Office of Instruction and Student Development Update January 23, 2015
One of the District’s goals is to provide all students an opportunity to get a student education plan
that represents the sequence of courses that can get them from their starting point to fulfillment of
their educational goal. Although we are making progress in leveraging technology to enhance our
student education plan process and aligning student education plans with our scheduling process,
linking student education planning to course scheduling will not, in and of itself, make the
scheduling process student centered.
The administration is committed to continue focusing our efforts toward improving our course
scheduling efforts to meet the needs of students and improve student degree and certificate
completion. I have communicated the administration’s belief that we must restructure our course
scheduling system, move away simply rolling over the schedule from semester to semester and
ensure that courses are available when students need them if we are to hold students accountable
for enrolling in specific courses. I would like to provide you a brief overview of two initiatives
that support the restructuring effort.
Late last semester the administration worked with the CRFO to develop a fulltime and associate
faculty scheduling and assignment process that will ensure faculty are scheduled in a consistent
manner across the District, course assignments are made early in the scheduling process,
appropriate coverage of classes is completed, and adequate time is provided for faculty
preparation.
Although we will have two faculty assignment processes—one for fulltime faculty and another for
associate faculty—the assignments for both will be managed by the Deans, Directors and Vice
Presidents and the right of assignment will be retained by the District. Here’s a brief overview of
the fulltime and associate faculty assignment processes that will be implemented this spring
semester. Look for Connie Carlson and Tiffany Schmitcke to provide more specificity about the
process in the next few weeks.
For fulltime faculty
By the second week of each semester (January 30 this year), Tiffany Schmitcke will send a
discipline specific schedule template that includes course meeting times and locations for that
discipline for the following semester to the fulltime faculty in that discipline. Fulltime faculty will
have ten (10) days to submit their recommendations for their load to her.
By the end of the 6th week of the semester, Tiffany will send out proposed assignments on behalf of
the appropriate Dean or Director to fulltime faculty. At this time, fulltime faculty will have one
week to respond to their assignment in order to allow our associate faculty time to work through
the class assignment process with their Dean and Director.
In the event that a fulltime faculty member fails to respond to the assignment provided by the Dean
or Director within one week time (or another time specified by the Dean or Director), the Dean,
Director or Vice President may assign the full time faculty member the proposed teaching
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schedule. Conflicts in assignment and load requests shall be decided by the appropriate
administrator.
For associate faculty
By the end of the second week of spring semester of every academic year (January 30 this year),
Tiffany Schmitcke will distribute an Associate Faculty Availability Form to all associate faculty
members. This form, available electronically, is designed to provide a mechanism by which the
District can be advised of the future availability of associate faculty on an annual basis and, also,
the courses associate faculty prefer to teach.
In order to have scheduling preferences considered, the availability form must be submitted to
Tiffany by the end of the fifth week of each Spring semester (February 20). Tiffany will send an
email reminder to all associate faculty at the end of the 4th week of the semester (February 13) with
a link to the Associate Faculty Availability Form.
By the end of the 9th week of the semester, Tiffany Schmitcke will send out proposed assignments
on behalf of the appropriate Dean or Director to associate faculty. At this time, associate faculty
will have one week to respond. In the event that an associate faculty member fails to respond to the
assignment proposed, the Dean, Director or Vice President may assign all or part of the load to
another associate faculty member. It is important to clarify that associate faculty assignments will
be determined by the Office of Instruction and Student Development using information provided
on the associate faculty availability form and the following criteria, which are also listed in the
CRFO contract:
Consistent pattern of satisfactory evaluations
Ranking on the appropriate seniority list
Relevant expertise, specialization and /or recognized accomplishments
Maintaining a qualified, diverse pool of associate faculty
Consistent adherence to district policies and procedures
If an associate faculty member has a class that is cancelled, the cancellation will not give that
associate faculty member a right to automatically “bump” an already assigned class from a less
senior associate faculty member. However, reasonable effort will be made to provide a class for
the associate faculty member depending upon the needs of the District.
One last note on the faculty assignment process: Faculty hiring, staffing of sections, determining
Minimum Qualifications and overall section scheduling will be under the administrative purview
of Tracey Thomas, Erin Wall, Joe Hash, Marla Gleave, Alison Stull, Ron Waters and Sheila Hall.
These Deans and Directors are responsible for district-wide coordination and they do that through
consultation with Campus and Site managers and the DE Director. This provides a consistent
structure for the academic mission whether the class is face-to-face, hybrid, or distance.
The second refocusing initiative involves developing a two year schedule. The administration is
strongly committed to developing a two year course schedule that enhances student completion
and ensures courses are offered when students need them. Over the winter break, several
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administrators and staff held a scheduling retreat to discuss a two year scheduling conceptual
framework. A few ideas that came out of the scheduling retreat:
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The two year schedule must be student centered and the district should, barring staffing and
minimal enrollment issues, commit to offering a class when it’s scheduled to be offered.
The administrative team, working with the faculty, will have to “start from scratch” and not
simply roll the schedule over from one semester to another.
Scheduling priority should be given to credit and noncredit courses that advance student
academic success in basic skills, CTE, degree (AA, AS, and ADT) and certificate
attainment.
CR general education, CSU course pattern and courses in the ADTs, and not IGETC
courses, should be emphasized.
Curriculum deadlines will have to be reviewed and potentially changed to accommodate
the two schedule scheme.
Faculty and administrators must continue to review degrees and certificates for relevance.
The guidelines detailed in the Education Pathways Task Force in 2014 may be appropriate.
The English, History, Political Science, Psychology, Studio Arts, Early Childhood
Education, Business Administration and Administration of Justice ADTs, and the CIS
Networking degree and the LVN to RN degrees should be made available to Del Norte
students.
The number of degrees and certificates available 50% online should be expanded to
include: the Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Math, English, History, and
Business Administration ADTs, and the Office Professional, Computer Support Specialist,
CIS Networking and Bookkeeping degrees.
Work with faculty to offer Business 18, Philosophy 1, English 1A, Communication Studies
7, Astronomy 10, Addiction Studies 10 and Sociology 34 courses online.
The administration will closely collaborate with the Academic Senate and the faculty to refine the
conceptual framework and implement a two year course rotation beginning fall 2015 that supports
student progression through the curriculum. Clearly this initiative will reduce the number of
students taking unnecessary classes to graduate and help ensure students fulfill their education
goals in a timely manner.
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