Hi All,
I have some items of interest to report, gleaned from communications from District, the 11th floor and from other faculty and staff. There are many things being discussed but these are some highlights. If you know something which should be highlighted, let me know!
- Reinvention 7
- Federal Financial Aid Restrictions
- New Hires for Fall 2013
- Class time Audit
- Copier/printer issues
For specifics, read on!
Reinvention is coming to HWC and all the City Colleges. If you missed the announcement from Armen, he is moving into the office next door (Keenan and then Will’s old office) and Reinvention 7 will be moving into his old office (formerly occupied by too many to name- Dean is a hard job!)
Armen will be a member of this committee as will 6 other HWC faculty and staff members. I don’t have that complete list but I’m sure we’ll get an announcement about this soon. I do know that one of the items that reinvention 7 will address is creating “Pathways” for certain disciplines. This will allow students to have a guide of what classes they should take to achieve a certain degree/concentration. This will become incredibly important as new Federal guidelines for financial aid go into effect this Fall.
Recently reported in the Chair’s meeting was news of federal government laws restricting how monies are used for those receiving financial aid. Starting in the Fall, a student MUST declare a major. They can declare an undecided major but they are only allotted so many hours for which they will receive financial aid. I would love to invite someone from financial aid to elaborate on this a bit more. I am sure this will be an item for Faculty Development Week but it would be good to alert our students now. I think it is imperative that we as faculty (and our staff and admin readers) be prepared to educate our students about these laws.
On a sad note, of the 22 new tenure track faculty hires we had hoped to get for the Fall semester, only 7 are going forward. There is an expected $600,000 shortfall in budget from Springfield and after cutting operations; there is only money for 7 new hires. Of course, Springfield may not cut that much so there could potentially be a last minute opportunity to hire more. On a happy note, no one is expected to be fired, terminated, let go, or downsized in the new budget.
Also, I know this is unusual, but some of you received an email last week from your Chair’s asking why you let your classes out early. It seems there is to be an ongoing audit of class start and stop times. Just FYI.
Copier/printer issues seem to have been mostly resolved. If you are “out” of copies, please inform David Locke and Armen about this so you can get more allotted to you. I know we were frustrated with the complete lack of understanding by district of the needs of faculty for copies. And let’s face it, it was a slap in the face when we have all heard the amazing and unbelievable rumors that the 6th floor at district has unlimited COLOR copies for all, rumors which have been confirmed. Not sure if that is true for all District but still – unlimited color copies! Yeesh! However, our administration has been very understanding of our needs and has worked to accommodate us. In a meeting with the Chancellor earlier in the semester, it was suggested to the faculty there that we need to communicate more with Don and the 11th floor to resolve these types of issues. In fact, the Chancellor clearly stated that she did not want to be bothered by small issues like copiers/printers!
Feel free to comment, suggest, rhapsodize or question! Anonymous and Identifiable posters are always welcome!
Jenny Armendarez
The Harold Lounge 