Sunday, September 25, 2011

American-Statesman article about new ACC president


New ACC president brings deep experience to the job



By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 6:18 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011
Richard Rhodes, who became president and CEO of Austin Community College on Sept. 1, is still learning his way around the eight campuses....

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

AFA Fall General Membership Meeting October 28 at 4:30pm

The theme for the Fall General Membership Meeting will be "Engaging Adjunct Faculty in Student Success Innovations and Initiatives."


Richard Rhodes, ACC President/CEO, will engage in dialogue about Student Success.  


Adjunct faculty may click here to RSVP and get professional development credit for attending.

Compensation for Adjunct Faculty Committee Service

Click on the memo to enlarge it.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Any comments regarding redesigned eStaffing?

If you have any questions or feedback about the recent changes to eStaffing, please feel free to submit a comment or email the AFA President.  Your comments are welcome and will be shared with the eStaffing Committee.  Thanks.

Information about Shared Governance at the College

For more information about shared governance at ACC:

Click the image to enlarge it.

Report on Faculty and Staff Evaluation Committee Mtg. Friday, Sept. 2


1.  Student evaluations for summer have been sent to faculty etc.
2.  Adjunct faculty have not read portfolios in the past because of competition issues for Highest Priority to Hire.  However, that rule is no longer in place.
3.  The online comments from the Class Climate Report were not available when results were sent to faculty, but the report will be updated.
4.  The goal is that all evaluations be online in a few years.
5.  Kirk Kelly, new Evaluation Coordinator, replacing Martha Ramirez, updated the committee regarding Distance Learning being added to the faculty and staff evaluation form.
      a.  There will be a plug-in on Blackboard so that Distance Learning students can evaluate instructors.  Even students who had dropped or had not begun the class were able to evaluate, but that has been remedied.
      b.  The form that DL students see does not relate to DL at all and will be revised.
      c.  The "Study Abroad" application is being reviewed as well.
      d.  We were given an outline of the new eval. form being developed, and will vote on it electronically once complete.  We approved the proposed changes.
6.  Will be meeting with SACS to look at requirements that affect faculty and staff evaluations.
7.  A sub-committee was formed to review and update the PEP and Faculty Evaluation Manuals.

Next meeting at HBC at 1 pm on Oct. 7.

Marilyn

Distance Learning Committee meeting highlights

Colleagues,

Below is a short outline of the most pertinent topics that were covered in our Distance Learning Committee meeting of September 2, 2011.

· Training for DL Faculty to satisfy ACC and SACS policy statements:



It will be the charge of the Distance Learning Committee to develop and to submit for approval training workshops that will – upon completion – show professor competency to teach via distance learning.

The committee has submitted the following four areas as areas needed to show such competency:

- Technology
- Pedagogy
- Course Management
- Distance Learning Administrative Processes and Support Services

It has been suggested that a 1 hour workshop be developed for each of these four areas by subcommittees.

Preliminary development of these workshops should be ready during the Spring 2012 semester. Final development should be complete by the Fall 2012 semester.

· Distance Learning Faculty Evaluations by Students – possibly linked directly within Blackboard 9 – specifically relevant to Distance Learning.

A proposal was presented to complete a slight revision of the wording for current distance learning faculty evaluations. Such wording would be specific and relevant to the distance learning environment.

The new, upcoming Blackboard 9 version may possess a feature which will support a direct faculty evaluation link. Past participation in voluntary distance learning faculty evaluations by students has been very low. This embedded evaluation feature should help increase student participation.

If you have questions, please e-mail me.

Regards,
Phylis Davis Molina - Broker/MBA
Austin Community College Business Studies Adjunct Professor
tel:512-658-4167   pmolina@austincc.edu

Sunday, September 11, 2011

AFA meetings 2011-2012

AFA Executive Council meetings at HBC

4:00 p.m.  Friday, October 7, 2011 

***5:00pm October 21, 2011  General Membership meeting (tentative date and time)***

4:00 p.m.  Friday, November 4, 2011 
4:00 p.m.  Friday, December 2, 2011

4:00 p.m.  Friday, February 3, 2012 
4:00 p.m.  Friday, March 2, 2012 
4:00 p.m.  Friday, April 6, 2012 
4:00 p.m.  Friday, May 4, 2012

All adjunct faculty are members of the AFA.  All members are welcome at meetings.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Phase 1 of entering Spring 2012 section preferences in eStaffing

Friday, September 9, is the first day to enter Preference Information in eStaffing.

Help for Wildfire Victims

Adjunct faculty who have been impacted by the fires are encouraged to submit a request to the AFA president to apply for emergency funds.

If you are able to donate to the emergency fund, please consider doing so by:

1. filling out this brief form and submitting it to HR, or
2. by making a cash or check payment to any of the cashiers at any of the campuses, or
3. by making a donation through Paypal.

Please remember to identify the association to which you wish to contribute.  Selecting either "faculty" or "adjunct faculty" will send the donation to the same fund.


Association



Other Ways to Help

ACC has compiled a list of resources with additional ways to help wildfire victims and lend a hand:

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Innovation Grants Available to Faculty

ACC has provided funds for awards to groups of faculty, individual faculty, and professional-technical staff for projects that focus onenhancing the learning environment

There are two criteria all proposals must meet in order to be considered for an Innovation Grant:
  1. The project must focus on enhancing the learning environment for students.
  2. The project must propose to do something new or in a new way.
For more information, click here.

AFA Executive Council Meeting Friday

The AFAEC will meet Friday, September 9, at HBC, from 4:00pm-6:00pm.   All AFA members are welcome to attend.  All adjunct faculty are members of the AFA.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the AFA President.

Adjunct Travel Funding

A question was submitted:
At one time (I know because I got some relatively generous funding) adjuncts were eligible for travel to conferences.  I don't know what budget it came out of; it may have been a special fund.  Is there still funding for adjuncts who give papers at conferences?


Yes.  Here's the form to fill out:
http://www3.austincc.edu/it/eforms/forms_int/PURC.013.pdf
Then you'll need to get it signed by your department chairman and your dean.  The amount of available funding varies depending on a number of factors.  The sooner you submit your request, the better (i.e., early September is better than December).  Funds run out; deans use their discretion and strategically ration the funds they have.