Well, the Academic Senate, that ship of fools of which I am a longstanding crewman—which still sails as though anyone (and, in particular, Roquemore) notices—has been on the case, carrying on a discussion for months on the pluses and minuses of such expansion.
The upshot of this discussion? –The Int’l Students Program brings in big bucks. But, as things now stand, many of our international students arrive utterly unprepared for college level courses (in English). Hence, they waste time and by the time they’re on track, their three-year stay is over, and they head home, having failed to achieve their desired goals. So, sure, expand the program, but only after we’ve rethought our support of these students, which, as things stand, is subpar and inadequate.
And remember: these students and their families are paying big bucks for this service.
Can you imagine Glenn Roquemore attending to this unpleasant message, taking it to heart? Nope.
Near as I can tell, senators seem to accept the above negatory assessment of existing int'l student support. The senate has yet to way in on this expansion, which looks like it’s going to go forward whatever the senate or anyone else may think about it. Will support for Int'l students be increased? Well, I guess we'll see.
As you know, faculty endlessly grumble about how hires are pursued at the college (part of the problem seems to be HR down at the district). I’ll have an update at a later date.
But I will mention some peculiarities of at least one current job search: for Assistant Dean of Financial Aid and Student Support Services [AD-FA&SS]. (See here.)
That's Darryl Cox's old job, more or less. You remember Darryl.
Consider this job’s title. Wouldn’t someone applying for the “Assistant Dean of Financial Aid and Student Support Services” position naturally assume that they are applying to be the assistant to a dean—namely, the dean of FA&SS?
But, in fact, there is no dean. This “assistant” would in fact be in charge of FA&SS. The AD-FA&SS will answer, not to a dean, but to the VP of Student Services.
I’m thinking this is no way to write job descriptions/titles. Maybe I’m off base here. Lemme know.
Here’s another problem. The job’s advertised “summary description” begins thus:
To provide leadership to plan, develop, organize, schedule, implement, direct, improve and evaluate the financial aid, veterans, scholarship, ambassador, outreach, and other assigned student support services programs, operations and activities at a community college….So the job entails “providing leadership to … develop [etc.] … the financial aid, veterans, scholarship, ambassador outreach [etc.] … programs.” Isn't that quite a lot? And how is it that an administrator in charge of financial aid is also in charge of the veterans program?
In fact, however, things have changed, and this assistant dean (who isn't really an assistant to a dean) is no longer in charge of the veterans program—just the financial aid of veterans.
I wonder if applicants will mind that the description is, well, wrong?
4 comments:
You got the summary description...the full-blown version is 9 pages long...Sheesh. If the job duties and responsibilities have changed, don't they have to revise them? Otherwise you may exclude applicants that would have qualified without having experience with veterans.
Oh well, I'm sure District HR is on top of it!
There are interim people working in Darryl's old position and Helen Locke's, but neither one seems to have a real grasp of their department or the campus. Maybe the plan is to get someone who knows what is going on, but I agree the job description is a lot of responsibility and seems to be made up of 4 or 5 jobs. It sounds more like Assistant to the VP of Student Services.
It's a ridiculous job description. It's sort of like any number of impossible job descriptions we have already - department chair anyone? Dean of three schools? They just want to make it LOOK like they're taking care of business.
Just got back in the office and reading my emails. Evidently Kay in ASIVC is gone. Dennis Gordon is the new interim. LF finally got it right and picked someone from the campus with intelligence and who knows what's going on.
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