Sunday, October 21, 2007

Heads up! (and heads down!)

The Board of Trustees of the South Orange County Community College District meets Monday night (at Saddleback College, near HS). For a copy of the meeting outline, go to this site. Click on "Oct. 22."

Near as I can tell, the big issue faced by the district right now is our projected failure to adhere to the “50% Law” — owing, it seems, to mismanagement by the Chancellor, who has allowed the matter to spin out of control, despite multiple warnings.

THE CLOSED SESSION:

During closed session, it appears that the evaluation of administrators will continue.

Included among those evaluated: the two college presidents.

THE OPEN SESSION:

The open session is set to (re)convene at 6:30 p.m.

Among the agenda items are the 2007-08 budgets for each college’s student government. Board discussions of SG budgets sometimes produce sparks.

Item 5.3 concerns the proposal to install campus safety and security cameras at the two colleges (and one park) “at a cost not to exceed $600,000 from Basic Aid funds.”

This would be, of course, a non-instructional expenditure. Given our “50% Law” crisis (namely, that we’re spending proportionally too little on instruction, too much on such things as administrative salaries and light bulbs), this discussion could get interesting.

Or not.

Listed on the agenda is one “discussion item”: 6.1 SOCCCD: Compliance With 50% Law

REASSIGNED TIME:

Among “information items” is 7.1: Release Time and/or Stipends: “Actual expenditures for release time and stipends as identified in the 2006-07 budget.”

Note that Mathur has chosen to refer to reassigned time as "release time." That makes RT sound like some kind of time off. No. RT involves relieving an instructor of some of his or her teaching duties so that he or she may perform other duties, such as chairing a committee or presiding over the Academic Senate.

This discussion is bound to be fun. Genuine shared governance—at least the kind that gives a voice to faculty—depends on granting reassigned time. That's why it is routinely granted throughout the state.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be safe, Chunk!

Anonymous said...

Do all those other colleges (the vast majority in CA) who grant reassigned time and stipends also fall below the 50%?

I didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

I don't think granting reassigned time is routine at any California community college. Faculty unions usually have to fight for it.

The cost of reassigned time is deducted from the 50% calculation because it's not a direct instructional cost. The cost of one's replacement is, however, added to the 50% calculation. Keep in mind, also, that if a full-timer making $100K/year is granted 20% reassigned time, the cost of the reassigned time is NOT $20,000/year; the real cost is the cost of the adjunct teacher who replaces the full-timer.

--100 miles down the road

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