April 16, 2010
FACULTY VACANCIES
I recognize that people are anxious to have information about the disposition of existing faculty vacancies given all the work that has occurred with the 2010 budget. In my President’s message of March 17th, Budget Reductions for the 2010-2011 Fiscal Year: Roles, Responsibilities, Recommendations and Decision Making, I wrote that the full time faculty reductions will come from vacant full time faculty positions and faculty reassigned time positions which are funded out of the general operating fund. I also stated in that communication that once the decision has been made as to the number of faculty positions, if any, which are to be filled, the College’s Box 2A committee will make the selection decisions according to the contract process.
Because of the change in the District budget allocation model for 2010-11, it was determined that the District/Chancellor would not make a determination about the filling of vacant faculty positions. Normally a decision would have been made in October/November regarding the number of positions which would be filled. However, under the new budget allocation model, this decision has now been delegated to each College President.
Currently, DVC has 12 vacant faculty positions identified from retirements in 2009/10. There are two factors that have complicated our decisions about faculty hires. The first factor is the cuts which have occurred in the categorical areas and the second factor is the $4.8 million dollar budget gap that DVC has to fill for the 2010/11 year.
Therefore we will be doing the following:
- Of the 12 vacant positions, 6 will be used to permanently fill the budget gap;
- Because of the categorical loss of funds two faculty were in jeopardy of receiving March 15th notices, and the faculty (in a Box 2A process) determined they wanted to save these positions. So these faculty members were moved from categorical funding to two vacant general funded positions; and
- One academic administrator was reassigned to the classroom. (CCCCD procedures and Ed Code provide that academic administrators who have worked at least two years and have satisfactory evaluations have the right to retreat to the classroom.).
- Three faculty positions have been identified as being eligible to be filled. I am requesting that the Box 2A committee meet as soon as possible to identify the three critical discipline areas. The Box 2A criteria from Program Reviews will be used to make a recommendation to me as to which positions are to be filled. We are anticipating getting all the paper work done before the end of May with the recruitment and hiring to take place fall of 2010 with a start date of January 2011.
The final result is that of the 12 faculty positions, six are retained with full time faculty and six will be used to help fill the budget gap. While many Colleges in the state are not or have not over the past year filled faculty vacancies, based on the results of program reviews and the work of the Integration Council, I felt it was important to retain 6 of these positions to provide direct instruction to our students.
