Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Wendy Gabriella, Professor of Anthropology and Academic Senate President, to Instructional Coordinator of Academic Programs, Office of Instruction, for the 2009-2010 academic year. Wendy will continue to co-chair the 2010 Accreditation Self-study Steering Committee. She will coordinate numerous operational projects for the Office of Instruction, including the Basic Skills Initiative grant program, Early College Program (Instructional Planning), some research projects conducted by the Office of Institutional Research, and will assist the Vice President of Instruction with enrollment management, program review, strategic planning, as well as other important projects.
According to the Academic Senate Bylaws, Professor Lisa Davis-Allen, Academic Chair of Visual Arts and Academic Senate Vice President, will become the President of the Academic Senate.
Please join me in extending our enthusiastic support for Wendy and Lisa as they serve in their new assignments.
It is my understanding that Wendy is receiving 100% reassigned time (i.e., reassignment from her regular teaching duties) to serve in this capacity and that she is not teaching any courses this semester.
It is no secret that VPI Justice, who has a reputation for intelligence and hard work, has been encumbered by startlingly numerous responsibilities since he came to IVC two or three years ago. (At IVC, deans, too, seem chronically overburdened.) That problem led to a proposal, last spring, to create a new IVC deanship—a Dean of Academic Programs, Student Learning, and Research. The proposal, however, was rejected by the SOCCCD board, perhaps owing in part to the need for frugality (or, anyway, its appearance) during this period of fiscal stress. (See April board meeting.)
A champion of openness and "process":
Wendy Gabriella has long been a faculty leader, but particularly starting in late 1996, with the emergence of a controversial conservative "Board Majority." (Arguably, the controversial "board majority" era continues to this day, though with somewhat different players.) In 1997, she and I twice sued the district board for its violations of the Open Meetings Law, when, repeatedly, the board met in closed session to make decisions that should have been made openly and with clear notice to the public.
(In those days, many objections to the board's conduct boiled down to the charge that the trustees and chancellor violated or circumvented established and legal "process"—something that nowadays is sometimes expressed in the demand for "transparency." It was during this period that the board violated its own policies and "best practices" (or so said the accrediting agency) in promoting the administrative career of Raghu P. Mathur over seemingly far more qualified candidates, especially in selecting him as chancellor of the district. Mathur continues to be chancellor of the district.)
Wendy also assisted in district students' repeated and successful challenges to the board's restrictions on student protests (initially with regard to administrative and board behavior that jeopardized the colleges' accreditation) and adoption of new "speech and advocacy" policies that violated student speech rights.
Most recently, Wendy led the effort to challenge the district over its disregard of a state statute giving faculty (i.e., the Academic Senates) the right to mutually develop (along with the district) a faculty hiring policy. That effort was successful and, by some accounts, constituted a landmark victory for faculty governance rights in the California community college system.
34 comments:
I was wondering what was up - I still am. Where'd all this reassignment time suddenly come from?
This when our department chairs carry full teaching loads or nearly so...
What process created this position? Who else had access to applying for it? Who appointed who?
Good for her and Glenn and Craig!
The "openness" and "process" Wendy championed seems to be missing from her own promotion.
Will she sue herself?
Who was the Instructional Coordinator of Academic Programs last year?
Isn't this just another version of the dean position Justice + Rockmore wanted last spring and the Board of T didn't give him it because we didn't have the $$$? Where the $$$ come from?
Isn't this the position that Pam Deegan used to have? Just with another name?
But how can Wendy remain faculty if she is now de-facto admin?
This is one of the deals that went down over summer...Notice we just found out yesterday but Wendy's been off the class schedule for some time now...
More recently still, Wendy is the one mostly responsible for our keeping our accreditation. Congratulations to her, and to Glenn and Craig for recognizing talent and rewarding it despite the mostly ancient history recited here.
And nevermind the chaos and ill will created by this move. Sell out?
Can they do that?
Make up a new position just to circumvent the BOT?
The just shoe-horn someone into it without allowing for an open process and other candidates?
It's about time dedicated, smart and talented faculty are promoted to leadership positions within our colleges. We need someone with a faculty perspective and institutional history to sit at the table and remind out-of town, newly hired administrators of our history.
Wendy has worked TIRELESSLY for the College and for all FACULTY throughout California.
Remember when this type of faculty appointment would never have been allowed by RAGHU?
Wendy earned it and is still blazing a trail for others brave enough and selfless to pursue.
Whatever you may think we MUST ALL recognize that Wendy is of the main reasons BOTH COLLEGES are now in good standing with the ACCJC.
Anytime a faculty member walked away from a job it was WENDY that picked up the cause and did the work (Mostly for Free) in the name of the faculty.
She deserves more respect from her colleagues.
2:49 -
Chunk DID point out all the reasons faculty should be rightfully grateful for the contributions Wendy has made through the years.
Other commentators merely have pointed out that this recent development of her new "job" seems pretty obviously at odds with the open process that she championed during those years...that's how I see it.
One can respect someone and still reserve the right to criticize.
Has she worked "tirelessly"?
Bad precedent. How can a faculty member attend management meetings at the college and the district? AND, I assume, discuss and vote?
And what will our colleagues at Saddleback think and do? Where was the discussion in the strat plan that recommended this? Deans at IVC overworked? There are more managers at IVC than Saddleback.
Wonder what an Accred. team member would ask?
It is what it is.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
It's the same as it evr was, same as it ever was...
Well, for what it's worth, there is no one who pays attention at IVC who would doubt that Wendy works tirelessly for the college. If there is an issue here, it is not about how hard she works (most of her efforts are uncompensated) or whether she has been a wonderful faculty leader, defending "process," battling secrecy and illegality The issue is the seeming hinkeyness of this appointment, the odd "behind the scenes" quality of Craig's doings.
Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain!
Is it accurate that the new position also provides for a second? An assistant to our newest administrator who is being paid for by faculty LHE? Where is the savings? And what happens to the unit from which this administrative assist comes? Efficient use of $?
Wendy does love what she did//does. She often didn't take compensation which made others recognize that since she didn't, others would not be granted it by the admins. That's a catch 22.
Wonder what effect this will have on the president who will be out smarted by two folks in instruction? And who may take a fall for what they concoct.
Just ask the classified staff.
Perhaps before people claim process violation, they ought to know what the process is. The process for reassigned time is in the faculty contract and Glenn/Craig followed the process just like they have done for all other faculty on reassigned time. Wendy is still faculty and doing the work she has done for the past six years when no other faculty would step up. She has done exceptional work for the institution and for faculty. I expect that she will continue to work tirelessly on our behalf to keep the accreds at bay, keep SLOs and all the other state mandates out of our hair so we can teach our classes and be with our students. God bless her. We need more just like her. Anybody know why ATEP got a Dean of Instruction but IVC didn't? Instead IVC got a pittance of reassigned time for a faculty member to do 100 times more work than the Dean at ATEP?
Wendy has wanted UP and OUT of the classroom for years. Everyone knows it.
Plan 1 failed (dean of SS and HL); Plan 2 (last spring's special dean) was short-circuited - so they created Plan 3 (Instructional Coordinator) just for her.
Wendy was pretty open about WHAT she expected from the Admin and WHY she expected - a job made for HER and no one else. She worked it and they're happy to use her.
To pretend otherwise is a bit disingenuous.
Did you mean "imperial" with the new team in town?
Look how the VPI treats people: in business that is a standard--how does the manager treat those beneath him/her? People above you can cut your head off; people below you can cut your feet off.
Watch out Justice.
Pretty smooth end run around the Board of Trustees and Raghu.
So, this was a new position created for Wendy - and Wendy only - at Craig's request because the dean position didn't get funded? Who would have gotten the dean position?
Will anyone who is suprised by this, please raise their hands?
Higher, higher, I can't them....
Where is HR in this whole process? How does the Board feel about it; a freeze on new positions, I think not. Reassigned time is it? Lipstick on a pig and you still got a pig. What would you call the Senior Admin Wendy has, a “freebie?” The money for that comes from what recent cut? Voodoo magic. Open Meeting Law and Best practices, too funny; how about suing them Roy for this? It’s ok if one person does it, but not for another, wow, what a sham! All while Dear Glenn sleeps peacefully.
Let's lower the temp, OK? Nobody who is familiar with this college doubts that Wendy is smart, hard-working, and dedicated. She has been an uncommonly accomplished faculty leader.
I too am troubled about this announcement, but I do think that we critics should do more than make vague charges of impropriety. We should explain how the process in this case was unfortunate--if indeed such is the case--and how it should have occurred. So far, critics have failed on that score.
Given that Wendy is on reassigned time, she'll be getting faculty pay for what (arguably) amounts to administrative work (administrators are paid relatively handsomely). It seems clear to me that Craig has managed to address his "too much on my plate" problem on the cheap. Good for him.
I do think that Craig (and Wendy?) have failed to take into account an expectation of transparency that reflects this college's particular history. Things are much better at IVC than they used to be, and we know that. We don't like it when things happen in the background, out of the light. Craig should have known that about us. He was not sufficiently mindful. (And possibly Wendy is too invested and exhausted--good Lord, she does so much--to see how things might appear to others.)
So it seems to me that this whole thing amounts to a failure to appreciate some fairly reasonable expectations of openness (of processes) on the part of the VPI, and maybe on Wendy's part. How big a problem is that? I think Craig can still go through with this thing if he offers a mea culpa about transparency. Show us, Craig, that you understand that this isn't the best way to do things for this particular college, what with its past of ugly self-serving machinations. Show us that you can be trusted, that you wish to work with us and not merely with a ruthless focus on efficiency and accomplishment.
I agree about lowering the temperature, 11:52, and that Wendy's smart and accomplished. But I disagree with the rest of your concerns. A mea culpa about process and transparency? Someone explained the process in a post above. Administration gets to give out reassigned time. It gets to pick and choose who it wants based on their talents and the administration's needs. Glenn and Craig did so. No mea culpa is necessary as nothing was done wrong. These positions don't need to be advertised and applications taken.
We all on this blog mostly agree Wendy does a lot for the college. She's a good choice and no one but Glenn and Craig need to be involved in the decision. Nothing happened "out of the light." We didn't have a right to, and shouldn't have had an expectation of, involvement in any "process."
Want one of these jobs like Wendy got? Work hard and show that you deserve it. The lesson here is clear, and it hasn't always been this way: Do good work and the current administration will recognize and reward it, even if it means a thumb in the eye of the bot and chancellor.
There's a whole storyline here that no one is telling.
3:25 PM, why don't you tell the story?
Listen, don't be telling "stories" unless you know them to be true. We got standards.
I've heard some seriously wacky rumors that are total bullshit. My "delete" finger is just itchin'. Don't make me use it.
I just deleted 7 or 8 comments of the "hmmm" and "yeah, hmmm" variety. Sheesh. Some o' you people are embarrassin' me.
Once upon a time....
Congratulations Wendy. Notwithstanding all the foregoing, you deserve our thanks and best wishes.
You've called a "time out" on the comments to the report on the board meeting? Just when folks fed up with your nonsense try to express themselves? Thanks for that. It sure would be unfortunate to have too much free speech that doesn't agree with you. Wendy must have hit a nerve, didn't she, Chunk?
I have a feeling Roy is going to be further humiliated when he actually finds out that Wendy is recieving 6 LHE reassigned time to co-chair accreditation. The amount of reassigned time is determined by the administration and the faculty member. She was recieving 9 LHE as Senate President. When the Dean position was brought to the board, it was pulled from the agenda because Mathur pulled his usual dirty tricks because he knew Wendy was interested in applying. (He actually told HR staff to screen out JD's.) The dean position was not approved or disapproved by the board. It was pulled from the agenda and no action was taken. That left the College/Office of Instruction in a terrible position. The work needed to be done. The process for reassigned time is in the faculty contract. Perhaps, somebody out there ought to read it. Craig and Glenn followed the faculty contract, thus the process. There is no new position. There is 9 LHE reassigned time. That's it. 12:22 is exactly correct.
There really is no story here. A faculty member is recieving reassigned time. In fact, Roy missed the real story. How come ATEP gets a Dean of Instruction (funding?) when there are zero full-time faculty, a handfull of classes, and 50 FTES and IVC doesn't. Or how about Mathur's dirty tricks in blocking the Dean position? There is a story here.
Wonderful job Wendy. Congratulations and we know you will continue to do your best work while representing the best interests of the College. You deserve it and kudos to Glenn and Craig for you and for the College. We all know you deserve it and it is nice that Glenn and Craig recognize and promote faculty leaders with talent.
Post a Comment