task force.
Can the “union leadership” be identified formally?
Are Franklin and Alicia working with A) just the written contract, B) local reps from each college, C) with the president of Local 1600, or D) All of the above?
Clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Tanks!