Welfare Note #10
Another offering in a series of "Welfare Notes" that has been created by the Welfare Committee which are intended to ensure that all members of the Faculty Association are educated, informed, or updated in terms of welfare-related concerns and their rights contained within the Contractual Agreement.
The Conversion Process
Numerous meetings, conversations, and presentations have occurred over the last few weeks as we actively engage in the work necessitated by the conversion to the semester system. Your Welfare Committee wishes to thank each of you for your efforts to conclude this work in a timely fashion!
Some questions have arisen regarding the classification (and therefore, the compensation) of courses, in terms of the level of effort required to convert each. In addition, some have concerns as to the process for resolving disagreements over the classification of courses and programs. Recently, Association leaders Chris Russell and Tom Tipton, Welfare Committee Chair John Kovach, and Grievance Sub-Committee member Terry Jackson met with Chris Picard, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Greg Joos, Director of Human Resources to discuss these concerns. Hopefully any disagreement over the classification of courses and programs will be rare and that mutual agreement regarding the classification is easily achieved through collaboration. The Welfare Committee would like to update you on the process as we see it.
The process of classification of courses regarding the level of conversion necessary is as follows:
1. The Associate Dean will propose to the discipline Faculty an initial classification of which courses appear to be Direct (D) Conversion, Level One (L1) Conversion courses, and Level Two (L2) Conversion. Associate Deans will use whatever information they believe to be appropriate in determining their initial classification proposals.
2. Faculty in the discipline will review the proposals made by Administrators.
a) For those courses where the discipline Faculty agrees with the Associate Dean's proposal, mutual agreement has been achieved and the proposal will be forwarded to the Dean for endorsement.
b) For those courses where the discipline Faculty disagrees with the Associate Dean's proposal, the Faculty are to make a written counter proposal regarding the classification. This counter proposal should include the rationale for the different classification and include a description of how the Faculty-proposed designation applies to the specific work needed to convert the courses to semester credit. Faculty will use whatever information they believe to be appropriate in determining their classification counter proposal.
Through the interaction around the rationale offered by both, mutual agreement regarding the best classification should emerge. If, after this exchange, mutual agreement on the classification is reached, the agreed to proposal will be forwarded to the Dean for endorsement.
3. In the event that no mutual agreement emerges as a result of sharing rationale between Faculty and the Associate Dean, the Dean will forward the two proposals to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
a) If the Vice President affirms the proposal made by Faculty in the discipline, mutual agreement on the classification has been reached and the conversion work should begin.
b) If the Vice President affirms the proposal made by the Associate Dean, Welfare asks the Faculty in the discipline to contact a member of the Welfare Committee immediately. The Welfare Committee will initiate efforts to resolve the disagreement informally.
4. In the event that informal efforts to resolve the disagreement over classification fail, the Faculty will consider utilizing the more formal process for problem solving provided for in Section E, GRIEVANCE AND APPEAL PROCEDURES, described in the Contractual Agreement.
