In the summer of 2006 UHPA was sent a draft of changes being proposed by the new VP for Community Colleges to the Faculty Classification Plan. This document describes the work of faculty members, from instruction to student advising, and is used in conjunction with the CC Tenure & Promotion Guidelines for those applying for promotion and tenure. The document is supposed to state the various expectations of instructors, academic support faculty, and counselors by ranks C2 through C5 (instructor to professor.)
For a number of years, the community college campuses were reviewing the classification document in an effort to add a new category for faculty members teaching in the continuing education and training offerings for the colleges. There are a relatively few number of individuals in these programs, but they were having difficulty with tenure and promotion applications when attempting to meet the expectations of the ranks. Since these instructors did not teach typical credit courses and were often creating specialized courses for outside companies and industries, some TPRC panels had problems evaluating their work based on the instructional criteria. Therefore, a new fourth category was added to the classification document titled Continuing Education and Training.
However, when the proposed changes to the classification plan came to UHPA in 2006, they contained more than just the inclusion of a new category of faculty work. The document had changed the evaluation criteria through the inclusion of student learning outcomes (SLO) in response to what the administration believed were the demands of the AACJC http://www.aacc.nche.edu/. UHPA Executive Director J. N. Musto met with Vice President Morton to discuss the proposal and raise objections to the use of the classification document as an attempt to change individual faculty evaluation criteria.
In response to these concerns, VP Morton moved to put together a “task force” to review the document, and for the last year Chancellor Peggy Cha, assisted by Sandra Uyeno, chaired a committee comprised of Marcia Roberts-Deutsch (HonCC), Harry Davis (KapCC), Chancellor Clyde Sakamoto, Joseph Chernisky (LeeCC & UHPA President) and J. N. Musto. The committees met and discussed the document during the 2006-2007 academic year through the summer and into the fall of 2007.
After receiving the advice, comments, recommendations, and wording alternatives from the committee, VP Morton brought the process to close in October and asked the Council of CC Chancellors to approve a new CC Classification document. The proposal will be submitted to the Board of Regents for approval at the meeting scheduled for November on Maui.
The document has been shared with the campus senate chairs, and at the request of the ACCFSC, VP Morton has given individuals until November 2nd to make comments. Those comments can be sent directly to VP Morton jmorton@hawaii.edu and copied to the appropriate senate chair and UHPA.
The attached documents are the original proposal from July 2006 (showing edits) and the final October document provided by Chancellor Cha (not showing edits.) Faculty members should compare and contrast the documents, both from the prior document, the original proposed changes, and the final document. UHPA will be surveying the community college faculty, via the web page, for an indication of support or opposition to the final document. The survey will also enable comments. We will use the survey results to construct our testimony before the Regents in November.
