Council discusses updates on service time, ACE award and compensation proposal.
By Rachel Cooper
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
A report from Faculty Senate and chair meetings, service time award approvals, a compensation proposal update and adjuncts creating excellence awards were the topics of discussion during the monthly adjunct Faculty Council meeting March 28.
The Faculty Senate curriculum committee survey has ended, which applies to both full time and adjunct faculty.
Julie Engel, student development professor and chair of the Survey and Elections Committee, will separate the information and give it to Amanda Martin, chair of Adjunct Faculty Council.
The council decided to wait and see the results from the curriculum survey before they decide what to change on the interactions survey.
Lisa Zottarelli, director of social sciences and humanities, commented on the interactions survey, which the council will review at the next meeting April 25 once they have results from Engel.
The interactions survey will go out again in the fall semester.
Martin mentioned the concealed carry discussion that took place at the Faculty Senate meeting March 21.
She said the discussion was centered on the fact that legally, there are reasons guns cannot be permitted and should be prohibited in certain areas.
In other business, Martin said she received a response from the college executive team about the proposal on service awards.
Service time awards are presented in a ceremony that has not included adjuncts in the past.
According to Martin, Vernell Walker, dean of professional and technical education said, “The chairs and administration have approved your proposal, however, the process, criteria, etc. still need to be determined.”
Composition Adjunct Irene Keller asked who has the information of all the adjuncts.
One suggestion the college executive team had was to have a volunteer full-time or adjunct faculty member collect the data of when they started teaching and what semesters they have worked, Martin said.
Math Adjunct Gustavo Valadez-Ortiz said information is in adjunct records online if they go to payroll, which shows every semester they have worked and each course they have taught.
Keller asked if the person who keeps track of all the information for full-time faculty, or someone from human resources, could do the same for adjuncts.
The adjunct council reviewed the mission and purpose statement, and by-laws that will be included in the new adjunct faculty section of this college’s website.
Martin has gotten the outline approved and is collecting the information that will go up on the website.
The website will hopefully include photos of the members, Martin said.
Keller suggested they add blank photos and a description of the position to make “the indirect invitation that they need more officers.”
In other business, Martin received three Adjuncts Creating Excellence Award nominations.
Last year, it was suggested they offer the nominees an opportunity to write a biography of themselves as part of their nomination, “so they’ll notice they’ve been nominated,” Martin said.
The nominees will receive an email, Martin said.
Valadez-Ortiz said if he was a nominee he would not want to write the biography about himself.
The group decided not to have the nominees do that.
As for the compensation proposal, Martin was planning on sending composition Adjunct Francis Riley, who was at the Feb. 28 meeting, a copy of the original presentation she put together.
In the past, President Robert Vela sent previous proposals to the central office and it hit a dead end, Keller said.
Adjuncts have been proposing the compensation for two years, Martin said.
“There are those who are dedicated and those who are here for a year or two between full-time jobs and then are on their way,” Keller said.
“Some are also retired and don’t care about an increase but that is not fair to those who are working all the time.”
Martin will confer with Riley and then possibly bring it up in the college leadership meeting.
“We should at least test the waters for a town hall sort of thing,” Martin said. “It would allow adjuncts to have a chance to speak with council officers.”
