All:
Several of us in Chapter leadership have received a number of e-mails regarding summer scheduling. Based on those e-mails and some comments made about summer scheduling in the meeting yesterday, I feel compelled to send each of you this e-mail on behalf of the Chapter. The e-mail focuses on five specific points. Please understand that we do recognize the difficult situation that is facing the entire College community and that difficult decisions have been and will continue to be made during this crisis, but we do believe that several issues need to be dealt with in order to try and improve the summer scheduling situation.
- In yesterday’s meeting it was made clear to us that the criteria for assigning summer I and II classes has not been fully determined, yet messages from the Deans to the Chairs and to the faculty have already been sent that indicate that decisions have already been made. In one particular case, the Chair is providing little to no response when questions are posed to her. None of this should not be happening. We hope that future communications will be the same, and if the Deans and Chairs are being given some discretion when creating their summer schedules due to specific programs in their areas, the communication needs to state that this is the reason for the decisions that have been made. Chairs and Deans should to respond to all questions posed to them by the faulty in a reasonable period of time.
- We all know that we are currently in a very anxiety-provoking crisis. People are worried about their health, their families, their job security, their loss of income, and their students. It is absolutely necessary that clear and consistent messages come from all administrators and managers regarding summer scheduling. Please remember that, as of today, the only group of employees at the College who will be losing thousands of dollars due to this tragic situation are the faculty. The Chapter hopes that future communication will convey some understanding for and compassion for those who will lose significant summer income during these difficult times.
- Based on what we heard yesterday, it appears that faculty who have been teaching hybrid classes will be treated differently than faculty who have been teaching fully on-line classes, even though they have been deemed to be qualified to teach fully on-line classes. This needs to be fixed in the criteria for assigning classes so that they are treated the same. The faculty need to be given more time to convert their hybrid class to a fully on-line class, not less time. Let us not forget that quality matters training is mostly based on good instructional design and not solely on technology. Faculty who demonstrate good design should also receive consideration regardless of their experience teaching online. In addition, many faculty use Blackboard as a supplement to their face to face class and this too should be taken into consideration. What we heard from Sharon made no mention that anything but previous online teaching would be considered.
- The criteria for summer scheduling should state that no chairs will be assigned summer classes since they are being paid a 12 month salary whether they teach or not and during this very unusual time they should not be allowed to take money away from a faculty member.
- Assuming things are back to normal for summer II, the priority for assigning summer II classes should go to those faculty who were not given an opportunity to teach during summer I.
Chapter leadership appreciates all that is being done by the Administration to keep the College afloat and all that is being done to protect the employees. We also appreciate being give a “seat at the table” during the Wednesday meetings. The decision to do remote teaching and learning until the end of the semester was a difficult decision to make but it was the correct decision.
On behalf of the Chapter,
Harry Z.
President-AAUP
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