Response to Grievance Letter
Since my appointment as CIS department chair in August of 2000, I have followed the
same procedures with regard to fall, spring, and summer teaching assignments. Each
semester, the full-time faculty has had the opportunity to tell me what classes they would
like to teach. Some submit their request in writing, some verbally, and some have told
me to “make their schedule just like last fall”, (spring, summer) depending on which
semester is due. (see Attachment C) I have not changed this procedure any semester up
through, and including the spring semester 2005. Mrs. Carpenter never requested BCIS
1405 when ask to state her preferences.
Mrs. Carpenter states in her second paragraph that I made a comment in the Fall of 2002
about part-time persons being “promised” classes and “full-time instructors were not
allowed to take that class for any reason, as part of a regular load or overload”. This is a
completely false claim. Full-time instructors have been told multiple times by myself
that if they were to need any class assigned to a part-time instructor to make their load, it
would be re-assigned to that full-time instructor. Each part-time instructor in the CIS
department knows that my first responsibility is to the full-time faculty and it might be
necessary to re-assign a class assigned to them, to a full-time instructor if there were not
enough classes to make the full-time faculty members 15 hour load. Unfortunately,
Bryant Reeves is not here to corroborate that I did not make that statement.
Certain courses have been assigned to part-time instructors when the schedule is initially
built for many years. (long before I became department chair). The fall 2000 schedule,
(my first semester as department chair), had been built by Dr. Pat Smith in the spring of
2000. This schedule had part-time instructors already assigned to some classes. I have
continued that practice. The course in question in this grievance is BCIS 1405. While
still department chair, Dr. Pat Smith saw a need for this course to be offered at TC. She
ask each of us (myself, Kay Schlieper, Margie Johnson, Barbara Carpenter and Jerry
Garrett) who would like to develop this course and teach it. Kay Schlieper is the only
one of us who expressed any interest in doing this. Mrs. Schlieper developed the class
and taught it on-campus for several years. When distance education came to Temple
College, Mrs. Schlieper also developed BCIS 1405 for the internet. Mrs. Schlieper was
given the opportunity to teach BCIS 1405 at night and on the internet, as a part-time
instructor. Both Mr. Garrett and Mrs. Carpenter approved of this as they helped me
assign instructors to my first schedule. Mrs. Schlieper has since built this course into a
very successful one.
The Temple College Personnel Handbook states on page VIII-20: Full-time faculty will
be given first consideration for overload assignments. Dr. Hauk(during her time here,
Mr. Ward, Dr. Bleeker, Randy Baca, and I have discussed this statement. Our
interpretation is that full-time faculty will be given first consideration for overload
assignments provided there is no other teacher assigned to that class. Mrs. Carpenter is
demanding to take a class away from a part-time instructor who has taught the class for
years and who is a retired full-time TC instructor who developed the course. The CIS
department normally has anywhere from 10-15 Staff positions per semester. The full-
time faculty, in order or seniority, are given the list of Staff classes, and allowed to
choose their overload. The handbook also states page VIII - 20: No regular full-time
faculty member may teach more than one overload course per semester, except under
unusual circumstances, and with specific written approval from the appropriate dean.
Mrs. Carpenter and Mr. Garrett have requested and received more than the one course
overload. Mrs. Carpenter has also taught at other institutions each fall or spring semester.
(see Attachment D)
I am not sure what “previous administrative practice” Mrs. Carpenter wants restored, as I
have not changed any of my practices as department chair.
Response to Background Information
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As stated previously, I did not say anything like this.
Dr. Hauk and I discussed this e-mail, at the time it was sent and then again just a
few days ago. Mrs. Carpenter had already talked with me about overloads prior to
the exchange with Dr. Hauk. Mrs. Carpenter was not unhappy about the BCIS
course in question, she was unhappy that I would not approve triple or quadruple
overloads for the full-time faculty that wanted them, and was instead allowing
part-time faculty to teach those courses. The overload courses she had to go to
other universities to get were on top of her overload at TC. As department chair, I
have found out about the courses being taught at other institutions by accident, not
because Mrs. Carpenter has informed me, or administration about them. I found
out half way through one semester that she was teaching at two separate
universities, one in Waco, and one in Belton. The TC Personnel Handbook states
that full-time employees may be enrolled in two classes; or to instruct an extra
class, here or elsewhere; or to be gainfully employed by some other educational
institution, organization, or business no more than 10 hours per week. Employees
are expected to inform the Dean of Instruction whenever they take advantage of
these provisions. When the entire Technical Division received an e-mail from
the Division Director asking for documentation on any outside work, Mrs.
Carpenter responded. (see attachment E)
Every statement in bullet 3 is erroneous, and the letter in the packet was, as is
stated by Mrs. Carpenter, from Belle Woodward to myself. Mrs. Woodward
stated on April 4, 2005 that she did not give Mrs. Carpenter a copy and I did not
give out a copy. The only place this letter existed was on my computer on an email server. I am not sure how Mrs. Carpenter got a copy of it. (see attachment
F) This letter was sent via e-mail to my school address over spring break one year.
Monday morning after spring break, Mrs. Woodward came to my office and ask
me to ignore the letter if I had already read it, or delete it if not. She said that she
had been upset and angry, mainly because her husband had been sent to Iraq that
week, and that she had sent the letter in haste and did not actually mean what was
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said. Mrs. Woodward did not leave Temple College because of any of the reasons
given.
Kay Schlieper has been given the opportunity to teach 1 to 2 BCIS 1405 courses,
never 3. When she has two classes in a semester, she has a total of 8.68 hours. In
the schedule supplied by Mrs. Carpenter, of the 6 semesters noted, both classes
made with 15 students only 2 semesters, the other four, Mrs. Schlieper received
partial pay.
I was ask to put staff on two part-time classes(the ones Mrs. Schlieper taught), not
all part-time faculty positions. The second sentence is not completely correct, but
is what I was misquoted as having said in the first bullet and on the first page of
this document. I have made this statement to Mr. Garrett and Mrs. Carpenter
several times when questioned, but I said, “if needed to fulfill a load.” I also
discussed this topic with Hal Ward, and he said that he would not agree with
leaving all part-time faculty names off the initial schedule.
When Mr. Garrett ask to take the BCIS 1405 class, he already had 24 hours. Mr.
Garrett made a deal with Dr. Hauk several years ago that would allow him to
teach several low-enrollment programming courses in addition to his other
classes. This agreement always gave him a large number of overload hours,
which he said compensated for getting partial pay. Mrs. Schleiper does not have
full numbers in each section of BCIS 1405 in Spring 2005.
Jerry Garrett ask for the BCIS 1405 class in Taylor on Tuesday, January 18, the
first day of the spring semester. Robert Lieb was hired at Jan Kings request to
teach the BCIS 1405 course several semesters ago. I told Mr. Garrett that Mr.
Lieb had essentially been brought in by Jan King and that I would have talk to her
about it. I told him he could not have the class this semester because he already
had 24 hours.
Myself, Bryant Reeves, Hal Ward, and Technical Division secretary, Teresa
Taylor, have tried to explain the 15 hour full-load concept to Mr. Garrett and Mrs.
Carpenter for several years. (Mrs. Taylor has to explain it every semester when
part-time/overload pay sheets come out) Five classes in the CIS department
always adds up to more than 15 hours. Mrs. Carpenter continues to believe that 5
classes are her load, and the 6th class is the first overload. The 5 classes Mrs.
Carpenter had at the beginning of the Spring 2005 semester totaled almost 18
hours. After the one class was killed, she was given the opportunity to pick up
additional overload hours that gave her a total of 20+ hours at TC and she is
teaching a course at UMHB. I did not want to add an additional 4.34 hours to that
total.
Kay Schlieper and I are good friends, but I would never use my position, or our
friendship in the manner that is being accused. The same accusation was made by
Mrs. Carpenter and Mr. Garrett about, then department chair Dr. Pat Smith, and
Dr. Sandra Creech, who was teaching part-time courses for the CIS department.
Mrs. Schlieper has built this course to what it is today. Her student evaluations
are always very complementary and I have had many verbal commendations
about this instructor and her class. You will notice that each Fall, one of Mrs.
Schliepers classes(on the semester schedule provided by Mrs. Carpenter) is higher
than the Spring section. Holland High School enrolls many students in this
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internet course every Fall because they have come to trust the level of education
and interaction they receive from Mrs. Schlieper. The woman in charge of getting
the students enrolled each Fall was very reluctant to put high school students in an
internet course. Since they did not want to bus the students to TC, and the course
was not available via Bell-net, it was their only option if the students were to get
the course. I have spoken with this woman several times and she is very pleased
with Mrs. Schlieper and what the students are receiving from the course. Mrs.
Schlieper is getting a prorated amount for the 7 students over the maximum of 20
for her internet course. Prorated pay for 7 students does not add up to 1 ½ to 2
sections of a class. Mrs. Carpenter failed to mention that she, too, is getting
prorated pay for a class that has more than the maximum of 20 students and was
given prorated pay for the same reason last Fall. According to Ray Lanford, the
distance coordinator, an internet course must reach 40 before an instructor will be
paid for 2 full sections. I assume the “We” that do not feel it is fair, is referring to
Mrs. Carpenter and Mr. Garrett. Attached you will find documentation of
overload pay for both since 1996. The classes taught by Kay Schlieper this
semester equals exactly 8.68 hours. These courses are being paid at 73% for one
and 100% for the other, totaling close to $4000, not $6000.
I have also discussed this situation with Hal Ward and Dr. Bleeker. They told me
that if they felt I was doing something wrong or violating a policy, that they
would tell me and expect me to correct it. They said they did not feel that way.
In the conference on February 17, 2005, Mrs. Carpenter did mention that the CIS
department did not feel like a team due to the friction over classes. The friction
mentioned happens every semester when overloads are assigned. Mr. Garrett and
Mrs. Carpenter make no secret that they are unhappy with their overloads and
continually ask for more. They have made comments in front of other full-time
CIS instructors if they believe other full-time faculty have been given something
they(Carpenter/Garrett) felt should have been theirs. I have had several
instructors in the department come to me and tell me to give Carpenter/Garrett
their overload if I think it will appease them. I have given Mrs. Carpenter and
Mr. Garrett numerous reasons why part-time faculty members are teaching certain
classes. 1) Some part-time instructors have expertise in certain topics that fulltime faculty do not have, making them the better choice to teach that topic.
Computers are a very specialized field. (ex. The ability to teach someone how to
network machines, does not mean you can also teach someone how to develop a
web page. ) 2) Mrs. Schlieper developed the BCIS 1405 class when the rest of us
were not willing to do so. 3) Mrs. Schlieper is a 20+ year retired member of this
college. 4) Continuous positive student evaluations for Mrs. Schlieper’s BCIS
1405 class. 5) Numerous student complaints about Mr. Garrett and Mrs.
Carpenter.
Over the past month, I have talked with many department chairs across campus.
None of the chairs I talked with let their faculty tell them what they would like to
teach. I felt that allowing CIS faculty to choose what courses they taught each
semester would make for a happier individual. I guess I was wrong where these
two faculty members are concerned. Being the most senior member of the CIS
faculty (after me), Mrs. Carpenter gets the first choice of available overload
courses every semester.